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Cloverfield (2008)

Director: Matt Reeves

Time Out rating

Average user rating

109 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Six years after 9/11, the spectacular destruction of Manhattan is once again the premise of a Hollywood fantasy, though ‘Cloverfield’ is not your father’s disaster movie. Unaccountable trauma takes the place of scientific rationalisation; partial experience replaces the view from the war room; and the signifiers of the World Trade Center – fireballs, collapsing towers, dust clouds and drifting paper – are everywhere. Whether you find it all cathartic or exploitative is probably a matter of taste.

Following Steven Spielberg’s ‘War of the Worlds’ in presenting an ignorant, panicked, individuated response to armageddon, ‘Cloverfield’ takes that film’s single shot of fantastic carnage captured on a home video camera as its whole aesthetic.

The film is an ersatz relic à la ‘Blair Witch’, the purported contents of a camcorder discovered in the aftermath of a mysterious behemoth’s catastrophic rampage through New York. The camera belongs to Rob (Michael Stahl-David), a twentysomething about to move to Japan; his leaving party takes place on the night of the attack, and we follow his and a few friends’ experiences from dusk to dawn. Footage of an earlier, happier day out punctuatesthe main action.

The film is produced by JJ Abrams and, like ‘Lost’, it leaves the big picture vague while furnishing enough local information to keep the ride compelling. Though not without humour – our cameraman Hud (TJ Miller) provides goofy comic relief – this is at the gruelling end of the disaster movie spectrum, unabashedly mining its 9/11 resonances and neo-vérité grammar to considerable effect. The humans are ultimately pretty disposable, but the monster and the camera are worth attention.

Author: Ben Walters 2008-01-29 17:38:03

Time Out London Issue 1954: Jan 30 to Feb 5

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User reviews of this film

Tom said...

Posted on Feb 02 2008 12:42 Craig, "Come and say this film is crap after you've studied media for 5 and a half years"?! What a pretentious s**t! I'll come and say a film is crap after watching it, thats enough for me. So... its crap. And I didnt study media. I got a proper degree.

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dragster said...

Posted on Feb 01 2008 22:43 Much like JoJo I went to see it on an ulimited ticket and had hoped for better from the trailers. I know it's not an original comment but a fair approximation is Godzilla does Blair Witch, or the other way round, but without the humour, suspense or "boo" factor of either. Lert's see, you have just beaten off some alien spiders with your bare hands, grabbing respite and breaking in to a vending machine with a newly found crowbar what do you leave that room with?
Yes that's right everything but the crowbar. The only satisfactory part is when they finally get what is coming,
Que videocam falling on it's side.
To sum up BW does Gdz, Suitable for teenage tossers.

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craig said...

Posted on Feb 01 2008 22:23 this easily looks like an amazing film jus some di**heads dont understand the film n dont have a taste for films like these,,,, come and say its crap when you have studied the media for 5 n a half years ....

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Jojo said...

Posted on Feb 01 2008 13:50 Bollo***s, and a big load of. Wish I had stayed in and cut my toenails or cleared up the dogs mess in my garden. JJ Abrams is renowned for overspending and producing crap, this sums it up. The shaky camerawork made me feel thoroughly sick (literally), there was a warning at the cinema about strobe lighting etc but anyone with motion sickness should forget this. I do thrill rides and rollercoasters with no bother but this really made me want to chuck, apart from the camera work because it was so CRAP. Forget waiting for a good ending, which I prayed for as it is cut short, but not short enough!! If I didnt have an unlimited cinema card I would have felt robbed paying for this even at 1p.
SAVE YOUR MONEY. Believe me, Ive watched some crap served up and stood for it, but do yourselves a favour, draw the line at this one. If there was a minus rating I would give it that.

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