Cloverfield
by Matt Reeves
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, T.J. MillerDirector: Matt Reeves
Brand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Cinematographer: Michael Bonvillain
Producer: Bryan Burk
Producer: David Baronoff
Producer: Guy Riedel
Producer: J.J. Abrams
Producer: Sherryl Clark
Writer: Drew Goddard
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-22
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Cloverfield
Movie Review: Cloverfield is the next great monster movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember it well. Walking into the movie theater in summer of 1999 with friends and being so excited about seeing a little indie movie called The Blair Witch Project. When I had seen the trailer I thought how cool the concept was: to show a movie from a video camcorder perspective (so we're there with the frightened documenters). Well, that was the only cool thing about that movie. The story, character development and direction were the worst thing I had ever seen. I remember the movie ending and feeling cheated as well as if I had just lost 86 minutes of my life I could have been seeing something much better. "Blair Witch" was also a joke to me because I had been camping in those same woods (in Burkittsville, MD) as a younger kid and there definitely was no spirit or ghost or killer there. And then the one good thing that came out of the "Blair Witch" movie faded back into obscurity: the cool idea that a movie be shot from a character's perspective a la typical video camcorder.
Then came J.J. Abrams (creator and producer genius of shows like "Felicity," "Alias," and "Lost"). While visiting in Japan promoting his movie directorial debut "Mission: Impossible III," with his son, he saw Godzilla toys and thought that America should have its own version of the infamous radiated lizard. He contacted his crew at his production company Bad Robot. They in turn hired writer extraordinare Drew Goddard (who's written TV episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," and "Alias") and director Matt Reeves (who's only directed the David Schwimmer sleeper "The Pallbearer" and a few episodes of "Felicity," which he co-created with Abrams). I knew with Reeves, Goddard and Abrams involved that they would bring to their latest project -- entitled "Cloverfield" (named after the street near Abrams' office) or "01-18-08" (the movie didn't have an official title; even when the teaser trailer was shown before "Transformers") -- what was sorely missing in "Blair Witch." They were going to emotionally invest in the characters and have the audience feel close to the main characters with screen time.
Like most trends, they hired a cast of unknowns or up-and-comers that hardly anyone has heard of: Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls), Mike Vogel (2003's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Jessica Lucas (ABC's cancelled Life As We Know It), Odette Yustman (ABC's October Road), the wonderful new comedian T.J. Miller (ABC's "Carpoolers"), and excellent leading man Michael Stahl-David (NBC's cancelled The Black Donnellys). The producers and writers did well with imbuing this film with palpable characters who remind us of ourselves and people we know. Each character in this movie has their own story (and relationship) which is introduced creatively well in the beginning by recordings (thanks to Miller's everyman character Hud) of each character's interaction at a going-away party for Rob (Stahl-David). Also, interspersed throughout the tape -- when the current party/disaster recording is turned off -- the audience sees previously recorded footage of Rob and his love interest Beth (Yustman) on a special day together. Just when you think the movie is going to continue with these relationships, then all hell unexpectedly breaks loose.
The brilliance of this movie is its "Blair Witch concept" of showing the film as if it were merely found film footage (no credits at the beginning, only in the end). Of course, this film is on a much bigger scale than "Blair Witch," with a monster terrorizing Manhattan. And while that seems unrealistic, it's the only unrealistic thing about this movie. What the characters do and say, the way the movie plays out is completely realistic. Unlike "Blair Witch," even when there are no attacks or action sequences, "Cloverfield" keeps your eyes peeled to the screen; out of the entire packed audience I saw this film with, no one said a word, cracked a joke or even got up to go the bathroom. This movie is everything a disaster movie should be! A thrilling ride of adrenaline and a heart-wrenching story of survival and human emotion, "Cloverfield" strikes all the right chords from fright to bravery to even humor. It shows the horror of the event from the point of view of the common man on the ground who's merely trying to survive the catastrophe. Like Jaws (with the shark, throughout most of the movie) and the original theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back (with the Wampa in the ice cave), where the "monsters" are not seen for a long time during their screen time, this movie uses that same approach of not showing the monster in its entirety or at all. And that works extremely well for building up the terror for the audience. I won't tell you what the monster looks like when you finally do see it, but I will say it looks nothing like Godzilla or any interpretation of it. Of course, there also has to be another monstrous threat and it comes in the form of what I can only imagine are the equivalent of "fleas" for the monster, but are our size and have very big jaws and teeth. When these monsters are introduced to the lead characters (and thus to the audience), it matches the same terrifying, pulse-pounding moment in Aliens when Bill Paxton's character holds up the alien locater and sees that the aliens have completely surrounded them in the tunnel and are soon going to attack.
"Cloverfield" was a wonderful monster/catastrophe film and I could easily see it at least three more times in the theater ... if not more. Kudos to Abrams, Reeves, Goddard and crew who pulled off a groundbreaking new form of cinema that the folks attached to "Blair Witch" tried desperately to achieve, but painfully failed. The detail that went into the effects as well as the camerawork (some done by actor Miller himself) was so flawlessly executed that I felt as if I were immersed in watching an actual documetary. I'm sure plenty of knock-off straight-to-DVD movies will soon be surfacing with Cloverfield's success, but none will even come close. Everything works with "Cloverfield": the story, the acting, the character development, and the direction. If this seems like the kind of movie you're in to but still aren't sure about it, go see it without hesitation! I'm sure there won't be another like it that's this good in a very long time. I've never been so wowed by a movie of this genre and can't recommend it enough. SEE IT! However, there is one caution I must tell you: You'll leave the theater wanting more. More information about the characters, more follow-up, more movie (director Reeves even hinted at looking closely at the background at the very end of the movie for something in the Coney Island scene and staying until the very end of the credits for a voice clip from a radio transmission)! This movie is phenomenal! Like me, most viewers will want to see "Cloverfield" over and over again. And that's a true mark of any film's success.
And for those skeptical that this DVD release will be what studios did for the DVD release of "Zodiac" and other blockbusters in the past -- releasing a regular version with no special features one month, then only to re-release a DVD loaded with special features 6-7 months later (this is referred to as "double-dipping") -- the special features for the upcoming DVD release of "Cloverfield" have been revealed by Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment as of March 18. Now let's just hope they go with some better, more cooler packaging than the stupid poster art; something that fits the style of the movie (I want a "top secret" government slip case and package to make it look like it's an actual piece of government evidence). Here are the special features:
* Commentary: Commentary by Director Matt Reeves
* Featurette: The Making of Cloverfield
* Featurette: Cloverfield Visual Effects
* Featurette: I Saw It! It's Alive! It's Huge
* Featurette: Clover Fun
* Additional Scenes: Congrats Rob
* Additional Scenes: When You're in Japan
* Additional Scenes: I Call That a Date
* Additional Scenes: It's Going to Hurt
* Additional Scenes: Alt Ending #1
* Additional Scenes: Alt Ending #2
* Easter Eggs: Slusho!
* Easter Eggs: Person of Interest - JLVD Video 2
* Easter Eggs: Person of Interest - JLVD Video 5
* Easter Eggs: Person of Interest - JLVD Video 9
* Easter Eggs: Person of Interest - JLVD Video 11
* Easter Eggs: Rack 'Em & Pack 'Em
* Easter Eggs: Fighting the X
Summary of Cloverfield
Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal horrifying event of their lives.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 097363520641 Manufacturer No: 352064One of the first things a viewer notices about Cloverfield is that it doesn't play by ordinary storytelling rules, making this intriguing horror film as much a novelty as an event. Told from the vertiginous point-of-view of a camcorder-wielding group of friends, Cloverfield begins like a primetime television soap opera about young Manhattanites coping with changes in their personal lives. Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is leaving New York to take an executive job at a company in Japan. At his goodbye party in a crowded loft, Rob?s brother Jason (Mike Vogel) hands a camcorder to best friend Hud (T.J. Miller), who proceeds to tape the proceedings over old footage of Rob?s ex-girlfriend, Beth (Odette Yustman)--images shot during happy times in that now-defunct relationship. Naturally, Beth shows up at the party with a new beau, bumming Rob out completely. Just before one's eyes glaze over from all this heartbreaking stuff (captured by Hud, who's something of a doofus, in laughably shaky camerawork), the unexpected happens: New York is suddenly under attack from a Godzilla-like monster stomping through midtown and destroying everything and everybody in sight. Rob and company hit the streets, but rather than run with other evacuees, they head toward the center of the storm so that Rob can rescue an injured Beth. There are casualties along the way, but the journey into fear is fascinating and immediate if emotionally remote--a consequence of seeing these proceedings through the singular, subjective perspective of a camcorder and of a story that intentionally leaves major questions unanswered: Who or what is this monster? Where did it come from? The lack of a backstory, and spare views of the marauding creature, are clever ways by producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves to keep an audience focused exclusively on what?s on the screen. But it also makes Cloverfield curiously uninvolving. Ultimately, Cloverfield, with its spectacular effects brilliantly woven into a home-video look, is a celebration of infinite possibilities in this age of accessible, digital media. --Tom Keogh
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