Cloverfield - JJ Abrams

A surprisingly engaging experience this.

Obviously an FX driven roller coaster but it really works - high adrenaline value. Impressively reductivist in terms of character development and background plot so none of that guff gets in the way of cutting to the chase once we get past the initial setup

Of course subtexts of 9/11 trauma. I wonder if New Yorkers find this cathartic or exploitative? The monster itself I think is quite an effectively stark image of distilled rage and fear for most of the film - bit silly right at the end unfortunately but I don't think the film drops the ball too much. Some pretty good urban destruction set pieces too.

Ya know, this kind of came and went.
Dunno anyone who saw it, it's stayed mysterious !
Just saw the most footage of it ever the other night in some clip, the head of the Statue of Liberty comes rolling across from screen left to right.
And that was it ...

Was good huh ?
Looked interesting ...

I've got this at home actually - maybe I'll watch it tonight before/after the football. I've got highish hopes now.

I enjoyed it, although the combination of having the flu and unsteady handy cam fottage made me queasy.

One of the female actors is in this average US sitcom, I can't remember the name, but seeing it gave me an idea. What if you were to create an American sitcom in the usual style a la Friends et al. After the first season you make a movie under the pretense that it would be like the show but instead they all perish like they do in Cloverfield. It would be watching disaster unfold in an alternate universe made all the more real because you've invested emotionally in these characters over months.

It would never work commercially but it would be great just to pull a fast one on the audience.

"A surprisingly engaging experience this.
Obviously an FX driven roller coaster but it really works - high adrenaline value"

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I thought it was great. Even better than your description makes it sound. Loved the way that terrible party at the start goes on just long enough to lull you into relaxing and the way it suddenly all starts happening. It seemed better than almost anything I've ever seen at making you feel how scary it would be if a huge alien started ripping apart your town and you were actually running for your life, not knowing what to do - do you run down the street or hide in a building or what? Because if you choose wrong you will definitely die.
I did have a few quibbles - such as would they really keep filming or would the army guy really let them go back into the danger zone? - but I realised as I was having them that the quibbles were very minor compared to those I normally have with pretty much any film. I agree that there was no need for you to see the alien in close up like that at the end but, that aside, the ending was really good and avoided wimping out in any of the ways I feared. I liked the lack of explanation of what was actually was going on and thought that this along with the confusion of the camera jerking around and the constant screaming added to the realism.
Massively influenced by Blair Witch of course but I loved that anyway and I think that both films achieved an enormous level of realism that makes most others seem tame. I think if someone could come up with a way to explain why the victims keep filming in life-threatening circumstances then they really would be on to a winner.

"Of course subtexts of 9/11 trauma. I wonder if New Yorkers find this cathartic or exploitative?"

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Be interested to know about this as well. Obviously the elephant in the room in the film is terrorism (I don't think anyone actually suggests it do they?) but its presence is clearly felt. Quite a brave a film to make in some ways I guess you could say.

i enjoyed cloverfield, it felt real, at least in terms of the perspective, i hope to god people like those in the film don't really exist. but there was a smooth continuity between the live action and the cg monsters, accentuated by the blair witch-style perspective, and the sound was fantastic. but if you're looking for character development and good dialogue, or a plot for that matter..... then i guess look elsewhere (thought i was setting myself up for something punchier).