SSS Plays the Field

[silverscreenselect]

I saw Cloverfield yesterday, and it's another example of effective Blair Witch style film making and, more than that, promotion.

It's a monster story about a giant something that attacks Manhattan that is told supposedly by a camcorder recording made by a guy who witnessed the attacks. So we get a lot of hand-held jumpy camera work with very rapid pans and times when the camera is deliberately pointed in the wrong direction (the photographer gets knocked down or it's pointed down when he's running). Needless to say, this happens more often in the action scenes.

Absent the POV gimmick, this would probably be a Sci Fi Channel movie of the week, with shallow characters and a predictable plot. But some of the scenes are very effective and one in particular in a subway tunnel is fairly scary. So, the film making style turns predictable dreck into a mildly entertaining (but not anywhere near what the fan buzz would lead you to believe) afternoon. This is probably a movie that will work better on video when the illusion of the camcorder work is even more effective.

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

Spoiler

Is it true that the monster looks like the things in Starship Troopers

http://media.filmschoolrejects.com/imag ... rart01.jpg

Or is it a giant bunny?

[silverscreenselect]

Spoiler

You never get a real good look at it, but I thought it looks like a mutated version of a T-rex. It's hard to tell exactly how many arms and/or legs it has (freezing a DVD frame will help when it comes out on video).

There's also some little creatures as well that keep dropping off the big creature. They may be either offspring or parasites, but they are about three feet long and look like really nasty grasshoppers. It's the little creatures that attack the main characters in the subway tunnel.

And if one of the little creatures bites you, you wind up hemorrhaging blood and dying in a very gruesome way.

[kusch]

Not my kind of genre of movies to see, so I won't.

We did go to Bucket List and I really enjoyed it.

[ne1410s]

We went to see National Treasure.
First movie, without grandkids, in many, many years.

I liked the original NT better. But, this one we liked also.

[ToLiveIsToFly]

I saw Cloverfield yesterday, and it's another example of effective Blair Witch style film making and, more than that, promotion.

It's a monster story about a giant something that attacks Manhattan that is told supposedly by a camcorder recording made by a guy who witnessed the attacks. So we get a lot of hand-held jumpy camera work with very rapid pans and times when the camera is deliberately pointed in the wrong direction (the photographer gets knocked down or it's pointed down when he's running). Needless to say, this happens more often in the action scenes.

Absent the POV gimmick, this would probably be a Sci Fi Channel movie of the week, with shallow characters and a predictable plot. But some of the scenes are very effective and one in particular in a subway tunnel is fairly scary. So, the film making style turns predictable dreck into a mildly entertaining (but not anywhere near what the fan buzz would lead you to believe) afternoon. This is probably a movie that will work better on video when the illusion of the camcorder work is even more effective.

Blair Witch. Yeah, I remember that. I seemed to be the only one in the theater who thought it had a happy ending - I'd never have to listen to those beyond-annoying kids every again.

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

We saw 27 Dresses with the girls and it was very enjoyable.

[BackInTex]

The wife and I went to see "I am Legend"

We liked it.

[Beebs52]

Spoiler

Is it true that the monster looks like the things in Starship Troopers

http://media.filmschoolrejects.com/imag ... rart01.jpg

Or is it a giant bunny?

Spoiler

If you google Cloverfield there are a couple of websites with the artwork for the monster and its parasite thingies. Sort of Lovecraftian, etc.

[tlynn78]

I saw The Kite Runner last weekend and LOVED it. So much so I didn't even realize until after I left the theater that it was all in subtitles.

t.

[danielh41]

I saw There Will Be Blood at a large multiplex. The theater next to it was showing Cloverfield, and a couple of times, during the quieter sequences of There Will Be Blood, I could hear all kinds of things coming from the Cloverfield theater. It was irritating to say the least....