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Review: Cloverfield
It's a bad sign when I leave the movie theatre still thinking about the trailers.
I went to see Cloverfield in the end. It's always Mark Kermode's reviews that send me to see movies I don't think I'll like and usually his recommendations work out. This time...no. The thing he said in his review that made me change my mind was "it's short". But it's not short enough. The film takes a ridiculously long time to get going, and by the end I was just thinking "die already and lets get this over with".
The sad thing is it could have been a pretty decent disaster movie without the "gimmick" of being, supposedly, an amateur film. The basic plot is okay: party, lovers' quarrel, giant scary monster attacking the city, boy has to be a hero and go save girl, his friends tag along and there's lots of shocks, lots of gore and a super-high body count. But you know how boring most home videos are? Yeah - so is this. Oh, there are some great moments. Bits and pieces of it are masterly. The whole tunnel sequence, the claustrophobic feel. It's good. But as a whole it falls down.
In part, it's because the movie tells you from the outset that all ended badly. So once our heroes reach their goal, you just know everyone's gonna die horribly: the only source of interest is who's gonna die when, and how. And, unfortunately, none of the characters are real enough for me to care.
(Also: girl in party clothes and flimsy four inch heels takes way, way too long to take the bloody shoes off. Her feet would have been bloody blisters after all the running and hiding. You can always tell when a film is directed by a man from details like that. Women know you can't run from alien monsters in party shoes. It's a small detail but it's a bloody annoying one.)
So Cloverfield: not worth the hype. Save your money and catch Blair Witch on freeview instead.
Oh, those movie trailers? They showed a trailer for the new Rambo film (isn't Sly getting a little old for that role?) Anyhow, the trailer opens with a man holding a rosary - you don't see his face - and then the voiceover says something about a soldier without a country. Weird how fast I flashed on John Winchester, isn't it?
One track mind? Me?
I went to see Cloverfield in the end. It's always Mark Kermode's reviews that send me to see movies I don't think I'll like and usually his recommendations work out. This time...no. The thing he said in his review that made me change my mind was "it's short". But it's not short enough. The film takes a ridiculously long time to get going, and by the end I was just thinking "die already and lets get this over with".
The sad thing is it could have been a pretty decent disaster movie without the "gimmick" of being, supposedly, an amateur film. The basic plot is okay: party, lovers' quarrel, giant scary monster attacking the city, boy has to be a hero and go save girl, his friends tag along and there's lots of shocks, lots of gore and a super-high body count. But you know how boring most home videos are? Yeah - so is this. Oh, there are some great moments. Bits and pieces of it are masterly. The whole tunnel sequence, the claustrophobic feel. It's good. But as a whole it falls down.
In part, it's because the movie tells you from the outset that all ended badly. So once our heroes reach their goal, you just know everyone's gonna die horribly: the only source of interest is who's gonna die when, and how. And, unfortunately, none of the characters are real enough for me to care.
(Also: girl in party clothes and flimsy four inch heels takes way, way too long to take the bloody shoes off. Her feet would have been bloody blisters after all the running and hiding. You can always tell when a film is directed by a man from details like that. Women know you can't run from alien monsters in party shoes. It's a small detail but it's a bloody annoying one.)
So Cloverfield: not worth the hype. Save your money and catch Blair Witch on freeview instead.
Oh, those movie trailers? They showed a trailer for the new Rambo film (isn't Sly getting a little old for that role?) Anyhow, the trailer opens with a man holding a rosary - you don't see his face - and then the voiceover says something about a soldier without a country. Weird how fast I flashed on John Winchester, isn't it?
One track mind? Me?