Already Been Released Review: Cloverfield

With Halloween passing by so quickly it's good to acknowledge those films that gave us scares. Horror classics like Nosferatu, slashers like Scream, gore fests like Saw, and of course monster flicks. Monster flicks can range in production values and effects. Films like the Host show us how a CG tadpole can scare us silly, and nostalgic films like Godzilla or Mothra can let us know that we don't need CG to make something good. You'll notice with a lot of these films that I mentioned, none of them have been made in America. There haven't been many "American monster films" unfortunately. Most of the well known "American monsters" were mostly created in the 30's, 40's, or 50's. More recent monster movies made in America were films such as the Godzilla remake starring Mathew Broderick or the remake of King Kong directed by Peter Jackson. What's the problem with these films? They aren't original. They're remakes. Cloverfield came out to tell us that it's original, fresh, new, and completely amazing.

Summary of the plot goes like this: Rob, the vice-president of a company he works for, is headed off to Japan. His friends decide to throw him a surprise party before he leaves. At the party Rob begins talking to a girl he cares about named Beth. He gets into an argument with her and she goes back to her apartment. While Rob is sad about this, an Earthquake shakes the city. Suddenly explosions go off in the distance. Rob and some of his friends (one who is recording the event on camera) run off to the Brooklyn bridge to try to escape the unknown threat. However the Brooklyn bridge is smashed by something. So now they decide to try to find Beth and get her out of the city, while avoiding the unknown menace.

So, there's the plot. Now the catch to this plot? The ENTIRE film is shot on a digital camcorder held by Rob's friend Hud. It's really amazing. You're put through this realistic feeling and very improbable situation. The film can be shaky at times, and that was one of the major complaints, however in my opinion the shakiest is right in the beginning.
For acting. All the actors provide a very real feeling performance. You can tell that they really prepared for this role. My favorite part of the actors was that most of the actors were relatively unknown, at least to me. They weren't big name celebrities, which made them actually feel like everyday people.

The special effects of the film are just incredible. When you get good shots of the monster, it looks almost like a real creature. One of my favorite scenes is when the military storms down a street. Bullets are flying everywhere, the cameraman is hiding so he doesn't get trampled by a tank, and there's a great shot of the monster getting shot at.

Scare factors for the film were relatively good. I was frightened during many of the scenes of the parasite creatures that pop off the monster and a few of the "gotcha" scenes.

J.J Abrams definitely gave us an amazing monster flick. The DVD itself comes with deleted scenes that are pretty funny and interesting. Most of the deleted scenes are from the party and most end with "can you cut what I said out of the video?" or something similar. It comes with two separate endings and commentary.
Overall the film is great. I give it a 5/5 and recommend you to buy it when you get the chance.
-Z