Cloverfield (2008)

Revolves around a monster attack in New York as told from the point of view of a small group of people.

Director:

Matt Reeves

Writer:

Drew Goddard

Stars:

Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller

4 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lizzy Caplan	...	Marlena Diamond
Jessica Lucas	...	Lily Ford
T.J. Miller	...	Hudson 'Hud' Platt
Michael Stahl-David	...	Rob Hawkins
Mike Vogel	...	Jason Hawkins
Odette Annable	...	Beth McIntyre (as Odette Yustman)
Anjul Nigam	...	Bodega Cashier
Margot Farley	...	Jenn
Theo Rossi	...	Antonio
Brian Klugman	...	Charlie
Kelvin Yu	...	Clark
Liza Lapira	...	Heather
Lili Mirojnick	...	Lei
Ben Feldman	...	Travis
Elena Caruso	...	Party Goer

Storyline

Cloverfield follows five New Yorkers from the perspective of a hand-held video camera. The movie is exactly the length of a DV Tape and a sub-plot is established by showing bits and pieces of video previously recorded on the tape that is being recorded over. The movie starts as a monster of unknown origin destroys a building. As they go to investigate, parts of the building and the head of the Statue of Liberty come raining down. The movie follows their adventure trying to escape and save a friend, a love interest of the main character.

---

Plot Keywords:

monster | explosion | apartment | video camera | statue | 

---

Taglines:

Some Thing Has Found Us

---

Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp] Official site [ua]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

18 January 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

1-18-08

Filming Locations:

Bloomingdale's - 1000 Third Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£3,485,956 (UK) (1 February 2008)

Gross:

$80,034,302 (USA) (4 April 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Bad Robot

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the teaser trailer with the head of the Statue of Liberty was shown without a film title, but a reference to J.J. Abrams, many Abrams fans looked to the internet to find out as much as possible about the upcoming, mysterious film. Abrams launched a viral campaign using multiple internet websites to promote this film, each providing background details of the plot. However, given the mysterious nature of the film and the viral websites, a number of theories were promoted on the blogosphere that were eventually proven untrue; for example, one hypothesis involved three Biblical monsters, one each for the sea, the land, and the air, instead of the single monster that came onto land from the depths of the sea.

---

Goofs

From the time Hud first spots the monster in the helicopter to the time the helicopter crashes is less then a minute, yet the time changes from night to sunrise. However, the military man that told them of the helicopter told them that the last helicopters would be in the air by 6:00 am. The time from the crash to the time when the camera restarted recording is unknown, but it is possible that the sun began rising at that point. Even their visibility in the helicopter was getting much better and looked like the early dawn.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Rob Hawkins: It's 6:42 AM. Beth's dad's place. He's out of town. And it's already a good day.

---

Crazy Credits

At the end of the closing credits there is a garbled radio transmission which some say sounds like "Help us!", when played backward it says "It's still alive!"

---

Connections

References Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

---

Soundtracks

"The Underdog"
Written by Britt Daniel
Performed by Spoon
Courtesy of Merge Records
By Arrangement with Bank Robber Music

User Reviews

The First Great Monster Film of the Century

If you haven't heard by now Cloverfield is a film about a giant monster attacking Manhattan all seen through the perspective of a 20-something's hand-held camera. The film has been hyped for months via viral marketing, JJ Abrams fan boys, and media coverage/ monster speculation. Did it live up to the hype? The answer is OH GOD YES Cloverfield is by far the most intense monster film I have ever seen in my lifetime, after the initial 15 minutes of character introduction and whatnot the film does not go 5 minutes without a HOLY CRAP moment. Constantly driving you to the edge of your seat at every turn and it really pulls no punches, I was surprised to learn it was rated PG13. Now the film is entirely filmed in shaky cam since you cant really survive a monster attack pushing a trolley around and it just works, you may get motion sickness though so be warned. The camera itself becomes a character of the film as it IS the viewer making everything happening on-screen more and more realistic. Now the acting is amateur but thats for the best considering that the film would have made no sense if they had used big name actors/actresses, the characters are not that deep either and mostly serve as fodder, comic relief, moral guidance, panic, commentary, puzzlement, a little bit of annoyance, in other words they're people surviving a monster attack. The presentation is brilliant, the only music heard is in the party and at the ending credits and the special effects are some of the most seamless stuff you'll ever see in a film. The monster itself is actually not seen in its entirety only being viewed from different angles for the audience to piece it together as the survivors themselves are, you pretty much know as much as they do about everything going on making you actually feel like you're there. Critics compare the film to Blair Witch meets Godzilla but it is so much more than that, Cloverfield is the definitive American Monster Film, best if seen on the opening weekend just to hear the audience's reactions not to mention the presentation is far greater on the big screen, watch it again to see the things you missed or just to enjoy the ride again, admittedly the shock value will wane with multiple viewings but for what it's worth Cloverfield is an excellent piece of film and special effect engineering and is the first great monster film of the millennium. Its also downright scary at parts. 8/10