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| Cloverfield | 
 enlarge | Director: Matt Reeves
Actors: Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan, Mike Vogel, Jessica Lucas, Michael Stahl-david
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $1.99
You Save: $28.00 (93%)
Buy New from $6.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  (629 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1028
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 84 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: PARD352064D
UPC: 097363520641
EAN: 0097363520641
ASIN: B0014Z4OQG
Release Date: April 22, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: January 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Horrible September 22, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I rented this movie thinking that it was going to be spooky and suspenseful, considering how little they led on about the movie, I thought it was going to make it that much better. Well, just to rent the movie cost me less than a dollar, but I still want a REFUND! This is the only movie I'd say don't waste your time with. Don't even rent it. 2nd worst movie I've seen in my entire life.
 Believe the hype September 21, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Film about giant creatures laying waste to New York, told from the point of view of one character who films it all on his camcorder. Human drama and monster mayhem collide in this genuinely scary production from Lost and Alias creator J. J. Abrams. The monsters in this film will freak you out. They sure did me, and although this film did not quite reach the heights I was expecting this is still a must see film. Believe the hype.
Please Make It Stop! September 21, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
JJ Abram's Cloverfield offers unfortunate audiences worldwide a grossly malformed interpretation of what dimly passes for the Playstation meets Hollywood blockbuster. What -- if every GAP model ever auditioned threw a party in a SoHo loft and suddenly found themselves thrust into a live action-anime Armageddon so laughably concocted that most of the z-listed trend-bots who grimace their way through this mess find career prolonging mercy in an early death.
Cloverfield is a contemporary filmmaking cluster-f__K overdosing on shaky-cams, extemporaneous, exponentially stupid dialogue and plot-holes so cavernous that Mothra himself would be swallowed whole.
And, c'mon Mr. Abrams, the cost-of-entry in this genre has to be a somewhat convincing monster. Would you have me believe that NYC is being eviscerated by a creature that apparently combines the physical characteristics of a Velociraptor capped by the head of the Munster's Al Lewis and a tropical fish in dire need of anger management... and while we're at it... some bare bones plausibility as well... would you also have me believe that our extremely pissed-off extraterrestrial can throw the head of Lady Liberty from New York Harbor to Spring Street on the fly and barely mark the pavement. After nearly ninety minutes the only horror in evidence is that this castrated eyesore was ever greenlighted.
If Cloverfield were strictly a goof, all would be forgiven - however - there's a sulfuric whiff of a message interred within the comatose script - Japanese comeuppance or some such nonsense. This film is an atrocity in every respect so do yourself a favor and head to the nearest exit.
One of the worst movies I've ever seen. September 20, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I should have read the reviews before watching this. It would have saved 73 minutes of my life I'll never get back. That's how long the movie is, with 11 minutes of credits.
The style of the movie is the least of it's problems. If fact, I liked the style of it. Seeing things unfold strictly from the video camera's view is interesting, if done well, which this wasn't.
First, nobody running for their life is going to care about filming the action so much that they get all of the important parts of the story. Add to that the uniqueness of the horror, a monster loose in the city, and the brain would probably turn off and think only of survival.
Second, the actual story was very thin. One shot after another of people running every which way with the monster around somewhere. This was really about the gimmick of seeing the action through the character's video camera.
Third, being only 73 minutes long, the inciting moment is about 19 minutes in. Way too long for nothing to happen.
Fourth, the last thing recorded says that 7 hours have elapsed since the monster appeared, but only about 50 minutes is shown. Why? Because showing all 7 hours would be boring. So it's edited even though it is presented as what is on the tape.
I could go on, and on, and on.
In one of the disc's features the director says that the intent was to give America another iconic monster like Japan's Godzilla, the only other one being King Kong. What's funny is that the movie isn't really about the monster; it's about the kids with the video camera running around Manhattan! So he fails to meet his own criteria.
Again, this was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. A complete waste.
 Have Your Giant Monster and (Let It) Eat Too September 18, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Like so many other monster fans, I was taken in by all the hype around Cloverfield. I incorrectly predicted the monster's appearance based on a sketch, I correctly predicted that the movie wasn't about Cthulhu or Voltron, and then my son was born and I forgot about movies for a year.
I finally saw it. And man is it good.
But you see, I'm a monster movie fan. Cloverfield's marketing was intentionally minimalist, relying on viral marketing instead. One of the dangers of viral marketing is that it's viral, and thus doesn't necessarily distinguish by target market. Indeed, the whole point of viral marketing is to get the word out to as many people as possible. And many of those people aren't monster movie fans.
Look. This is a monster movie. If you don't like the fact that attractive people run around screaming, maybe you shouldn't watch a movie about a giant monster. If you don't like the shaky cam effect, maybe the preview gave a hint that the movie wasn't for you. And if you don't like the unrealistic nature of characters running in high heels, people surviving horrible wounds, and the insane bravery/stupidity of the protagonist, perhaps you shouldn't see a movie about a giant monster that comes out of nowhere and rips the head off the Statue of Liberty.
The joke's on us: Cloverfield is a love story cloaked in a monster movie. It's about the lengths our hero is willing to go to save his true love, a girl he's only just recently met. In times of stress, our tenuous attachment to loved ones becomes all the more precious--if you lived in New York City during the 9/11 attacks, you knew that already.
Stripping away the complaints about the genre, as a monster movie Cloverfield knocks it out of the park. To Abrams' credit, it's just as scary as we feared. Only now we have real reason to fear the impact of a colossal assault on our city. The movie is filmed the way we experienced 9/11, and the floating papers and dust from the collapse of a building are a sign that we know exactly what a monstrous attack looks like.
When 9/11 happened, I walked home from work. I watched a cop stick his head out the driver's side window, so terrified of another attack from above that he was nearly drove off the road. Cloverfield invokes those fears: of confusion, of anarchy, of wanting to run but not knowing what's a safe place to run to anymore. It is a monster movie made when the charm of monster movies can no longer be appreciated by the audience - we now know that if a giant monster attacked New York, evacuations would clog the streets, people would be poisoned by the debris, stock markets would crash, and worse. It's not just about being afraid the monster will eat you.
Cloverfield has its giant monster and lets it eat too: it's an immediate physical threat and a mysterious menace, far more frightening than anything the Godzilla remake could muster. In the same way Godzilla evoked fears of the atom bomb, Cloverfield is 9/11 reimagined as a hideous, unexplained thing from beyond. The film is also fearless in facing the monster (literally) and reinforcing the helplessness we all felt in the face of such a huge disaster. Forget the boogeyman under your bed: it's hundreds of feet tall and smashing its way down your street.
For monster movie fans, it doesn't get any better than this.
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