Cloverfield.

[CATCH17]

Moster movies should never be taken as anything but fantasy's. Have to laugh at those saying it was trying for reality.
reality is that an Apache with a hellfire would blow its head right off. Or a A-10 with a Maverick. Or even a F16, F-18, F15E with a laser guided 1000 lb bomb with a delay setting so that it explodes INSIDE the monster. That kind of bomb can penetrate 10 ft of concrete- imagine what it would do to even the toughest of monster flesh.

Man you just gave me a weird since of security towards monsters.

 

[joseephuss]

Why all the hate and disdain for Blair Witch?

If you enjoyed Cloverfield, you should, at the very least, appreciate Blair Witch, which made first person, documentary-style film making an accepted and emulated form in fiction.

We can find the artistic impact of Blair Witch in a number of popular movies and television series--Cloverfield, Bourne, Battlestar Galactica, Friday Night Lights, etc.

Horror is my favorite film genre, and Blair Witch was an extremely effective horror movie. It followed the mantra that most truly frightending horror movies do: Show the monster as little as possible.

In most case, the images that our minds generate are far more frightening than anything the movie can show us. By my recollection, only one movie is an exception to this rule--Alien.

I disagree. Even Alien showed the monster as little as possible. Until the final scene there were only quick glimpses of the mature alien creature. You get to see it as a baby alien bursting onto the scene thru the belly, but you don't see much of it when it is fully grown. Not as much as they could have shown it, like in the sequels.

 

[Biggems]

Unfortunately, my suspicions were confirmed. This is a terrible movie! It was exactly as I feared. The entire movie is essentially shot from one person's hand held camera. It's exactly like the Blair Witch project but it has a monster and better special effects. Yeah, just call it the "Blair Monster Project'. I know the camera work caused many people to leave the film early. And it was gettig annoying how the camera wouldn't tilt up. I was nauseous from the shaky camera which is probably why it was so short, to save people like me from hurling on the dude sitting in front of me. There is no explanation as to where the monster comes from. Just take the previews and extend it another 80 minutes and that's Cloverfield. In fact, the monster is barely in the film and essentially makes a cameo.

If you remember the previews, you are thinking "Wow, that looks cool and I can't wait to see what it is that is attacking the people and where it comes from and why it's attacking" NOPE....none of those questions are really answered. What you see in the previews pretty much encompasses the entire film. You just see people running from the monster and trying to survive. That is supposedly the entertaining part of this film.

Again, it all comes down to whether you like first person type of movies. If you liked the Blair Witch project and cheap hand held camera views, you wil love this film. You are either going to love it or hate it.

you do realize that this is the kind of suspense that made Hitchcock and Price so popular....they wouldn't always flat out give you the answers....they left some things a mystery.

 

[Nors]

you do realize that this is the kind of suspense that made Hitchcock and Price so popular....they wouldn't always flat out give you the answers....they left some things a mystery.

I agree - at the end of this movie there are a lot of open questions. And that kind of permeated through the whole movie, What is going on here?

I am not sure where JJ Abrams goes with sequael. He has so many options to run with. And based on his viral marketing skills, may be thinking about a long term Godzilla run of movies. But he has to be careful on how he presents it.

I expect the sequel to have more unanswered questions than the first.

 

[the kid 05]

I agree - at the end of this movie there are a lot of open questions. And that kind of permeated through the whole movie, What is going on here?

I am not sure where JJ Abrams goes with sequael. He has so many options to run with. And based on his viral marketing skills, may be thinking about a long term Godzilla run of movies. But he has to be careful on how he presents it.

I expect the sequel to have more unanswered questions than the first.

while tying up some of the unanswered from the one before or not so much?

 

[Nors]

while tying up some of the unanswered from the one before or not so much?

It all depends on his intentions. If he wants to wrap it up he can answer all the questions and bring an ending to the Monster. Thats easy and not what I think he does.

Maybe the monster vanishes, Rob survives the bombing at the end. He eventually ends up at his new job in Japan and Cloverfield reappears there. There will be a huge Japanese market for a sequel.

He just has to stay away from the Army blew it up and its dead King Kong storyline.

And he left a message at end of credits

Help us
played backwards - It's still alive.

JJ Abrams has $$$$$$$$$$$$ till the end of time if he can roll this into a sustained mystery monster. And he will do it again via viral marketing and the internet and unprecedented & of trailers.

It makes it personal to the fan to be part of the movie 6 months pre release and the whole mystery buildup.

Inside word is the sequel is already underway

 

[DallasEast]

Why all the hate and disdain for Blair Witch?

If you enjoyed Cloverfield, you should, at the very least, appreciate Blair Witch, which made first person, documentary-style film making an accepted and emulated form in fiction.

We can find the artistic impact of Blair Witch in a number of popular movies and television series--Cloverfield, Bourne, Battlestar Galactica, Friday Night Lights, etc.

Horror is my favorite film genre, and Blair Witch was an extremely effective horror movie. It followed the mantra that most truly frightending horror movies do: Show the monster as little as possible.

In most case, the images that our minds generate are far more frightening than anything the movie can show us. By my recollection, only one movie is an exception to this rule--Alien.

I can't agree. Horror is my favorite type of film also. My criteria for a good horror movie is fairly basic:

• It must captivate my attention from start to finish
• It must have good writing that's not dumbed down for the audience
• And it must not prompt me to laugh or speak during 'serious' moments

The first twenty minutes of Blair Witch almost put me to sleep; I was disappointed at times with the dialogue; and for the second half of the movie, I mostly laughed at what I saw on the screen or made impolite comments about the actors in general.

My top two horror movies of all-time are The Exorcist (the original only) and John Carpenter's The Thing. Both movies held my attention from the very beginning to after the ending credits have rolled. The writing, imo, was superb in both films; and they both, literally, shut me up completely, which I love the most out of any movie.

I haven't watched Friday Night Lights very much, but Battlestar Galactica is one of my top five television shows. While admittedly, there are mutual elements shared between the two, I hate the comparison of Blair Witch with BG. IMO, Battlestar has been Emmy worthy since the original miniseries and Blair Witch belongs in a trashcan. This is one case where I have to respectfully disagree.

 

[Nors]

I downloaded the Thing and rewatched it after seeing Cloverfield.

Not sure why I dfid that, but always thought the Thing and Original Aliens were the best.

 

[DemonBlood]

When I saw the monsters face for the first time I kept wondering were I've seen it before...It finally hit me. The monsters face kind of looks like the aliens in the PS3 game "Resistance: Fall of Man".

http://i24.***BLOCKED***/albums/c1/ian_fisher/resistance-fall-of-man-200607200953.jpg

I thought the little monsters looked kind of like Antlions from Half-Life 2.

But then I remembered in Resistance there was also little monsters...

http://img235.*************/img235/2836/critter6to.jpg

Coincidence? I hope so because I really hated that game when I first bought my PS3

 

[Concord]

I thought the little monsters looked kind of like Antlions from Half-Life 2.

Those Antlions are nasty things!

Unless they are on your side...then you have wonderful friends.

 

[locked&loaded]

When I saw the monsters face for the first time I kept wondering were I've seen it before...It finally hit me. The monsters face kind of looks like the aliens in the PS3 game "Resistance: Fall of Man".

http://i24.***BLOCKED***/albums/c1/ian_fisher/resistance-fall-of-man-200607200953.jpg

I thought the little monsters looked kind of like Antlions from Half-Life 2.

But then I remembered in Resistance there was also little monsters...

http://img235.*************/img235/2836/critter6to.jpg

Coincidence? I hope so because I really hated that game when I first bought my PS3

are you joking?resistance owns.

 

[Nors]

Cloverfield Monsters today went on sale by Hasbro with a 09/30/08 ship date.

01.18.08 web site recently posted a new picture that appears to be dead whales on beach that MPG (Cloverfield) killed.

http://www.1-18-08.com/

Sequel appears on!

 

[DemonBlood]

are you joking?resistance owns.

No I'm not joking. I didn't say the game wasn't good because it was a good game. I just can't play shooters with the ps3 controller because it feels gimped. Also had no rumble. I was into it for awhile but then the story gets "blah" and I just lost interest in it and stopped playing. The respawn killing galore multiplayer is horrible. Bioshock/HL2>Resistance.

 

[Nors]

'Cloverfield' Is a Godzilla of a Hit


Cloverfield turned out to be not quite the equal of 1998's Godzilla in its opening weekend, but the monster movie nevertheless became the biggest hit of the year as it took in $41 million domestically. By contrast, Godzilla earned an estimated $55.7 million, but that was during the Memorial Day holiday. Moreover, ticket sales for Godzilla quickly trailed off, and the movie wound up with a domestic gross of $136 million. Cloverfield is now expected to exceed that figure. What's more, Godzilla had a budget of $130 million; Cloverfield was made for just $25 million. Debuting in second place was 20th Century Fox's 27 Dresses, which also exceeded prediction with sales of $22.4 million. Two other newcomers did not fare as well. Mad Money took in $7.7 million. Opening in limited release, Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream performed reasonably well, given generally unfavorable reviews. The movie earned about $501,000 in 107 theaters, for an average of $4,700 per screen. Surprisingly, the film with the highest per-screen average was the French animated film Persepolis which took in $281,000 in 30 theaters, or an average of $9,400 per theater. The overall box office was up 39 percent over the same weekend a year ago with ticket sales of $135.3 million for the top 12 films.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

I can't agree. Horror is my favorite type of film also. My criteria for a good horror movie is fairly basic:

• It must captivate my attention from start to finish
• It must have good writing that's not dumbed down for the audience
• And it must not prompt me to laugh or speak during 'serious' moments

The first twenty minutes of Blair Witch almost put me to sleep; I was disappointed at times with the dialogue; and for the second half of the movie, I mostly laughed at what I saw on the screen or made impolite comments about the actors in general.

My top two horror movies of all-time are The Exorcist (the original only) and John Carpenter's The Thing. Both movies held my attention from the very beginning to after the ending credits have rolled. The writing, imo, was superb in both films; and they both, literally, shut me up completely, which I love the most out of any movie.

I haven't watched Friday Night Lights very much, but Battlestar Galactica is one of my top five television shows. While admittedly, there are mutual elements shared between the two, I hate the comparison of Blair Witch with BG. IMO, Battlestar has been Emmy worthy since the original miniseries and Blair Witch belongs in a trashcan. This is one case where I have to respectfully disagree.

I commend you on having a far more universal criteria than I. When I evaluate the quality of a horror movie, I examine its effectiveness as well as its contribution to its specific subgenre of horror.

I use the term subgenre in a very general way. Obviously, subgenres aren't absolute classifications. Different people may hold different ideas of what constitutes a subgenre, and a single horror move may have characteristics of multiple subgenres.

Some critics argue that all horror movies can be classified according to three subgenres: horror of the psychological, horror of the demonic, and horror of armageddon. These are apt and reasonable descriptions, and I do use them. But I tend to be more malleable in my classificaions, and I borrow from multiple sources.

In my opinion, there are many more horror subgenres: slasher (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Madman Mars); cerebral (Alien, Hellraiser); technological (Scanners, Fear.com, the Ring); monster (Mothman Prophecies, the Haunting, Dracula); natural world (Jaws, Orca); psychological (Silence of the Lambs); splatter porn (Saw, any Rob Zombie movie); postmodern (Scream); etc.

Another subgenre of horror relies on a constant build up throughout the film that culminates in a final, potentially horrifying climax. One such movie is the Blair Witch Project. Another is Audition, which is a Japanese horror film that I highly recommend. These kinds of movies tend to be plodding, but I'll forgive the slow development if the final payoff warrants it.

I apologize for being wordy, but I'm trying to explain the basis of my reasoning on Blair Witch.

In my opinion, Blair Witch has four extremely effective scenes:

1) Heather initially filming and recording the inexplicable noises in the forest.

2) The crosses hanging form the trees.

3) The invisible children striking the side of the tent.

4) The final scene with Mike standing in the corner.

These scenes build upon one another, creating a mounting tension throughout the film, and the first person, documentary-style cinematography allows the audience to internalize and personalize this tension.

Of course, I don't necessarily like movies simply because they're effective. Saw was an effective movie that I didn't like; I'm simply not a fan of the splatter porn subgenre.

Some horror movies aren't at all effective and can actually detract from their subgenre such as Friday the 13th and House of a 1000 Corpses.

And some horror movies are crowning jewels in their subgenre and excellent films. Two of my favorite horror films (and ones that, in my opinion, represent excellence in their area) are the original Halloween and Alien.

 

[mr.jameswoods]

I can't agree. Horror is my favorite type of film also. My criteria for a good horror movie is fairly basic:

• It must captivate my attention from start to finish
• It must have good writing that's not dumbed down for the audience
• And it must not prompt me to laugh or speak during 'serious' moments

The first twenty minutes of Blair Witch almost put me to sleep; I was disappointed at times with the dialogue; and for the second half of the movie, I mostly laughed at what I saw on the screen or made impolite comments about the actors in general.

My top two horror movies of all-time are The Exorcist (the original only) and John Carpenter's The Thing. Both movies held my attention from the very beginning to after the ending credits have rolled. The writing, imo, was superb in both films; and they both, literally, shut me up completely, which I love the most out of any movie.

I haven't watched Friday Night Lights very much, but Battlestar Galactica is one of my top five television shows. While admittedly, there are mutual elements shared between the two, I hate the comparison of Blair Witch with BG. IMO, Battlestar has been Emmy worthy since the original miniseries and Blair Witch belongs in a trashcan. This is one case where I have to respectfully disagree.

I would have to respectfully AGREE! I hear ya DE! I love horror films and I have simple criteria also

1. The writing must move the film. I don't care about special effects or gimics. If the film is written poorly then I lose interest in 5 minutes. Cloverfield was horribly written as was Blair Witch. The story and dialogue comes first. If it has an excellent plot, everything else is icing on the cake

2. Directing- Keep it simple: Hitchcock was a master because he achieved the needed psychological response through simple and subtle camera work and directing. Cloverfield's shaking hand held camera defies Hitchcock's ideas because it's not subtle; you see the darn camera shake. You are aware of the camera shaking. In Hitchcock's films, the camera work is subtle and you don't notice the cuts or the zoom ins. The fact that people were getting nauseous with Cloverfield only confirms this idea.

3. No Comedy- A horror film shouldn't force jokes down your throat as an icebreaker.

4. It's got to be believable: Even if you introduce supernatural ideas, you can present them in a believable way. We are all going to suspend our disbelief a little but great films don't make you stretch to do so. The Exorcist made Linda Blair look and feel as if she was sincerely possessed. The first Halloween really convinces you that some dude put on a mask and is stalking people. Even the first Nightmare on Elm St. had a certain level of sincerity to it that made it believable.

5. Music- the music makes a great horror film: Halloween, Exorcist, A Nightmare on Elm St. all had great themes that enhanced the movie.

 

[mr.jameswoods]

you do realize that this is the kind of suspense that made Hitchcock and Price so popular....they wouldn't always flat out give you the answers....they left some things a mystery.

Yes, but they only left it a mystery intially. You do realize that Hitchcock provided the identity of the killer in Psycho. You see Norman Osborn with the wig holding the knife. There is even a psychiatrist to explain the motivation behind Norman Bates. That's why Hitchcock was a genius. He teases you throughout the entire film but masterfully concludes it. Cloverfield provides no conclusion or answers of any sort.

I also prefer the answer remain hidden but at some point it should be revealed or have a way in which it can be revealed. Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey is one of my 5 favorite films of all time. Yes, it's abstract but all the answers are there.

 

[locked&loaded]

No I'm not joking. I didn't say the game wasn't good because it was a good game. I just can't play shooters with the ps3 controller because it feels gimped. Also had no rumble. I was into it for awhile but then the story gets "blah" and I just lost interest in it and stopped playing. The respawn killing galore multiplayer is horrible. Bioshock/HL2>Resistance.

bioshock is a different type of game, a game without online. an amazing online at that. half life two is a fun game but niether are launch titles. Ps3's controller is just fine for me, i dont like r2 and L2 but its not a big deal. I hate rumble i turn it off, it adds nothing to the game for me.

 

[mr.jameswoods]

bioshock is a different type of game, a game without online. an amazing online at that. half life two is a fun game but niether are launch titles. Ps3's controller is just fine for me, i dont like r2 and L2 but its not a big deal. I hate rumble i turn it off, it adds nothing to the game for me.

I never liked the X-Box because it's controllers have too many buttons and they are really tiny. I love the Ps3 controllers because that's what I'm used to. This was intelligent design by Sony. It has kept that same controller style for over a decade which benefits guys like me.

 

[Rack]

I never liked the X-Box because it's controllers have too many buttons and they are really tiny. I love the Ps3 controllers because that's what I'm used to. This was intelligent design by Sony. It has kept that same controller style for over a decade which benefits guys like me.

The XBOX controller has the same amount of buttons as the PS2/3 controllers, and the buttons are actually BIGGER, not smaller.