SCI-FI ACTION; 1hr 24min
STARRING: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David
In the dark: Stahl-David and Lucas
A disaster movie shot hand-held from the point of view of an amateur video-camera operator? Motion-sickness susceptible, beware: Cloverfield is as heavy-duty and flat out as anyone who has encountered the febrile mind of producer J.J. Abrams (Lost) would expect. Abrams came up with the concept of New York City under attack by a monster (Matt Reeves directs), to be shot by a party guest (Miller as Hud) who gets caught up in the pandemonium. So here is the scene: it’s dark, it’s late and an unfathomable creature is hell-bent on laying waste. The fallout is mass panic, the chaos of absolute collapse. And somehow, Hud keeps ahold of the camcorder as he and three other freaked-out guests (Caplan, Lucas and Stahl-David) make their way through the mangled city.
Stripped of big-ticket Doomsday sheen, the frenzy-cam effect is shockingly immediate. Your stomach might wish for a steadier approach. But there’s no denying that this jigsaw of jagged edges is how it really would be, out there at the end of your world.
