Chris Stuckmann reviews Cloverfield, starring Michael Stahl-David, Lizzy Caplan, Odette Annable, Jessica Lucas, Mike Vogel, T.J. Miller. Directed by Matt Reeves.
The scene where Lizzy Caplan’s character dies, essentially exploding with bloody vomit behind the quarantine tent, genuinely terrified me as an 11 year old. The camera work in this movie is so S tier
The movie closely reflects the events of 9/11, showing people covered in dust and set in New York with the attack occurring at the city center. It effectively portrays the fear and confusion experienced by people during the unfolding events. The only available footage is through news and handheld cameras. Additionally, upon watching this movie after seeing 9/11 footage, clear influences become apparent. 'Cloverfield' is a film that strongly resonates with the fears and anxieties stemming from 9/11, much like how 'Gojira' was influenced by nuclear fears in Japan.
One of my favorite movies of all time. I know its not perfect, I know it's a bit cheesy at times, but I do genuinely enjoy what they were able to create with this film.
Matt Reeves directed his ass off with this film. This film reminds me why Matt Reeves is one of the most important voices in the genre filmmaking industry. So blessed to have him helm Batman for the next decade.
I remember watching this movie earlier this year. And I gotta say: this is definitely one of the best found footage movies I’ve ever seen. It’s a movie that genuinely made me feel scared. The monster is fascinating. It’s not some monster that’s just destroying stuff, it’s a scared baby trying to find it’s parent. That’s a very interesting take on a Kaiju. Of course, with it being found footage, you don’t get to see the monster that often, but when you do, especially the part where we see it up close and clear, it’s fricking terrifying! And the post credit scene where if you play it backwards, the “it’s still alive” line, is chilling.
I’m kind of shocked that Chris went into as much detail as he did about underrated elements of this film and not once mentioned the love story and the underlying message of letting those you love know how you feel, because in the end, that’s all that ever truly matters.
The ARG for this film was unparalleled. And fleshed out so much of the backstory - whether it was stuff about the Tagruato corporation, Slusho or just the characters themselves. The MySpace profiles for all the characters were added to throughout the build-up to the movie as more things were discovered online.
This is one of my favorite found-footage style movies of all time. Watching it in the movie theater as a young teenager was a great experience. I do remember a lot of people complaining about motion sickness back then and me thinking they were being over-dramatic.
One of my favorite movies of all time. My dad is a huge monster movie fan and he told me out Cloverfield when I was growing up but I wasn’t able to watch it for a while because I was so young. Hearing my dad tell me about the movie, and the time we spent discussing it after I was old enough to see it makes this movie so special for me.
I was an extra for a week of night shoots on this film. A group of us for a minute got really close seeing each other every night on this gig. I got my SAG wavers in this picture. I remember the actor whose the one tasked with holding the camera and blew up after this movie was really casual about it being his first big movie. He was so zen about everything. There was a bit as soilders we did where we reheresed a whole 'oner' where we get deployed into the hot zone, run at the creature, stop, shoot at it, stop, look at it, realize it had no effect, then retreat running our asses off back down the street while screaming. Our group had the comedic beats down to a science, shot it i believe a dozen times. We got the last take in right before the sun was coming up. The spot where the creature was supposed to be was the biggest most giant blue screen I've ever seen in my life. It must've been four stories high. Impressive. It was scary on its own. When the film got released, i went to go see it first showing. Unexpectedly, the film kept giving me motion sickness from all the hand-held camera jerkiness. I had to watch a lot of it looking down. Same Thing happened to me seeing The Blair Witch Project in theatres in '99. So, i kept waiting for our sequence running at the creature. Long story short: it was left on the cutting room floor. A lot of scenes I was in as out of focus solder or medic guy were actually in the movie which were cool seeing scenes I remember shooting and now was seeing how the final result came out. I thought it looked great. It was such chaos shooting at the time that it really could've went either way. A lot of films as extras you are in the holding area waiting for days. This movie we just would stay on set because we were constantly being called back. It was just easier. ODD FUN FACT: That week of shooting, every night we would walk to set, it was on a studio lot, and we had the same backlot walk through really cool old sets, one of them bizarrely being the stored STREETS OF FIRE (1984) set. We of a certain age all knew it instantly too. Random weird note is going from non-union to SAG in the middle of the shoot. We took a lot of meal penalty breaks to work through breaks which was double overtime pay and penalty pay so the biggest checks I ever got as an extra was on this movie. One check paid my rent. The thrill was I went from non union side of food to the SAG truck for dinner and it was like being handed the keys to the kingdom. My extra group kept roasting me saying i forgot the little people and I had gotten too big for them now. I would say, sorry, who are you people, security! But, of course, they immediately started hitting me up to smuggle the good chef prepared meals back into the non union camp for them. One of the A list actors on the call sheet had actually caught me, but did the Monkey don't see, hear or tell panamime gesture to me, which was extremely cool because you didn't want to get kicked off a film set and get a mark against you cause it would get you banned from work at that studio. It will follow you. 2007 was a year long adventure I spent in LA doing strictly that for a living. Cloverfield was one of the good memories from a gig at that time.
I love this movie. It was incredibly scary and proved Matt Reeves was a director to keep my eyes on. That ended up becoming true, as he has gone on to make one incredible film after the other(Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and The Batman are all great, and War for the Planet of the Apes is my favorite film of the last decade). He's now one of my favorite directors.
Honestly one of my all time favorite movies. So great story, great effects, trippy for someone who knew absolutely nothing about the movie before hand. Thanks for reviewing it. Wish they did an actual sequel but glad it didn't kill this movie.
The scene where Lizzy Caplan’s character dies, essentially exploding with bloody vomit behind the quarantine tent, genuinely terrified me as an 11 year old. The camera work in this movie is so S tier
I love how many videos during this Halloween Special you're pumping out Chris--definitely adds to the Halloween feel!
Still waiting for a true cloverfield sequel. I love the tone of these movies and the lore behind these movies
The movie closely reflects the events of 9/11, showing people covered in dust and set in New York with the attack occurring at the city center. It effectively portrays the fear and confusion experienced by people during the unfolding events. The only available footage is through news and handheld cameras. Additionally, upon watching this movie after seeing 9/11 footage, clear influences become apparent. 'Cloverfield' is a film that strongly resonates with the fears and anxieties stemming from 9/11, much like how 'Gojira' was influenced by nuclear fears in Japan.
An underrated found footage masterpiece in my humble opinion.
One of my favorite movies of all time. I know its not perfect, I know it's a bit cheesy at times, but I do genuinely enjoy what they were able to create with this film.
One of the greatest teaser trailers ive seen in theaters. Straight goosebumps when i saw it for the first time
Matt Reeves directed his ass off with this film. This film reminds me why Matt Reeves is one of the most important voices in the genre filmmaking industry. So blessed to have him helm Batman for the next decade.
I truly love how in Abrams universe, even the monsters have mommy issues.
That scene of the girl getting bit by a small creature and then exploding behind like a medical screen is burned into my brain for 15 years
It's amazing that Cloverfield, released more than 15 years ago, still holds up as one of the best and scariest found footage movies ever!
I remember watching this movie earlier this year. And I gotta say: this is definitely one of the best found footage movies I’ve ever seen. It’s a movie that genuinely made me feel scared. The monster is fascinating. It’s not some monster that’s just destroying stuff, it’s a scared baby trying to find it’s parent. That’s a very interesting take on a Kaiju. Of course, with it being found footage, you don’t get to see the monster that often, but when you do, especially the part where we see it up close and clear, it’s fricking terrifying! And the post credit scene where if you play it backwards, the “it’s still alive” line, is chilling.
I’m kind of shocked that Chris went into as much detail as he did about underrated elements of this film and not once mentioned the love story and the underlying message of letting those you love know how you feel, because in the end, that’s all that ever truly matters.
The ARG for this film was unparalleled. And fleshed out so much of the backstory - whether it was stuff about the Tagruato corporation, Slusho or just the characters themselves. The MySpace profiles for all the characters were added to throughout the build-up to the movie as more things were discovered online.
This is one of my favorite found-footage style movies of all time. Watching it in the movie theater as a young teenager was a great experience. I do remember a lot of people complaining about motion sickness back then and me thinking they were being over-dramatic.
One of my favorite movies of all time. My dad is a huge monster movie fan and he told me out Cloverfield when I was growing up but I wasn’t able to watch it for a while because I was so young. Hearing my dad tell me about the movie, and the time we spent discussing it after I was old enough to see it makes this movie so special for me.
I was an extra for a week of night shoots on this film. A group of us for a minute got really close seeing each other every night on this gig. I got my SAG wavers in this picture. I remember the actor whose the one tasked with holding the camera and blew up after this movie was really casual about it being his first big movie. He was so zen about everything. There was a bit as soilders we did where we reheresed a whole 'oner' where we get deployed into the hot zone, run at the creature, stop, shoot at it, stop, look at it, realize it had no effect, then retreat running our asses off back down the street while screaming. Our group had the comedic beats down to a science, shot it i believe a dozen times. We got the last take in right before the sun was coming up. The spot where the creature was supposed to be was the biggest most giant blue screen I've ever seen in my life. It must've been four stories high. Impressive. It was scary on its own. When the film got released, i went to go see it first showing. Unexpectedly, the film kept giving me motion sickness from all the hand-held camera jerkiness. I had to watch a lot of it looking down. Same Thing happened to me seeing The Blair Witch Project in theatres in '99. So, i kept waiting for our sequence running at the creature. Long story short: it was left on the cutting room floor. A lot of scenes I was in as out of focus solder or medic guy were actually in the movie which were cool seeing scenes I remember shooting and now was seeing how the final result came out. I thought it looked great. It was such chaos shooting at the time that it really could've went either way. A lot of films as extras you are in the holding area waiting for days. This movie we just would stay on set because we were constantly being called back. It was just easier. ODD FUN FACT: That week of shooting, every night we would walk to set, it was on a studio lot, and we had the same backlot walk through really cool old sets, one of them bizarrely being the stored STREETS OF FIRE (1984) set. We of a certain age all knew it instantly too. Random weird note is going from non-union to SAG in the middle of the shoot. We took a lot of meal penalty breaks to work through breaks which was double overtime pay and penalty pay so the biggest checks I ever got as an extra was on this movie. One check paid my rent. The thrill was I went from non union side of food to the SAG truck for dinner and it was like being handed the keys to the kingdom. My extra group kept roasting me saying i forgot the little people and I had gotten too big for them now. I would say, sorry, who are you people, security! But, of course, they immediately started hitting me up to smuggle the good chef prepared meals back into the non union camp for them. One of the A list actors on the call sheet had actually caught me, but did the Monkey don't see, hear or tell panamime gesture to me, which was extremely cool because you didn't want to get kicked off a film set and get a mark against you cause it would get you banned from work at that studio. It will follow you. 2007 was a year long adventure I spent in LA doing strictly that for a living. Cloverfield was one of the good memories from a gig at that time.
This is such an underrated movie. One of the few movies that legitimately unnerves me, something about the monster is just so creepy
I love this movie. It was incredibly scary and proved Matt Reeves was a director to keep my eyes on. That ended up becoming true, as he has gone on to make one incredible film after the other(Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and The Batman are all great, and War for the Planet of the Apes is my favorite film of the last decade). He's now one of my favorite directors.
Honestly one of my all time favorite movies. So great story, great effects, trippy for someone who knew absolutely nothing about the movie before hand. Thanks for reviewing it. Wish they did an actual sequel but glad it didn't kill this movie.