P-C, you liked Cloverfield a lot more than I did. I found it entertaining, but I just couldn't get over how stupid the characters were and that I wish the story hadn't been told from that one perspective the whole time.

Also, I hadn't realized the movie was PG-13, so I really wish it had been scarier. I don't think I jumped once when watching the movie.

Jilli, you don't want to see Cloverfield. The scene in question will make you never want to go into a dark enclosed space ever again for fear of, um, Jillifonted-type things doing things they shouldn't do. Ever. Frankly, I'm amazed (minor spoiler), I was able to get back on the subway afterwards. Nyaaaaaaaaaaagh.

I have some other issues with the movie. First, it was very clearly written and directed by dudes from LA. The subway scene I mentioned above? I was almost rolling my eyes too hard at the stupidness of the "OMG, the 6 train GOES UPTOWN??!!!???" conversation to be freaked out by the evil scary spider-things in the tunnel. Also, the 6 is a local train - it stops every 8-10 blocks. Meaning they would have passed through a lit station every 8-15 minutes, depending on how fast they were walking. Meaning the fact that they were surprised to end up at 59th St after just having seen 51st St a few minutes earlier makes these the 4 dumbest people on the planet, and totally deserving of becoming monster food.

Also, real New Yorkers would have walked along the 6 track to Bleeker St, crossed over to the downtown side of the track and walked on the F-line up to West 4th where they could switch to the B and go directly to Columbus Circle underground the whole way without having to get out at 59th/Lex and walk across town outside.

Which, yes, seems like nitpicking, but in a movie that bills itself as "found footage," details like that matter.

I also did not like the ending. Or, rather, the TWELVE endings. Again - found footage. It should not wrap around in a neat little narrative circle, the tape lasting just long enough for the two main characters to call back the first scenes of the film and declare their eternal two wuv just before the bombs hit. It should have ended after the helicopter crash.

And the editing was waaaaaaaay too convenient. There were too many jump cuts and not enough long gaps. There were cuts where it made no sense for Hud to have paused or turned off the camera. The timestamp and "PROPERTY OF US WATERMARK" should have been onscreen the whole time. The camera should have been in night-vision coming out of the tunnel, and then a long gap while he figured out how to turn it off. And the camera should have run out of batteries or tape NOT at a narratively satisfying conclusion, but randomly in the middle of someone talking. Maybe it could have run out of tape before the Nokia ad electronics store looting scene and they could have looted some MiniDV cassettes (off-camera, of course), which would explain how their 90 minute tape lasted for 8 hours. I really felt like the filmmakers needed to either fully commit to their premise or abandon it altogether.

I also felt like it could have been much more Godzilla-like. The original Godzilla was a commentary on the national mindset of Japan after the atomic bombs hit. This could have done the same for 9/11, if they'd put a little more thought into it, but it didn't go there. Which was disappointing to me, because they did use a lot of 9/11 imagery in the opening few scenes. I didn't find it exploitive, necessarily, but I would have liked much more follow-through.

I'm glad I saw it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It's not a fun disaster movie at all. It's more interesting than it is successful.

I really felt like the filmmakers needed to either fully commit to their premise or abandon it altogether.

This is an interesting point. I think they should have abandoned it. I think the story felt WAY too claustrophobic told from this narrow perspective. I needed more information and other characters. I also felt strange because as I understand what happened after Sept 11th, strangers talked to strangers and helped each other out of Manhattan. There wasn't nearly as much of that as I would have liked to see.

I love the Subway-nitpicking. I still haven't seen Cloverfield, though I'm sure I will.

Cloverfield's projected at $41m opening weekend domestically, with the rest of the run + international + DVD to come. Interestingly, it dropped 20% from Friday to Saturday, which is pretty rare - normally Saturday is much more busy with movies. This indicates that whilst the new media & word of mouth marketing campaign bought the audience in, word of mouth deflated the box office after it opened.

I don't think I jumped once when watching the movie.

There were a few jump-scares for me, but I agree that as a whole, it wasn't super scary, per se.

Also, I agree with some of Jessica's nitpicks about the found footage. I kept waiting for the camera to run out of batteries as well as a random long gap.

I watched Killer of Sheep last night, along with three shorts by Charles Burnett. The full-length movie is just astonishing, a mostly plotless (although not entirely) view of working class African-American culture in the US in the early 70s. It's been compared quite a bit to the Italian neorealistic movies of the 40s and 50s, but I thought it was quite a bit warmer and funnier than, say, Bicycle Thieves. Closer in spirit to Renoir and Vigo. I think it was an influence on David Simon and The Wire, too. Anyway, although it was sorta released in 1977, it didn't have a major theatrical release until last year, and it ended up topping a bunch of critics' best-of lists, for good cause. Highly recommended.

The shorts were good, too. Several Friends played like a dry run for Killer of Sheep. The Horse was so damn good that I thought it had to be based on a Faulkner short story I'd never read. It wasn't, but it was good enough to be. When It Rains is so easygoing and pleasant that it's no wonder Jonathan Rosenbaum called it one of the greatest short films of all time.

I mention all of these because TCM is showing all four, plus the full-length My Brother's Wedding (which I haven't seen yet) tomorrow in the afternoon and overnight. It's incredibly moving cinema, beautifully shot and featuring scenes that you will most likely carry with you through your entire life, and even more amazing for how long it has taken to find an audience.

Cloverfield set some records:

[link]

We're only three-quarters of the way through the four-day Martin Luther King holiday frame, but already the mystery-shrouded monster movie Cloverfield has emerged as the clear-cut winner — and it has broken some pretty big records along the way.

With an estimated $41 million gross so far, the J.J. Abrams-produced film is now the top MLK weekend opener ever (the previous champ, Along Came Polly, yukked up $32.5 mil — in four days).

Good tip, Cor. I've already got my TiVo set but now I'm really excited to see these.