Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #224 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-06-09
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 81 minutes

Amazon.co.uk

One of the first things a viewer notices about Cloverfield is that it doesn't play by ordinary storytelling rules, making this intriguing horror film as much a novelty as an event. Told from the vertiginous point-of-view of a camcorder-wielding group of friends, Cloverfield begins like a television soap opera about young Manhattanites coping with changes in their personal lives. Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is leaving New York to take an executive job at a company in Japan. At his goodbye party in a crowded loft, Rob's brother Jason (Mike Vogel) hands a camcorder to best friend Hud (T.J. Miller), who proceeds to tape the proceedings over old footage of Rob's ex-girlfriend, Beth (Odette Yustman)--images shot during happy times in their ex-relationship. Naturally, Beth shows up at the party with a new beau, bumming Rob out completely. Just before one's eyes glaze over from all this heartbreaking stuff (captured by Hud, who's something of a doofus, in laughably shaky camerawork), the unexpected happens: New York is suddenly under attack from a Godzilla-like monster stomping through midtown and destroying everything and everybody in sight. Rob and company hit the streets, but rather than run with other evacuees, they head toward the center of the storm so that Rob can rescue an injured Beth. There are casualties along the way, but the journey into fear is fascinating and immediate if emotionally remote--a consequence of seeing these proceedings through the singular, subjective perspective of a camcorder and of a story that intentionally leaves major questions unanswered: Who or what is this monster? Where did it come from? The lack of a backstory, and spare views of the marauding creature, are clever ways by producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves to keep an audience focused exclusively on what's on the screen. But it also makes Cloverfield curiously uninvolving. Ultimately, Cloverfield, with its spectacular effects brilliantly woven into a home-video look, is a celebration of infinite possibilities in this age of accessible, digital media. -Tom Keogh

Special Features

Customer Reviews

I thought it was brilliant but thats my opinion.
When i rented this i didnt know what to expect because there were so many mixed reviews about this film, but me and my friend really enjoyed it. The main complaint is how the camera works and i thougth that was great. The start off the film is good introduces you to the people what happening. The great thing about this film is that it doesn't give you any warning about where the monster is gonna come in, and it makes you jump when it does. The acting was very good, but who cares if there is no famous actors in the film they'd probably do a bad job at it anyway, and for once you don't get a cheesey ending which gets alot off points for me. You dont really see the monster alot but when you do it looks scary. I especially like the parts in the tunnel , where the spider things(whatever they are) cam out off nowhere. This film is very good and the fact it's like being recorded on a real camera just makes it more realistic. So overall a brilliant well made film, If you liked Blair Witch Project and wanna check this movie out then deffinetly give it ago, dont be put off by the slow start. Ignore the negative reviews, who usually give the same complaints about the movie, trust me there is alot worse movies out there and this movie rocks. 4.5 stars for me. Well done

A Bit Crap..
The Film industry has definateley gone down hill, without a question. This film was highly overrated, the so called "innovation" wasnt there. The main disapointment was I didnt care what happened to the characters, the film tried to build this crude audience/character relationship with the leads "girl troubles" which were so dull anyway, Meaning I didnt care about his quest. I give it a two because of the engima based around the monster, we didnt see it often which is highly realistic and kept you asking questions in an attempt to engage and sustain the audiences expectations.

It scares. It involves. It ends.
There are two ways to watch Cloverfield:-

The first is to be dismissive of such an improbable thing happening so improbably to such unimportant people.

The second is to accept a gimmick when you see one and then enjoy how well it's been executed.

I chanced my arm with the second approach and it paid some healthy dividends. Cloverfield is a wonderfully tense affair (the initial attack on the party which ends with the entrance of 'the head' is quite breathtaking) framed in a stunningly clever but simple idea.

Influenced almost entirely by Jules and Gedeon Naudet's film of 9/11 (when their innocent documentary on New York firefighting accidentally became the definitive, live-footage documentary of the twin tower's tragedy), the narrative of Cloverfield also borrows from the real New York tragedy in which horrific things unexpectedly happen to people we don't know yet are somehow sympathetically drawn to.

Like all fine suspense films, the editing is the key and Cloverfield excells in that department. That, and a fevered imagination for unknown/unseen fears, mark this horror-thriller as an exceptional piece of cinema. It's rarer than you might think - a film that achieves exactly what it sets out to.