Cloverfield

I know I'm late again. But I happen to know that I have a couple readers who live in places where it's not quite Saturday yet. Therefore, on the west coast, it's still Friday, so I think I'm still in the clear.

Tonight I went with the Greene grown-ups to see the enigmatic Cloverfield. Of course, since it is rated PG-13, the theater was packed with teenagers. In fact, Nicole pointed out that the place had the distinct smell of teenagers. That awkward smell at that awkward stage in life where they haven't quite figured out how to really take care of body odor, they just attempt to douse the smell with gallons of cologne and perfume. Yeah, it smelled a little like high school.

The movie itself was interesting. Before we went in, we were made aware of the length of the film being only 1 hour and 24 minutes. That seems kind of short. About 10 minutes into it I realized why it was so short. Because if it was much longer you would have tons of people dealing with motion sickness. Remember The Blair Witch Project? Remember how shaky it was when they would run through the woods? That's kinda what this was like, except replace the trees with skyscrapers.

So what would you do if you were at some guy's going away party, and the city was suddenly attacked by some ridiculously huge monster? Would you freak out? Try to get away as soon and as quickly as possible? That would do it for me. Would you continue video taping everything you do to try to survive? I'd drop the stupid camera and get the heck outta dodge.

Throughout the movie, I couldn't help laughing at certain things. And I felt like I was the only one laughing. It's not a comedy, so I probably shouldn't have been laughing. But Hud, the character who was also the cameraman, kept falling down. I guess falling is easy to do when you're trying to run and film at the same time.

The whole thing was still pretty mysterious, even after seeing it. I mean, things are clearer now than they were at the end of the initial teaser trailer. Statue of Liberty head crashing in the street kind of grabs your attention. But after seeing the whole thing, one is still left wondering where the creature(s) came from. Honestly, the plot is interchangeable. It could've been a monster, it could've been a terrorist attack. The point of the picture wasn't what was attacking the city. It was about these people trying their best to make it through the night.

All in all, not a bad time. I had a good day.