"Cloverfield" (SD DVD)

Synopsis

At a surprise birthday party in New York City, one of the party-goers is videotaping the event when there is a huge explosion at the other end of town.

They take the camera outside and begin taping the firestorm that begins.

Then, there is panic when they all realize that this is something much more deadly than just a fire, and they see military vehicles going down the streets shooting at something very big . . . something moving.

The entire city is in chaos, and the birthday well wishers are now just trying to stay alive, all the while with the video camera running and documenting the various things going on, including the head of the Statue of Liberty bouncing down the street.

As the camera runs out of tape, the group runs out of luck, and they find themselves face to face with the monster that has been terrorizing the city all night long. And this is just a baby!

Commentary

Well, the film has an Indie look to it, but this one had a huge budget and lots of expensive promotion. It is entertaining at first, because it is so different than previous monster-terrorizing-the-city movies, and then it starts to get a bit boring, but the story comes to a climax just in time (it's a very short film). Actually, the extras are more entertaining than the movie.

Technical

The whole movie is supposedly one long video, and it appears to have been shot with Panavision's new digital video cameras. At 24p no doubt, because it has a film-look to it.

Extras

These include deleted scenes, alternative endings, outtakes, and other things.