Title: Cloverfield
Street Date: April 22, 2008
Pricing: $29.99 U.S./$36.99 Canada
Runtime: 84 minutes
U.S. Rating: PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images
Canadian Rating: 14A for frightening scenes and violence
We Recommend: Buy it. Watching carnage never gets old.

I remember when I was a kid I wanted a video camera so badly. I just knew I could create a VHS masterpiece using my home VCR and my ingenuity and Steven Spielberg would come knocking on my door to hire the budding genius. I soon realised it took a lot fancier gear to make the Star Wars movies.

These days, however, it’s amazing what aspiring filmmakers can do with a digital camcorder and a Mac computer. A few years ago, some guys reinvigorated the horror genre by creating a cheap movie that made a gazillion bucks called The Blair Witch Project about some kids who got lost in the woods and only their video camera was ever recovered. The illusion that it might be real gave the filmmakers license to use a shaky handheld camera.

There’s no illusion that Cloverfield could actually be real. For one thing, there were those months of tantalising teasers where we had to anticipate what the giant city-clobbering monster looked like. For another thing, there is the giant city-clobbering monster.

The shocking, first-person video account of a horrifying attack on Manhattan must be eerily similar to the hundreds of first-hand video accounts of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Cloverfield has scenes of horrified New Yorkers running for their lives. If movies are therapeutic, they do so by disguising what we’re seeing so it isn’t so traumatic, the way Spielberg (my hero!) used his remake of War of the Worlds to make a statement about 9/11. When Oliver Stone was making a movie directly dealing with the 9/11 attacks called World Trade Center, I remember lots of people saying, “It’s too soon!!” Make it sci-fi and a full out 9/11-esque carnage can ensue.

I can just imagine the pitch meeting in a Hollywood office for Cloverfield: “It’s Godzilla meets Blair Witch Project meets Titanic meets 9/11!”

Titanic, you ask? Yes, there is a love story here, and you get a pretty good clue up front that it doesn’t end well for the lovers. I look forward to seeing more of the beautiful Odette Yustman in movies because she sadly has little screen time here. Michael Stahl-David is likeable as her love interest Rob. Lizzy turns in a solid performance as Marlena, who is believable as a party guest first annoyed, then shell-shocked as the infatuated, annoying cameraman stalks her.

There are some plausibility gaps in the Cloverfield story, like why the characters march into midtown Manhattan despite knowing full well that they need to get the hell out. It’s one thing to help a friend in need, but this is going to the extreme. Unlike the horror slasher movies that introduce us to a big cast of characters who we know full well are cattle for the slaughter, Cloverfield does manage to create relatable, likeable New Yorkers. I don’t know how realistic that is. Just kidding, New Yorkers. We love ya!

If I were the cameraman, I would have ditched the video camera about 20 minutes into taping the events portrayed, yet the camera keeps rolling (because frankly, there’s no movie without it). It was impressive, though, how the video is used as a storytelling device. For example, revealing the backstory on a romantic subplot by taping over previously recorded footage that occasionally cuts back on during gaps in capturing the destruction – more effective and less cheesy than common flashbacks in movies.

No one really wants to see lots of people die in mass destruction, but there’s something cool about watching a big Godzilla-like monster tear apart skyscrapers. Thanks to the big budget special effects, the mayhem looks awfully real here. On repeat viewings, I’ll probably skip past the long set-up at the beginning, but I’m sure to watch that creepy crawly do its worst to the Big Apple again and again.

The Cloverfield DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles.

The DVD includes the following special features:
- Commentary by director Matt Reeves

- The Making of Cloverfield

- Cloverfield Visual Effects

- I Saw It! It’s Alive! It’s Huge!

- Clover Fun

- Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary

- Alternate Endings with Optional Commentary

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**The “When Cloverfield Hit DVD Contest”**
In celebration of their release of the Cloverfield DVD on April 22nd, Paramount will launch a user-generated video contest to find out where YOU were when the Cloverfield Monster attacked. Users will submit video entries of up to five minutes, showing their fictional accounts of what was happening to them when the Cloverfield monster attacked. The entries will be judged by other users and will be narrowed down to the top 3 videos. Cloverfield Director Matt Reeves will choose the grand prize winner. The prize is $4,500 and a Paramount DVD pack. Users can enter the contest at www.WhenCloverfieldHit.com