Thoughts / Favorite Lines ... Dude

[RoninFox]

Some people keep bringing up the overuse of the Blair Witch structure.

Have I miissed a bunch of movies filmed from first-person prespectives using consumer-level cameras and presented as that tape?  Because I can only think of two.  And they're 8 years apart. So, that to me doesn't seem like an overuse of a film style.

I think one movie was overusing the concept personally.

[ScottotD]

Nah, it's a fun and still relevant concept.

[Bob]

I have seen the movie, but not the riff yet.

As far as the movie, I think it was a really good concept for an updated Godzilla movie.   Instead of just following hte monster and military around, show the effects the "out of the blue" monster attack has on an average people.    And the only real way to do that would be via people running around with a camcorder.   The fact that all the "who, what, why and where" questions were not answered made sense in the context of the movie.

Problems with the execution:

1.   The characters were all annoying narcists.
2.   HUD was beyond annoying
3.   I am sorry, but a few laser guided missles and bombs would have blown the monster to bits.
4.   The size of the monster seemed to change from scene to scene.   I am sure that it really did not, but is sure seemed that way to us.
5.   The characters sure had good cardio!    They could run all day, up 40 flights of stairs and not get really winded.
6.   The camcorder had unlimited battery life, nigh vision, search light........ Q from James Bond would be envious.

[Trekker4747]

3.   I am sorry, but a few laser guided missles and bombs would have blown the monster to bits.

*That* confidently familiar with non-exsistant unknown monsters, are we?

[Bob]

3.   I am sorry, but a few laser guided missles and bombs would have blown the monster to bits.

*That* confidently familiar with non-exsistant unknown monsters, are we?

It has to be some sort of flesh.   Missle make flesh all blow-uppy..... if not, I want my tax money back.

[GLaDOS]

3.   I am sorry, but a few laser guided missles and bombs would have blown the monster to bits.

*That* confidently familiar with non-exsistant unknown monsters, are we?

It has to be some sort of flesh.   Missle make flesh all blow-uppy..... if not, I want my tax money back.

I agree,  there is no level of suspension of disbelief that is remotely attainable that will ever make me believe a creature made of flesh
and blood cannot be blown up by cellulose encased laser guided bombs. After the monster got hit... and survived without a scratch I might
add, the movie got very silly to Monty Python-like proportions, just not funny.

[Douglin]

After the monster got hit... and survived without a scratch I might add....

Maybe there was more than one giant creature...and they actually did manage to kill a few of them...

[Bob]

After the monster got hit... and survived without a scratch I might add....

Maybe there was more than one giant creature...and they actually did manage to kill a few of them...

Or the monster was made of FLUBBER.   

I think that is the achilles heel of any modern monster movie....... modern weapons would just blow them to bits.

[Cosmic Muse]

"Oh thank god, 'Diddy is here!", the making fun of the noises the spider-things made, and the "dudebromanmovemovemoverunrunrungogogo" repititions were my favorites

Sounds to me like Reb Brown from Space Mutiny. Did they say those lines in a high pitched shriek of a voice?

As far as the movie, I think it was a really good concept for an updated Godzilla movie.   Instead of just following hte monster and military around, show the effects the "out of the blue" monster attack has on an average people.

I honestly think Godzilla: GMK did an awfully good job of this despite it not having as top knotch an effects budget as Cloverfield. Also Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris seamlessly incorporated surprise monster attacks on cities pretty well. It's not like Cloverfield was treading on virgin territory here.

[Gadfly]

It's the little things, like how the monster changes size in seemingly every shot, or how anyone managed to outrun those antlion things in high heels ...

What?  The antlion things were in high heels?  Well then no *wonder* the yuppies could outrun them! ;-)

Seriously, though, I'm with you on that one.  When they switched the camera (which appeared more magical than Gandolph's staff) to night vision and we got a look at them (the bugs, not the yuppies), I thought it was a cute "Holy S--t!" effect, but it should *also* have meant those kids were toast.  How four yuppies were able to fight them off (and I think only Marlena and Rob were doing any actual "fighting") and escape with only one person getting so much as bitten was just one of the less credible sequences.

... or that there's a glaringly ridiculous shot of the monster somehow stamping an armored vehicle filled with high explosives completely flat (as in Monty Python flat).

Actually, it reminded me of "Bambi Meets Godzilla" flat. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAVYYe87b9w from ~1969; not sure if it or Python's foot came first. )  In fact, I wonder if maybe BMG might have been going through the film maker's mind for that shot, since he was rather up-front about Godzilla's influence on him.  (He didn't say anything about it in the commentary when that specific moment came up; he was busy talking about something else.)

Gadfly

[dalem]

I saw it for the first time with the Trax.  I think the movie did what it wanted to do really well, i.e. chutney-eye view of a monster attack.  Problem for me was the aforementioned uselessosity of the characters.  The act of Scruffy Guy going to rescue his not-gf should have been powerful, instead I could not help but think that he was risking his uselessness to go rescue another bit of uselessness.  I need my heroes to be at least partially identifiable-with.

Not affected by missiles?  Eh, I would have bought that if they'd thrown in a technobabble line about "super-resistant epidermal whatsisthings"

The REAL problem is that I wanted more cowbell, and by cowbell I of course mean monster.  My one line review would have been "More smashy, less angsty, please".

-dale

[Pak-Man]

Godzilla can be shot by missiles and he keeps tickin'.

I put the Cloverfield monster in the same boat. At the heart you still have a giant superpowered monster trashing the city for possibly misunderstood reasons. Cloverfield managed to up the intensity a few notches (And did it well, I thought) but it's still a giant monster movie and there's no need to question the Cloverfield monster any more than we would Godzilla. :^)

[JackTheRIFFER]

Who would DARE question Godzilla??

[PlayMSTie]

Like some others here, I thought the concept of the film was good, but the execution was pretty tedious. Or maybe it's just not my kind of movie. In any case, while I can see what some people like about the movie, it didn't stir many emotions for me, so I enjoyed the riffing.

"That camera is harder to get rid of than the One Ring."

Disembaudio's little musical interlude at the end.

And the guys' spider imitations that made them sound like the love child of Jimmy Durante and Popeye.

[bettertomorrowamy]

(carriage goes by) Bill says, "Prince is in there, you just can't see him."

...oh and this movie is like a Gap commercial that got attacked by a monster.