Guy de Fraumeni's Hollywood In The Hamptons

Cloverfield

When have I ever thought to check on who my janitorial service was? When you consider that the huge swirling, crashing mass of annihilation is basically a very nasty remake of the destruction triggered by 9/11 horrors, that's what we have here with Cloverfield. The bizarre part is that the men who make up the reptilian crews seem to be rejects from Pirates of the Caribbean cast calls. Moreover, the human, mechanical capabilities of the ingenious machinations turn me inside out by the novelty of its sexually outrageous, highly explicit body parts best left un-pictured. However, it does give a radically new aspect to the hand-held camera technique. It has to be given the absolute top award for the world's shakiest movie recorded! Don't even think of comparing any of the Bourne Incident's footage, which is a rock solid base in comparison.

Cloverfield is purported to be the official government designation for the gigantic mess of metallic clunking, wrought to shake Manhattan from its foundation. Unfortunately it also wrecks elaborate party plans to celebrate a trip to Japan. The unearthed CGI-taped action is given in uneven dumps. It revels in its lack of focus - even on subject. When it becomes apparent we are covering the end of the world the natural reaction is so what, dude? When did you operate a video camera last? 1978? This might look dated. But The Blair Witch Project, came from nowhere with not much more than the title and a lot of anticipation, packaged with a preconditioned mindset. It was almost as if the audience had been hypnotized. Sitting through recorded images is as normal as sleeping through boring images and hardly knowing the difference. Stimulating experiences suffer the same terrible fates. Have we seen all this before? Or, are we the rerun?

Cloverfield is a subversive piece of entertainment that convinces the "I do believe" in us that the world will come to an end, with more ambitious bits of "shtick" than a gallon size jar of polish sausage. The surprise arises one calm May night, "It," "she," "he" or whatever builds up scores of destructive "big bangs." They slam, sway and smash with great care to destroy the most identifiable landmarks. Joining them in the destruction are those tentacle, little monsters. Even the U.S. military arrives wet and surging. The clever "gimmick" entertainment relief is supplied by "nobody" New Yorkers described at the outset - these are the attractive, colorless people who call each other "dude" and don't have a sensible thing to say. The inability to deal is heartreching and thoroughly banal

The manner of the demise of the local boys and girls is done with a lot of style owed to the smart Blair Witch Project idea of showing it in an amateur's viewfinder. Again, the wide screen disaster toll toted up through the rinky-dinky camera's viewfinder. I'm not a fan boy of the rabid Godzilla rubber-suited monsters. Remember in 1954, those Japanese panic button horrors really triggered fear - it was, after all, in the wake of the Atomic Bomb and its worse fears. I won't belittle the 1950's latex suits, Cloverfield's $25 million monsters looks awfully good. Then, there are the boring little "dudes." Somehow, there are always enough of them to eliminate so readily.

Guy-Jean de Fraumeni is the producer, writer, and director of award-winning European and American Feature films. He has been a judge at major Film and TV award competitions, including the Oscars, The Emmy's and various film festivals. Sarah Halsey assists him.

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