Online Film Critics Society
Home     About OFCS     Member Profiles     Schedule     Forum     Awards     OFCS Blog
    O.F.C.S. Members: Sign In    

O.F.C.S. Members

Movie Overview
Cast
• Michael Stahl-David
• Mike Vogel
• Odette Yustman
Director
• Matt Reeves
MPAA Rating
PG-13 - for violence, terror and disturbing images.
Cloverfield (2008)

REVIEWS
NEWS
INTERVIEWS OTHER
OFCS Rating: 77% Fresh
Page  
  > Next

"With luck, movie fans will welcome 'Cloverfield' with open arms as one of the freakiest cinematic rides in quite a while."  ReelTalk Movie Reviews  A. J. Hakari

"once the film has fully run its course there is little left to take away with you beyond rattled nerves, a mild sense of nausea, and the uneasy suspicion that the true horror of 9/11 has just been reduced to a dumb-assed entertainment."  musicOMH.com  Anton Bitel

B+
"It's an event movie in January, and when was the last time we had one of those? Experience it on the big screen with an enthusiastic crowd."  FromTheBalcony  Bill Clark

4.5/5
"Cloverfield is the first great film of 2008."  PopMatters  Bill Gibron

D+
"Basically a 70-minute YouTube video, Cloverfield has all the head-rattling jolt and dramatic verisimilitude of a prank phone call."  DVDTalk.com  Brian Orndorf

"For all its popularity, self-documentation's purpose and meaning remain elusive."  PopMatters  Cynthia Fuchs

5/5
"Raises the bar for monster movies to Statue of Liberty heights."  eFilmCritic.com  David Cornelius

B+
"Blair Witch meets Godzilla in this hugely enjoyable shake-fest."  EDGE Boston  David Foucher

2.5/4
"...a sporadically effective yet undeniably uneven piece of work that clearly would've benefited from a little less excitement surrounding its release..."  Reel Film Reviews  David Nusair

D
"Despite being only 84 minutes, it seemed overlong and padded."  Ozus' World Movie Reviews  Dennis Schwartz

4/4
"Alarming and nothing short of terrifying. Cloverfield is the year's first unadulterated masterpiece. There has never been anything quite like it."  DustinPutman.com  Dustin Putman

A-
"Better than any American monster movie in years."  EricDSnider.com  Eric D. Snider

B-
"It's a hell of a visceral experience -- but it's a purely visceral experience, apparently to the point of causing some viewers to vomit. Unless you're one of those unfortunate few, you'll soon forget the details."  Film Blather  Eugene Novikov

4/4
"Simply put, I haven't had so much fun in the movies in years..."  Cinema Crazed  Felix Vasquez Jr.

"Grabby 9/11 imagery, facile jolts, and smeared textures"  CinePassion  Fernando F. Croce

D
"The only thing surprising about the picture turns out to be how unsurprising it is. Also--despite massive special effects--how boring."  One Guy's Opinion  Frank Swietek

70/100
"Armed to the teeth with an ingenious marketing campaign that sent internet geeks scrambling to their keyboards months ago, the ambitious Cloverfield is only moderately successful as a monster movie, but extremely provocative in many other ways."  Film and Felt  Gabe Leibowitz

A
"Cloverfield is about terrorism's human effects, not its spectacle."  Cinepinion  Henry Stewart

3/4
"This film takes you into the heart of the maelstrom and leaves you there."  ReelViews  James Berardinelli

"The viewer spends huge chunks of the movie battling motion sickness."  Sci-Fi Movie Page  James O'Ehley

8/10
"Click here to read review"  vj.net.ua  Jaroslav Vishtaljuk

7/10
"Un produit de haute qualité qui satisfaira au plus haut point le spectateur averti, et bien conscient de la forme du spectacle avec laquelle il s'apprête à entrer en contact"  Panorama  Jean-François Vandeuren

6/10
"As a product of our globally-aware disaster-ridden times, Cloverfield touches upon interesting themes ... But it doesn't do much more than just glaze over [them]."  ReelTalk Movie Reviews  Jeffrey Chen

38/100
"Ultimately a feature-length tease, the movie remarkably insubstantial and uninvolving for something that tries so desperately to live in the moment."  MovieMartyr.com  Jeremy Heilman

3/4
"By giving Godzilla the Blair Witch treatment, producer J.J. Abrams has created a monster movie for the YouTube generation, with impressive - if not entirely scary - results."  Big Picture Big Sound  Joe Lozito

6/10
"...an A for effort, a B for visuals, a C for content, and a C for photography, the latter, of course, being intentionally herky-jerky."  DVDTown.com  John J. Puccio

3.5/5
"Dinei mathimata (poy tha prepei n' arhisoyn na didaskontai) gia to pos na ftiakseis aera kopanisto gia 30 ekatommyria, kai na ton poyliseis shedon gia ta dipla sto proto sabbatokyriako."  Movies for the Masses  Joseph Proimakis

5/5
"Nothing feels choreographed or contrived %u2013 every shot of disaster is found footage or dumb luck, every glimpse of the threat is fleeting and often unsatisfying. This is, simply put, awesome. To make things better, the movie is intensely character-d"  Cinerina  Karina Montgomery

"Quoth the false prophet: "It's only a movie.""  UGO  Keith Uhlich

3.0/4.0
"If you're looking for a crowded popcorn film experience at the movies without any kind of intellectual or emotional investment, it's a wonderful ride."  MovieCrypt.com  Kevin A. Ranson

3/5
"If the monsters weren't in the scene, I kept wondering when they would show up so they could eat more people."  7M Pictures  Kevin Carr

B
"clearly a reflection of post 9/11 fears that boasts terrific effects...a convincing ride if not a terrifically ground-breaking one."  Reeling Reviews  Laura Clifford

2/4
"Despite the lengthy party sequence that introduces the cast, these people are less characters than easy-on-the-eyes conceits: Young, hip, essentially interchangeable and willfully stupid. What's worse, though, is that the film is all surface."  TV Guide's Movie Guide  Maitland McDonagh

3.5/4
"A time capsule of our current fears displaced onto our nightmares."  Mark Reviews Movies  Mark Dujsik

7/10
"A realistic depiction of what it would be like if a giant monster really did attack Manhattan. The photography is jarring, but not as jarring as the realism."  rec.arts.movies.reviews  Mark R. Leeper

"It's hard to imagine how anyone will top this. It's magnificent in its harsh reality. It is the monster movie remade for the 21st-century, post-9/11 world."  Flick Filosopher  MaryAnn Johanson

2.5/5
"Think Blair Witch meets Godzilla, and since that isn't the first or last time you'll read that comparison, think of a movie that results in something less profound."  Bronsonfive  Michael Ferraro

4.5/5
"One of the most exciting and frightening sci-fi/horror films of the last decade."  Goatdog's Movies  Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

5/5
"Cloverfield is an intense and engaging monster movie that may very well breathe life back into a dead genre while demonstrating that there's fertile soil left to be tilled in this particular cinematic field."  Mike Bracken's Horror Films  Mike Bracken

3/4
"Cloverfield is a real 21st century kind of movie; it's a horror film for the You Tube generation. It's also bleak and scary."  Aisle Seat  Mike McGranaghan

B+
"A clever premise keeps the audience literally off-balance."  Beliefnet  Nell Minow

2/4
"Reeves's film works hard to negate any noteworthy meaning from its mayhem."  Slant Magazine  Nick Schager

4/5
"Uma boa surpresa para aqueles que acreditam que o Cinema pode funcionar não apenas como diversão ou instrumento de reflexão, mas também como termômetro histórico de sua própria época."  Cinema em Cena  Pablo Villaca

3.5/5
"Abrams' intimate POV renders everything that much more harrowing (or "nauseating," depending on your shaky-cam tolerance and the general condition of your inner ear)."  Film Threat  Pete Vonder Haar

4/5
"Basically, it is a gimmick movie in which the premise is pretty much the entire show. That said, it is perhaps the most sensationally effective gimmick movie to come around since "The Blair Witch Project""  eFilmCritic.com  Peter Sobczynski

4/5
"Even if there's nothing new going on here, the style and quality of this film injects a terrific sense of terror into the old monster movie formula."  Shadows on the Wall  Rich Cline

4/5
"In the monster-attack scenes, the movie's style -- the apocalypse barely glimpsed -- is chilling: We're seeing essentially what we would see if we were there."  eFilmCritic.com  Rob Gonsalves

"I, for one, would be using the F-bomb far more gratuitously if faced with a possible encounter with a creature that could well swallow me whole."  Projection Booth  Rob Humanick

B
"When freed from unreasonable expectations, it turns out to be a modest little gas."  Flipside Movie Emporium  Rob Vaux

B
"As insipid as the characters are, you do tend to get caught up in their plight."  Laramie Movie Scope  Robert Roten
OFCS Rating: 77% Fresh
Page  
  > Next


Reviews database provided by Rotten Tomatoes and the Movie Review Query Engine

powered by ROTTEN TOMATOES
All articles and reviews on this website © the respective authors.
All other content © The Online Film Critics Society (0.15)