Film Junk Podcast Episode #152: Cloverfield
0:00-02:10 – Intro
02:10-15:10 – Headlines
15:10-32:20 – Junk Mail
32:20-37:40 – Stuff We Watched This Week
37:40-39:00 – HMV Stories
39:00-1:06:20 – Review: Cloverfield
1:06:20-1:16:55 – Versus: J.J. Abrams vs Joss Whedon
1:16:55-1:25:35 – Top 5 Most Suspenseful Scenes
1:25:35-1:39:55 – Trailer Trash
1:39:55-1:41:40 – This Week’s DVD Releases
1:41:40-1:43:20 – Outro
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Comments (12)
guys you’ve gotta show us the picture that Reed Farrington sent to Prof. Cheel. Also the Bill Gates photo.
Posted by Rusty James on January 21st, 2008My top 5 most suspenseful scenes:
5. Arachnophobia – I realize that naming this film is sort of silly considering that it’s as much a comedy as it is a thriller, but spiders and I don’t get along very well. When Jeff Daniels is trapped in the dank basement of an old house that’s overflowing with spiders and the biggest one of all is on a mission to do him physical harm, I get quite antsy. Having seen this again recently I think the effects hold up rather well, so I still get pretty tense during the climax of the film.
4. The Fly – David Cronenberg’s film is rather eerie for the entire running time, but the entire movie is one huge build-up to the last ten minutes or so when something horrifying finally happens. John Getz (the would be hero) is crippled, Geena Davis is helpless, and the Brudle Fly is creeping around to some of the most intense music of any movie I’ve ever seen. The perfect cap to the scene and the movie in general is that we get no wind down. Cronenberg slaps the audience in the face with the first fast-paced action of the entire film and then ends it before you have a chance to accept what’s happened.
3. Rear Window – I’m not sure which scene is more suspenseful, so I’ll cheat and list two of them. The first is the one Greg mentioned when Grace Kelly is trapped in Raymond Burr’s apartment when he comes home and Jimmy Stewart desperately calls the police while the lights go out across the courtyard. The second is the climax of the film when Burr is closing in on the wheelchair-ridden Stewart who tries to stall his attackers approach by blinding him with flash bulbs. Brilliant.
2. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – The first time I ever saw this movie was last summer and though I’d heard a lot about it, I honestly had no idea what the outcome of the final showdown was going to be. Sergio Leone draws out the tension with close-ups of three sets of squinting eyes and hands hovering over holsters with intense music going on for a spine-tinglingly long amount of time before the three characters finally draw their weapons. I was almost literally on the edge of my seat.
1. Saving Private Ryan – During the final conflict of Saving Private Ryan, Adam Goldberg is out of ammunition and ends up in a fight with a German wielding a knife while that cowardly bastard Jeremy Davies hides in the stairway, too afraid to do anything to help. No matter how many times I watch that scene my heart races like mad because I want Goldberg to come out victorious even thought I know he won’t. The death of this nice, funny guy you’ve grown to like goes on seemingly forever while the German taunts him like an adult holding a cookie just out of a starving child’s reach. I fucking hate that scene.
Posted by Rian on January 21st, 2008As far as Cloverfield go, I can totally understand people being unhappy with the monster not being in it enough. Personally, I would be interested to see the film to see a monster, but I have no interest in a more shaky version of Pearl Harbor. I mean if it’s 95% love story/cracking jokes and 5% (say 3 or 4 money shots) of an actual monstrous being doing outlandish stuff, that does seem pretty ridiculous to watch. And that has nothing to do with it being a mystery or not, if you’ve got lame characters walking around, natrually you’re going to gravitate towards wanting more of the monster, because that would be the best part of the film. If the characters are amazing, you can get away with not showing the monster much, like Signs. But if they’re lame, you get the Pearl Harbor effect.
One question: Is it revealed what the title is in reference to? And is it important? If it is, don’t spoil it, but if it’s not – tell me!
Posted by Henrik on January 21st, 2008“I mean if it’s 95% love story/cracking jokes and 5% (say 3 or 4 money shots) of an actual monstrous being doing outlandish stuff, that does seem pretty ridiculous to watch.”
I made the mistake of reading a TMB article where John complained about something like this, and I shook my head in wonderment. Regardless of how much time you actually SEE the monster, its presence shadows everything that happens. Its not like “okay we’re safe, heres 10 minutes of nothing” – at least on first viewing, you have no idea when somethings going to happen. when they are in the subway, again, the shadow of the monster is always around, at a seconds notice its tense enough for a hand to spike through the earth or a cave in… when they’re in the building you have no idea if its going fo finally fall over from the monsters damage.
Posted by Goon on January 21st, 2008Well, I was expecting that for sure, it all just depends on wether or not you can be bothered with what happens to the characters. I didn’t mean that they were dancing lancier everytime the monster wasn’t shown.
Posted by Henrik on January 21st, 2008^that may be true for some people. I liked the guy who operates the camera. I don’t necessarily need to like the characters, I just have to empathize with them, and I did… without this camera technique I might not have.
Posted by Goon on January 21st, 2008Henrik: No they never really explain what Cloverfield is except that it seemed to be the code name for the military operation or something. There were a lot of viral marketing elements (like Slusho) that didn’t really have any bearing on the movie whatsoever.
And the love story is definitely a lot less than 95% of the movie. But since you didn’t like the guy making jokes at the end of Children of Men, you would hate Cloverfield!
Posted by Sean on January 21st, 2008“you would hate Cloverfield!”
I’m not sure what he’d think. it depends on how seriously you take it.
Posted by Goon on January 21st, 2008I don’t mind John McClane cracking jokes in Die Hard. THe problem with the CoM scene was that it betrayed what the movie had been doing up untill that point, in my opinion it sold out.
I am still not sure wether to see the film. I recently watched The Bourne Ultimatum and I got a headache, but this at least seems to be less shaking for the sake of shaking, and used in a more creative way, so I might risk my health for it. A big problem for me in TBU was stuff like over-the-shoulders just shaking like crazy for no apparent reason.
Posted by Henrik on January 21st, 2008i argue that in TBU its there even in over the shoulders stuff for the sake of consistency, and not an ‘excuse’ for the action scenes.
regardless…
I’d recommend maybe taking a seat a few rows back from where you normally would for Cloverfield, the bigger the screen, the more likely its going to have the vertigo effect.
Posted by Goon on January 21st, 2008http://www.members.shaw.ca/tach94/overture.mp3
ROAR overture.
Posted by Goon on January 21st, 2008Abrams.
Where’s the pic from the future Mrs. Cheel?
Greg, good call on the scene from Rear Window. That was the best pick from all three of you.
Posted by Andrew James on January 26th, 2008Leave a Reply