Movie Title: 10 Cloverfield Lane
Grade: A-
Rating: PG-13,
1 hour 45 minutes
In a Nutshell: J.J. Abrams puts a spine-tingling spin on
doomsday prepping. He is a master at
suspense and this psychological thriller has plenty of it. He loves to NOT show the audience things,
which adds even more to the achingly tense scenes and viewer anticipation.
Did you ever see his 2008 Cloverfield movie? (It made me dizzy with all its shaky cam effects.) This is sort of a sequel, but it’s not necessary at all to have seen that one to understand this one.
Did you ever see his 2008 Cloverfield movie? (It made me dizzy with all its shaky cam effects.) This is sort of a sequel, but it’s not necessary at all to have seen that one to understand this one.
Uplifting theme:
·
Which is scarier: the known monster or the
unknown one?
·
Be prepared.
Things I liked:
· Excellent performances by John Goodman (Howard),
Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Michelle), and John Gallagher Jr. (Emmett) Did you know that both Mary Elizabeth and
John got their start on Broadway?
·
The film really plays with you, so much so that
you never know exactly what the truth is until the end.
·
Foreboding music really gets you on edge….the
whole time.
·
I love the close-ups on small things that really
tell the story without words, such as when you see Michelle’s white knuckles on
the steering wheel to her chipped fingernail polish.
·
Fantastic car accident in the beginning. Very well done. It really got me.
·
You’ll get to see lots of emergency prep
products and think about what you might need if there really were some kind of
disaster. I noticed Emergency Essentials
buckets in the house, which is a company I have used for many years and can
highly recommend!
·
The Santa Clause card game scene was
outstanding. It was intense, funny, and
the moment where the movie really revs up and gets crazy.
·
The majority of the movie takes place inside a
very small space, which increases the dramatic tension immeasurably.
·
This is director Dan Trachtenberg’s first
movie. It looks like he has a bright
future.
Things I didn’t like:
- The
ending. Hmmm….could have been
stronger. Does that mean this will
be a trilogy? J.J. Abrams refers to anticipation as
his “mystery box.” He is excellent
at building expectation, but sometimes the end result is a bit
disappointing. I’m still mad at him
for the TV series Lost: Season 6 - Final Season
, but I think he did a a great job with Star Trek Into Darkness
. His next one comes out this summer!
- Like
the first Cloverfield
movie, you only get to see a tiny bit of the “thing”. You’ll be disappointed if you think you’re
going to see a bunch of monsters or aliens.
- John
Gallagher’s character doesn’t get as much attention as you might
want. There is a tiny back story,
but it feels rushed and we don’t get to know him very well. Of course, Michelle is the protagonist
in the story, so her experience is where the focus is.
- There’s
really only one line that shows any connection with this movie to the
first Cloverfield
and that is when Howard mentions he worked for a
satellite company. In the first
movie, it is a satellite that falls into the ocean that awakens a
monster/alien from underneath.
Funny lines:
- “There’s no place like home.” – Howard
- “Neither
one of us will be able to go up there to help you if you get stuck. Don’t get stuck.” – Howard
- “Come
on!” - Michelle
Tips for
parents:
- There
are some explosions, a shooting, and some gruesome images of dead people
that might frighten young children.
- Mary
Elizabeth Winstead is in her underwear during some scenes.
- 1
F-bomb.
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