Cloverfield

The big thing this morning has been Cloverfield. Mark came in early and told me he’d been to see it, and told me all about it. Then Alan came in and told me how great he thought it was too. I wanted to know if you do get to see the monster, or is it all just implied, like the Blair Witch thing.
“Yes, you do see the monster.”
“What’s it look like then?”
“It’s green…like an alien thing”
“Is it like Godzilla? Or is it more of an insect looking creature?”
“It’s like the body of a lizard, but with a round kind of head.”
Later, when I talk to Alan about it, he tells me there are small parasitic dog-like creatures that live on it’s face. These jump off and bite people. If the dog creatures bite you, you become infected and explode.
“Great.” I tell him, “I love watching people explode.”
Karen pulls a funny face to show that she’s not keen on people exploding on screen. Apparently you only get to see one woman explode, and that is behind a screen. Also, at some stage, the creature has tentacles as well.
Mark and Alan both seem to like the fact that it is all supposed to be shot like it was filmed on a camcorder, just from one groups perspective. They particularly enjoyed the Statue of Liberty being de-capitated, and the head rolling along the street.
I go on to say that Manhattan, being an island, is susceptible to amphibious monster attacks. Karen gives me a funny look again. But there are a few other films where New York City is attacked and destroyed, like Godzilla. I’m surprised that they haven’t built any sea defences by now.

Mark2 and Dan are in late, they’ve both been to see Cloverfield over the weekend. Mark asks Dan what he thought of it.
Dan: “I didn’t enjoy it. The camerawork was too shaky. Made me ill.”
Mark2: “There was a warning at the start of the film.”
Dan: “Yeah, but I thought I could take it.”
Mark2: “…I thought the films you get off Nigel were shaky” (joking about his dodgy DVDs. In truth Nige doesn’t download the terrible “camcorder” versions that are just filmed by someone in the cinema, when you get people getting up to go to the toilet in front of you.)
Nige had his headphones in, so he either couldn’t hear, or he was pretending not to hear.