The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of: Cloverfield

The Good:

1. Population Control. Manhattan is already overcrowded as it is. It was kind of nice to see a monster rampage around freeing up some space so us suburbanites can come in and have some elbow room.

2. Those little tiny monsters. I want one as a pet. I have many uses for him. Plus, I will love him and I will pet him and I will cuddle him and I will call him George.

3. The actors. They all did a decent job in fulfilling the sketch of their characters. I wasn't expecting much development in a 73 minute film and I got exactly what I wanted. Relatively blank people with just a touch or two of personality.

The Bad:

1. Real Estate. You think the prices to live in Manhattan were bad before. Try finding a place after half if it has been leveled.

2. Character Motivation. Yes, without the entire saving the friend angle (since the film did not imply to me they were a couple) there would have been no Cloverfield. Still, if that was me, I'd say to myself: "I'm in my early 20's, there'll be other friends." And I would have been in Brooklyn long before anyone else.

The Ugly:

1. The monster. Good job on it. Appropriately ugly looking.

2. The Camerawork. This didn't affect me at all; I saw The Blair Witch Project and wasn't affected by that, so I knew going in I wasn't going to be bothered by shaky-cam. However, I do know quite a few people that will have trouble watching the film. It is what it is.

Overall: Enjoyable, fun monster flick. I'd recommend it more for a matinee as 74 minutes is really short to shell out $10 on.