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Tuesday 2 December 2008

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What a monster

Deborah Ross

Wednesday, 30th January 2008

Cloverfield
15, Nationwide

Cloverfield is tiresome, dumb and horrid, and just in case you didn’t get that I’ll say it again: this film is tiresome, dumb and horrid. Don’t go. Do anything but go. Don’t be swayed, as I was, by the fact that on its opening day in America it grossed $16 million, grossed a further $41 million on its opening weekend — making it the most successful January release of all time — and has since grossed $56 million worldwide. Don’t be swayed into thinking there must be something in it, because there isn’t. It’s a monster movie that not only fails as a monster movie — I’ve been more scared on the teacups at the fair — but also fails at having anything to say. It affects to have things to say about 9/11 and its immediate aftermath but doesn’t. In fact, the most terrifying thing about Cloverfield is that it imagines it does.

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