4K-UHD/Movie Review: Cloverfield

 

Cloverfield is a 2008 horror film produced and conceived by J.J. Abrams (it was one of the first movies produced by his production company, Bad Robot), written by Drew Goddard, and directed by Matt Reeves. It starred Michael Stahl-David, Odette Yustman (now Anabelle), Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Lizzy Caplan, and Mike Vogel. It is a monster movie, heavily influenced by the old Godzilla movies, that involves a creature that destroys New York on the night of a going-away party for Stahl-David's character, Rob Hawkins. The premise of the movie is that footage from a personal camcorder is recovered in what is left of Central Park. The tape begins with footage of Rob and his girlfriend Beth (played by Yustman) spending a day together, and is intercut with footage of the day of the party, the events of the party, and the creature's destruction of the city. T.J. Miller's character, Hud, is tasked with recording the party and encouraging the partygoers to film farewell messages for Rob. The events of the film are mostly shown from the point of view of what Hud is filming and narrating. 

The 4K set is a two-disc set, containing a UHD disc and a standard Blu-ray disc. It also has a code to redeem a digital version of the film. There are a couple of different 4K releases, including a steelbook edition, each of which has the same content. The UHD disc only includes the film, while the regular Blu-ray disc contains the film and all the bonus content. The extras include a director's commentary track by Matt Reeves, a gag reel, a making-of documentary, featurettes on the visual effects and creating the creature, a few deleted scenes, and a couple of alternate endings. The film can also be played in an investigation mode, where facts about the characters and the events in the movie are displayed while the movie plays. Reeve's commentary had a lot of interesting information about the production process. 

The movie is good, but different. It was a low-budget film that was intentionally made to appear like a home movie, so the camera shakes a lot and does not always capture everything that is happening. The best way I can describe it is a cross between Godzilla and The Blair Witch Project. While the A/V quality is excellent and it looks wonderful in UHD, it has a distinctly different look and feel compared to major blockbuster movies. The film is very short (under an hour and a half, with the credits), which was almost necessary given the way the movie was filmed. It is well-written and acted, and the cast, despite being filled with young, relatively unknown actors, does a great job in their respective roles. It is much more suspenseful than it is gory, and for most of the film, the creature is shown only very fleetingly. That said, there is some violent content and a lot of swearing, so it is not suitable for young kids. If you're a fan of the horror genre, especially monster movies, this is worth watching. If you have a physical media collection, it's also worth adding to it. 

DVD/TV Series Review: The Astronaut Wives Club

 

The Astronaut Wives Club is a 10-episode miniseries that tells the story of the early days of the United States space program, mainly through the eyes/experiences of the wives of the Mercury Seven astronauts. The Female leads include Yvonne Strahovski, Odette Annable, JoAnna Garcia, Dominique McElligott, Erin Cummings, Zoe Boyle, and Asure Parsons. The series also starred Aaron McCusker, Joel Johnstone, Wilson Bethel, Bret Harrison, Desmond Harrington, and Luke Kirby. The story spans from the beginning of the space program in the 1950s through to the Apollo missions in the 1960s, with the last major mission dramatized in the show being the Apollo 13 mission. It also detailed major events that occurred during that time period including the Cuban Missile Crisis, both Kennedy Assassinations, and the Civil Rights movement. Much of the focus of the show was on the need for the wives to keep up appearances of having perfect lives, all while dealing with the stress of their husbands blasting off into space and having numerous affairs while they were on the ground.

For those who get the DVD set, it is a pretty standard MOD release. It does have English captions, but there are no extras or special features of any kind. Just the 10 episodes spread across two discs, with 5 episodes on each disc. Overall, the series is well-written and very well-acted. For anyone still around who was alive during that time period and old enough to remember what was going on in the space race, it provides a lot of background material for what really went on (although it does not try to be a straight-up documentary). But, even for those who were not born until the tail end of the space race in the 1970s or in the 1980s but are still interested in the topic, even though we did not live through it, it is still a very enjoyable series. Definitely worth checking out.