BEFORE: I was waiting for a long time for this one to pop up on premium cable, and then it just never did. Once again I point out how that process is a complete mystery to me - I never know when films will air on HBO/Showtime, and then some don't, which means I should have watched them on PPV, but of course by then it's too late. In this case the film aired on the Fox Movie Channel, which used to be commercial-free but no longer is. I'm bending the rules to allow this in. I could have waited until October since this counts as a monster movie, but my linking rules put it here. T.J. Miller carries over from "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World".
THE PLOT: Revolves around a monster attack in New York as told from the point of view of a small group of people.
AFTER: There's a nice tie-in with last night's film, which is a sort of similar theme - trying to get across a town or state to see a loved one, while destruction is raining down, or imminently so. So that was a nice justification for watching this film now instead of at Halloween time.
But gad, it's like that "Blair Witch Project" all over again. That film which featured supposedly "found footage" spawned a whole bunch of imitators, mostly of the paranormal/ghost activity variety, but here's one in the monster-movie genre.
I get it, somebody watches a film like "Godzilla" or "King Kong" and there's a camera everywhere, every shot of the monster is framed perfectly, cut to a close-up, and if you're aware of all that going on, then it could take you out of the moment and remind you that you're watching a film, so nothing is real.
But the alternative to that is to turn someone loose with a hand-held camera and no Steadicam - I call the result "Shakicam", and it usually gives me a headache. The intended result is to look more "real", more cinema verité, but all I could think was, somebody spent a lot of money to make it look like they didn't spend any money. It probably took a ton of professionals to make this "amateur" footage. And thinking that took ME out of the moment.
In addition to all the shaking around and frantic filming while running away, there's an occasional cut to what USED to be on the tape that's being recorded on - this lets us know it's more "real", plus it's quite ironic to see the young lovers during happier times, before they were being chased by monsters or whatever. Even more obnoxious is the dialogue, which seemed to be mostly people screaming, "Did you SEE that?" and "What is going on?" Hey, characters, if you don't know, I don't know.
The result is like listening to the aimless conversations of twenty-somethings in a diner or something, when they go around and around and never really say anything substantial. I know I sometimes have a hard time controlling my "fist of death" when I'm forced to endure this.
Still, I may recommend this to my wife, not because it's a great film, but because she enjoyed that "Blair Witch" deal, and if she watches this, she'll get to see a bunch of hipsters getting crushed. And on top of that, their big party gets spoiled. Sorry, trust-fund kids, Daddy's gonna have to find you a new apartment!
Also starring Lizzy Caplan (last seen in "Hot Tub Time Machine"), Michael Stahl-David, Jessica Lucas, Odette Annable, Mike Vogel.
RATING: 4 out of 10 cell phone batteries
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