Apologies to Aaron and quick notes, including Cloverfield

To start:

1) Aaron, my sincere apologies. I guess I'm going to have to pay more attention to the signatures at the bottom of our reviews.

2) John, nice reviews yourself. I can see where you have your opinion on There Will Be Blood, but I disagree on one part, and that is your question of what makes Plainview, what forces created him. I think, at least from the other works of Upton Sinclair, that it's the other way around, that men like Plainview made the times, made capitalism into such a maddening force. Undoubtedly, there was some earlier string of events that brought Plainview to the place where we start the movie, but those aren't important as he can't be changed. But let's agree to disagree on this one.

3) Nice way to put it on "Cassandra's Dream." Seeing the trailer, that was the feeling I had without being able to phrase it properly. Glad to see my inkling was justified.

And finally, Cloverfield. I'm gonna make this one a quickie. I'm not going to name any of the actors because, with the exception of fans of The Class on CBS, you won't know any of them.

Rob lives in New York. He is moving to Tokyo. Before he does that, he sleeps with the girl he could never be with before, his friend Beth. But he's still moving and she has a boyfriend. Flash forward a month, and Rob's friends are holding him a going-away party. Rob and Beth have a fight and she goes home. Then, "It" arrives.

At this point, it is no longer a spoiler -- it is a Godzilla-like beast, without the cuddly exterior. But, rather than escape with the rest of the Manhattanites that have survived, Rob and his friends must cross the entire island to get to Beth, who might still be alive and trapped in her apartment -- on the 58th floor. The rest of the movie is about getting to her and trying to survive the big beast and the little beasts that apparently like the pilotfish on sharks -- they tag along for the ride and chomp on the little morsels that are around (like people). We tag along as one friend is videotaping the whole thing for posterity.

It's advertised as "From J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost and Alias." Well, he neither wrote nor directed it - all he did was put up the money. Which is fine --- as an aside, aside from those 2 shows, which I do adore, what has Abrams really done to justify his high standing? Lost was only partly his, and we're left with .. MI 3?

But I digress. I saw Cloverfield (which, the name is never explained other than it's the Army label for the video) with my girlfriend and her 13 yr-old daughter. The daughter liked it, which wasn't a surprise, and as did my girlfriend, though probably less than her daughter or me. The lines get a little cheesy, but there must be some suspension of disbelief in a flick like this. The monster looks pretty cool, though without the personality of Godzilla or the Jurassic Park baddies.
Now, here's the trick. I would normally say, it can be a rental, but, like most monster flicks, you need the big screen to really pull it off. So, maybe wait for a second run theater or a matinee on a day you're bored. It's fun, it's mindless brain candy, I liked it, but it's not one for the ages.