April 8th in Chicago. This film had been out for about a month and my wife and I decided it seemed like to good choice to check out a new cineplex (the kind that serves booze and lets you order food & booze from your seat) downtown. The picture had a budget of $15 million and got it all back with a $24.7 million opening weekend. The film, had gotten some good buzz and an 89% Rotten Tomatoes rating, so it was worth a look.
There's a lot to like about this film. First time director, Dan Trachtenberg does a very nice job of creating a claustrophobic thriller. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Michelle. Michelle lives in New Orleans and after an off screen argument with her boyfriend, moves out of their apartment and manages to get on isolated rural roads in about 5 minutes (why she didn't just jump on I-10 and head either East or West is beyond me). While on a deserted road she gets into a bad car accident. She wakes up with her wounds treated and chained to a wall (never a good situation). She is then met by Howard (John Goodman), who explains that he rescued her. Michelle is having none of that and she makes a feeble escape attempt. Howard tells her that they are in his bunker and that things have gone bad in the outside world. Michelle is skeptical to say the least but calms down for a but after meeting Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.). Emmett had known Howard and sort of confirms Howard's story. Still unconvinced, Michelle tries to escape by stealing Howard's keys but realizes Howard just might be right when she watches a woman die outside.
After that incident, the three settle down for an undetermined amount of time but Michelle feels a bit weird abut Howard. Things he's said about his past just don't really add up. Michelle recruits Emmett to help her make a DIY gas mask and containment suit. Eventually Howard gets the notion that something is fishy and confronts the pair. It's here where Howard's true colors are revealed. Things don't go well for Emmett and Michelle is able to escape the bunker as it burns up behind her. While on the surface things appear ok but after she takes off the mask, things go South quickly. Aliens are lurking about.
As I mentioned earlier this is a real good claustrophobic thriller, good enough that I didn't mind the Tom Cruise version of War of the Worlds mash-up at the end. The film started off as a straight thriller but got the sci-fi aspect when JJ Abrams came on as a producer. This is not a Cloverfield sequel. Personally, I think the film could have stood on its own as a thriller and didn't need a real or imagined connection to Cloverfield.
There are a few scenes where a character would just disappear. That didn't seem likely to me considering this was a bunker and I never got the feeling that the place was overly large. The other issue I had was when Michelle escapes she's travelling on Louisiana State Route 26 and has a choice to go in one direction to Houston and to Baton Rouge in another direction. Having run that corridor in my truck driving days I looked up the highway. It exists. It exists over 200 miles West of New Orleans, north of Lake Charles. Where the f*ck was she going when she left? Michelle doesn't have a thick Louisiana accent so I doubt she grew up in the Bayou and wasn't going home. She also probably wouldn't have survived her crash either.
This film is worth seeing. You can wait for it to come out in an alternative format instead of seeing it in the theater. Solid acting, good direction and it doesn't drag on.
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