NYC destroyed - again!

NYC sure is getting its ass kicked in the movies recently; first in I Am Legend and then again in Cloverfield which I saw yesterday morning - yes, read correctly, morning. OK, I know New Yorkers are considered heathens in many parts of the country, but give us a break already, why does Armagedden always begin in NYC? You’re giving us a complex. I was in NJ for final Oklahoma! auditions and Juan pushed us out of bed at 9:45 for a 10:30 AM showing. Crazy, I know. But strangely the theater had a handful of other early risers - perhaps drawn by the $6 admission price. I haven’t paid $6 for a movie since junior high school.

Although not particularly scary or suspenseful (from the outset it was clear that none of the characters was going to live) I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Maybe it was the $6 ticket price. But even after a post-movie discussion about all the inconsistencies and stupid decisions the characters made, we still gave it a thumbs up. The handheld camera technique did get a bit tiresome after a while. I mean, could you really run around bombed-out city streets at night during a Martian attack with a camera glued to your eye? I think not. People can barely negotiate walking and talking on their cell phones at the same time. As far as displays of plain stupidity - why didn’t the civilians pick up weapons when it was clear they would definitely need them? No one thought to check behind a deli counter for a handgun or a knife or even a friggin’ baseball bat. What about food? You’d think with any type of catastrophic event, you’d at least try to stuff your pants with Snickers or something. And if the director included one more scene with the lead character running through subway tunnels or jumping through debris in her spike-heeled, gold Jimmy Choo’s -- Well, I won’t even go there. Break those heals off sister, you’re being chased by man eating alien bugs!

Well, I guess I must have really just not cared, because I still would recommend it, if only for the shots of the giant monster trudging down 8th Avenue toward the Time Warner Center. Did I mention we also had hot dogs and popcorn at 10:30 in the morning? No wonder I liked the movie.