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Friday, January 18, 2008 12:00 AM

"Cloverfield"

Do we really need the horror of 9/11 to be repackaged and presented to us as an amusement-park ride?

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  • Friday, January 18, 2008 12:45 PM

    LX Guy

    "On a side note, I wish everyone wasn't so busy clawing for their own sanctimonious high groung over 9/11, and crying about how *their* suffering is so significant. I wish my fellow Americans would show just a little bit of backbone."

    It seems like there's always a need to find sanctimony or hypocrisy or weakness or foolishness in anyone who expresses a reaction that might - gasp! - reflect that a person is a thinking, feeling human being rather than just a mindless consumer of pop culture. It's a waste of time even to express any opinion on these message boards that isn't flippant or dismissive, because if, heaven forbid, one should share one's honest reaction, one is immediately accused of all sorts of base motives or flaws of character. This isn't about searching for sanctimonious high ground or crying about the significance of one's own suffering. I'm actually amused that some people find it so distasteful that some people might find "Cloverfield," uh, distasteful. "Oh, come on, it's like a Godzilla film - who doesn't like Godzilla?" (Well, I haven't liked Godzilla since I was about eight years old, but that's another matter. It's also interesting that people are saying that (1) "Cloverfield" is not about 9/11 on one hand, and (2) on the other that it should be OK that "Cloverfield" is about 9/11 because after all "Godzilla" was really about Hiroshima and Nagaski and everyone loves Godzilla right?)

    "If they had just a little spine, the Bush-Cheneys of the world would have a harder time wiping their asses with the constitution."

    Oh, this is such a stretch. This is practically a non-sequitor. What does liking or not liking the premise of "Cloverfield" have to do with having or not having political backbone? Last time I checked, the citizens of New York City voted overwhelmingly against Bush/Cheney in both 2000 and 2004. The fact that some of us might find "Cloverfield" in very bad taste has nothing to do with the success of the Bush/Cheney agenda. Is liking a stupid monster movie really the definition of courage in our pop cultural landscape?

    Fight the power! Watch "Cloverfield!"

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