A riveting film ..... despite the poor writing and bad acting

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 2016)

I like films like 10 Cloverfield Lane with people cooped up in a barricaded location and tension building up between them. Despite the poor writing and the average performances, this was pretty good for a mainstream 21st century American film. It had me riveted till the end. There is some nonsense in it like the ridiculous creature and the way the heroine fights it with relative ease.
But my expectations for mainstream American sci-fi films are so low, I ended up enjoying this. There were a sufficient number of imaginative thrills (especially Winstead's crawl across the claustrophobic tunnel) and just the idea of three people surviving inside an underground bunker after a nuclear attack was very very interesting.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is not a great actress. But she is nice to look at. The makers accentuated her beautiful body by making her wear tight jeans. She was a sultry presence in the midst of the two men. John Goodman could have played this role in his sleep. I wonder whether him playing a paranoid character in The Big Lebowski had anything to do with his casting as a survivalist nut.
(6/10)