~~REVIEW~~

Cloverfield
***1/2

Starring: Michael Stahl-David (The Black Donnellys), Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls) and Mike Vogel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

A video camera is retrieved from case designate "Cloverfield", incident site U.S. 447: area formerly known as "Central Park"

The evening begins with a party. Rob (Stahl-David) is going to Japan for a business promotion. His brother, Jason (Vogel) and his girlfriend, Lily (Jessica Lucas) throw Rob a going-away party. Beth (Yustman), Rob's ex-girlfriend, shows up to say one last goodbye but gets in in argument with Rob and storms out. The night continues. A shake. A rumble. An explosion. Fireballs streaming New York City. Chaos. A loud roar. The head of the Statue of Liberty is rolling around the city streets. Rob, along with some friends from the party, now including Hud (T.J. Miller) and Marlena (Caplan) try to escape together. Rob receives a phone call from Beth, crying, stuck in her apartment. Rob takes his friends into the middle of the city to find and save Beth, practically running toward the cause of the destruction, a giant creature that apparently rose from the water.

::WHAT I THINK::

So we're clear, Cloverfield was shot entirely with a hand-held, albeit, fantastically-pictured camera. Immediately, the film was shaky, literally. I felt that the film was portrayed in a way that if it were like a regular movie, it wouldn't be as good. Or as mysterious as the months leading up to the release date. The personal perspective really made the film. Canny and cliché at points, yet shocking and entertaining for most of it, Cloverfield delivered. It certainly is an all-new, original, 100% American monster horror.