Cloverfield

Rating: 7/10 (13 November 2008)

If you're a misanthrope or a pedant (ideally both, obviously) then prepare to have a field day with this one.
A steadily decreasing number of impossibly pretty and wealthy New York twenty-somethings scramble around Manhatten island as it is briskly destroyed both by a gigantic, unseen creature of some kind, and the US military, who are trying to kill it. There's a very rough through-line involving a missing ex-girlfriend, but as far as story goes, thats your lot.
The film's premise and plot are all riddled with more holes than you'd find in a very productive tea-bag factory; the central conceit - that the entire movie is composed of home video footage shot by a civilian luddite - is visually and conceptually inconsistent; and if the story's decision to focus on a set of characters who are almost profoundly unlikeable is the injury, then a light smattering of utterly diabolical acting is the insult.
But you simply can't argue with populist film-making this effective. The shocks pull no punches and hit home every time, the aura of suspense and expectation is ferocious and beautifully maintained, the effects are outstanding, and at barely 70 minutes minus credits, it is as tight as a duck's sphincter.
Love it, hate it, relentlessly rip the pish out of it... just make sure you watch it.