Cloverfield, or Field of Cow Pies

Rating: 1/10 (1 August 2010)

WTF was that? was what I asked myself as I struggled my way through this so-called film.
The title of the movie, Cloverfield, has absolutely nothing to do with the story in the movie, unless they decided to name the rarely-seen monster such a pretty name.
The story is done as a series of videos shot on a single tape over the course of a night. However, we see scenes of happier times as the main characters are getting ready for a party, messing around the park and town, and generally having fun. Then all hell breaks loose when some thing decides to destroy New York in the Godzilla fashion. Throughout the movie these people run around taping everything with a single hand-held camera. The story covers the early evening, all night long, and the following morning. (Please tell me what camera can film all that time without once having to recharge it's two or four-hour battery.) As the story progresses, in true four-character horror film fashion, they discover that one of their dear friends is missing on the other side of town, opposite of the evil mean and nasty CGI monster. So, with camera in hand causing nausea to the viewer, they run all over town, through the subways, and into the military who, in true horror-film fashion, wants to kill everything in their path, including the meek and bewildered characters.
They finally find their friend impaled through her chest on a long piece metal rob and, gently pulling her off, they ALL run away from the now collapsing building toward safety. And the camera still runs.
The ending is something of a downer and one by one the people all meet their demise. Nothing is ever said as to why the monster appeared or what anyone was doing about it, save lobbing rockets and missiles at it. (Here's a tip: Kill the guy who created the damn thing on his laptop!) As far as the stars, no big names were in this picture. And the one who should receive the most recognition is the hand-held camera that filmed everything all night long, without having to change tapes or sitting through a recharge.
Not worth watching unless you are a film student in need of what not to do, or you just like bad movies. This one should be ranked down there with the movies "Absolute Zero" (2005 - TV) (which is so dumb it's insulting), or "Plan 9 from Outer Space" (1959) (which is so dumb it's funny).