Written By : John Hawkins

This week-end, I caught the mega-monster movie, Cloverfield, at the theater — twice. Why did I watch the movie twice? Because Cloverfield was 1 part Blair Witch Project, 1 part Godzilla, and 3 parts AWESOME — and note, I didn’t say awesome, I said AWESOME, in all capital letters, which denotes exceptional awesomeness.

Apparently, my appreciation of the movie was far from unique because despite the fact that it didn’t have any big name stars in it and only cost 25 million to make, the film raked in over 41 million dollars in its opening week-end.

What’s it like?

Well, it starts out as a going away party for a friend that melts away in terror as a Godzilla sized creature starts rampaging through Manhattan. Throughout the movie, you see the action through the eyes of one of the partygoers who is taping the whole nightmare on digital video

The downside of that Blair Witch style first person filming perspective is occasionally jumpy camera work and not always knowing exactly what’s going on. You don’t get to play the part of the omnipotent viewer who gets to see the big picture, you’re stuck seeing things through the eyes of one of the characters, who know little more than what they see over the course of a few hours time.

On the other hand, this is an incredibly intense film. You have buildings collapsing, people running for their lives, massive firefights, danger around every corner and a sense that the characters could die at any moment. Combine that with likable, realistic, ordinary people wrenched from normalcy and thrown into a maelstrom of danger, confusion, and terror caused by a freaky looking, indestructible monster that dwarfs the Statue Of Liberty and you have the best movie I have seen since 300.

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