You know those big monster movies where Godzilla or Kong is rampaging around destroying everything? Did you ever wonder what it was like for the average citizen that was caught in the middle of a mess like that? Cloverfield asks just that question.

The idea of Cloverfield is a guy is given a video camera and is asked to film a going away party for his friend. He's busy filming when something earth shaking happens. Then he carries the camera with him for the rest of the movie. He documents what happens to him from ground level as he and his friends run away and sometimes toward very dangerous things.

This is a really effective movie. By placing the whole movie from the view point of mostly one character it creates an almost real feeling to the events in the movie. Sometimes there are jarring camera moves while things are destroyed. Dizzying pans while characters run from one event to another. There are even pops of an old recording being taped over by the camera guy.