Cloverfield (15) **** - Michael Stahl-David, Lily Ford, TJ Miller, Lizzy Caplan and Mike Vogel.
THIS eagerly-anticipated movie from Lost producer JJ Abrams and director Matt Reeves sees a big mysterious monster attacking New York.
Hugely successful in the US, Cloverfield, for once it lives up to all the hype and is a genuinely excellent and gripping sci-fi thriller.
The simple trick of Cloverfield borrows from the Blair Witch Project gimmick of shooting the action through a single camcorder carried by one of the characters.
But this is as fresh and original as the Blair Witch was.
It's something like Godzilla meets the new media age and the action moves relentlessly at a 1,000mph.
The beast causes mayhem to the Big Apple, even having the temerity of decapitating that famous cinematic icon, the Statue of Liberty.
Those looking for a more subtle meaning to the movie might draw comparisons between the carnage unleashed by the beast and al-Qaeda's 9/11 attack.
Aside from the allegorical nuances, Cloverfield is a fine movie, subtly and intelligently done, as well as being a technical triumph.
And it plunges you into a nightmarish world and keeps you there in what is a genuinely frightening film.
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