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Stop reading now if you want the hush-hush details about "Cloverfield" to stay a secret!
 
Before leaving New York for a job in Japan, Rob's (Michael Stahl-David) having a great time at his going-away party until his good friend/crush/one-night stand Beth (Odette Yustman) shows up with another guy. Things get even worse when the entire city suddenly has to flee an enormous monster. The chaos is recorded first-hand on Rob's video camera by Rob's best bud, Hud (T.J. Miller), whose footage of the events periodically shifts to what was previously on the tape: Rob's video of his and Beth's best day together.
 
Big question: After months of Internet buzz and speculation about everything from the movie's title to its monster, can "Cloverfield," produced by J.J. Abrams ("Lost"), live up to the hype?
 
Catch it: The first great monster movie for the YouTube generation, "Cloverfield" captures New York, mid-destruction, with a startling, breathless urgency that legitimately deserves to be called a wild ride. Rob's frantic search for Beth results in a rougher and surprisingly compelling take on the usual hunt for loved ones in times of tragedy, with the film's as-it-happens terror infinitely more real than anything on reality TV.
 
Skip it: If you scoff at the everyday, not-always-intelligent conversation of America's 20-somethings, you'll groan at someone telling Rob that Hud is, "like, your main dude." Is anyone really expecting "Cloverfield" to sound like "Atonement"?
 
Bottom line: The camera's durability—and Hud's resolve to hold onto it—become a bit much, and for gross, scary beasts I prefer the monster in last year's otherwise inferior South Korean flick "The Host." (But make no mistake: the creature in "Cloverfield" is a huge, hideously ugly mutha with a vicious temper.) While the heart-stopping action in "Cloverfield" won't disappoint the blogosphere, what sticks with you is the juxtaposition of video footage celebrating a perfect day, full of potential, and the worst-case-scenario day that these lovebirds, and everyone else, never thought possible.
 
Bonus: Panicked New Yorkers can't resist taking camera-phone pictures of the Statue of Liberty's head after it soars off its body and into the street. Make it your goal for this weekend to take photos that are at least half as interesting!

mpais@tribune.com

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