So, neither of the major timeses (NY, LA) cared for Cloverfield all that much. But we're stoked to spill our popcorn over it this weekend. Here's The Onion's review--which boasts an extensive and vitriolic commenting thread--and reminds us that it is, after all, a monster movie.
CLOVERFIELD
Directed by Matt Reeves. In wide release.
Cloverfield taps into the spirit of the age in other, more unsettling ways as well. Its horror is devastating and citywide. Baffled news anchors report it breathlessly, inspiring panic in characters who realize that the violence that only happens elsewhere has found its way home...It puts human faces on the victims of mass destruction, faces that might easily have been yours or mine, staring down the maw of something we don't understand.
Review by Keith Phipps, The Onion.