Opening

87% Star Trek Into Darkness May 16
24% Erased May 17
91% Frances Ha May 17
44% The English Teacher May 17
42% Black Rock May 17
77% Pieta May 17
—— Populaire May 17
21% 33 Postcards May 17

Top Box Office

78% Iron Man 3 $72.5M
50% The Great Gatsby $50.1M
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37% Peeples $4.6M
77% 42 $4.6M
56% Oblivion $4.1M
69% The Croods $3.6M
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8% The Big Wedding $2.5M
60% Oz the Great and Powerful $1.1M

Coming Soon

—— The Hangover Part III May 23
77% Fast & Furious 6 May 24
—— Epic May 24
94% Before Midnight May 24

Cloverfield (2008)

tomatometer

77

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 196
Fresh: 150 | Rotten: 46

A sort of Blair Witch Project crossed with Godzilla, Cloverfield is economically paced, stylistically clever, and filled with scares.

74

Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 10

A sort of Blair Witch Project crossed with Godzilla, Cloverfield is economically paced, stylistically clever, and filled with scares.

audience

67

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 376,518

My Rating

Movie Info

Producer J.J. Abrams teams with writer Drew Goddard and director Matt Reeves for this frenetic tale of a powerful destructive force that descends upon New York City, and the four desperate people who put their lives on the line to embark on a perilous rescue mission. Rob Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David) is a young American professional who has recently been offered a coveted new job in Japan. Eager to send his older sibling off in style, Rob's younger brother, Jason (Mike Vogel), and his

Apr 22, 2008

$80.0M

Paramount - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (196) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (157) | Rotten (48) | DVD (19)

The mechanism is the message in Cloverfield, a movie so aluminum-sleek, ultra-portable, and itsy-bitsy sexy, it's amazing Steve Jobs didn't pull it out of an envelope at Macworld.

January 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Village Voice
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I had a lot of fun with this inside-out take on the monster movie.

January 22, 2008
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Under the modern flummery, behind the faux amateurism and the handheld shudder, Cloverfield is a vastly old-fashioned piece of work, creaking with hilarious contrivance.

January 22, 2008 Full Review Source: New Yorker | Comments (4)
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The fleeting, incomplete glimpses of the monster early on prove the old dictum of B-movie auteur Val Lewton that a momentary image can have greater impact than a prolonged one.

January 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Maybe we now live in a world where we record the moment first and feel it later. If that's the case, Cloverfield leaves us waiting to feel.

January 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Salon.com | Comments (4)
Salon.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Smartly reconjures the 1950s monster movie for the digital age.

January 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Imagine if somebody came up to you, grabbed your head, and jiggled it around for 80 minutes. Now imagine they did that while you were trying to watch a movie about a monster attacking New York City.

February 16, 2013 Full Review Source: Georgia Straight

So what is Cloverfield? The best Godzilla film never made? A re-invention of the monster movie genre? You could certainly argue both points: it feels like every creature feature you ever saw, but seen from a totally fresh point of view.

October 14, 2012 Full Review Source: TheShiznit.co.uk
TheShiznit.co.uk

Thanks primarily to its inventive shooting style, Cloverfield is a terrifically frightening film.

July 14, 2011 Full Review Source: Digital Spy
Digital Spy

Mind-blowingly great.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Movies.com
Movies.com

Cloverfield is a very good giant monster film, as good as we've had in America in quite a while and if a lot of its enjoyment rests on a gimmick, it's still a very good gimmick and the filmmakers make the most of it.

March 18, 2011 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net
ComingSoon.net

Paramount have given us a nice 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, 5.1 DD soundtrack and stacked this DVD with a number of extras.

November 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

Memorable neither for its special effects nor the gimmickry of the hand-held camera.

November 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

A stylish and satisfyingly intense update of one of Hollywood's most well-trodden film concepts: the attack of the 150-foot (give or take) monster.

September 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Times-Picayune
Times-Picayune

Grabby 9/11 imagery, facile jolts, and smeared textures

August 27, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comments (4)
CinePassion

Characters may struggle for interesting things to say on camera, but the film nonetheless reveals hidden depths.

August 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

For gasps and thrills and movie monster mayhem, the film is a success. It's not flawless, but if you shove that aside, I guarantee you that you will have a gas at the theater.

August 14, 2009 Full Review Source: UGO

I think when they started filming Cloverfield, somebody accidentally dropped the camera. Someone else said, "Cool." So they kept dropping the camera. And they threw it, and jerked it, and kicked it. And it went into terminal spasms.

February 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | Comments (29)
Fayetteville Free Weekly

Still too many unanswered questions for my tastes.

December 27, 2008 Full Review Source: 3BlackChicks Review
3BlackChicks Review

A clunky blend of hand-held camera and faux realism. How can the creator of shows like Alias and Lost make such weak movies?

September 30, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinema Sight
Cinema Sight

It's the closest a film has ever gotten to a roller-coaster ride. It will definitely nauseate, it feels claustrophobic, there are sudden scares, and it also peaks too early.

August 27, 2008 Full Review Source: The Scorecard Review
The Scorecard Review

If you like kick butt monster movies, then this one will deliver for you! Go see it right away!

August 22, 2008 Full Review
Sin Magazine

Audience Reviews for Cloverfield

A unique look at the monster movie genre. Many will not like the film approach but i enjoyed it.
June 6, 2008
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

A experince like you have never experienced before. Highly original film that was famous from it's marketing campaign that teased people nearly to death. Speculations around this film are still filling the forums in internet. The Best thing where filmmakers succeeded with this one was that even after the credits, you are still not sure what actually just happened or what hit the streets of New York. They perfectly captured the idea of less is actually more.
Cloverfield is a near masterpiece and the best "monster" - film ever made. It is a stroke of genius from the minds of director Matt Reeves, writer Drew Goddard and producer J.J. Abrams. They have understood that what we in the audience don't see is often much more scarier than any special effect creation.
Matt Reeves seem to perfect choice for director here. He makes everything seem extremely authentic and while at times it has problems with logic, it still manages to walk out as a scarily believable film. From all of the found footage films, Cloverfield is easily the most effective. It has brains, it has innovative style and most of all it is highly entertaining. This is a wild ride so you better fasten your seatbelts before you go and see it.
May 9, 2009
emilkakko

Super Reviewer

    1. Marlena: I don't feel so good...
    – Submitted by Kyle S (6 months ago)
    1. Hud: Rob, it's time to leave the electronic store.
    – Submitted by Brandon M (7 months ago)
    1. Marlena: It's eating people.
    – Submitted by Brandon M (7 months ago)
    1. Rob Hawkins: Look at me! Look at me! Look at me. I love you!
    2. Beth Mcintyre: I love you!
    – Submitted by Brandon M (7 months ago)
    1. Hud: Rob, what time do the choppers take off?
    2. Rob Hawkins: 0600.
    3. Hud: What time is that?
    4. Rob Hawkins: 6:00 Hud.
    5. Hud: Oh yeah, I knew that.
    – Submitted by Brandon M (7 months ago)
    1. Hud: Please tell me she lives on the ground floor.
    2. Rob Hawkins: 39th.
    3. Hud: Shit.
    – Submitted by Brandon M (7 months ago)

Discussion Forum

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I just don't get it... 7 days ago 0

Latest News on Cloverfield

March 7, 2012:
Drew Goddard Talks Cloverfield Sequel
"The truth is, these things take time."

September 2, 2010:
Barry Levinson Gets Scary with The Bay
Details have started to emerge regarding Barry Levinson's upcoming "eco-horror" film, now titled...

May 5, 2010:
First Details on J.J. Abrams' Next Project
Hey, guess what? J.J. Abrams has a new movie coming out, and the first trailer will run before "Iron...

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