Found out last night that there was a free advance screening of J.J. Abram’s “Cloverfield” at the Ritz 5 and obviously I was ecstatic. I love Abrams work (he produces “Lost”) which despite being primetime television dreck, is very entertaining and has somewhat of a well written and developed plot line and characters. So, we headed down to the theater tonight and basically walked right in (thanks, Diba!). Now mind you, the Ritz is not a state of the art theater by any means - actually I’d call it more of an art house place based on the indie films they show and more, shall we say, “well informed moviegoer” crowd that heads there. Tonight however, the theater was packed with tons of randoms, shouting, carrying on, getting excited for the free flick. The entire center seats were reserved for various local critics and media types. We found ourselves some seats nestled in the far right corner of the third row — lovely.

J.J. Abrams, who considers himself a huge fan of mystery, the topic of a presentation he recently gave at TED Talks, is constantly criticized for Lost’s inability to tie up storylines which in turn leaves the viewer constantly guessing. I can guarantee that these people in particular will find Cloverfield downright frustrating.

The plot if you don’t already know consists basically of this: guy is moving to Japan to pursue a job promotion, his friends throw him a going away party, the party is suddenly disrupted by a giant “earthquake” which turns out to be a monster of Godzilla proportions. What follows is jumpy, blurry, and unedited footage from the video camera of one of the main characters friends. I don’t want to go in to much more detail because I know some of the people that read this plan on seeing the movie when it’s released this weekend.

In the end, I affectionately dub this film “Blair Witch 2008″. It’s a very well executed attempt at making a very live and realistic feeling record of an absolutely ridiculous event. The special effects are uncanny, there is some love story thrown in and I think in recent years, any images of Manhattan under attack will hit a nerve. Don’t go into the film expecting to learn a lot, or get a great ending - you won’t. If you go into it expecting a fun but short (80 min runtime) roller coast ride that will plague some with vertigo and nausea, you should definitely come out with a smile on your face.