[sharkshark]

There's a fundamental difference between "shaky cam" for effect under the hands of a master cameraperson, and the amateur, I-can't-frame-for-crap stuff that's used in lieu of good composition.

Saving Private Ryan is oft cited as effective use of handheld, but for me the definitive is Von Trier's "Breaking the Waves" - it's got a desaturated palate, documentary style, yet has some of the more breathtaking compositions I've ever seen. Give somebody like Robby Müller a VHS cam from the early 80s and I think he'd make it could make it look like some grand tracking shot by Griffith. LVT does lots of his own op'ing as well, and, frankly, a director that put a camera on his shoulder and shoot a scene will make for a far better handheld look than the idiot behind the operator banging on the back of the rig to make some point about "grittyness" or "realism".

Loads of TV series fool around with this type of technique (as Penton pointed out, often done in post with some After Effects-style "shake" pass added for "realism").

Again, when handheld is used stylistically it can be extremely effective... Hell, I almost threw up during Blair Witch, but it clearly was the only real think providing verisimilitude to the work. Cloverfield I've never even bothered with, frank. But when big budget films use it in sheer feats of gratuitousness ("Hello, Michael Bay...") or as pathetic attempts to make action seem more compelling than it is (I'm looking at you, Gladiator) then it, for me, is the cranked autotune equivalent of filmmaking - an annoying fad that's way past its prime, used by idiots in lieu of compelling production techniques.