There's a zoom effect that was used a lot in Wall-E (like when he's being 'chased' by the shopping carts), a couple of times in cloverfield, in the opening scene of Lost Season 3 episode #1 when the plane crashes over Linus & Others' Village, it was used in Star Wars Ep.2: AOTC when Anakin was flying in a battleship. It's like the viral-video trademark. The effect is like a quick jump/zoom from a far away shot to a closer version of that shot, but it seems like there is something else (special) going on. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? How is this effect achieved?

You've answered your own question, the zoom-in effect is just that - its a zoom-in! Since motion pictures hardly ever zoom-in whenever they do that shot stands out quite deliberately. Its being used more and more lately and you'll see it specially in films and by directors who shoot in the cinema verité style which is more run and gun documentary style filming. It just gives a fictional movie a more real and urgent feel during an action sequence for instance. Check out the Bourne movies or anything else made by Paul Greengrass. The zoom-in can also be used in a very creative special effect like in the movie Jaws where the camera zooms in on the sheriff at the beach when he realises there's a shark in the water. This is a nifty trick that's achieved by tracking the camera out while zooming in at the same time. Of course it can be done in reverse too by pushing the camera in while zooming out. Hope this answers your question. Cheers!

Huh. Is there any special timing to the zoom (like, wait x seconds while object moves in distance then zoom), or a zoom speed used specifically to get it to look like that? Because every time I see it somewhere I want to rewind and watch it again.

ha, this is great. I've always wondered how that worked as well.

the effect Ali described was perfected by Alfred Hitchcock and used in most of his movies. Awesome effect. Push in and zoom at the same time or pull out and zoom.
However the effect I think you're describing is a bit different. The shot is done a number of times. First wide shot with a slow zoom in then the camera position is moved to a closer point and the shot is done again then again and so on. In post the shots are shortened and stitched together OR it can be shot from 1 position and then cut frames during the zoom in and speed up the zoom in post.
Try it, play around and you might find you can accomplish the effect with a bit of effort in edit. Make sure you have enough footage to work with though especially since you're going to shorten the time by cutting frames and speeding the shot up.
Don