Super 8 Is Super-cal-i-etc.
A movie about a bunch of boys (and one girl) who are making a super-8 zombie film in 1979 and witness a train wreck, ho-hum. Yawn. Wrong! Expecting little from a movie I was particularly not interested in seeing, I was totally captivated and, yes, even blown away, by Super 8. Combining action, science fiction, nostalgia, and sensitivity, the film entertains from start to finish (warning: there is about ten-seconds of excruciating corn), and features a talented cast that infuses the story with credibility.
With a rocking soundtrack of 1970s superhits, Super 8 reminds us what it was like to be young and experience the seventies. Writer/director J.J. Abrams crafted a finely-tuned, sensitive story that tempers adventure with fragile emotions. A group of boys are working under a very temperamental, bossy director, Charles (Riley Griffiths), who invites Alice (Elle Fanning), on whom he has a crush, to join the all-male cast and crew of middle-schoolers in making “The Case.” Unbeknownst to Charles, make-up “man” Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) is also crushing on Alice.
One night the cast and crew of “The Case” sneak out to do some midnight filming down at the train station. Fate has something else in mind for them when a horrendous crash results from a train striking a vehicle on the tracks. All the while, the camera is running.
Soon strange things begin happening throughout the town—all the dogs run away, people (and microwave ovens) disappear, electrical power is interrupted and somewhat sketchy, and there is vandalism on a very large scale. The Air Force moves in, takes over, and won’t share information with the local law, Joe’s dad, Deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler, very well cast). The kids, of course, investigate, and when Alice is scooped up by something, the action kicks into high gear. Underscoring all of this is grief over the death of Joe’s mother in a plant accident that somehow involved Alice’s father.
Comparisons can be made between Super 8 and a number of other films, including E.T., The Goonies, and Lean on Me, but watch it for its own merits and forget about other films that share similarities. Super 8 is engaging, exciting, and has enough gee-whiz moments and action to keep it all together at breakneck speed. It is available on-demand, on DVD, and in a two-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo with digital copy; release date: November 22, 2011.
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