Last week we saw Super 8, as the husband had been dying to see it since we caught a tiny glimpse last year. Unlike most movies with a lot of hype, this one paid off big time. JJ Abrams teamed up with Steven Spielberg (who produced the film), and you get exactly what you would expect with that combination: mystery, excitement, creepy, sweet, and thoughtful, with lots more.
In the summer of 1979 in a small Ohio town, a group of kids are working on a Super 8 movie project and capture a train crash. Immediately strange things start happening, from dogs fleeing to people vanishing — and the military moving in is less than reassuring. Slowly more of the story unravels until we get the big picture that these kids are seriously wily and the government not friendly.
Spoiler alert: There have been lots of comparisons to ET, but I would say if that impacts your decision to bring smaller children, I wouldn’t. ET never gnawed on a human thigh bone like it was a chicken wing.
The kids in this movie are seriously the stars and are all fabulous: especially Joel Courtney as Joe Lamb and Elle Fanning as Alice Dainard.
I can’t recommend this movie enough. It has the best of both fabulous filmmakers, and the homage to Spielberg and the nostalgia feel of the late-70s are the perfect notes to an already fine film.
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