Sometimes I miss a movie that I ought to see.  I missed this one on its first time around.  The previews weren’t very good.  I heard about it, but I didn’t go see it.  Well, yesterday I got the chance to see it.  Some friends invited me to go along and catch it at a discount theater.  Discount theaters are good.  I wish there were more of them.  Movies cost too damn much nowadays.  I don’t want to spend $7  to $10 to watch the latest movie.  I miss a lot that I would have seen if the price were more reasonable.  C’mon, Hollywood!  Would you rather get $5 a shot from me four times a month, or $8 once a month.  Yeah, I know, you want the $8 four times a month, but that isn’t going to happen.  Not even three times a month.  I may pay that price twice if you’re lucky.  You’re losing money, Hollywood.

Best train wreck sequence ever. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but was all I could find.

Super 8 is a Spielberg production–another tribute to the joys and pains of childhood–in this case I’d say, young adulthood.  He warns you what the movie is when you see the bicycle flying across the moon as a production logo.  That image came from the movie E.T.  Well, guess what!  This movie is E.T. redone–same plot, alien stranded on Earth who needs some help to go home.  The help comes from children.  Only this time it is a big powerful scary alien–not a cute little child alien.  You don’t get to see it until the end of the movie, but here’s a good look at it.

 

 

This is one tough monster of an alien–big, fast, ruthless, and totally pissed off at a planet that has kept it prisoner for years.  As the facts of the situation come to light, the viewer comes to share the alien’s viewpoint.  Like E.T., it just wants to go home.  Only, the government got this critter first, and they won’t let it leave.

 

Like all of Spielberg’s science fiction, Super 8 really isn’t about the alien.  It’s about the kids who are trying to grow up.  It’s about friendship, and first love, and family in crisis.  It’s about understanding and the lack of understanding between parents and children.  It’s about dreams and aspirations.  Spielberg packs a lot of emotion into this film. 

 

And the kid actors carry it off.  I honest believe that kids are much better actors than adults.  They live their roles and make them real in a way adults can never quite manage.  I doubt if any of the kids in Super 8 will get best actor or best supporting actor for their roles here, but they were absolutely great. 

 

So, go see the Super 8 if  you can find it.  Or get the video on CD.  The train wreck on tv isn’t going to be quite as spectacular as the one on the big screen, but you do want to see it.  You really do!

 

And there is a bonus.  The kids in the movie are trying to make a movie on super 8 film–hence the title.  At the end of the movie while the credits are running, you get to see the kids’ zombie movie–which contains a very nice tribute to George Romero within it.  The kids movie deserves some award recognition too.

 

(I compose these reviews for Atroll spontaneously, and go looking on the internet for pictures from the film that I can use to illustrate my points.  I have to say that the pictures generally available are lousy–dull, publicity shots staged by zombies with no idea what the best images in their films really are.  The Super 8 publicity is gawdawful bad, imho.  That means I couldn’t find on the web any of the scenes I really wanted to show from the film.  Oh well, this is the best I could do.)

 

 

 

 

 

This one kid got to be the zombie in the move.  He was great.