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Health & Fitness

Super 8 – (2011)

Yet this movie about a group of middle school kids shooting a movie about zombies feels more like it was filmed by a group of zombies.

Ever since the previews for Super 8, this film was on my must watch list. It disappoints.

The film has everything going for it in its pedigree:

  • An Amblin Entertainment movie – a studio co-founded Steven Spielberg. This studio has movies like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Gremlins, Back to the Future, and the list goes on.
  • Steven Spielberg as Producer – You may of heard of him. He's produced or directed Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Poltergeist (1982), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and on.
  • J.J. Abrams as Writer/Director – He’s of Lost and Fringe fame
  • Set in Ohio in 1979 – Hey, Steven Spielberg and I are both from Ohio, and I was living there in 1979.

Yet this movie about a group of middle school kids shooting a movie about zombies feels more like it was filmed by a group of zombies.

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It’s the end of the summer, and a group of friends is following an overbearing student finishing his “movie” for submission to a film contest. As they sneak out of their homes to film the movie at night, they also film a train wreck in progress. It’s finding out what is in the train that carries the rest of the movie.

While JJ Abrams certainly didn’t plagiarize other materials, the night before he wrote Super 8, he watched E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and then theGoonies.  The movie is very predictable and very trite.

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Fresh talent of note include Elle Fanning, who gives a spectacular performance as Alice Dainard, obligatory “Damsel in Distress” for  Joel Courtney as Joe Lamb.

And I won’t even mention how parts of the movie were filmed in West Virginia.

If you are reading this, the chances are good you’ve “seen” this movie already in a different form. Your kids might enjoy it, as long as they can deal with the sci-fi/violence scenes. At 112 minutes, you’ll wish the film ended early. The “final” Super 8 movie within the movie is shown during the credits and, in many ways, is the best part of the entire film.

Super 8 is rated PG -13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and some nudity and gets a

       Yellow Light – Use caution

About the scale

       Green Light – Go and enjoy

       Yellow Light – Use caution

       Red Light – Save your time and money

 

The Author

Gary Kelley has lived in Westborough since 1994. His reviews are what he would tell friends and are not an academic analysis.

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