Movie Night 6/11/11

Super 8

ET has grown up, he is really pissed off and wants to go home.

It looks and feels like a movie from the 70's and when the music builds the tension there is a payoff. None of this crap where you think something is going to happen and nothing does.

I smiled as I saw Gremlins, Pintos, bell bottoms and feathered hair. I noticed that there was an analog quality to the picture, it brought me back to the mindset of the period, the Cold War and all that.

The computer generated stuff is almost completely seamless. Happily there is no version of this in 3D.

Sure you could draw some parallels between Super 8 and E.T. The Extraterrestrial but those parallels are pretty tenuous when you see it.

The kids are amazing. There is the responsible sensitive young male lead played by Joel Courtney. Elle Fanning as the pretty girl from the bad side of the tracks, who prior to getting involved with these boys was on her way to dancing on a pole for tips.. The husky kid, Riley Griffiths, with anger management issues. (Did South Park cement the 'Cartman' archtype of big, angry and mouthy?) And then we have the kid with braces, Ryan Lee, who likes to blow everything up, who will be arrested for arson in 10 years.

Kyle Chandler plays the widower cop father of Joe and bridges the gap between being responsible for the whole town and being responsible for his son. He also looks great. Ron Eldard, on the other hand, plays the father to Elle Fanning's Alice and he plays an awful wretch of a man well. And what happened to him, he and Kyle Chandler are the same age but appear to be decades apart.

And then we have the people-devouring alien and his little cubes. He would have been creepy if this had been made in 1979, being 2010 he is something of nightmares. Seriously, I have seen this thing chasing me on more than one occasion deep in the night.

My hat is off to J.J. Abrams and Steven Speilberg for bringing this to life, it felt original and new yet decidedly 70's. I look forward to whatever they decide to make in the future and hope this wasn't a one time deal.

The audience actually clapped at the end, something that I have only witnessed a few times. Go see it, I doubt you will be disappointed. Two thumbs up.