Rating Explanation: for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and some drug use.
Jimmy's Buzz Guide Review: A derivative but stunningly entertaining monster-on-the-loose movie.
Additional Info:
Added DVD Features: Closed Caption; The Dream Behind Super8; The Visitor Lives - Creating the Creature; Director J.J. Abrams & filmmakers' commentary.
CAST:
Elle Fanning ...
Alice Dainard
Joel Courtney ...
Joe Lamb
Ryan Lee ...
Cary
Zach Mills ...
Preston
Riley Griffiths ...
Charles
Gabriel Basso ...
Martin
Kyle Chandler ...
Jackson Lamb
Ron Eldard ...
Louis Dainard
Jessica Tuck ...
Mrs. Kaznyk
Joel McKinnon Miller ...
Mr. Kaznyk
Super 8
Set in Ohio in 1979 Super 8 focuses on a neighborhood group of middle
school friends who are planning to make a
zombie movie. The director is chubby Charles (Riley Griffiths), but the
main character is Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), a talented model-maker who agrees to be the
make-up man. Joe's mother has recently died and his dad Jackson (Kyle Chandler) is the town's deputy sheriff. The rest of the filmmakers includes
firecracker-obsessed Cary (Ryan Lee), their gangly leading man
Martin (Gabriel Basso) and brainy extra Preston (Zach Mills). Joe is really thrilled when Charles casts pretty Alice
Dainard (Elle Fanning) to be in the film, despite the fact that she’s the daughter of the gruff town drunk Louis (Ron Eldard), whom Joe's dad blames for his wife’s
death.
The story really gets going when the kids begin filming at an old railway station one night and a
train coming by crashes because a pickup truck driven by one of their
science teachers deliberately derails it. That leads to the arrival of
troops under the command of nasty Colonel Nelec (Noah Emmerich), and the realization by the
kids, once they get a chance to look at the film, that the train was carrying something very strange and
dangerous.
Writer/director J.J. Abrams fills the screen with scenes of rowdy adolescent
horseplay and big action sequences full of
explosions and flying debris and the final shots of
awe-struck faces looking skyward is bound to remind you of E.T. and there are also some scenes that seem to have been influenced by a few of
those old horror movies like Tarantula, but it's all so well put together
and so efficiently executed that even gaps in the plot don’t matter much. Parents should be warned, though, that some of it may prove to be a bit intense
for younger children.