Customer Reviews

Super 8 (Bilingual) [Blu-ray + DVD]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love sci fi movies and this one is a story that took me back to my childhood (60s) and the story reminded me of the fun I had the first time I saw ET. To me Super 8 has the same magic... with good kids and evil adults (army)...

The DTS 7.1 sound is truly amazing and the train wreck has got to be experienced on a good surround system.

PA

This movie took me back in time to the late seventies early eighties when the Saturday Matinee at our local theater played.

The entire vibe of them movie is retro but with great special effects and top knotch acting.

Kyle Chandler kicks but as usual. He could be one of the most under rated actors out there. For a bit of nostalgia, get this movie and watch with you kids.

Simple plot but extremely well done and very entertaining. All ages should find this an excellent way to escape for a while. Hard to locate the single DVD and so now the 'combo' package has been reduced to a sensible price don't miss out on this one.

I saw the film the first weekend it came out. It was amazing then. It was even more amazing when I watched it on Blu-ray. The effects enhanced the well-written and well-directed story. The special features were great, especially how they focused on the kids' relationships with each other and on the town the filmmakers used to represent the setting.

Film - A+
Special Features - A

A cross between the films Stand By Me and District 9, this film combines excellent character development, humour and an exciting action story centered around a government cover-up of a discovery of extra-terrestrial life. I loved that the main characters were primarily kids yet there was an emotional depth to the writing that is not found in most action films.

This was a great movie. I loved the alien an i loved the child actors. Felt very early Spielberg and I'm a fan of JJ Abrams so it makes it easier to love.

This movie is everything I thought it would be. Without a doubt, I have been entertained more now than before I bought the movie.

no real big stars in this movie but that doesn't stop the action. Story involves friends filming a train wreck and the government doesn't want anyone to know what was unleashed when the train crashed. good movie.

Super 8(released June/11)gives us the one two punch of Steven Spielberg and Hollywood's flavour of the moment,J.J.Abrams.The hype would certainly lead one to believe this is an instant classic,a truly unforgettable cinematic experience,a movie you will see again and again,et al.Well,if you've been around movies along as I have,the hype becomes just that,alot of words/hot air to inflate something up,that may or may not have a pay day in the end.And the hype today is pretty much the same stuff they've been dishing out since the 20s.Does Super 8 have a long half life?Let's see.
The plot gives us a group of kids who love to make movies.Each character has their own raison d'etre,as Spielberg and company make each a stand out in their own right,translation:makes them like us ordinary folks.One is a wanna be movie director with a weight problem,one loves to play with matches and explosives,one likes to act but can't,one has a cop for a father and whose mother just passed away,and into this mix is thrown a young girl whose father doesn't get along with the aforesaid cop.
One evening finds the group out at a railroad station filming.A train approaches which will make a fine backdrop for their scene,but something startling will happen.One of them notices a pick up come onto the tracks ahead of the train and deliberately run into it.This causes the train to derail,but the train cars start flying through the air like footballs.By now they have abandoned their camera which has fallen sideways onto the platform but continues to film.In the aftermath they look around at the devastation not believing what just happened,let alone the fact they are all still alive.Suddenly the military approach-ith and the kids ski-doo.
The kids have all agreed not to discuss their experience,as the military has the crash scene sewn up.Slowly but surely strange things are a-happening.Dogs,people and equipment are disappearing in the town at an alarming rate,with no apparent explanation.One evening the girl of the group gets snatched up and taken away by a large creature.The boys stumble onto some notes a school professor had accrued over a long period of time,which has a direct bearing on what is happening now.The military interrupts their gathering and takes them all by bus back for interrogation.Along the way the creature attacks and tips the bus over.It kills the military men,but the kids escape.

In the meantime the military has set a deliberate fire which threatens to engulf the entire town.They evacuate its citizens so they can go on the hunt and recapture this alien.It seems they captured it and its' spaceship years before,but the alien has wanted to go home ever since,and now that it is free this is what it intends to do.The remainders of the group drive back to town in an attempt at rescuing the girl,who has been taken down to an underground cavern.Underground,they indeed find the girl and return to the surface.They are just in time to witness the water tower turn into a giant magnet,drawing objects big and small onto it.The creature goes inside the tower,which immediately converts into an alien craft and away he/she/it goes.
Does this film live up to its 'classic' hype?.....not by a million light years.I found this film to be quite a boring time,frankly.The only thing classic about this film are the Spielberg touches,such as the attention to detail in the characterizations I mentioned earlier,getting the experiences of youth/young love,etc.from their perspective,feeling the ultimate empathy for the alien,one man,er boy,standing bravely up to and connecting with said alien,and finally no Spielberg picture would be complete without a resolution of the parent/child conflict at the beginning of the film,at the end,coupled with a tender reunion to enhance it all.Ahhhh.Trouble is,by the time this film wraps up I couldn't have cared less who made up with who or that the creature made it safely away,or any of the touchy feely moments Spielberg tried to engender.And speaking of the wrap up,I was actually surprised the ending,WAS the ending.I was expecting more footage of...I don't know what....anything,I guess.The film also takes its sweet time meandering its way through its somewhat cumbersome plot,introducing us all to its characters and locations which must engender within us that"Oh yeah,I remember that time",or the old chestnut"Hey Bob,I used to have a house and car just like that".Yep,that's a Spielberg moment,if ever there was one.Except,this is NOT E.T.,and I mean that in the sense that it doesn't come anywhere close to the quality of that film.And you know while we're on the subject and have Mr Spielberg's attention(he always reads my reviews!),I have just about had it with the portrayal of kids of that age who would NEVER in a million years have talked to each other,let alone their parents,in the fashion they do,without dying a million deaths.He can get the clothes right,the music down pretty good but the precociousness that most of his young characters exhibit,has just got to go,OK Steven?
Technically speaking the film is clear and crisp and in its w/s format.There is commentary and two featurettes on the making of the film.
All in all a HUGE disappointment.I try not to let the hype into my reviews and/or influence me in any way.In fact I find the more I know,the more skeptical I am about what is to come.I get to a point and become a Missourian..."Show Me".The hype couldn't save this stinker.The pace and the meandering script are way off the beam and all the tricks Spielberg can muster cannot even save the day here.It's another War of the Worlds(2005).Give it a pass.2 1/2-3 stars.

This film rocked! It totally had that 70's and 80's filmmaking vibe and with Spielberg attached it only enhanced that. The acting from the children were very well done and beyond their years. It was a nice little sci-fi film.