Super 8 [2011]
Undead zombie kids from Lillian, Ohio vs. Rubik’s Cubes from outer space…who wins?
Film #030 of 2013
Director: J.J. Abrams Cast: Joel Courtney [Joe], Elle Fanning [Alice] & Ron Eldard [Louis]
Plot: During the summer of 1979, a group of friends witness a train crash and investigate subsequent unexplained events in their small town. Source IMDB.com
Hipster Review: The smaller, lower budgeted inner story about a group of kids making a zombie film was much more riveting than the larger sporadically enjoyable alien one…despite its many hiccups and bitter finale, it’s a watchable action piece – but don’t expect E.T. or Goonies. Watched January 26th, 2013.
“ Be a lifeless ghoul…hungry for human flesh. Like you want to turn somebody into a zombie, cause that’s kind of what zombies do.” Joe
Positives:
- Elle Fanning as Alice was marvelous
- The kids filming at the train station was a real highlight
- Great subject matter, clever premise – too bad the alien sucked
- Its smart young actors out-acted the adults in every aspect
- An amazing train crash that will shake your house
Biggest Surprise: It’s significantly darker than your average kids vs. space aliens flick, but silly.
Biggest Let Down: Not sure how a pickup truck stayed in tact after hitting a freight train head-on.
Does the boy get the girl in the end? It’s a great little love story and I’m happy to say…maybe.
Worthy of a Blu-ray purchase? Yes, especially for the train crash.
Similar to: Goonies [1985], E.T. [1982].
What Tweeters are saying:
I almost cried during the end of Super 8. I'm pathetic.—
Suzanna (@teambritneyxo) January 24, 2013
Were you ever interested in making movies as a kid?
Thanks for stopping by, Chris.
Posted on February 2, 2013, in 2011, Movies watched in 2013 and tagged Elle Fanning, Filmhipster, J.J. Abrams, Joel Courtney, Movie, Movie Reviews, Movies, Review, Reviews, Ron Eldard, Super 8. Bookmark the permalink. 23 Comments.
One of my favorite movies of 2011 and gives me the total re-assurance that Abrams can handle the Star Wars next trilogy, with pure love and inspiration. Good review.
I hope so. It should be interesting to see and it’ll be a hot topic until the movies release. I guess it’s already a hot topic.
As a kid I wasn’t busy with making movies. As for the movie itself I really liked it and it’s time to rewatch it I guess.
Yeah for sure, I think I’ve seen this film like 3 times now. Each time I see it, the zombie story the kids are making seems better and better.
Elle Fanning was great, wasn’t she?
The rest of this film was kind of disappointing though, I thought the end was a let down.
I still liked it, I just had higher expectations for it.
She was, and stole the show in my opinion. The alien story was rather dull. Zombie story – pure awesomeness!
Enjoy the game today!!
Great one today, my friend!
Thanks Eric, it’s one of those love it hate it films.
Elle Fanning is very loveable but the film itself is quite forgettable. Enjoyable watch but nothing extraordinary (apart from the train crash which is quite awesome).
The train crash was the highlight, along with Fanning of course. She stole the show.
Never interested in making movies as a kid – only writing. Then around 11, I started acting but still my love was theatre, not film. : ) Found this movie uber fun however.
How’s that movie going by the way?
The web series? The 1st one is in holding at this point because our editor has like disappeared off the face of the earth.
The 2nd one is going well – more filming on the 16th. 
Awesome!! I would love to do stuff like that.
I really liked it but like with most things one you have seen the mysterious alien it kind of went down a bit. Still really good
I thought the alien sucked yeah. Was there more than one alien? Can you remember?
Nah just one I think, I think…
Just watched this with my four year-old last night and he loved it. While I agree the monster was a bit on the lame side. He was hiding under the covers in a few parts lol
I bet he was, for that age it would be pretty scary! You’ve got a cool kid though, loves film.
I had a 8mm projector when i was a kid and my friend had a camera. we did some ‘movies’ but never had the $$$ to develop the film… but we spent a long summer vacation filming it – so I completely related to these characters. One of the best parts of Super8 is in the end credits where we actually get to see the finished film that these kids had made. Oh, wait… you didn’t watch the end credits????!
Yeah I agree, I loved watching the zombie film. It’s funny because they kept using the same kid for all the zombie scenes.
Do you still have the film from that project? That would be amazing for you to see what you guys did.
lol, no, I don’t have the film, and no, it wouldn’t be amazing. Even if we found the tape, it would have cemented itself into a solid block of plastic by now (osmosis), we did this when we were 8 or 9, way back in the 1970′s
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