GREAT MOVIE FOR KIDS EXCEPT FOR THE F BOMB

Rating: 7/10 (3 March 2019)

Four somewhat geeky jr. high kids opt to make a zombie movie. Joe (Joel Courtney) is one of them. His mother has recently died and his dad (Kyle Chandler) is a deputy who is semi-understanding. Charles (Riley Griffiths) is the brains behind the film. Alice (Elle Fanning) agrees to help them with the movie. After midnight, she drives the foursome to the scene. She doesn't have a license and is worried because the deputy's son is with them. Joe promises not to tell. One boy, Cary, has a love for fire and fireworks. Alice's father (Ron Eldard) gets in trouble with the law. Her relationship with Joe is not welcomed by him. This develops into a background Romeo and Juliet scenario, something for the young teen girl appeal.
As they are rehearsing a scene at the station, a train is coming down the tracks. Charles scrambles to get a film clip of the train while shooting the scene. Then it happens: a white pick-up truck speeds by the train. There is a wreak. The kids panic and run for their lives as RR cars explode all around them. When the smoke clears they take a quick headcount. There are things which look like a white Rubik's cubes all around them.
Charles recognizes the driver of said white truck; it is his fourth period biology teacher, Dr. Woodward (Glynn Turman, a black man with a PhD. in biology teaching middle school in white suburban Lillian, Ohio). In his near dying breath the teacher instructs the kids not to say anything or else they and their families will be hunted down and killed! As GI Joe shows up at the scene, the kids grab their equipment and speed out of there...and they take one of the cubes.
The Air Force has taken charge of the clean up. The town's people are kept away and in the dark. Then weird things start to happen...Sheriff goes missing, dogs go missing, car engines go missing, microwaves go missing. There is clearly a "monster" thing on the loose, but the camera doesn't let us see it, very similar to many of the Jurassic Park/ Predator scenes. I wish I had seen this on IMAX. There are a number of scenes where things suddenly "jump out at you." This always makes it fun for a bunch of kids at the theater.
Spielberg/ Adams bring out the best in the child actors making them very convincing and realistic. The humor is pointed at kids. When Alice asks how to be a zombie, Joe tells her to act like their English teacher. The movie contains numerous anachronisms: Rubik's cube and Walkman came out in 1980 while the movie takes place in 1979. Elle Fanning is asked to play a number of different parts in this film, and she does them all well. I felt like I was watching her audition tape.
At some point in time, the hippie (store clerk who tries to sell Charles pot) lets out a WTF. Here we have a film clearly aimed at kids and they drop the F-bomb in it. There was absolutely no need for it. They made the rating unwatchable for the target audience which is also financially irresponsible.