Spielberg goes back to early roots, takes Abrams with him

Rating: 7/10 (11 June 2011)

Producer Steven Spielberg took novice director J.J. Abrams ("Mission: Impossible III," "Star Trek") for a ride with his newest production, "Super 8," and man was it a trip. The veteran helmer - who won Academy Awards for his World War II pictures, "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan" - reaches back into his earliest efforts to bring to life a screenplay he had tucked away for decades.
Abrams utilizes elements of "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" and "The Goonies" (written but not directed by Spielberg), among others in this story of a group of small town Ohio preteens making a zombie movie for a super 8 film contest in the summer of 1979. The picture also bears a passing resemblance to 2006's "Cloverfield," but please don't let THAT fact frighten you away.
Led by Charles (Riley Griffith), the brains behind the project, the cast includes sensitive makeup artist and go-fer, Joe Lamb (newcomer Joel Courtney) - who lost his mother in a steel mill accident four months earlier. Others involved in making the movie-within-a-movie are zombie actor, Cary (Ryan Lee), bumbling detective, Martin (Gabriel Basso), the detective's "wife," Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning, Dakota's little sis, "Because Of Winn-Dixie") and befuddled extra, Preston (Zach Mills).
While filming a touching "love" scene at a railroad depot late one night, the kids are witness to a horrible train derailment - possibly caused by one of their biology teachers (Glynn Turman). The small super 8-mil. camera, however, witnesses something much more sinister. Thank goodness Abrams followed the example of "Jaws" and "Alien" (and NOT "Cloverfield") by waiting until the end of the proceedings before revealing the entity.
Air Force personnel soon begin streaming into the town to contain the damage caused by the derailment - as well as the curiosity of local law enforcement - especially deputy sheriff, Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler, "King Kong," "The Kingdom"), whose relationship with his son is strained to the breaking point. Headed by fanatical Col. Nelec (Noah Emmerich "The Truman Show," "Miracle," "Little Children"), the military unit wants to find whatever escaped the wreck that night, even if it means spreading fraudulent information or causing a fake panic and evacuation.
Alice soon disappears and while in Air Force custody, the kids get a close up look at what the boys in blue are after. Abrams is not above throwing a few new tricks into the mix here, but stays faithful to his mentor's love affair with the good side of aliens and the often dark heart of human nature. The children are funny, touching and heart-tuggingly real, just like most of Spielberg's young actors (with the exception of the kid who played "Short Round" in "Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom"), and the "love affair" between Joe and Alice is simple and sweet, just like the way we remember our first crushes were.
Adults in this feature range from super good to unbelievably evil, but there is a nice twist with Alice's father, Louis (Ron Eldard, "Scent Of a Woman," "Blackhawk Down") and deputy Lamb. Meanwhile, David Gallagher, the cute little blonde kid from the TV series "Seventh Heaven," has a field day as a stoner film store clerk.
Overall, a nice time at the cinema with plenty of laughs to go along with some genuinely frightening moments. Abrams also bring a deft hand to directing kids here, whose stories vastly overshadow the plights of the grown-up population. And for those who like to slip out of the theatre right when the credits begin to roll, give yourself a few minutes at the conclusion of "Super 8," when the children's homemade film project, "The Case," is revealed in its entirety.
It's a wonderful way to wrap up a very good summer edition to the season's blockbuster lineup.