Re-Hashing the Same Old Story

Rating: 2/10 (10 December 2011)

From SPOILER - I am very glad I did not spend money to see this thing at the theater, although if I had not seen other Spielberg movies, I think I would have enjoyed this flick a whole lot more. The story takes place in a small town and the new sheriff has to protect his community from a large shark – wait – a monster from outer space. Also involved are these kids who get together, and in order to conquer their fears, they join together and wander down a set of railroad tracks to look at another kid's dead body – wait – they are filming some kind of movie every kid back then did with their super 8 movie camera. Well during the filming of their movie and some nasty disaster happens. And what a disaster this ends up being. There is a horrific derailment of an EVIL US Air Force (the military is just so bad you knowbad, bad, bad!) cargo train. Did I mention that one of these kids was a pretty blonde girl living with her abusive, alcoholic dad who is always shouting, 'Run! Forrest! Run!' – wait – she is one of the main characters. Anyways these kids find this old pirate ship with all this gold on it – wait – they film this train wreck and out of the top pops this outer space guy who just wants to phone home – wait – he is a monster from outer space. Well he is not really a monster he is just a misunderstood cannibalistic nice space guy who has been chowing down on members of the town as a result of his close encounters – after SPOILER. This kind of a fun flick targeting a young audience, I am too old to fall into that category. If you like to hate the military that even makes the movie that much easier to enjoy – I did twenty and kind of like - and respect the military, so this is not my category either. It almost seems like most movie plots are peddled like they are the screams produced by the skillful minds of writers when they actually turn out to be no more than the talentless echoes resonating from the empty cerebral caverns of the inept.