JJ Abrams homage to Steven Spielberg is a quality movie that harkens back to some of those great kids movies of the 1980′s (Flight of the Navigator, Explorers, The Goonies) with more explosions. The characters and the pacing are right on par with your kids involved in extraordinary circumstances and triumph in the end. It was nice to see real kids play the roles in a movie not scared of being more mature for kids, which is where memories of E.T., The Goonies, and other kid movies of the 80′s really hit home. This isn’t a kids movie like iCarly or Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. It is dark. The kids swear. People die. Nothing graphic, though it does have tense moments due to your typical Hollywood magic (movie gets quiet and there  is a monster and loud sound!). The first hour or so of the movie is strong and feels much like JAWS. Abrams paces the film well not letting you see the monster, but the last 30 minutes fall flat. In the confrontation between the lead character and the monster (this kid is stronger then everyone thinks) he just yells at the monster and they have a heartfelt chat telepathically that the monster should just go home, not kill him and his friends, and should just go home. Which is what happens.

Overall Super 8 is offspring of someone who watched E.T. and JAWS too many times. While the ending leaves a little to be desired, the overall film is worth seeing.

So I got the chance to watch Max Payne recently and I couldn’t even finish it.  The movie was just painful to watch.  As a fan of the games, I was surprised how poor the transition to film was.  The story went no place for me, I finally turned it off.  Also Mila Kunis was just painful in this role.  I’d avoid this movie.