Super 8

Bea says: Somewhat to my surprise, Cecil suggested this latest outing from Steven Spielberg as a matinee during a recent stay in Maine - we saw it at the lovely Colonial cinema in the waterfront town of Belfast.

The film did nothing so much as remind me of the halcyon days of my early teenage-hood, when myself and a group of school friends would take ourselves into Adelaide town centre to see whatever the latest Spielberg - or other blockbuster aimed at teens - offering was. Together we saw films like Karate Kid, Back to the Future (all parts), Ghostbusters (all parts) etc, until I went to university and got arty, and they drifted off into married and other lives.

Partly I was reminded of those days because the protagonists of the film were all in their early teenage years, partly it was the era depicted (although 1979 is a little early for me - I was about that age a few years later, in 1983) and partly it was just the general style, story line and events - kids get unwittingly caught up in military cover-up of alien life. Naturally, as in all good yarns involving kids, the kids are much, much cleverer than all the adults involved and manage to save the day with the adults barely noticing.

The Super-8 that the title refers to is also a subject of nostalgia these days - one of the kids is a budding film maker, and the vital sub-plot (although given the title, perhaps the alien conspiracy is really the sub-plot) running throughout is the Super-8 film he is making and planning to enter into a national competition - rather like, I do believe, Mr Spielberg himself used to do as a nipper (a probably well-known gem which I discovered recently at a Smithsonian exhibition). Stick around for the credits, as we always do, and you will get to see the Super-8 film the kids make.

This is pretty standard offering for this kind of genre, and it was entertaining and fairly gripping. My only criticism would be that I would have liked some kind of closure to the plot-line concerning the kids' teacher - who is vital to the film, and whose story is unfortunately abandoned after we see him injured and being ill treated in a military camp. Perhaps a little too much time on special effects and too little on tying up the plot's loose ends?

However, good fun, and good nostalgia.
** 1/2

Cecil says: On one level, this film could do no wrong: it was the end of a perfect day-out in the wonderful town of Belfast and in one of the movie theaters America does so well to preserve. Yes, the Colonial opened in 1912 and is working towards it centenary. They only had a dozen in for this matinee, but the public announcement at the start (projectionist standing on stage - it's so Cinema Paradiso) gave the impression it was sold out last Friday evening, so things are looking Ok for this grand old theatre.

As to the film itself, it did a lot of things I can't stand in movies: combining science fiction with 'real life'; having lots of special effects, which I hate; and making the story about the making of a film. But, you know, I kind of liked this film-making aspect of it. It all felt so like Bugsy Malone, but with the kids a few years older. And it certainly made me regret not having a bunch of creative friends like that when I was school - I'd have loved to be the 'lead' opposite the girl, though it's the make-up artist that gets the girl in the end. Nice twist!

Once all the shit kicked off and the alien monster begins to cause havoc round town, it all began to feel a bit like Scooby-Doo, as so many American movies do, but as long as I let myself go along for the ride, it drew me in and kept me interested.

Yes, we almost didn't bother with the credits, even though we're normally the last people out of the cinema, but if you go to this movie, you MUST stay for the final credits, as Bea says.

**.5