After his mother, Elizabeth, dies in an accident at work, Joe Lamb is left with his dad, Jackson, a deputy sheriff, who doesn’t really know or understand his son.  All father and son have in common is their grief, and the fact that they have to learn to live without Elizabeth’s guidance.  Once summer rolls around and school is out, Jackson wants to send Joe away for six weeks to a sports camp, explaining to his 14 year old son that it’s what they both need.  Joe feels he needs to help his friend Charles finish his zombie movie.

With the camp vs. stay home for the summer debate at a standstill, Joe sneaks out to help Charles film a scene at the local train station.  It’s then that Joe learns Charles has convinced Alice Dainard to be in their zombie epic, just to round out the cast as the lead’s love interest.  Alice is not only the prettiest girl in school, she’s kind of a bad girl who doesn’t take any crap from anyone, and Joe has a major crush on her.  The trouble is that Alice is the daughter of Louis Dainard, the man Jackson blames for Elizabeth’s death.  Louis and Elizabeth were employed at the same factory, and when Louis was a no show for work, Elizabeth took his shift. As far as Jackson is concerned, it’s Louis that should be dead.

Alice steals her dad’s car and picks the guys up.  When she learns Joe is one of the members of the small film crew, she is ready to back out because of who his dad is.  Joe convinces her to stay, explaining things aren’t exactly hunky dory between he and his pops.  So at the train station, Joe does his best to hide his nerves while applying make-up to Alice (he’s the make-up and zombie effects guy), and she impresses the boys to speechlessness with a convincing performance as a wife worried about her detective husband’s investigation into the undead.

Then tragedy strikes as a truck drives onto the tracks and races headfirst into a passing train.  On the plus side, the young filmmakers capture the derailment on camera.  The downside is that it was a military train, and something big, bad, angry and quite possibly alien has just escaped into their hometown.

Super 8 is the best movie I’ve seen all year.  This is going high up on my list of film favorites.  It’s the mother load of movie entertainment– funny, thrilling, and touching, combining science fiction, horror, and a coming of age story, it’s a film that needs to be seen.  And should be seen.

A lot has been said that writer/director J.J. Abrams has imitated producer Steven Spielberg’s earlier works, especially in the sentimental department.  So what, who cares, it works.  The sentiment doesn’t bring any damage to Super 8, it’s not too much though it does walk a fine line.  Super 8 does feel like a throwback to movies that I grew up with, such as The Goonies, but it stands on its own big monster legs.

I wish there were more films this good, that made you feel what Super 8 makes you feel.  Exhilarated.  Like you’ve just seen something special.

5 out of 5
John Jason