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Neal Vitale Reviews: Super 8 (download)

3.5 stars out of 5 

This collaboration between writer/director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg is far more entertaining than I expected. It's a genre film set in the early 60s about aliens that landed in Ohio years earlier and their struggle to return home. Super 8 has a brilliant opening sequence, and it uses a terrific cast of teen actors (led by Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, and Elle Fanning) to ride that engaging momentum almost to the end. As with other movies of its ilk, Super 8 struggles to find an appropriate ending, but it is a fun diversion nonetheless.