24 May 2012

lame

This review is from: Super 8 (Amazon Instant Video) they took ideas from 80's classics and tried to bring it to life but it had as much life as the zombie movie they were trying to make matter of fact the zombie movie was better Hollywood garbage wastee of money one word for this picture LAME

Abraham Torry

24 May 2012

When you see a bike fly, walk out of the theater and make up your own ending

The film is about a town mystery looked through the eyes of children.From the early part of the movie, you feel like something powerful anddangerous is lurking around and is going to jump out on you at anymoment. Ever-multiplying questions tease your brain and a suspense isbuilding up at the back of your mind right up to the end of the story. The acting was very convincing and drawing although the movie suffersfrom its mediocre ending. A few times I felt that the logic and theflow of the plot were a bit unrealistic and artificial. I wish that thestory was focused more on the mystery and the children's reactionswithout all the insignificant distractions and one-dimensional minorcharacters. After being disappointed by a series of recent movies, this one wasrefreshing and heart-fluttering. It flings us back to theadventure-seeking and truth-chasing time of our childhood. If you areinto tantalizing sci-fi thrillers like this movie, I recommend'Somewhere carnal over 40 winks' as your summer read.

rabrenner

23 May 2012

E.T.s Big Brother Drops In For A Bite

A group of kids are making a zombie monster movie. They get more thanthey bargained for when a REAL monster shows up in their small town,courtesy of the U.S.A.F. and a spectacular train wreck.Set in the 1970s, SUPER 8 is filled with references to disco, new wave—Blondie's "Rapture," the Knack's "My Sharona"—and CB radios. It's alsofilled with references to Steven Spielberg movies from the era—E.T.:THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, JAWS, evenTHE GOONIES—not surprising, given the producer. Unfortunately, writer/director Abrams can't escape Spielberg's penchantfor sentimentality. There are not one but two single, dysfunctionalfathers raising alienated, resentful children. Needless to say, theywill all learn valuable life lessons by the time the movie's over.Those expecting another CLOVERFIELD will be disappointed. The best partof SUPER 8 is THE CASE—the kid's zombie monster movie-within-a-movie—which screens during the closing credits.

george.schmidt

23 May 2012

JJ Abrams valentine to Spielberg sci-fi suburbania is a perfect balm for those craving the magic of the movies!

SUPER 8 (2011) ***1/2 Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, RileyGriffiths, Ryan Lee, Gabriel Basso, Zach Mills, Ron Eldard, NoahEmmerich, Glynn Turman, Richard T. Jones, Jessica Tuck, Joel McKinnonMiller. Filmmaker JJ Abrams' valentine to his executive producer StevenSpielberg's sci-fi hey day and all creature features of his youth areconnected in this lively and entertaining sci-fi dramedy circa 1979where a group of young kids, while filming a zombie flick for acontest, witness a horrific (and one humdinger of a) train wreck…thatunleashes an alien beastie and a military embroiled conspiracy hellbenton covering it up. The underpinnings of a coming of age/father-sonbonding thru tragedy/first pangs of love occur synchronically as thegoosepimply suspense is deftly applied (thank you composer MichaelGiacchino's John Williamsian score) and the neat-o factor of feelinglike a kid again… pricleless. Kudos to the creator and his mentor forscoring some more movie magic for those who crave the wonder of themovies! BONUS: Stay thru the credits to check out the kids' nifty shortsubject; it's a gas!

jjpedersen3

22 May 2012

chaotic and stressful.

This move really sucked ass. I had some mixed expectations about thisone, and decided to watch it because it was rated 7,3 on IMDb. HOW INEARTH did this movie get a rating on 7,3? Must be some kinda error thatswitched around the numbers. 3,7 would be more like it :)The beginning of the movie is good, you get to know the characters andthe kids are good actors. But it doesn't take too long, around the partof the train station that the movie starts to drop. So much stupid and unrealistic things (ye i know it is sci-fi and aresupposed to be excessive, but some things in this movie are just plainstupid.)Then the movie goes more and more into a big mess. A lot of stuffhappens everywhere and i got the feeling the film maker just rushestrough the movie, to get done with it. I really tried to like this movie, but got more and more disappointedthe longer i got into the movie. Not worth watching!

Brandon Blackwell

22 May 2012

It Survives

During the summer of 1979, a group of friends witness a train crash andinvestigate subsequent unexplained events in their small town.J.J Abrams has successfully brought back our memories from movies likeE.T or The Goonies. People who complain about how similar they are, thefilm is SUPPOSED to bring back those movies into the modern day; andthey did a damn good job. The acting to start is very real and verygood, even for the kids. The score is beautiful and conjures mystery,suspense, and action all together. The kids grow on you and they remindme exactly of the kids on the Goonies, which I'm sure that was thepoint. It makes me mad how people cannot enjoy a movie without havingto compare it to something, or complain how cliché it is. I'm notsaying Super 8 is perfect; it's far from perfect, but it's a great wayto bring back memories. I do have to complain about the over-dramatizedaction. How can a car/train collision cause that much havoc? And nearthe end, how does fighting one alien cause so much explosions and whatnot? Despite the flaws, the clichés, and the over-dramatized action,the film delivers what it was supposed to deliver and I highly enjoyedit. To add, why is everyone complaining about the ending? It was nice,I loved it actually. When people find one thing wrong with a film, it'sautomatically a bad movie. But overall, Super 8 is a beautiful filmthat brings back our childhood memories. I overall loved it. 10/10.

Lourenço Rocha

21 May 2012

Super 80s! not so super ending...

After watching this amazing film, i gotta say it was a good job done byJJ, but it's not like people are saying it's perfect, somethings didn'twork with this story, it's really amazing the beginning and u get thatsense of a good old Spielberg movie(does he make any good one today?)the scenes inside the houses are miracles of transportation to the E.T.time line, god i was missing that kind of movies, sometimes i wouldthink why we don't have that kind of feeling anymore of a cozy safeenvironment like in the E.T. and in Close Encounters of The Third Kind,well in that point of view this movie is perfect, it brings u that epicfeeling of aliens are good, military are bad(so Spielberg), but theproblem of this movie not being good as E.T. or Close Encounters, isthat u never get to know the alien and the military so much so u canunderstand what's going on, and the magic disappears in the end, makingthis movie only a simple one, with not much meaning, cus the directordoesn't focus the story on the two kids, or the friends, or the family,or the alien and the military, and it's a mix of everything, and it's amix of nothing, OK it's not that bad, this are just a few of the thingsi think were missing, but honestly i don't like JJ that much, it almostfeel that JJ is doing with Spielberg what Tarantino did with SergioLeone, copying the environment and scenes it's not the same as the realdeal, Spielberg is much better then JJ directing as Sérgio Leone is ofTarantino, the kids will like this movie cus it's not so complicated tothem, it will be a movie for the kids with the same age as the ones inthe movie, but it has some epic scenes this one, but back to JJ, ididn't like Cloverfield, i thought the ending ruined the film for me,it was one of the most dumb and easy endings to make, it ruins all theexperience, the same happens with this one, if the ending would unveilsomething about the story, really give it a meaning like somethinghappening to the kid's dad, or his "girlfriend", something that wouldgive u a last "awh" and a last grasp of air, but no, JJ (witch isamazing filming this film) gives it a Cloverfield ending, a numb dumbending, non-emotional, and i won't even criticize the alien, because itseams lots of people, in some weird way of "how did we let this gowrong", seam to like this kind of monsters instead of the aliens ofE.T. and Close Encounters, if it wasn't for the simple wrap-up ending iwould never have written something here, i would have gone home with ahappy smile on my face and would have thought of seeing it again, butlike this i just want to see E.T. and Close Encounters again to believeagain in intelligent life in outer space, and when u already understoodu were in the 80's again it wasn't necessary to send a ship to the skyto makes feel again like kids saying goodbye to E.T., it doesn't work,especially not in that way... Good awesome movie to honor Spielberg,but nothing else...

blackmambamark

21 May 2012

Wish they never stopped making kids movies like this.....

Funny that Abrams is working with Spielberg.....seeing that i considerJJ to be the next Stephen. But has Abrams ever created an idea on hisown? Every single movie he has directed has been from someone else'shand. He has proved that he can direct one hell of a movie, but can hecreate one out of thin air? Remember those old late 70's early 80's kidmovies? Ex: "Stand By Me", "Goonies" ext. This movie really strikes acord with those. Not in the adventure sense, well....that too......butthe comparison that i'm trying to make is the overall presence of thesemain characters and the dialog they exchange with each other. Thehumorous cussing and funny scenarios....it fits right in with thoseclassic films that we all remember. And it made me think.....Why aren'tkids movies like this anymore? It was a nice trip down memory lane forany film geek.As far as story lines, the movie is pretty damn solid. It has thatcertain Spielberg vibe to it with a little JJ spice thrown in. I meancome on, a bunch of kids filming an amateur zombie flick and witness atrain crash carrying contents from Area 51.....you couldn't ask for abetter summer movie set-up. But i know most people walking into thiswill think that everything is about discovering this creature......muchlike "Stand By Me" with the body, and the treasure with "The Goonies".But if you understand those movies, you will also know that there is amuch deeper subtext. With "Super 8", it's got a lot more heart. Iwouldn't say it has more heart that "Stand By Me", but it comes prettydamn close, and that in itself is a big compliment.But what really sells this story are the characters. The kids in thiscrack me up like you wouldn't believe. And oh my god.....Elle Fanningjust made her sister look stupid with her talent.But the transitions between the adults and the kids are great. Each oneis entertaining, and there is always something physically going on tokeep your attention. From beginning to end, the movie does not stopmoving.And next we move onto the alien, which i have been dying to see forover a year now. I won't go into too much detail, but it's reallysimilar to the "Cloverfield" monster, just a smaller version. The backstory behind this creature is pretty cool, i really wish they couldhave gone into more detail. They give you enough to wet your hands, buti wanted a full bath. The cool aspect they did with the creature is tothe same effect of "Jaws". You don't really see the entire thing untilall hell breaks loose, which comes somewhere in the third act.I know most nerds like myself will dislike the ending, but i howeverenjoyed it. It wasn't cheesy or over the top......it fit nice and snugwith the rest of the movie.Bottom Line.....i know it will take a couple of days for this movie tofully sink into my brain, because like i said before, once it starts,it doesn't stop. But judging from what i just experienced, they reallydon't make summer movies like this anymore. It's a nice trip downmemory lane with the nostalgia. The characters are all enjoyable. TheSci-Fi aspect is really cool. The action is top notch. Everything asummer movie should be. I just wish every kids movie was likethis......because 20 years ago.....it was.

21 May 2012

E.T. Meets Cloverfield!!!

This movie was a tiny bit better than I was expected. It's like a watered down Stephen King story. The monster/alien was pretty cool looking. It's big reveal was similar to that of Jaws, they didn't show it until the middle of the movie. In the early 80's, a few friends are making a zombie movie with a Super 8 mm camera. When a train derails, an alien breaks loose and creates havoc on the town. I'd probably recommend SUPER 8!!!

Oso Jorge

20 May 2012

Boring, forced acting, trying to be E.T.

Similar let down to the latest Indian Jones flop.I was expecting some quality entertainment, but the movie got boring real quick. The acting was stilted and sub par. The old cars were great, that was the only redeeming quality to this lousy movie. Too many unanswered questions in the story. The first thing that was B.S. was the pick-up truck ramming into the train and causing such massive destruction. The train would have annihilated that truck and the Professor would never have survived a head on collision. After that, the whole story fell apart. I was glad to leave the theater, it was a total waste of money.

robertblanton

19 May 2012

Calling Walter Kronkite, Calling Walter Kronkite

I called this "Calling Walter Kronkite" because you see him at thebeginning of the film, and as the film pro or regresses one wonders whysomeone just doesn't call 60 minutes or some other outfit toinvestigate the strange goings on in this town. I mean when all yourdogs go missing, dozens of automobile engines are stolen overnight,etc., etc. doesn't that sound as though a major news organization mightbe interested in those mysterious events? Apparently not. Does thistown not have a newspaper, or a television station, or any othercommunication with the outside world? After all, this is 1979 not 1949.Guess not.However, putting that aside, I marked spoiler but the next statementsare not (I don't think) spoilers because they occur near the beginningof the movie. But, just in case. So, here goes: A huge train towing Idon't know how many cars (but lots) comes barreling full speed along arailroad track when a pickup truck turns onto the rails and heads fulltilt toward the rushing train. The engine, of course, hits the truck atfull speed, the train goes off the track, and railroad cars fly asthough someone threw a handful of toothpicks across a room. Wow! Yeah.Do you know what would happen to a train with the force of a dozen ormore speeding rail cars behind it if it hit a puny pickup truck?Nothing, that's what. Do you know what would happen to the pickup truckand it's occupant? They would be disintegrated into millions of tinylittle pieces, that's what. But not this truck, no-sir-ee, it's stillin one piece, a little mangled, but in one piece. And the guy drivingit? No need to worry, he's alive, oh, banged up and a little bloody,but not too bad off at all. This should be insulting to any true loverof film or sci-fi because it tells you that the director thinks you'rea mindless boob who will praise him no matter how outlandish the storyline he delivers to you is. The end of this movie (which I will notreveal) is even stupider than this, reminding one too much of theIndiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls climatic fiasco. As to other aspects of this film, it should have been rated R. It isfilled with cursing from the beginning to the end, with the chubby kidhaving basically a one word vocabulary that rhymes with "hit," which hesays over and over and over and. . . . Once he says the "P" word, theone that used to describe a cat, in front of the 14 or 15 year oldheroine and she says, "Oh, that's OK." Really? Chubs just called hismale friend a term to indicate that his his friend was weak, a pansy,and cowardly, which, since that word is used to refer to the femaleanatomy and females in general, also means you little girl, and that's"OK?" Then there's the other hero of the film, the doper, the guy whooffers to supply drugs to the kids, but, really, man, uh, you know,it's OK, he's cool. He's a good guy. He's a hero. So, the messages to the targeted audience of youth this is aimed at areclear: 1. It's OK to curse. Be sure to do it hard, loud andobnoxiously; 2. Girls are trash and should not be offended by boys whotalk dirty around them. They should recognize their inferior place insociety and just accept themselves for the pathetic losers they are;and 3. Dopers aren't so bad. Just because they try to sell young teensdrugs doesn't make them evil. They're just trying to get by. Yourstruly, Uncle Steven and cousin J.J.

19 May 2012

Mediocre 8

I really wanted to like SUPER 8, and there are certainly elements to like. But as I sat there with my extended family, including a 6, 7, 10, and 14-year-old, I kept wondering who the audience was. Clearly, it was intended for children, since the mother dies immediately in a horrible crushing accent. (Dead parents are the hallmark of all great kid movies, donchaknow?) And then the jokes about what was in the mother's coffin (seriously), because she was brutally crushed, so there couldn't be a body...well those scenes had my kids in stitches. Then there was the movie-long father-son angst about the mother's brutal death - riveting to say the least - and the pot-smoking hippie who drove the kids around declaring how stoned he was. Plus the language the kids spewed. And the military murdering a teacher and...and...and...What's good about SUPER 8? The child-actors were fine. They were 100% cliché, but that doesn't bother me. The movie that they make is funny but lasts, literally, as long as it take the credits to roll. There's a clichéd but sweet coming of age/first romance story that is respectable. The alien angle was too scary for the younger kids in my group, but the concept of the protagonists catching something important on their little camera is compelling. I really do wish it had been more like the Goonies or Stand By Me, to which SUPER 8 has been widely compared.When I see Steven Spielberg's name on the marquee of a science fiction movie, I'm really torn. My impulse is to run, but I remember Minority Report and think, maybe... But I also still remember A.I., and my feet start me moving toward the door. For SUPER 8, I saw J.J. Abram's name, too, and I was hopeful. Alas, it was not to be. I have to think there were some mighty internal fights over the direction this movie should take. And in the end, I think the audience was the loser. I would have loved to see more of the small-town charm, more of the kids (quieter and with more believable dialog) and less of the angst and brutal mother-crushing.

jakekringschreifels

17 May 2012

A monster mystery adventure tethered to a coming of age, interpersonal maturation.

JJ Abrams likes keeping secrets. He has a penchant for keeping his filmplots quiet. The director of the secretive disaster movie Cloverfieldand creator of the TV series Lost, Abrams finds pleasure in making hisaudience unable to anticipate. "I just feel like now that before themovie starts, I've been told almost everything," he says. With JJ,we're lucky we get anything .His latest installment Super 8 occurs in the rural town of Lillian,Ohio. The year is 1979, and Abrams makes us fully aware we are spendingtime in his boyhood era. He unleashes a time capsule of greatest hitslike "Don't Bring Me Down" and "My Sharona" listened to on a newlypurchased Walkman. The town's main street has the old-time effectbranded onto its store signs and streetlights. News reports onThree-mile island make white noise and bounce off the wood-paneledkitchen walls. The scene is certainly set.Using some of this new technology is Charles (Riley Griffiths), whowields his 8mm camera around while gathering his rag-tag group offriends together for his Zombie movie which he plans to enter in alocal competition. The main character, Charles's best friend and chiefmakeup artist, is Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), a somber kid-artist whopaints figurines and designs toy trains. His mother's earlier death ata steel mill heightens tension between his deputy father and also opensa relationship with Alice (Elle Fanning), an older girl who reluctantlysigns on to play a part in Charles's movie.The allusions to Spielberg are evident and for a reason; he is theproducer after all. The classic grouping of middle school friends seemomnipresent in Spielberg flicks, take The Goonies and E.T. Abramscombines the familiar collection of kids, mystery, and monsters and itsyncs up well for the majority of the film. The plot follows a familiarroad but the element of surprise and emotional correspondence give atired sequence new life, for a while.In order to shoot "The Case," the title of Charles's movie, Alicesteals her dad's car and without a license drives them to an old trainplatform for a midnight scene. They begin rolling when a speeding traincomes charging down the tracks and Charles, seeking "production value"decides to re-shoot the scene as the train blisters by. Then things getweird. A reckless truck soon crashes into the freighter that enacts anexaggerated domino-like effect of cars being tossed into the sky andreturning to the earth smoldering with mysterious content. Shades ofMichael Bay linger on into the fire-lit night .The group, filled with nerds and oddballs, like the pyrotechnic braceface that keeps fireworks in his backpack, struggles with keeping theirtwilight account secretive. The military soon bombards the quiet townwith oppressive orders. Metal objects begin disappearing, dogs startfleeing the radius, and even some people go missing. Like the greatchild narratives, the adults are clueless, and the government isclearly hiding something from us. The young film makers are trapped intheir heads; worried, determined, but opportunistic. Their small moviebecomes the driving force in their quest to stay together, figure outthe unknown, and in a less cliché way, find themselves.Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning bring this blossoming tale some youngteen attraction and show their acting chops throughout. However, therelationships soon get sidetracked by the necessity of the monster'splot . Flickering lights and floating cars soon take over theforeground and Joe's stern father gets overshadowed by the military'sgrowing presence. These camouflaged scenes become distracting to ourmain character's plight and become a beacon of questioning that isnever torched properly. Inquiries into this mysterious origin arehinted at, but only serve to miss the point of this group story.The human element of this film is what glues these kids together.Besides the undeveloped, maternal sentimentality that occurs betweenyoung Joe and his deceased mother, the growing friendships and adaptinghousehold brings in a Stand By Me appeal where the innocent and curiousplace faith in untested collaboration. The destructive forces inCloverfield certainly make their way into this film though, and the"production value" is sure to make Charles proud. Abrams puts a heavydosage of suspense and fire-power that orchestrate into large noise.But this does not crescendo out of control and remains a monstermystery adventure tethered to a coming-of-age, interpersonalmaturation.Though Spielberg's presence, sans a John Williams score, is noticeable,Super 8′s structure is injected with strong performances that refuel aunique group adventure. Abrams is unable to pull the two separate plotsinto complete harmony but they synchronize just enough; and just enoughfor Abrams is a whole lot more than anyone can ask for, at least thissummer.Check out my site in its entirety at h t t p://field of films. wordpress. com

17 May 2012

Entertaining -- very derivative of ET and other Spielberg films

This is a reasonably entertaining film. Its strong point is the acting of the young actors. Many times actors under the age of around 15 simply cannot act; they mouth their lines pertly enough, but at the end of the day they are not convincing as characters. These young actors can actually act, and seem like real people caught up in a real situation. The plot kind of meanders along with the trademark Spielberg plot of an extraterrestrial situation that the bad US Government agents are trying to ruthlessly cover up. We've seen it before. I kept waiting for the kids to ride their bikes into the sky. And that spaceship, I think I saw it somewhere before in a Richard Dreyfus film.The sub-plot of the fathers who are dealing with grief, albeit unsuccessfully, in different ways is carried off well, and some viewers will find this more interesting than the countless crashes, smash ups, etc. that relentlessly punctuate this film. An enjoyable family film. RJB.

Julian0922

17 May 2012

Summer Teenage Alien Flick!

It could have been...should have been...but was not anything else thananother Teenage flick. The story is so shallow that one can, with a bitof imagination, see the end after 10minutes into the movie.And then of course Fanning, who does not have enough of Dakota getshere the overdose. She looks and acts like her sister and that's that.I watched it because the previews were actually pretty good and Iexpected maybe a bit too much, but was nevertheless very disappointedto end up in a Teenage Alien Movie with all possible clichés in it! Itreminded me in some occasions on Stand by me, but that was probablyjust me.Conclusion: If you want your up to 14year old kids have a good time,this is the movie to watch. IF you are a bit older, get a DVD and saveyour money!

16 May 2012

Thank God for you Speilberg

This review is from: Super 8 (Amazon Instant Video) Great movie....Just watch and enjoy. Thanks Steven and J.J. The cast was wonderful. Pure movie joy. You all make movies fun to watch...thanks for that!

John

16 May 2012

It wasnt awful... It was God awful

Oh boy, where do I begin? My good friend said this movie was really good so I took his word for it and went and saw it. Speilberg should be ashamed of himself, did he even read the crappy script? This movie had a lot of unexplained things happening and never get explained. Like the little white cubes, the magnet in the Watertower, all of the crap in the aliens layer and so forth. Why did they put the story of the little boy losing his mom??! It had nothing to do with the story! They could have left that part out and it wouldn't have changed the horrible ending.So the monster is wrecking the town and killing everyone but when he picks up the little boy he's the gentle giant all of the sudden!? Give me a break I know this movie is intended for kids/ families but the writers could have put a little more care into the script.The acting was a joke filled with a bunch of no name actors. Specifically the 2 main dads, I couldn't help laugh at some of their serious scenes because their acting sucked! The fat kid was getting on my nerves about 20 mins into it.I'm just so pissed because I was really excited to see this one. Why can't they make movies like they used to anymore? The best recent movie I've seen was toy story 3 and it was a cartoon for gods sakes! Don't waste your time or money on super 8!

15 May 2012

Fantastic... Right up until the end

I absolutely loved this film, saw it in the theater three times because the kids were so good. I felt that the mood and the feel of 1980 was spot on. I very much identified with them... I thought to myself 'this is exactly what it was like being a kid in those days' and loved every second. The kids' banter was well written and sounded like actual kids, not watered down... The dad's frustration with the son felt so believable... And the effects were awesome.But... (spoiler)Couldn't there have been a better ending? It would have been a simple thing to do to have the kid simply find some crucial part of the spaceship hidden in the dead teacher's storage bin... Or something like that... Couldn't they have helped in SOME way? The dad was running around like a super hero on a mission, and i couldn't wait to see how it was going to wrap up, how the dad and the kids would come together and save the day... And they simply 'met up' in town, just in time to see the alien depart. There was no feeling of 'finally the alien can go, because he met the nice kid and his friends.' it was kind of a let down... Again, i will buy it because it was SO great otherwise... But it could have been a masterpiece.

Kollin Williford

13 May 2012

truly a great movie

First thing i have to say is that i truly LOVED this movie, one of thebest movies i have ever seen.All of the roles were cast perfectly, if i could fix one thing in thismovie it would be the language used by the kids, that just didn't seemright to me that all of those kids cussed so much.But everything else about the movie was great, i HIGHLY RecommendIT!!!! Well, actually it would have been better if the last bit wasmore realistic, but due to the main plot of the movie, the end had tobe a bit corny. I will once again say, that i HIGHLY Recommend THISMOVIE!!!

jacabiya

13 May 2012

Just awful

All I can do is add to what's already been said: anyone looking for amonster movie should look elsewhere. This Cloverfield isn't, a filmthat I enjoyed. This is a homage to Spielberg, in particular to hisfilms of the 80s. If you are not a fan of this cinema, you better stayaway. This combines films that I watched back in the day (The Goonies,E.T., etc.) but have not seen since given that I don't care at allabout them, finding them sticky, formulaic and stereotyped. I neverparticularly enjoyed films about life seen through the eyes of a kid,which is what a lot of Spielberg's cinema in the 80s was: I'd ratherwatch his films when he finally decided to address the adult audiences,notwithstanding its many problems. This is not grand or fun cinema asAbrams obviously thinks it is. Once you fail to get hooked you startnoticing the startling mistakes and gaps, including the absurd traincollision, the monster which you wait all film to see, the inevitablelove story, the melodramatic crap about the father and his girlfriend'sfather, and the annoying kids. At some time I just ff over scenesbetween the kid and the girl and scenes between the kids so I missed abig chunk of the second half of this tremendously long, insufferablefilm. After reading what I missed, I definitively did myself a favor.