Super 8

There is no doubt that this movie was made in honor of Steven Spielberg.

J.J. Abrams and his co-horts say it in so many ways during their commentary and throughout the featurettes.

Set in a small Ohio town in 1979, a group of pre-teen friends set out to make their zombie movie on a super 8 camera. While filming near the train station, a truck plows onto the tracks and causes the entire train to derail. This train was carrying a life-form. A life-form that is captured on their film.

While the military come in to contain the situation, the kids discuss what they are going to do.

The movie is trademark Abrams - so many lens flares - with a strong mix of Spielbergian storytelling - focus in on a group of people thrown into extraordinary circumstances.

Kyle Chandler does a fantastic job as the town's deputy. The other actors keep the interest between peeks at the creature.

Speaking of the creature, you never really get a good look at the thing. Even at the end, when you typically get the full views of monsters, things are kept in the dark. And that is because the monster really isn't the point of this movie.

There are critics who didn't like this movie because they thought it would be something akin to Cloverfield instead of focusing on kids. But this is a fulfilling movie in the spirit of when making movies and watching them were fun.

This is such a good movie. Like the Goonies, this one will be quoted for a long time.