david-sarkies

(2012-04-29 01:09:41)

ET with teeth

I be blunt and say that I like this movie despite there being a lot ofyour standard Hollywood cookie cutter scenes and concepts, and a rathersoppy ending. If I were to sum this film up in one line and that wouldbe ET with teeth. The film is set in small town America focusing aroundsome young misfit teenagers who have stumbled across some mysterioushappenings. The two main characters, Joe and Alice are both fromnon-standard families (Joe's father is the local cop and his motherrecently died in a factory accident, while Alice's father is the localcrook, and doesn't seem to have a mother). However Joe and his friendsare making a horror film for a film competition, but the filming isinterrupted by a train crash.The film is set in the 80's, which is another reason why I call it ETwith teeth, but the main reason is that it is because it is about analien who simply wants to get home, but the US Airforce simply will notlet it. The alien does have a number of allies who are trying to assistit, but it is simply angered at being treated like a zoo exhibit, andit's opinion of humanity is not very high.However, the film focuses around the teens, and we only know what theteens know. Thus, they witness a train crash (and in turn try toincorporate it into their film) and then strange things begin tohappen, which includes the US airforce turning up. It is interestinghow the army is always portrayed (okay, not always, but often) as asecret organisation that has its own agenda, and this agenda is notalways for the benefit of the population at large.Hollywood's relationship with the army is spotted at best. There are anumber of films (such at Top Gun) which is promotes the armed forces(and as such the armed forces bend over backwards to assist them) whileothers (such as Super 8) is not all that flattering. It seems thatthere is a love/hate relationship. In a way people want the army toprotect their 'liberty' but this desire is sometimes in conflict withthe wealthy elite using the army to protect their own ends. The UnitedStates has been reasonably lucky in its history in that it has actuallyhave very few foreign attacks on it's soil. Since the revolution, therehas been the war of 1812 (when the British invaded and burnt the WhiteHouse down), the Civil War, Pearl Harbour, and 9/11. Most of thedeployment however have been foreign interventions for various reasons.However, I get beyond the scope of this review. As I said, this filmends rather soppily, but I guess that is what one can expect from suchfilms. We spend most of the film wanting to know what happens, andwhile we are not guessing, we are hoping for something that we neverexpect, however, in most cases that simply does not happen. I guess, asthe bible does say, 'there is nothing new under the sun'.

smilingseal7

(2012-04-28 10:49:13)

Average to the extreme

I was really looking forward to watching this movie. It looked like afun, sci-fi flick with some cool action and decent characters. Well, it kind of was... but not really.First of all, the story was very predictable. I more or less had itfigured out in the first 20 minutes or so. And it was really cheesy-all the creepy monster attack scenes were at night, when the victimswere alone and helpless. I mean, seriously?I can't tell if this movie was supposed to be primarily about the alienor about the death of the boy's mother. It started off with the kidsfilming their zombie movie and focusing on the boy (I already forgotthe character's names, which tells you how connected I was to them)dealing with the death of his mom... but after maybe half an hour itwas all about the alien. Also, the ending was really anti-climactic andcheesy. I know these types of movies aren't supposed to be realistic at all,but some of the situations in this movie were so ridiculous that Icouldn't help laughing during the "serious" parts.I will say that the acting was very solid, and was the score, editing,cinematography (for the most part), and effects.But there's more to a movie that the appearances. A good movie needs astrong plot and three-dimensional characters. This movie has an averageplot with too many subplots that get mentioned and dropped. I reallydidn't care about any of the characters in general. There are someemotional scenes between two of the kids, but the rest is very averageand I found myself frequently getting bored and staring at my watch.Super 8 could have been so much better... but, alas, it was justaverage and very forgettable.

(2012-04-28 05:52:51)

loved it!!!!!

This review is from: Super 8 (Amazon Instant Video) I absolutely LOVED this movie, haven't seen a film this good in years. It's absolutely a must-have for any dvd collection!

(2012-04-27 16:48:44)

Horrible movie & way too dark

This review is from: Super 8 (Amazon Instant Video) the movie was shot in such dark scenes that you could not see half of the movie. Most of the movie is soo unbelievable that its annoying. Don't bother. Heck I dont think I will watch any more movies from with JJ Abrams of Speilberg.

gregeichelberger

(2012-04-26 19:55:10)

Spielberg goes back to early roots, takes Abrams with him

Producer Steven Spielberg took novice director J.J. Abrams ("Mission:Impossible III," "Star Trek") for a ride with his newest production,"Super 8," and man was it a trip. The veteran helmer - who won AcademyAwards for his World War II pictures, "Schindler's List" and "SavingPrivate Ryan" - reaches back into his earliest efforts to bring to lifea screenplay he had tucked away for decades.Abrams utilizes elements of "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the ThirdKind," "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" and "The Goonies" (written but notdirected by Spielberg), among others in this story of a group of smalltown Ohio preteens making a zombie movie for a super 8 film contest inthe summer of 1979. The picture also bears a passing resemblance to2006's "Cloverfield," but please don't let THAT fact frighten you away.Led by Charles (Riley Griffith), the brains behind the project, thecast includes sensitive makeup artist and go-fer, Joe Lamb (newcomerJoel Courtney) - who lost his mother in a steel mill accident fourmonths earlier. Others involved in making the movie-within-a-movie arezombie actor, Cary (Ryan Lee), bumbling detective, Martin (GabrielBasso), the detective's "wife," Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning, Dakota'slittle sis, "Because Of Winn-Dixie") and befuddled extra, Preston (ZachMills).While filming a touching "love" scene at a railroad depot late onenight, the kids are witness to a horrible train derailment - possiblycaused by one of their biology teachers (Glynn Turman). The small super8-mil. camera, however, witnesses something much more sinister. Thankgoodness Abrams followed the example of "Jaws" and "Alien" (and NOT"Cloverfield") by waiting until the end of the proceedings beforerevealing the entity.Air Force personnel soon begin streaming into the town to contain thedamage caused by the derailment - as well as the curiosity of local lawenforcement - especially deputy sheriff, Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler,"King Kong," "The Kingdom"), whose relationship with his son isstrained to the breaking point. Headed by fanatical Col. Nelec (NoahEmmerich "The Truman Show," "Miracle," "Little Children"), the militaryunit wants to find whatever escaped the wreck that night, even if itmeans spreading fraudulent information or causing a fake panic andevacuation.Alice soon disappears and while in Air Force custody, the kids get aclose up look at what the boys in blue are after. Abrams is not abovethrowing a few new tricks into the mix here, but stays faithful to hismentor's love affair with the good side of aliens and the often darkheart of human nature. The children are funny, touching andheart-tuggingly real, just like most of Spielberg's young actors (withthe exception of the kid who played "Short Round" in "Indiana Jones andthe Temple Of Doom"), and the "love affair" between Joe and Alice issimple and sweet, just like the way we remember our first crushes were.Adults in this feature range from super good to unbelievably evil, butthere is a nice twist with Alice's father, Louis (Ron Eldard, "Scent Ofa Woman," "Blackhawk Down") and deputy Lamb. Meanwhile, DavidGallagher, the cute little blonde kid from the TV series "SeventhHeaven," has a field day as a stoner film store clerk.Overall, a nice time at the cinema with plenty of laughs to go alongwith some genuinely frightening moments. Abrams also bring a deft handto directing kids here, whose stories vastly overshadow the plights ofthe grown-up population. And for those who like to slip out of thetheatre right when the credits begin to roll, give yourself a fewminutes at the conclusion of "Super 8," when the children's homemadefilm project, "The Case," is revealed in its entirety.It's a wonderful way to wrap up a very good summer edition to theseason's blockbuster lineup.

aznfratboy

(2012-04-26 04:51:55)

Not too shabby

I've given this an 8/10, mainly because I'm easy on the ratings. I sawsome trailers of the movie and I thought to myself, it doesn't look toobad. Whilst with a friend, she suggested that we watch it, as there wasnothing else to watch at the time. Personally, I find this movie to bea sign of the times, the body of the movie is actually pretty decent,but the start and end are sort of iffy. It takes too long to get to thereal nitty gritty part. Yes, the kids are funny, the way the bag anddiss each other is cool, and a not too bad depiction of what kids werelike before Facebook (ie. they actually talked to each other, ratherthan facebook messaging the person THEY ARE SITTING NEXT TO), yes Ihate those people too, but let's return to the topic at hand. The moviedoes take a little too long to build the storyline. I think there istoo much calling for movies to be character driven in the modern era. Isay no! If you want characters you can relate to THAT'S WHAT A TV SHOWIS FOR. A movie is meant to last 90-150 minutes, give or take. Thecharacters support the plot. The ending sort of came out of nowhere. Ithought that the movie was just about to take it up a notch and then itfinished abruptly. Is is weird that movies are now very much "oh, soI'm going to push this button, and that will make everything else thatyou've seen in the past 90 minutes or so basically null and void". Now that I've gotten the negatives out of the way, lets move onto thepositives. As you can probably conclude, the part of the movie I likedwas the main storyline aspect of the film. The kids are decent actors.Joel Courtney, the lead plays the role of the child superhero well,Kyle Chandler brought a little of the Eric Taylor to the film, furthersupporting that he probably is the best "average dad" actor out thereright now. The visual effects were great without being overdone likeTransformers. But I like specificity, so I'll keep it at that.Overall, I give it an 8 for a general movie, but for a movie with thebacking of Abrams and Spielberg, the guys behind ET and Lost, I give ita 7. Take of that what you will, but I reckon for others, it's a 7 anda 5.5 respectively.

(2012-04-24 17:29:52)

Boring

Because I'm the same age as the director, I can say that this film was marketed directly for me and folks in my generation. I appreciated the nostalgia, but: my gosh this film is SLOW to develop, way slower than the films to which it plays homage. This will bore 14 year olds to death. This 38 year old feel asleep in one part. It's a pretty film, and the child actors are VERY good, but the story is sort-of lame, and the ending pretty much a let down. Folks are rating this film highly because they WANT to like it, but own it's own merits, it's really kind of boring and too slow paced to really capture the magic of, say, ET or the GOONIES. Meh.

runamokprods

(2012-04-24 04:30:25)

Fun, if familiar

Entertaining if derivative Steven Spielberg homage (ironically producedby Spielberg himself), this is smarter than most modern summer actionmovies by a long shot, with some amazing special effects, some funshocks, and good performances from a brace of young actors. What it doesn't have is a lot of originality, being sort of a mash upof E.T. and Close Encounters with a few bits of The Goonies and oldmonster movies thrown in. It does remind us of how good those stories were, and that there's noreason you can't make a teenage friendly action adventure with smarts.It was fun and fast paced, but after the smashing (literally) opening Iwas hoping for more than a warm hearted, well made re-tread of filmsgone by.

meeza

(2012-04-23 12:05:23)

Super!

Super 8, 8, 8, I love you Super 8, give it to me Super 8. OK, I soundlike a silly Celi Bee there (only hardcore 70's Disco fans got thatopening). But it is true! Summer Popcorn Cinematic Entertainment a la70's style is alive and well in J.J. Abrams "Super 8". The movie'sexecutive producer is Steven Spielberg, and why not because "Super 8"has Super Spielberg written all over it. Before its release, the film'splot points were supposed to be kept super secret, and even in thetrailers all one would see is a railroad trailer of a grandiose traincrash. So I don't want you to super-hate me, so I will not reveal toomuch of Super 8's plot during my review. I will inform you that if youare an aficionado of "E.T.", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind","Poltergeist", "The Goonies", and "Jurassic Park", you will also becomea super fan of "Super 8". The film is based during the late 70's in anOhio town. A few Middle School kids are filming an 8 millimeter shortfilm to help their peep Charles, who is directing it, so it can beentered in a youth film contest. But during its roll, the kids witnessa colossal train wreck. After that, havoc runs amok and bizarreoccurrences start occurring in the town. The town's deputy sheriffJackson Lamb is now in the center of the madness trying to investigatewhat is going on. The train wreck and the town's strange happenings dohave a connection, but I will not wreck it for you by providinginformation on that either. The movie's primary focus is on the kidsthough; the film is primarily presented through their subjectiveresponses to all the madness that is going on, especially those of thetween protagonists Joe Lamb (yep, the Deputy Sheriff's son), and theyoung girl he crushes on Alice Dainard. All the other kids do play anintegral though. So what is the mystery of the train wreck and how itaffected Jackson Lamb and his son Joe Lamb? Not gonna tell you! It willbe my Silence of the Lambs. I will say that J.J. Abrams' direction &screenplay of this super flick will have you on the edge of your seat,you will not be derailed with flat boredom or insignificant subplots;every aspect of the film bears semblance and swiftly aids in theprogress of the narrative. Turn out the Friday Night Lights becauseKyle Chandler has now entered into the movies playing field quitenicely with his game performance as Jackson Lamb. Nice to see RonEldard back in the thespian game with an impressive effort as Alice'sdad Louis. But it is the kids that dominate "Super 8"! I am notkidding! Whopper performances all around- Joel Courtney as Joe Lamb,Elle Fanning as Alice Dainard, Riley Griffiths as Charles; Ryan Lee,Gabriel Basso, and Zach Mills were the other kiddos who round out theyoung thespian super crew of "Super 8". So get behind the 8 ball or atleast your vehicle, and drive to the nearest multiplex to witness the"Super 8" phenomenon! ***** Excellent

jmstettner

(2012-04-22 17:03:00)

Check your brain at the door and enjoy

Super 8 is good film, technically well put together, well cast andacted, and pretty to watch. The story keeps moving and drags you alongwith it. Still, it is unoriginal, stereo-typical, and cobbled togetheras if from a Hollywood script Job Lots. J. J. Abrams deserves no creditor acclaim for this film since not one aspect of it is actually his ~he wandered through the grocery store of thematic elements and pickedfrom this shelf and that till the story came together. The card-boardcut-out military characters and nature are painful and distractingunless you lean to the left and drink the kool-aid. It is clear thatAbrams has little actual knowledge about the military and possibly lessabout government.I am a harsh critic. All I ask is a modicum of believability. PerhapsI'm wrong, but the Air Force uses planes not tanks ~ I could be wrongthough. Given the nature of American culture in 1979, how does Abramsexplain the fact that there were no whistle-blowers, no politicalover-sight, and no pesky reporters poking into this project? He doesn't~ the audience is just supposed to buy into the Evil Government BigBrother mind-set. What insults most of all though is the Americansoldiers ignoring Posse Commitatus and murdering civilians.

(2012-04-20 04:04:16)

E.T.'s Crystal Skull of the 3rd Kind

This review is from: Super 8 (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (Blu-ray) It's Spielberg, therefore we can expect ...- Aliens (good. misunderstood) - Children (wise, funny)- Suspense (masterful, intriguing)- Military (bad, always bad)I liked the first 2/3 of the movie better than the last 1/3. A bit corny at the end, IMHO. Also, the CGI train crash was not very realistic -- too cartoonish!Spielberg purposely introduced a lot of blue glare lines and occasional spots & smudges on the lens (not the Super-8, but the big film cameras). I'm sure it was done as an after-effect to give the audience a sense of what filming was like during the Super-8 days, but frankly it was annoying! If it showed up only on the brief Super-8 footage, it would have made more sense, but not on the high definition quality cameras used for most of the movie. Enough with the blue lines across the screen already!! Perhaps this is explained in the special features, but I hadn't gotten to those yet.

(2012-04-19 05:41:57)

Three and 1/2 star movie

The school year is ending, which means less homework and more opportunities to go to the movies on weekdays. My daughters wanted to see "Super 8" because my youngest had heard from a friend in school that one scene made her scream aloud. I myself was not sure what to make of a film touted as an "homage" to another producer/director. But JJ Adams has made some very solid movies in my opinion, so it couldn't be all bad. And it wasn't. My daughters were duly frightened and pronounced it a very good movie. But I found myself thinking about the plot during those moments when the pace of the movie seemed to slow. First thought that hit me was these events were taking place when Jimmy Carter was president. He never seemed like the type of chief executive that would have approved of secret and not so nice air force programs to exploit captive aliens. Then I began wondering why a lowly colonel ran the whole program and why he had been in charge for apparently a number of years. And then I wondered why heavily armed national guardsmen wearing flak jackets were evacuating a town threatened by a wildfire. Seemed a bit like overkill if you asked me? The sight of those guys on the street would have led to me START asking questions rather than blindly following their directions. Plus, fuel trucks don't blow up if you shoot them with a rifle (see the Mythbusters series). Well, I guess it doesn't pay to look for holes in a plot because undoubtedly they exist in all movies. But then again, if the film had engaged me throughout, I guess I would not have had the time to mull over the plot. The acting on the part of the kids was excellent - Elle Fanning especially. Some aspects of the film - like the kids making a zombie movie - were also brilliant. The casting for the adults, however, seemed a bit stereotypical. The bad Air Force colonel had to look bad, etc. I felt like I had to explain the concept of posse comitatus to my kids when I got home. I also have trouble comparing the monster to ET when I learned that it apparently ate people. Seemed a bit more CLOVERFIELD-ish and thus much less sympathetic.

John DeSando

(2012-04-17 00:17:36)

Right at home

Audiences will feel right at home in director J.J. Abrams' and producerSteven Spielberg's Super 8, an homage to Abrams' Cloverfield with itsfound footage motif and to many of Spielberg's child-like, home-drivenimaginative films such as E.T.Summer action doesn't get much better as adolescents like Elle Fanningstruggle against the army, aliens, and parents who just don't get it.The cinematography is Abrams worthy, action dominant but with thecamera frequently at a distance that allows full appreciation, ratherthan claustrophobia. The team of adolescent buddies filming a zombiemovie can't be anything but Spielberg as an enterprising youngfilmmaker.That team witnesses and films a horrific train accident that is notyour garden variety disaster: it carries inside it strange Rubik's Cubeobjects and the hint of alien life that gives life to what could havebeen a standard teen alienation-from-parents story.As in several of Spielberg's film, getting home, be it kids reconcilingwith parents or aliens trying to leave, is the central motif along withthe splendor of fighting the teen age monsters within and growing upamid disaster. In Super 8, the teens' comic relief is regular andsophisticated, the interaction with parents and other authority figuresjust mature enough to keep respect flowing both ways.Summer is reaching its peak, the skies are full of stars, and motionpictures will offer relief from the heat as well as, in the case ofSuper 8, a fun action film that will make you remember other sci-fi butacknowledge that the Abrams/Spielberg team does it all better thananyone else could do.

Vinegaroon3

(2012-04-16 09:52:36)

This movie largely fails....and is unoriginal to boot

Honestly, this film was a mess.It tries very hard to be mysterious and suspenseful, but fails. I wouldsummarize it as a "slice of life" portrayal of the kids in the movie.They go through their lives, acting and thinking like the adolescentsthat they are. In the background we know something (something largelypredictable) is going on related to the train wreck and the presence ofthe military. The problem is that during the long, agonizing middle ofthe film, this "situation" has virtually nothing to do with the kidsand is largely ignored. The movie drags horribly during the middle (2/3of the film) because quite simply nothing is happening.The character development is pretty good, and for that reason I atleast gave the movie a mediocre rating. But, in terms of the story, itfalls flat on its face.Having said all that, it was the complete lack of originality thatreally bothered me here. It seems Spielberg has dipped too many timesinto the same well. If I described this movie as a compilation of ET,Goonies, and Close Encounters, you would have a very good idea what toexpect. Yet, where all those other movies succeeded (at least on somelevel), Super 8 fails. It was boring, predictable, and felt cobbledtogether.I recommend you skip this one, or perhaps watch it in TV.

Andy

(2012-04-14 23:23:23)

How to become a bad director

To say this was a disappointment is an understatement, the story wasboring and so was the camera work. It seems to be an ongoing theme withUS films in recent years, dumping loads of cash on effects and fancycamera work and somehow that will make up for god awful stories.As others have stated it's basically a rip from The Gonnies which is afar better film. I can say that the acting of the young cast was verygood and considering how bad the script it's the only plus part of thewhole film.I think we will see the same thing happen to J.J. Abrams as we haveseen with M. Night Shyamalan, basically it seems they were lucky withthe first few projects they directed and now they are just trying to beclever with pointless stories.Hey you guys! Surely there must be better material out there, youraudience isn't as dumb as you might think and we expect better!

hypchyck

(2012-04-14 08:08:30)

Don't Spoil it by IMDBing to find the whole plot!

This was excellent! Part of what made it great was not knowing the fullplot before hand. Do yourself a favor - don't IMDb it to get the wholescoop - just check it out.The young cast was AMAZING...it was like watching a group of realkids...not a bunch of child actors.It is well written, well acted, well directed, well produced. The storyis so good that you can buy into the fictional elements. I didn't knowit was J.J. Abrams...He's redeemed himself from the crappy wrap-up ofLOST with this movie.And it's Spielberg at his best. I was taken back to the emotionalinvolvement I experienced with E.T..This is by far the best movie I've seen this year...I already want tosee it again. It has a little bit of everything - comedy, drama,suspense, sci-fi, action! It's what a movie should be but rarely isthese days - worth the price of admission, fun and entertaining.Kudos on keeping this one under wraps - FINALLY - a great movie afteryears of crap!!

gavin-thelordofthefu-48-460297

(2012-04-14 08:40:28)

J.J. Abrams brings homage to Spielberg's films from the classic 80s in this heartwarming sci-fi adventure

During my view of Iron Man 2 last year, the teaser trailer for thismovie left me wide-opened and upon seeing that this was being directedby J.J. Abrams (the Star Trek remake) and Steven Spielberg (Jaws, ET,Jurassic Park) was somehow involved with this film, I became veryinterested and was desperate to see it in theaters at this time ofyear. Sadly, my hopes failed, but at least during my Christmas break, Ipulled out a DVD copy of this movie from my stocking and took a watch.To be honest, I had such a good time.I won't reveal the plot since it's unnecessary (although, it might havesome spoilers in it) and I'll just get to my opinion.At first, it's kind of like a mix of ET and Cloverfield (to which J.J.Abrams produced back at 2008 and have recently saw this film) exceptit's very emotional, funny and action-packed when it comes to StevenSpielberg and this is a pretty great film. Sure, the story does borrowsome elements from other films in the 80s that Steven directed,produced, and executive produced (Jaws, Close Encounters of the ThirdKind, ET, The Goonies, Arachnaphobia, and the War of the Worlds remake)along with it's redundant ending, but director J.J. Abrams only didthis as a homage to Spielberg's films.With that out of the way, everything kept this movie at a positivelevel. The acting is great. Kyle Chandler, Noah Emmerich and the restof the adult actors (including Homer Simpson himself Dan Castellaneta)did good, but arguably, the best actors in this movie so far goes tothe kids including Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Gabriel Basso, Elle Fanning,and Joel Courtney for doing such a wonderful job with theirperformances due to their chemistry and I even liked the romanticrelationship between Courtney and Fanning throughout the film.Super 8 is filled with amazing action sequences that revolves aroundthe alien attacking the military while our heroes attempt to save theirfriend Alice (SPOILER ALERT), groundbreaking CGI effects on the alien,wonderful visuals (along with the astounding 1979 setting), greatdirecting from J.J. Abrams and a dramatic and emotional orchestra scorefrom Michael Giacchino that makes this film an enjoyable experience towatch despite it's elements from Spielberg's classic films from the80s.Acting: 10/10 The cast is likable enough to make this movie look good.Story: 5/10 The story, while moving at a swift pace, would have beenbetter due to it's redundant ending (liked the concept, by the way) andwhile it has elements from Spielberg's 80s films, it has randomdialogue that I don't even seem to care to about.Action: 8/10 Despite it's creative scene where a train crashes creatingan explosion in the process and nearly killing our heroes, some of theaction does distract the story, but some of them managed to further thestory.Rating: 8.3/10

(2012-04-13 11:01:50)

1 of the Best films I've seen in 2011 - 5 Stars for both movie and blu-ray transfer

This review is from: Super 8 (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) (Blu-ray) First off, I just finished watching an advance blu-ray copy of this film and the movie and blu-ray transfer blew me away. IMO, this film is one of the very best of 2011 and if you are a fan of "old-fashioned" type drama/suspense films that have to do with extra-terrestrial life and what happens to a small rural community in the late 1970's is truly a film that will stay with you long after the movie's end. To give any more away would be a sin, so I won't.The blu-ray video and audio is fantastic. The aspect ratio is what appears to be 2.35:1 or thereabouts (Amazon has it wrong at 1.85:1). The video throughout is pristine with vivid colors in the daylight scenes and ink blacks in the night scenes. Details are vivid as you would expect from a top-notch blu-ray transfer. The audio equals the quality of the video and I've had to monitor the volume because I live in an apartment and use a 9.1 speaker configuration. Vocals came mainly from the center speaker along with the two front speakers that sometimes spilled over to the speakers located in the right and left middle ends of the room. Music and sounds were extremely active in all the remaining speakers. This film's sound truly rocked my movie room.I have over a thousand blu-rays and this film is in the top two of all films made and released in 2011. YES, it is that good!!!I just pre-ordered this from Amazon.com at the price of $24.99 and that's more than I usually pay for a new movie on blu-ray. I usually wait until the price comes down (which almost always happens) a few months down the road. But this is one film I have to have on release day.

(2012-04-11 13:05:30)

Big Blu Ray Sound

I just watched the Blu Ray version. The film although typical, is pretty entertaining. The picture quality is very good. But the thing that stands out the most on the Blu Ray is the sound, which is powerful and reference quality. The train wreck scene in particular is powerful, great scene in general and one of the best scenes for showcasing your surround sound system that I've ever heard.

(2012-04-11 00:44:40)

Absolute total disappointment (some "spoilers")

Initially, I was going to just buy this, but I saw it at Redbox the other day and decided to rent it instead. There's $1.20 absolutely wasted.I had relatively high expectations of this movie. With Abrams and Spielberg working collaboratively, I figured it would have to be good in some ways. I was wrong.I don't know if it could have been more hokey, cheesy, or cliche if they tried. Poor sullen kid loses mom, and dad has to finally be a parent (ooh. gripping.). The drunk neighbor is ridiculous. Ooh. Again. "Stay away from my daughter". Lame. Then we have the sad alien who only wants to return home (ET, but more angry and on steroids?). Amazingly, everyone comes away from a full on-train derailment with barely a scratch. The person who DRIVES A TRUCK HEAD ON into it miraculously lived long enough to be killed by the USAF. Lovely.Stupid 'tween puppy love? Check.Ridiculous story line? Check.Utterly predictable ending? Check.1 hour and 50 some minutes of my live I'll never get back? Check.Those who rave must have seen another movie or are just blinded by the names attached to this movie. Bottom line: It was awful.