Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) is a budding teenage special effects wizard, who works with his best friend, Charles (Riley Griffiths), while Charles and the other outcast boys in the middle school work on monster movies. While it’s not exactly the most girl catching of pastimes, it does allow the boys to have fun and work on their craft using a handy-dandy Super 8 video camera. Of course, their craft is low-rent zombie detective movies, but you have to start somewhere, right? During a night shoot at a train station, the crew somehow gets caught in the middle of one of the most awesome special effects sequences I’ve ever seen, as a military train derails and its cargo, its living cargo, escapes into the night. With the adults otherwise distracted, it’s up to Joe, Charles, Alice, and the rest of the kids to figure out just what was on that train and what’s causing all the weird disappearances and power disturbances in town before it’s too late. The rumor is that clashes between the two meant that Spielberg ended up directing the flick and reshooting big portions of it, while Hooper was marginalized, at best, and secretly replaced at worst. (The current story from the actors is that Spielberg directed it using Hooper as a front to get around his ET contract. The Directors Guild of America says that there was no evidence for a co-director credit for Spielberg.) This movie, from what I can tell, is all Abrams, right down to the love of lens flare, but JJ Abrams is doing his very best Spielberg impression, and that’s not a bad thing. As for the script, also by Abrams, there are a few flaws. The story slows down a little in the middle, which is understandable after the hot start and before the very exciting finale.  There are a few improbable moments, but when you consider that this is basically an adventure movie for kids, there’s a necessary suspension of disbelief that comes along with the territory (and there’s usually a character among the kids who questions the logic of whatever crazy decision the plot requires for maximum adventure). When I mention adventure, I mean adventure. This is like ET-era Spielberg with better special effects and better child actors. It’s a sweet movie, but it’s not too sweet so as to be cloying. The kids are a little precocious, but it’s not implausible, considering they’re all kind of nerds and they’re on the cusp of adulthood. There’s adventure and peril, and while there are scary moments, it’s not too scary for the target audience. If you don’t get a little nostalgic for the 80s while watching Super 8, you obviously didn’t grow up in the 80s on child-friendly adventure fare or summer movies with a soul. US Correspondent Ron Hogan thinks that the Spielberg/Abrams team-up is the best team-up since Tango met Cash. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi.