When growing up I didn’t watch as many movies as I do now. I did watch E.T. and I remember it one of the few movies that made me cry the moment E.T. was dying. It’s that movie magic which Spielberg is a master of and as a kid you were connecting to the kids in the movie. I missed out on a lot of the other movies starring groups of kids, so I only saw movies like The Goonies and Stand By Me fairly recently. They all have this feeling of adventure and keeping something secret from the adults.

J.J. Abrams obviously has been inspired by these type of movies and wrote and directed Super 8, which tells the story of a couple of kids, living in a small American town in the eighties, that sneak out at night to shoot their own zombie movie. They witness a big train crash and after this everything changes around their town. The movie was produced by Spielberg (who also helped with the story), but can J.J.Abrams work his magic on a coming of age story the same way Spielberg can? Continue reading →