Super 8

Movies don't have a very long shelf life these days, but this one deserves a long run.  It's an adventure told through the eyes of a loveable group of kids making a film in a small industrial town.  That description may make the movie sound a little like Goonies, but it's not quite accurate.  Think Goonies meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and you're a lot closer to this movie.  In fact, the movie self-consciously gives away some of the secrets of those movies through the kids' dialogue about the movie they are making, which also provides some light comedy throughout the movie.  There is an element of parody in the kids' movie about zombies, but there's also an element of innocence that has largely been lost in this era of big budget entertainment.  The whole film is set in the early 1980s or late 1970s, which is a perfect time for it, because it's before the world was totally transformed by the success of movies like Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and ET.  If you go see the movie, and I highly recommend that you do, look for the way the filmmaker weaves together disparate elements.  I know Steven Spielberg produced it and JJ Abrams directed it, so comparisons to ET and Star Trek are probably inevitable, but this film really aims to get past some of the Hollywood sci fi stuff and tell a story about coming of age, grief, loss, and love.  It encapsulates the story in a monster movie that riffs on the alien mythology we've all become accustomed to.  There's no reason these two stories can't coexist in the same movie, and the script does a fantastic job of combining the elements.  There are also some startling acting performances from some young actors, none of whom I've ever heard anything about before.