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Super 8 (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
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Additional Blu-ray options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
Blu-ray
January 7, 2013 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
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| $11.00 | $10.99 |
Blu-ray
December 12, 2011 "Please retry" | — | 2 |
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| $11.44 | $11.41 |
Blu-ray
July 5, 2012 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
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| $22.96 | $22.87 |
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December 19, 2017 "Please retry" | Digital Copy | 2 |
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| $39.99 | $2.50 |
Blu-ray
October 10, 2011 "Please retry" | — | — |
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| — | — |
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Super 8 | $0.00  | — | — |
Purchase options and add-ons
Genre | Sci-Fi, Thriller, Mystery |
Format | Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen, AC-3, Dubbed, Subtitled |
Contributor | Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, J.J. Abrams, Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning |
Language | English, French, Spanish, Portuguese |
Runtime | 1 hour and 52 minutes |
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From the manufacturer
Paramount provides premium content to audiences across worldwide. We connect with billions of people. Our studios create content for all audiences, across every genre and format, while our networks and brands forge deep connections with the world’s one of the most diverse audiences. In streaming, our differentiated strategy is scaling rapidly across free, broad pay, and premium.
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global
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Product Description
Product Description
JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg join forces in this extraordinary tale of youth, mystery, and adventure. Super 8 tells the story of six friends who witness a train wreck while making a Super 8 movie, only to learn that something unimaginable escaped during the crash. They soon discover that the only thing more mysterious than what it is, is what it wants. Experience the film that critics rave is, “filled with unstoppable imagination and visual effects to spare. It will put a spell on you.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Amazon.com
Few filmmakers have ever had a run at the tables like Steven Spielberg, whose output from 1971's Sugarland Express to, say, 1982's E.T. displayed an amazingly unforced melding of huge set pieces and small human gestures. Even at their most chaotic, they somehow felt organic. Super 8, writer-director J.J. Abrams's authorized tribute to classic Spielbergisms, hits all of the marks (Lived-in suburbia backdrop, check. Awestruck gazes upwards, check. Parental discord, check. Lens flares, amazingly huge check), but its adherence to the formula squelches much of its own potential. Appealing as it is to see a summer movie that retro-prioritizes character development over jittery quick-cut explosions, the viewer is always aware at how furiously it's working to seem effortless. Set in 1979, Abrams's script follows a group of movie-crazy kids attempting to make a zombie flick, only to have their plans cut short by a close encounter with a train derailment. As the military pours over the wreckage and neighbors start disappearing, the gang realizes that their footage contains a cameo appearance by an extremely grumpy guest star. For a film whose promotional campaign hinged so strongly on creating an air of mystery, Super 8 is a fairly straightforward melding of E.T. and Jurassic Park, albeit one featuring an oddly schizophrenic monster (he eats people… until he doesn't). Abrams makes his young cast shine (particularly when developing a hint of romance between leads Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning), while also providing a nice character arc for Kyle Chandler, as a widowed deputy who can see his relationship with his son slipping away. Aside from a few primo early jolts, however, the creature-feature aspects feel increasingly shoehorned in alongside the more assured coming-of-age elements. Abrams's film has more than enough bright spots to warrant a viewing, but its insistence on worshipfully following the master's playbook is a bit of a bummer. Imitation isn't always flattering. --Andrew Wright
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
- Product Dimensions : 0.6 x 5.4 x 6.7 inches; 2.89 ounces
- Item model number : 22963559
- Director : J.J. Abrams
- Media Format : NTSC, Subtitled, Blu-ray, Color, Dolby, Multiple Formats, Widescreen, AC-3, Dubbed
- Run time : 1 hour and 52 minutes
- Release date : November 22, 2011
- Actors : Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills
- Dubbed: : French, Spanish, Portuguese
- Subtitles: : English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
- Studio : Paramount Pictures
- ASIN : B004EPYZQ2
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 2
- Best Sellers Rank: #22,904 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- Customer Reviews:
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That said, before I get into Spielbergia I must give J.J. Abrams his due as an original artist. Anyone who has watched American television the past decade knows Abrams can deliver solidly on story and character with series like Alias, Lost and Fringe under his belt. However, until now his feature film career has been rooted in existing properties like Mission Impossible III and the new Star Trek. Both highly entertaining and visceral films in my opinion. But with Super 8 being his first original screenplay for a feature film, in some ways this was uncharted territory for Abrams. But with someone like Spielberg as his collaborator and producer and Abrams litany of experience in film-making and storytelling its hard to imagine his first original feature being anything but what we would come to expect from him. Emotional, well plotted, well acted, funny and just plain entertaining.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way lets get to the fun part - the Spielberg parallels! Here's the ones I spotted, in no particular order:
1. The "catalyst" into Act 2 is a spectacular train crash. Any coincidence that the 1st movie Spielberg remember's seeing as a child was 'The Greatest Show on Earth', which also contains one of the biggest train crashes in movie history? In fact, that train crash is said to be what inspired an 8 year Spielberg to shoot his first film; 2 toy trains crashing into each other (also as a way to get away with seeing his toy trains crash over and over without getting them taken away by his father.) Notice the discussion in Super 8 about filming the toy trains crashing into one another, which ultimately they do.
2. The obvious MILITARY parallel of Alien Life in Close Encounters being covered up by a staged viral outbreak that kills anyone or thing that breathes it causing town evacuation. This VS. the Military coverup of Alien Life in Super 8 being a staged grass fire that causes town evacuation.
3. In JAWS the scariest thing about the shark is the NOT seeing it. Same is true in Super 8, we don't fully see the monster until the film is almost finished. Builds suspense much more effectively.
3. Any coincidence the place that that the Alien in Super 8 makes his final takeoff into space from a water "tower". In Close Encounters the Alien Mothership arrives and takes off from Devil's "Tower", Wyoming.
4. The town hall meeting in Super 8 is very reminiscent of the town hall meeting in Close Encounters. All citizens EXCEPT the sheriff seem to be clueless and way off base about whats really going on.
5. The sound that the Alien makes is VERY similar to the sound of the T-Rex in Jurassic Park (as well as the sound of the dying truck in Spielberg's 1st feature 'Duel'.)
6. The main kid, Joe doesn't make good grades, as evidenced by him throwing his C+ papers aside when the Alice sees them (this could easily be a J.J. Abrams childhood connection too however.)
7. In ET & CLOSE ENCOUNTERS the alien makes a "psychic" connection of some kind with the people it interacts with. In ET its Elliott "feeling" what ET feels (i.e. classroom scene with frogs & Elliott getting drunk & Elliott getting sick when ET gets sick, etc.) In Close Encounters its Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon being obsessed with the image of Devil's Tower, which ultimately draws them to it. In Super 8 every human the Alien touches "sees" what the alien feels and has been through, thus sympathizing with it.
8. In ET a group of underdog kids led by Elliott "save the day" for ET. In THE GOONIES a group of underdog kids led by Mikey "save the day" for Mikey's families home which is about to be sold and bulldozed. Same here in Super 8 with Joe, the main kid taking one of the cubes which is close enough to the Water Tower to be drawn to it, thus creating a foundation for the Alien's ship to work from. Remember all the other cubes had been taken away by the government until the very end. And Joe is the one who tell the Alien to "GO" and that he understands and that bad things happen and its OK. This could be seen as the alien's motivation to leave. (my brother mentioned a parallel to 'Stand By Me' underdog kids, which is also true.)
9. Slight Spielbergian cinematography connections - 2:
a. The way both the gas station attendant and the airfare bus driver are "pulled away" feet first screaming by the Alien is very similar to the first death in Jurassic Park, where the gatekeeper is "pulled away" feet first screaming by the Velociraptor.
b. The side tracking dolly shots of the kids running through neighborhood "up and over" hills, fences, etc is very similar to side tracking dolly shots in ET of kids riding their bikes through neighborhood "up and over" hills, fences, etc trying to get ET to the forrest.
10. And here are a random sampling of other various connections I saw to Spielbergian cinema - the use of smoke and light, the conversational cadence of the kids interrupting each other & using cuss words poorly, loss of a parent, military being overly "big brother" in hiding alien, tracking and dolly shots, overhead shot of bus. I could go on and on.
Without question Super 8 has a multitude of connections and parallels to Steven Spielberg films but it is also good to keep in mind that good story elements are good story elements no matter when, where or who they are used by. Many times the good ones pop up over and over again, precisely for that reason, because they work. Overlap to previous archetypes or story mythologies is inevitable because the ones we like are the ones we like, whether they are set in space or in the old west. Good storytellers are drawn to these same archetypal stories, they just flavor them differently each generation. In summation, all of these parallels could simply be a MASTER STUDENT (Abrams) following his MASTER TEACHER (Spielberg) with such skill that it comes off as an omage, which it very well may be and does not keep it from being a truly original work.
BONUS!
#. Not a Spielberg omage but the name of the gas station KELVIN is the 2nd reference J.J. Abrams has made to his grandfather in a feature film, the 1st being the name of one of the spaceships in Star Trek (the "U.S.S. Kelvin") And of course all LOST fans know Kelvin is the name of the guy that was in the Swan Hatch before Desmond.
#. Also not a Spielberg parallel, but the kids zombie file "The Case" pays omega to George A. Romero, the godfather of zombie films by naming the chemical plant 'Romero Chemicals'. Loved that.
Abrams crafts a wondrous, heart-felt, and very well-made tale about a group of youngsters who have banded together in a small Ohio suburb in the late 70's to make a zombie film to submit to a festival, and wind up smack in the middle of a government conspiracy surrounding the escape of an imprisoned alien life-form that puts their entire town at risk. At the center of this tale is the young VFX makeup artist, Joe (a very talented Joel Courtney), a pre-teen who lost his mother recently in an industrial accident. His town-sheriff father, played by the terrific Kyle Chandler, has withdrawn into himself and there is an almost complete disconnect with his son. The other kids making the film are similar to the group of kids we've seen in E.T. or THE GOONIES or any number of Spielberg-ian kid groups, but the young actors and the characters themselves are fleshed out enough to be more than just stock characters. Once the slightly-older Alice (wonderfully played by Elle Fanning) becomes involved in the project, it goes beyond just being a boy's club and the elements of romance and betrayal introduce themselves, particularly from Joe's father since Alice's father (the wonderfully wounded Ron Eldard) may have drunkenly caused the accident that killed Joe's mother. While just the drama of the group and the characters would be enough for one film, that's when Abrams gives us the train crash the kids catch on their Super 8 camera that is the key to the danger and mystery that enshrouds the whole town, and naturally, the danger comes not only from the alien creature, but also from the government, which is embodied by a terrific and menacing performance from Noah Emmerich.
As I stated earlier, the film has enough drama and momentum to make an entire film out or either subject (family drama or alien danger), but Abrams, like Spielberg before him, entices us, delights us and ultimately astonishes us with combining these elements into one big smile of a film. I use the phrase 'smile of a film' not because the film is a hilarious blast to watch, because there are a few moments of heart-wrenching emotion and seat-gluing terror. I use it because when we look back on some of the great Summer Films we've seen in our lives, such as STAR WARS, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, E.T., CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, BACK TO THE FUTURE and JAWS, inevitably we smile because these films represent the very best of this kind of filmmaking and something that has been very noticably absent from many films post-1985 (since the biggest film of 1986 was TOP GUN), and suddenly the Big Summer Blockbuster became a monster. The likes of Spielberg and Lucas and Zemeckis and Donner changed the rules of the game for better or worse, and all of them started with the best of intent, but along the way, character and story took a massive back seat to spectacle and effects and action and money. This is not to necessarily criticize all of the Summer Blockbusters we have gotten since, but on most of them, the luster is lost after the season is done. Whether that's due to the quality of the film or the over-saturation of the Summer Blockbusters (It's all about Opening Weekend grosses now, and it's becoming increasingly rare that a film is #1 for more than one weekend), that subject is up for debate. But there was a time when we could easily look back at the films of a particular summer and say, "That was a great film and it will always be a great film". SUPER 8 is a very passionate love-letter to those times, but it also finds itself with the distinction of being one of those films that wasn't just a great Summer film for 2011, but will be a great Summer film for all time.
Top reviews from other countries
Ich bin damals schon mit sehr hohen Erwartungen an diesen Film ins Kino gegangen, trotzdem wurden sie sogar noch übertroffen! Es war schon eine ganze Weile her, seit ich nach einem Film den Kinosaal in dem Bewusstsein verlassen habe, etwas Besonderes gesehen und einen Funken Kinomagie gespürt zu haben (die Betonung liegt dabei auf "Kino"!).
Die Geschichte versetzt den Zuschauer wieder ins Jahr 1979. Hauptfigur des Films ist der 13-jährige Joe Lamb. Nach dem Unfalltod seiner Mutter fast auf sich allein gestellt, weil sein Vater Jackson, der örtliche Deputy, mit der Situation überfordert ist, stürzt sich Joe mit seinen Freunden in die Produktion eines Zombiefilms, bei dem sein bester Freund Charles Regie führt. Zu Joes großer Überraschung gelingt es Charles tatsächlich, Alice - das umschwärmteste Mädchen der Schule und damit für die Jungs quasi unerreichbar - für eine Rolle zu besetzen.
Eines Nachts begibt sich die Gruppe heimlich zum Bahnhof, um dort einige wichtige Szenen für ihren Film in stimmiger Atmosphäre zu drehen. Zur Freude von Regisseur Charles nähert sich auch ein Güterzug aus der Ferne, der für ihn die perfekte Untermalung der Szene sein soll.
Übrigens zeigt in der Szene, in der Alice vor laufender Kamera eine Probe ihres Könnens gibt, Alice-Darstellerin Elle Fanning, dass ihr Talent dem ihrer älteren Schwester Dakota ebenbürtig ist - und das will wirklich etwas heißen.
Während des Drehs geschieht jedoch etwas, auf das niemand vorbereitet war: Ein Mann steuert seinen Truck auf die Schienen und bringt den heranrasenden Güterzug zum Entgleisen. Während sich die Teenager vor den Explosionen und den durch die Gegend fliegenden Teilen in Sicherheit bringen, kann aus einem der Waggons etwas entkommen, von dem die Öffentlichkeit nichts erfahren darf - und die immer noch laufende Super-8-Kamera zeichnet es auf.
Nach dem Zwischenfall rückt das Militär an, und es passieren merkwürdige Dinge: Sämtliche Hunde und einige Menschen verschwinden spurlos, auf wundersame Weise werden alle Motoren und Mikrowellen im Ort entwendet. Das Militär erklärt die Gegend zum Katastrophengebiet.
Gleichzeitig eskalieren auch die privaten Konflikte: Joe verliebt sich in Alice, sein Vater verbietet seinem Sohn den Umgang mit dem Mädchen. Als letztlich auch Alice nach einem Streit mit ihrem alkoholsüchtigen Vater verschwindet, setzt Joe mit Hilfe seiner Freunde alles daran, um sie wiederzufinden...
Wer mit klassischen Jugendabenteuern der 80er Jahre wie z.B. "E.T." oder "Stand by me", die Jung und Alt gleichermaßen ansprechen, und dem Erzählkino der damaligen Zeit so gar nichts anfangen kann, auch solche Leute soll es ja unbegreiflicherweise geben ;-), kann sich "Super 8" wohl sparen.
Alle anderen Filmliebhaber erwartet ein wunderbar nostalgisches Kinoabenteuer alter Erzähl- und Machart mit Effekten auf dem neuesten Stand der Technik. Aber anders als bei anderen Filmen, die außer ihren Special Effects nichts weiter zu bieten haben und reine Materialschlachten darstellen (das Paradebeispiel hierfür ist die "Transformers"-Reihe), steht bei "Super 8" die Geschichte im Vordergrund.
Wenn die Effekte nicht so modern wären, könnte man Abrams' bis ins Detail absolut stimmige Hommage an Spielbergs fantasievolles Familienkino der 70er/80er Jahre tatsächlich für einen Film aus dieser Zeit halten. In dieser Ära hatten die großen Blockbuster hinter allem Spektakel doch auch immer noch eine Seele, das Publikum wurde nicht einfach nur mit Effekten und großem Bombast erschlagen, sondern es wurden Figuren erschaffen und Geschichten erzählt, die einem nahe gehen.
In diese Kategorie gehört auch "Super 8", in dem Abrams gekonnt mit verschiedensten Genres jongliert und tatsächlich das Kunststück fertig bringt, sie alle harmonisch zu vereinen. Neben dem zeitgemäßen Sinn für das Geheimnisvolle und Verschwörerische verliert er auch die menschliche Seite seiner Erzählung nicht aus den Augen, wodurch eine Art Brücke zu den Werken des hier so liebevoll gefeierten Steven Spielberg geschlagen wird. Glaubwürdige und nachvollziehbare Figuren, viel Humor, Action, Spannung - der Film lebt, er hat Herz und Seele, er ist ein Film wie früher, der sein Publikum staunen lässt. Und wer behauptet, dass "große Gefühle" nur erwachsenen Darstellern vorbehalten sind?
Fazit: Auf den Spuren moderner Klassiker bietet "Super 8" großartige Bilder, imposante Action, tiefe Emotionen und urkomische Momente und entlässt den Zuschauer nach knapp 2 Stunden mit einem wohligen und befriedigenden Gefühl - und das Sahnehäubchen des Ganzen ist dann noch das im Abspann enthaltene fertige Werk der jungen Filmemacher, das man sich nicht entgehen lassen sollte.
It's all that, but still wrapped in a story, one that has a set of familiar elements, but wrapped up in a new enough arrangement. A bunch of kids in 1979 bond while making home movies with their Super 8 camera. They are filming one night when they witness a terrible train crash.. but when the dust settles, there is something from the cargo of the train that has been released, and it is about to have a major impact on the town. Scratch beneath that relatively simple skin though, and you'll find elements of the Goonies (bunch of kids coming of age through shared adventure), Close Encounters (paranoia, alien contact affecting ordinary small town folk), Gremlins (the black humour), and E.T. (adolescents coming of age in damaged families). And if this is an homage to Spielberg, then it's earlier Spielberg - the guns, deaths and occasional mild swear words aren't airbrushed out. It is very much a story first and foremost about real kids, living real lifes, and much less about the fantastic events happening around them. Yes there is spectacle towards the end, but only as a pay off to the emotional journey of the characters.. if it's just the action or effects you want, you will likely be disappointed. In fact, if there is any off note in the movie, it is the appearance of cgi - a very modern tool to tell an old fashioned story, and taking you out of the nostalgia trip somewhat. But it's not enough to derail the journey.
It's not just the director; the look, the feel of the movie, down through sets, period detail and even the musical score, also celebrate that early 80's feel. And let's not forget those lead roles - kids who actually come across as real, likeable, believable - the scenes where they have to emote, particularly Elle Fanning, are amazingly genuine, and the relationship between the leads is handled in a delicate way which uses visuals and acting more than it does clunky exposition or awkward dialogue.
So yes, it is my own personal 5 stars.. Maybe it's too nostalgic to appeal to today's kids, maybe its too much about kids to appeal to today's adults. But for me, I am just at that age that when I was young and impressionable it was Spielberg and Dante and the rest that stirred my own passion for movies, that made that first mark, that created those moments that would be my first love of cinema.. and it is precisely that feeling that has been captured and celebrated here. This is what happens when movies about kids are made by mature filmmakers. Watching it, I felt like that young wide eyed kid in the cinema again, and it was a glorious feeling.