"Super 8"

Richard's Review: 4 stars

J.J. Abrams directs "Super 8" the way he produced the TV show "Lost." He draws out the suspense, doling out just enough detail, shocks and surprises to keep the story interesting and moving forward. He knows that the strength of the movie isn't the special effects or the whatever-it-is that is causing all the trouble, but the relationship between the kids. Call it "Stand By Me" with a giant bug... or a monster... or something. I'm not saying what!

Welcome to the no spoiler zone! Here's what I can tell you about "Super 8": The action begins with six Lillian, Ohio kids shooting an amateur zombie movie. As their super 8 films rolls they witness a terrifying real life train derailment. Soon strange things start happening in town as the army tries its best to contain the situation.

"Super 8" is one part "Goonies," two parts "Fright Night," a dash of "Cloverfield" topped off with a liberal pinch of Spielberg glow. The story, the set-up and the characters feel like a throwback to the great teen action adventure movies of the mid-eighties, and while many people have tried to recapture that sensitive mix of sentimentality, vulgarity and menace, few have actually hit it on the head. JJ Abrams nails it. Perhaps because he had some heavy weight help -- Steven Spielberg, master of the genre is listed as a producer -- but despite the Spielbergian flourishes, this still very much feels like an Abrams creation.

His fingerprints are all over the action sequences -- particularly the out-of-control train wreck scene -- and even the sweetness we've come to associate with Spielberg has been dialed back. It's still there -- very much so in the film's last 10 minutes -- but Abrams manages to set the tone as though he is paying homage to the saccharine tendencies of his mentor than actually aping him.

There is a sense of wonder to "Super 8" that permeates almost every scene. Whether audiences raised on a steady diet of Michael Bay will buy into it is yet to be determined, but for me some of that familiar glow is a welcome sight.

"Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer"

Richard's Review: 2 stars

By the end of "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer" Judy won't be the only moody one. Parents unlucky enough to have to attend this manic adaptation of the popular Megan McDonald book series will likely go through a gamut of moods including irritation and vexation.

The story is simple enough. Judy (Jordana Beatty), a precocious third grader on summer break, planned to have the greatest school holiday of her life, but when her best friends leave for circus camp and an extended trip to Borneo she is left to her own devices. As the movie's title implies, things look up when her parents get called away to California and bring in free spirited Aunt Opal (Heather Graham) to babysit. Suddenly the summer's not such a bummer after all.

This is a movie for the eight-and-under crowd, a loud, hyper slice of shenanigans that doesn't aim to entertain anyone over a grade three reading level. What it lacks in story it makes up for in slapstick which is probably fine for the pre-tweens but will test the will of their guardians to stay in their seats for the whole 90-minute running time.

Mixed in with plucky Judy's tomfoolery are some messages about friendship and imagination but they are overwhelmed by the movie's chaotic middle hour wall of noise.

Despite the presence of the fetching "Boogie Nights" star Heather Graham there's nothing particularly cinematic about "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer," which suggests that a viewing could wait until it comes out on DVD… and parents can safely sit in the next room while the kids watch this on TV.

"Tree of Life"

Richard's Review: 4 stars

Terrence Malick is probably the biggest name director whose movies you've never seen. His is the kind of name filmy types like to toss into conversations as a test to see how deep your knowledge of movies runs. Having made just five movies since 1973 he is less productive than a four toed sloth, but as a chef I know used to say, "do you want it fast, or do you want it good?"

His latest, "Tree of Life," is a star studded look at life, death and the birth of the universe. He compresses the history of the world, mankind and the lives of a Waco, Texas family into two hours and twenty minutes. This coming of age story -- or more rightly a coming of the ages story -- is impressionistic storytelling, nonlinear, non-story based but not nonsensical.

It's a deeply spiritual movie -- from the Job quote that begins the story to the Amen chorus at the end -- that asks the big questions: Why do awful things happen? Are we always in God's hands? -- often in reverential, whispered tones. Style wise Malick constantly tilts the camera upwards, keeping an eye on the heavens.

This is not light summer entertainment. In fact, some will think this is pretentious twaddle, while others will see a movie that replaces traditional storytelling with deep seated feelings.

I'm leaning ever so slightly toward the pretentious twaddle camp, certainly in the film's first hour, where Malick inserts a long sequence detailing the abovementioned birth of the universe. Faces and lifelike shapes appear in the primordial goop that makes up much of this extended creation scene, and by the time the dinosaurs appear it is hard to remember this is a movie starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.

What does it mean? Not sure. Narratively it adds little to the film and as artful as it may be it feels too new agey by half. But as pretentious twaddle goes, it's really beautiful. If this movie was made in 1968 it would have been a "head" movie, delighting stoners at midnight screenings.

But it's not 1968, so luckily the first 40 minutes gives way to a slightly less impressionistic mid section, based mostly in the family home of Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) and their three kids. It's a feel, a hazy look at growing up.

Pitt impresses as the upwardly mobile, but thin skinned tyrant father; a man who thought he did everything right only to discover his instincts were off. There's also a surprising character arc in a movie that is more about intuition than arcs. The family story is effective, it's Malick's struggle to place it within a much larger context and the constantly shifting points of view that obscure the film's main point, a questioning of faith in the light of great personal tragedy.

Obscured though the point may be, this is one seriously beautiful film. Malick has his characters talk about living in a state of grace -- love everyone, every leaf, every ray of light -- and it's not hard to imagine that this is an echo of his filmmaking ethos. He finds splendour in the things we don't see onscreen very often anymore, a pure shot of fireflies flittering in the darkness, landscapes and nature, unadulterated, left alone to speak for themselves.

Critics will use words like textural, nuanced to describe "Tree of Life." I'll add a few more. Heartfelt, willfully obscure and intriguing.