With “Super 8”, J.J. Abrams has captured the spirit of growing up and flawlessly unified it with a gripping, action-packed, science-fiction excitement that pays homage to the early works of Steven Spielberg and films like “Stand By Me” and “The Goonies” without ever losing its spark of originality. As the movie is dated back to 1979, Abrams has just presented it perfectly with the set up and costumes, all reflecting the 1970’s. Besides, mystery, action and coming of age drama there is also a perfect sense of humor in the movie. And while there are exciting action sequences and perfectly crafted special effects to complement them, there is also a rather sweet and sad side story that stays just on the right side of saccharine.

The casting of the teens is a stroke of genius. All the personalities in the group come together brilliantly and each one’s best qualities being heightened in interaction with the others. Some in the most impressive performances are Abrams’ lead, Joel Courtney, who perfectly nails the purity of youth peppered with the dawning of adulthood for such a junior actor, Elle Fanning who shows incredible acting chops in her ability to portray the pain of a broken home balanced with the uncontainable teen tendency to want to wander into life’s mysteries, and Ryan Lee who’s a great source of comic relief and delivers some of the film’s best lines. Meanwhile, Courtney’s father is played by television star Kyle Chandler in his best work on film ever.

Also the best part about “Super 8” is how it keeps the escaped creature neatly under wraps until the final act. The trailers alone have done a really good job at never revealing anything more than you need to know. The film itself keeps the momentum going by hiding what the creature looks like throughout the fantastic ride. You'll get a snack or two here and there, but the plot keeps up the suspense by nourished the curiosities. But beyond that, seeing everything happen through the kids' eyes and feeling like you're member of their small squad. That's a feeling that comes with great storytelling and engaging characters. So remember, the less you know about Super 8’s plot, the more thrilling the cinematic experience.

Thai filmmakers have a good ability for making horror movies and they still do have it. New title “Ladda Land” from director Sophon Sakdaphisit, who previously made the decent scary movie “Coming Soon”, is the current evidence. For some of horror addicts, the storyline may be rather predictable but this film is still managed to be one spine-chilling production. One huge hit in Thailand this summer, even able to beat the crap out of the mighty “Thor”, “Ladda Land” was build from an urban legend around an old gated housing community on the outskirts of the Thai city of Chiang Mai that was closed down after a series of mysterious deaths and paranormal occurrence. When a young father brings his wife and two kids to a dream suburban housing complex after a huge job opportunity knocks on his door, everything just seem perfect and he puts his highest hope in it: to start an independent family, free from his mother-in-law’s patronage. But his rebellious daughter begins to show her disapproval blatantly and the housing estate that on the surface looks like a perfect suburban community also starts to appear its cracks. Once one of the neighbors’ maids is brutally murdered, things become to get downright terrifying in Ladda Land. The house where she dies becomes the community’s ‘haunted house’ where no one wants to walk past. The bedroom curtains twitch at night and people have seen the dead maid watering the garden and walking the streets at night.

Good thing about this horror title that it’s combine the supernatural terror with family drama and social issues. The camera works really well, even throwing in a few moments of brilliance that adds to some of the climactic scenes. The sound and editing transitions are also well done, with fairly strong performances from the cast and several sequences in particular will spread the terror to theatre-goers. The only real downside is that the story sometime feel a bit stretched and disjointed, especially in the middle. Some characters that appeared in the beginning are also suddenly forgotten, including few of the more notable ones.

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The trailer looks kinda funny and the exotic Thailand setting is indeed adorable, but you would only feel déjà vu the whole time. In a film where the characters are taken out of their familiar home country, the cultural crossover provides a few laughs, but they are buried deep between moments that can be downright boring. A beautiful establishing shot of Bangkok were provided as if the movie afraid that we forgot they weren’t in Las Vegas this time. And overall feel of the movie itself being disjointed and wandering around aimlessly looking for the next joke. The good thing is the combination of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis still have a great chemistry together. But the highlight of the cast is always Zach. Not taking anything away from the rest of the cast, but for some reason, these nutty roles couldn’t have been presented to a better person than Zack. We can only hope Hollywood leaves this franchise at two movies and avoids another watered down sequel. But you know, that’s actually an M:I.