Echo

I really liked this film. It's a fun Kids adventure in the vein of Goonies, Big, No Batteries Required or The Last Star Fighter. I guess similarities could be drawn with ET but only in as far as it's a Sci Fi film with kids in it. It's funny, well acted by the kids and I found it heart warming and exciting. Its not so much "found footage" as shot and narrated by the kids themselves but in a far more watchable way. I guess if you're not a fan of that then his isn't the film for you. It's not big budget but in now way is it "low budget". It relies on the actors to tell the story and on the story itself, not on millions of pounds worth of special effects. What special effects it uses are very well done and integrated seamlessly. Definitely worth watching!!!

Because of the posters, every little child who can talk wants to see this movie. However, most of the dialogue and jokes go right over the head of anyone under the age of 8-10. It is a beautiful movie that reminds me of Batteries not Included and Goonies (with that first person camera work directors love now-days), but (as with both of those movies) the target audience seems to be older families, not little children.

That being said, there is nothing overt that you want to hide your little ones from, they will just probably fall asleep as my 4 year old did. If you have a 12 year old and you want to see a movie with them, then this is the perfect movie for you.

I was really excited about this movie after watching the trailer. Unfortunately, I think the trailer picked up the most stable of the shots.

Although there was a strong resemblance to E.T., and I could relate to The Goonies too a little bit, the movie got off to a good start and it maintained the pace throughout.

Three buddies, Tuck, Alex and Munch are soon to be separated by a construction project causing their families to move. Tuck, an amateur videographer almost always has a camera handy and tapes all moments with his friends. A few days before the move, all their cell phones start behaving weirdly. Alex discovers it's a map and soon their last night together turns into an adventure. Tuck tapes the whole adventure and we see the story from whatever was taped (found footage).

Cons: 1. Shaky cam - I'm usually neutral to shaky cam. I know it's supposed to be amateur footage, but why subject the audience to a dizzying IMAX screen of shaky cam the entire length of the movie? I was fortunately sitting in the back but I felt sorry for the people in the front rows. If you're prone to motion sickness, do not watch this. Even I take better videos than this with my hand-held camera.

2. Screen time of Echo - Given that the movie is about an alien, the screen time of Echo is very less. I would have loved to see more of Echo definitely. The departure of Echo is rather abrupt.

3. Unnecessary character - Emma was definitely a purposefully introduced and totally unnecessary character.

Pros: 1. Good acting - By all the three kids. They did their part well.

2. Good soundtrack - I think the music plays only for a few minutes in the movie but I liked it.

3. Good graphics - The graphics were really nice. Echo and rest of the sequences were well done.

Like another review, I would consider this more of a good rental movie than one that's good to see in the theater.

After reading some reviews on this movie, we did not have high expectations. However, we thought we'd give it a shot anyway, as we tend to often not like movies that "the masses" praise anyway. We loved this film. The home-made video style made it feel real, the characters were funny, natural and believable. The actors were also unknown to us - often a plus. There was a nice little dose of suspense and action, and the moral message was appealing to our sense of values regarding other living beings. The bittersweet ending also sat well with us. Thoroughly enjoyed by a preteen, teenager and mom. Highly recommend giving this film a chance. It's not all Hollywood, cars don't blow up, there's no profanity or violence, but it's adorable, and cool enough for a teenage dude.

This film is something like ET meets Wall-E, in a modern style. Solid entertainment for kids and people who don't care about realism that much. I do enjoyed the film and it definitely deserves a better rating than 5.8 (the actual IMDb-rating) Don't get bothered by the people complaining this movie is just a bad copy of ET. It is done for people who are young right now wanting to enjoy a solid movie and not the old ones living in the past. Sure ET, the old Indiana Jones movies and the other stuff was great, but that doesn't mean new movies are bad by definition.

Whatever, if you want to enjoy some light entertainment made for kids you can definitely be happy with this one - but don't expect a mindblowing classic ;)