20 Hidden Sci-Fi Movie Gems You Can Watch On Netflix

9. Super 8

Steven Spielberg's mark is all over Super 8, too (he produced it), and its director is commonly referred to - in a move that serves nobody - as the "next Spielberg". But J. J. Abrams, of Lost and Star Trek and future Star Wars fame, has his own style and personality, shown effectively here in this nostalgic yarn in which a group of friends witness a train crash in their small town and, with the help of the titular method, film and investigate the strange events that succeed it.

Rather than scenes of incessant action, Abrams fills the film with classic early-adolescent inquisitiveness, evoking a time when, as with the Super 8 technology, the best thrills were made of simpler stuff, like efficient storytelling and characters you could believe in. That "next Spielberg" moniker may not be helpful to J.J. Abrams, but it certainly has basis, and at times it feels like Super 8 could be an early Spielberg classic. It doesn't quite attain that status, but it damn well tries.