EARTH TO ECHO (2014)

EARTH TO ECHO. Dave Green, dir. Henry Gayden, script, from the story by Gayden and Andrew Panay. Andrew Panay, producer. Maxime Alexandre, cinematography. Kasra Farahani, prod. design. USA: Panay Films and Walt Disney Studios (prod.) / Relativity Media (major dist.), 2014.

Nicely executed recombinant cinema: primarily ET: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) looking like "found footage" in the manner of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) and the excellent if little-known Vietnam movie 84C MOPIC (1989; pronounced "84 Charlie MoPic")[HTTP://WWW.IMDB.COM/TITLE/TT0096744/?REF_=NV_SR_1] — plus, STAND BY ME (1986), a touch or two of the robot-construction sequence in BILL & TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY (1991), and the title robot in WALL-E (2008). Relevant here for the robot-like gizmo in the ET niche: a key device — as in "the key" to a space ship and the mystery of the protagonists' quest — of excessive cuteness.. Note climax of film in which the device, named Echo by the protagonist kids, is placed inside a larger, more impressive device, with the protagonist kids watching and filming while themselves inside what becomes an uncute, large, and highly impressive spacecraft that human adults of the US military-political-academic-police-authority sort really shouldn't have messed with. The aliens, however, are friendly, and Echo goes home, ET fashion, but with "his" secret remaining implausibly safe with the kids and the representatives of US and perhaps Terran officialdom.

5. DRAMA, RDE, 07/VII/14