"Earth To Echo" Latter Day "E.T."

If you have a young man in your family around middle-school age, they're going to want to see "Earth to Echo." It's reminiscent of "E.T." with smart phones.

Photo courtesy of IMDB

Three young friends live in a sub-division in Nevada that's about to be uprooted for the construction of  a new highway. Lots of folks in the neighborhood are having to move on. On the last night the trio will have together, they discover their cell phones are acting up. The screens on the phones start displaying odd color and design patterns that look like colorful mysterious maps.

Photo courtesy of IMDB

Their quest to learn what's happening takes them on a overnight adventure in the desert where they discover that the "construction workers" are not who they claim to be and that a cute little alien they nickname Echo is just trying to put together his space launch back to his home planet, wherever that is.

Photo courtesy of IMDB

The cinematography is done in a kind of raw-footage manner that relates to the way lids communicate on-line and on their cell phones. The young actors in the leads are amiable and realistic.

Photo courtesy of IMDB

"Earth to Echo" will score big with its young target audience. The script has a little flavor of "The Goonies" and "Super 8." No matter what the year or what the generation, this type of updated boys (and girls) adventure will always find it audience. And that's really a good thing.