“Super 8” (118 minutes): In “Super 8,” J.J. Abrams’ love letter to the Steven Spielberg films that inspired him as a kid, a chubby would-be director named Charles (Riley Griffiths) is shooting his own zombie movie, and he has recruited his adolescent friends as cast and crew.

They inadvertently record a horrific accident that draws the attention of the U.S. military. Makeup/sound/special-effects guy Joe (Joel Courtney) is convinced that something is afoot and finds support in Alice (Elle Fanning), the zombie movie’s leading lady.

Rated R for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, profanity and some drug use.

“Conan the Barbarian” (112 minutes): Film buffs yearning for a “Conan” reboot should be happy with lead actor Jason Momoa, who has the requisite vocal delivery and “Woman! I said come here!” misogyny for the role. But Momoa is upstaged by Leo Howard, the 14-year-old actor who plays Conan as a boy, convincing us of the character’s innate savagery as he single-handedly slays four marauders before his clan has even decided he’s old enough for a sword.

Conan’s father (Ron Perlman) is killed in front of him by would-be warlord Khalar Zym. Conan must save his Hyboria homeland from Zym’s supernatural evil. Rated R for sexuality and some nudity interspersed with gore and violence.

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