Pastiche or homage? It’s a toss-up for Netflix original movie Rim of the World , an unabashedly 1980s-inspired adventure in which foulmouthed kids try to save the world from a nasty alien invasion. Directed by Charlie’s Angels and Terminator Salvation veteran McG, the movie is the latest in a throwback trend inspiring nostalgia for all things in the Spielberg sphere — although some films do it better than others.

RIM OF THE WORLD : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: First of all, why someone would name a kids summer camp “Rim of the World” is curious. It’s a little strange, a little catchy and a lot nonsensical. Anyway, it’s where four mostly familiar types of kid meet — there’s the Shy One With Latent Heroic Traits, Alex (Jack Gore). There’s The Mouth, Dariush (Benjamin Flores Jr.). There’s the Strong, (Mostly) Silent Smart Girl, Zhenzhen (Miya Cech). And there’s the Sensitive Bad Boy, Gabriel (Alessio Scalzotto). All hell breaking loose is the force of destiny that brings together this Misfit Collective to do great things, often in the awkward fashion characteristic of prepubescent teens.

First things first, though. In the opening scene, all hell kicks off the plot in an orbiting NASA space station — the camera zooms right through the hole in an astronaut’s head. Things aren’t right. Is Earth under attack from more aliens bent on destroying us with an instinctual savagery that seems to contradict their capability for interstellar travel? Quite possibly! Planetside, a series of wacky counselors introduce the principal kids to Rim of the World, where they’ll sing campfire songs, drink bug juice, practice archery, spike their one-liners with profanity and pop-culture references, defecate in canoes, etc. — you know how it goes.

But then, the world turns yellow. Air Force fighter jets zoom over the lake. Alex, Dariush, Zhenzhen and Gabriel duck under a zooming space capsule, which crashes in the woods. An astronaut crawls out, and with her dying breath, hands them a key and tells them to get it to a NASA facility 70 miles away. A quest! And then, an alien! Some black CGI goop transforms into a four-armed CGI thing with a mouth like an exploding CGI nail keg, and four sprawling CGI arms. It also spawns a dog-croc-gorilla-wolf surely inspired by the gargoyle-dogs from Ghostbusters , which the kids dispatch to dog-croc-gorilla-wolf heaven, causing its master to carry a nasty grudge.

The quest puts them on vintage banana-seat Stingray bicycles, riding to war-zone Los Angeles, a Wargames command center and a Dawn of the Dead shopping mall, where they acquire Misfit Collective uniforms of coordinated prominently branded product-placement sportswear. Along the way, they bond, and share their sad, personal growing-pains stories, and fall in love, and maybe, just maybe — gulp — come of age a little bit.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: In the press notes, screenwriter Zack Stentz says movies like Rim of the World don’t really get made anymore, apparently oblivious to the existence of Super 8 , It and Stranger Things . (OK, maybe he’s got us on a technicality on that last one, since it’s TV, albeit highly cinematic TV.) Core inspiration derives from ’80s classics such as E.T. and Goonies , with elements of Independence Day thrown in for good measure.

Performance Worth Watching: The four kids are pretty good at what they do: run fast and crack wise. Scalzotto is like the greaser Ponyboy as played by Young DiCaprio. Flores is like Young Chris Tucker, minus the screech. Gore is the movie’s empathetic heart. But Cech is my favorite, carrying the character in her sideways glances and quiet, confident swagger — she knows she’s the secret leader, the girl who’s smarter and tougher than these boy-apes. She’s funnier, too.

Memorable Dialogue: “This ain’t Comic-Con, bitches!” — Zhenzhen breaks her self-imposed silence and slaps the squabbling boys into reality.

Single Best Shot: Lookee here — it’s a Spielberg Shot! Orangey-twilight lighting, low angle, the protagonists on bikes in silhouette, shoring up their courage to kick some alien butt. Homage! Or pastiche?

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: I was tempted to say the movie’s best quote was either “It’s more poo than canoe” or “That’s fecal suicide,” and snark that these were examples of Rim of the World reviewing itself in the dialogue. But once the movie tones down the wackiness and settles into an action-comedy groove, it’s likable enough. The dialogue ranges from gratingly scatological to pointedly clever (shout out to that Werner Herzog reference, yo); the characters suffer a bit from winkingly self-aware dialogue — at one point, they even label themselves as common movie types — but are ultimately sympathetic.

McG has a bad reputation as a director of high-gloss crapola — anyone going to step in and defend the Charlie’s Angels movies? Didn’t think so. But the truth is, he knows how to stage and execute action sequences (one of the reasons Terminator Salvation is better than you remember it being). He understands comic timing. And, with Rim of the World , he shows a knack for directing young actors. He uses breathlessly long virtuoso takes to generate suspense, and massages laughs from a script that often tries too hard to be funny. McG’s efforts are enough to make you look past the winking cliches and enjoy this amusing, crisply edited 90-minute distraction from reality.

Our Call: STREAM IT. It has some cool stuff, it has some lame stuff. Final tally: 51 percent homage, 49 percent pastiche.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

Stream Rim Of The World on Netflix