I’m not sure I can say much about this movie that hasn’t already been said. It does an excellent job of transporting you to a specific time and place… almost like a time machine. Perhaps that’s what we like about these movies – not the acting or the story… just the view through the window.
Tag Archives: Steven Spielberg
War Horse
This is about as you’d expect… right down to the ultra-earnest warble of the lead character. Mostly, the movie sticks to the good-hearted, aw-shucks kind of themes… but now and then, it does veer into the real ugliness of war. Of course, you can guess the ending before you even sit down to watch it. So, is it good? Worth watching? you probably already know what this movie is like, so if you like that kind of thing… you’ll like it. If you think it’s going to be too sappy for your tastes, you’re probably right too.
E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial
ET go home! I dunno… I have to admit I liked it. Heck, it’s good for what it is.
AI
I thought this was done very cleverly. It tackles an unusual issue – what is it that makes us human? or, what is it that makes humans special? and can something we create ever be as special as we ourselves are? Could we ever create a soul that’s as real as our own? If you’re intrigued by this, go see the movie… if not, I feel sorry for you. I think if it was done by any other director, it would have been cheesy, if nothing else, this movie shows why Spielberg is simply great at what he does. (I think Kubrick would have done a fine job with it too – too bad he died)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Just a darn neat film. One of the best “alien visitation” movies I’ve seen. I’ve never met anyone who hated this movie… what can I say?
War of the Worlds – 2005
This movie was so disturbing it literally sent me to the hospital. Ok, I had a bad reaction to some medicine, but watched this just before, and it probably didn’t help.
Saving Private Ryan
Steven Spielberg’s latest. This movie was about what I expected. All the bare ‘grit’ of war. I can’t really think of anything too critical to say about this movie… it was quite good. I really liked the camera work, it added a bit more realism and was not overdone like some MTV video. I especially liked the lack of fiery explosions and the lack of any slow-motion violence sequences. For some reason, the movie industry seems to think that we can’t relate to explosions unless there is a lot of fire involved, even though almost all explosions are really fireless. Also, Hollywood seems to think that we “get more out of” slow motion sequences. I think slow-motion totally ruins the reality of a scene (with some exceptions). Real life is not in slow motion. Unlike a lot of people, I didn’t think this movie was necessarily ‘too much’ for some younger people (say… kids over ~13 depending on their maturity level… ) I’m sure a lot of people will disagree though, and I can understand why. It is very graphic, but I don’t think it will do permanent harm to anyone’s character. A lot of movies tend to make violence and death overly glamorous and dramatic – I think that’s a lot worse than just telling the truth about it. This movie shows what real violence does to people – there’s nothing glamorous about it. A lot of real soldiers get killed in agonizing ways, and luck has more to do with survival than skill. Who wants to bet their life that they’ll be lucky? War does indeed suck. Maybe people who see this movie will be less inclined to start them. (Oh, I think there was one plot screwup: Pvt. Ryan talks about the last time he was together with his brothers – back on the farm in Iowa. But, we learned earlier that they were all stationed together, and only split up after a different (and real-life) tragedy happened. )
Raiders of the Lost Ark
When I first saw this movie, I had no idea what it was about beforehand. Wow. It was so cool, I just couldn’t believe it! Of course, I was only like 13 years old. But even now, this is a damn cool movie. Spielberg proves his legend with this one…
Poltergeist
I liked this better than ET. They both came out at the same time, and I thought the whole “media attention” thing was misdirected.
1941
The makers of this movie threw a bunch of “stuff” together and edited it into a movie. This was universally panned by the critics, but I thought it was watchable. The plot? people in LA think that Japan is about to invade the US mainland in the early days of W.W.II. Much mayhem ensues… Steven Spielberg directing John Belushi? You already know that it’s nuts.
Minority Report
For some reason, this movie reminded me of L.A. Confidential. That’s a good thing though, because both were excellent cop-conspiricy dramas. The concept of this movie was really neat. Although, I considered it more fantasy than sci-fi. I really liked the rich, detailed futuristic cinemetography / set design / environment stuff. It made the movie feel very authentic. It’s really interesting to see how Spielberg’s directorial style has changed with time. It’s still really good, but very different than his earlier style. Nice to see that he doesn’t just repeat his old tricks.
Jurassic Park
I first saw this movie in the theater on opening weekend. I got there late and had to sit in the front, way on the side of the theater. It sucked, I watched the whole thing at a 60 degree angle. I couldn’t tell what the hell was going on. It kind of ruined the movie for me, since the best part was watching the dinosaurs come to life. I’ve seen it since then and it was good. I wish I could have seen it through the eyes of an 8-year-old though, that would be something!
Jaws
Despite the best of efforts, the shark looks fake. But, of course that doesn’t matter. It was a great movie – man battling nature – human nature, inner nature, and mother nature.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
I guess it was good, but it was essentially the same thing as Raiders of the lost ark. I’ll have to say that the Monty Python troupe had a lot more fun looking for the holy grrrrail.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I have a theory that Spielberg intended to make this a really bad movie. He’s a smart guy with a proven track record. There is no reason he would resort to such stupid scenes and plot devices that are sprinkled throughout this movie. The pacing makes no sense – it just jumps from scene to scene, etc. There are so many things wrong with this movie from start to finish… But, why would he do this? Perhaps it’s because he really did want to emulate the original inspiration for the series – the movie reels – which weren’t very good either. Or, perhaps he wanted to kill the series himself, and not let it turn into some kind of long-running james bond thing. Or, perhaps he’s just screwing with everyone. I’m more and more convinced this wasn’t just a mistake.