Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, Steven Spielberg), the special edition
I don’t know where to start with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The jokey open would be something about listing the defects and not having any, but then flipping it and not being able to list...
View ArticleClose Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, Steven Spielberg), the director’s cut
This version–now called ‘The Director’s Cut’–originally came out as ‘The Collector’s Edition’ maybe ten years ago (maybe less). The most striking thing about this cut is Dreyfuss’s insanity. In this...
View ArticleRaiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg)
Don Siegel had an anecdote about the length of titles. He showed them to his boss, who kept asking for them to be longer, then showed them to the boss again, telling him each time he’d made the...
View ArticleIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984, Steven Spielberg)
I can understand Chinese people being upset with the stereotypes–Spielberg and company basically lift all the anti-Japanese stereotypes from early 1940s American films and apply them to the Chinese–but...
View ArticleIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989, Steven Spielberg)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade shows off Steven Spielberg’s comedic skills. Not just in his direction of the scenes between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, but also in the film’s overall tone. At...
View ArticleIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008, Steven Spielberg)
The biggest development, in terms of script, in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull might actually be George Lucas’s fingerprints. Between Last Crusade and this sequel, Lucas created the...
View ArticleAmblin’ (1968, Steven Spielberg)
Amblin’ might have more charm if I cared about hippies. The film should be called, The Adventures of Two Hitchhiking Hippies. Or one and a half hippies. I’m not even sure they’re supposed to be...
View ArticleJurassic Park (1993, Steven Spielberg)
Two big things I noticed about Jurassic Park. First, it’s still a superior use of CG. It really shows how digital effects do not get better with technology or budget or whatever; being used by a good...
View ArticleThe Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997, Steven Spielberg)
Even though The Lost World: Jurassic Park is pretty bad, it features some of Steven Spielberg’s more interesting work as a director. It’s a b genre picture, with a huge budget and Spielberg directing...
View ArticlePoltergeist (1982, Tobe Hooper)
In a practical sense, one can just watch Poltergeist and be in awe of the technical qualities. Hooper’s Panavision composition and Matthew F. Leonetti’s photography alone are enough to make it a...
View ArticleLincoln (2012, Steven Spielberg)
Lincoln is a political thriller. The vast majority of the film concerns the 13th Amendment and Lincoln’s attempts to get it through the House of Representatives. When Lincoln isn’t pursuing this story...
View ArticleE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982, Steven Spielberg)
For E.T., Spielberg takes an incredible approach–every scene has to be iconic, every scene has to create a sense of nostalgia for it. It requires absolute control of the viewer and Spielberg’s only...
View ArticleThe Goonies (1985, Richard Donner)
There’s a lack of consistent mood to The Goonies. The film has its phases and the mood and tone change from phase to phase, but Chris Columbus’s script changes characterizations between these phases as...
View ArticlePoltergeist (2015, Gil Kenan)
It’s hard to imagine Poltergeist being any better. Even if director Kenan was any good, there’d still be David Lindsay-Abaire’s atrocious screenplay, and even if both those elements were any good,...
View ArticleAmblin’ (1968, Steven Spielberg)
Amblin’ might have more charm if I cared about hippies. The film should be called, The Adventures of Two Hitchhiking Hippies. Or one and a half hippies. I’m not even sure they’re supposed to be...
View ArticleJurassic Park (1993, Steven Spielberg)
Two big things I noticed about Jurassic Park. First, it’s still a superior use of CG. It really shows how digital effects do not get better with technology or budget or whatever; being used by a good...
View ArticleThe Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997, Steven Spielberg)
Even though The Lost World: Jurassic Park is pretty bad, it features some of Steven Spielberg’s more interesting work as a director. It’s a b genre picture, with a huge budget and Spielberg directing...
View ArticlePoltergeist (1982, Tobe Hooper)
In a practical sense, one can just watch Poltergeist and be in awe of the technical qualities. Hooper’s Panavision composition and Matthew F. Leonetti’s photography alone are enough to make it a...
View ArticleLincoln (2012, Steven Spielberg)
Lincoln is a political thriller. The vast majority of the film concerns the 13th Amendment and Lincoln’s attempts to get it through the House of Representatives. When Lincoln isn’t pursuing this story...
View ArticlePoltergeist (2015, Gil Kenan)
It’s hard to imagine Poltergeist being any better. Even if director Kenan was any good, there’d still be David Lindsay-Abaire’s atrocious screenplay, and even if both those elements were any good,...
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