I'd agree with Hook and Always for the bottom. To me, the absolute bottom is The Color Purple I didn't like the book that much, but he totally drained it of all real vitality.

And if we can consider movies he produced, I'd put Poltergeist at the bottom. I never believed there was a second of genuine peril.

Jaws will happen, though I've seen such a large percentage of it in various bits and pieces that I'm sure it's officially ruined for me (much like Citizen Kane was). As for Schindler's List, it's precisely BECAUSE I'm a jewboy that I haven't seen it. By the time it was made, I'd seen so...damn...much about the Holocaust, been to the museums, talked with survivors, etc. etc. that the thought of sitting through something else...no thanks.

Re: Schindler's List

GD - I know we've debated this one before, but I still think it has many film making merits throughout. At the same time, I understand how you feel. I don't think I can stomach any more movies about gays dying from AIDS.

Wow. Just wow. Take a few years off, and then watch it when you're an old man. It's a great movie, regardless of the subject matter you've been overexposed to.


Too bad about Jaws.


Oh, and I won't pay much attention to a diss of Minority Report from someone who puts Hook in their list of Spielberg favorites. :p



G.C., I like Lost World better than Juraissic Park ... but they both suck.

I'd never argue that Hook's a good movie. I just like it.

I can't wait for part 4 to come out. It starts Sean Connery, Judi Dench, Peter O' Toole and the remains of Jessica Tandy. It's called Geriatric Park.


ba-dum-ching!
:D

I scrolled past everyone's responses so as not to be affected.

1) Schindler's List
2) Jaws
3) Raiders of the Lost Ark
4) Close Encounters
5) Temple of Doom

But the prize for Spielberg-film-I-sat-through-twice-in-consecutive-screenings goes to AI. Damn, that film is such a terrible, fascinating mess. I chose to see it twice because I was in film school at the time and immediately felt the need to write a paper about the two conflicting visions trapped in the one film; I could see Kubrick's very Kubrickian skeleton and the basic potential for goodness. And I could see all of the unnecessary meat that Spielberg super-glued to the bones. So I spent the whole second screening outlining whose bits were whose, based on what I understand of their tastes and tendencies.

Terrible, terrible, terrible. Fascinating, fascinating, fascinating.

Wow, people don't like Temple of Doom? Full disclosure: I wasn't allowed (or old enough in some cases) to see any of the Indy films in theaters, and I've never watched or even discussed them with others. I had no idea people didn't like Temple.

Don't do that!
I read the title of this thread and I thought he had died.


I read that as "Too bad about Jews" and thought "Damn that's harsh." Apologies sent for the momentary bad karma I directed your way...

All right thinking people tend to agree it was easily the weakest movie of the trilogy.

List your top five Spielberg films. (I can only do 4)


Schindler's List (1993)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Jaws (1975)

Catch Me If You Can (2002)