I pretty much like all of his films accept:
1941-A mess
The Lost World-A bigger mess
Hook-A childish mess
The Terminal-I’ve never seen it.
IJ-The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull-I’ve never seen it.
Everything else he’s made, I love.
Steven Spielberg is the man! No director has out grossed him. Saving Private Ryan, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Schindler’s List, ET and Jaws are all masterpieces. He’s also one of the most consistant directors of all time, but I would have to say that those movies would not be the same with out John Williams. John Williams is my favorite composer ever. I would love to see Mr. Spielberg do a gangster or flat out crime movie. Or a western.
The only Spielberg movies I really, really like are Saving Private Ryan and Catch me if you can. Indy 4 was so bad I felt sorry for the man…I guess the movie did quite well money-wise, but it’s such a crappy one I couldn’t help laughing at times. It’s by far the worst movie I’ve seen in theatres this year, even if I went to see What happens in Vegas 
But I enjoyed most of em because they’re fun to watch (Jaws, Jurassic Parc)
I hate his Sci-fi movies though, I still need to watch Minority Report it seems to be a cool one.
The man is an absolute master and a jack of all trades. He has such a wide range of films in his filmography. You could not believe the same director who brought you Duel and Jaws brought you The Color Purple and Schindler’s List.
His technique is outstanding. One of the best scenes in all of cinema is the moment when Roy Scheider sees the shark in the sea for the first time. The whole background zooms out as Steven zooms in on Roy’s face. Fantastic.
Movies I like from him:
Jaws
Duel
Hook
Jurassic Park
Minority Report
Movies I find enjoyable enough from him:
All the Indiana Jones movies (haven’t seen the 3rd one but I bet it ain’t worse than the other 3)
All the others I’m not really interested or haven’t seen them. I never saw E.T., dammit.
Overall. I’d hafta say I think of Spielburg as a good filmmaker. Not great, not bad, just good.
The only films of his that I enjoyed enough to own, and I consider to be his great films are; Duel, Sugarland Express, and Saving Private Ryan. The ones that I thouroughly enjoyed, but can live w/out having them in my collection are Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Jaws, Last Crusade, Munich, Schindler’s List, Empire Of The Sun, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and Jurassic Park. His decent efforts I consider are; A.I., Minority Report, The Color Purple, Amistad, Catch Me If You Can, and Always. His mediocre to absolutely terrible pictures consist of; Indy 2 & 4, 1941, The Terminal, War Of The Worlds, The Lost World, Hook, and E.T.
gosh wotw was so boring…
still wanna see 1941.
i thought duel was amazing. munich was breathtaking as well. still haven’t seen AI. minority report was mediocre i thought… didn’t like close encounters much…
i think spielberg is a great director, but… he’s a popcorn dude, he makes playbook movies, sure things, contract work… don’t like spielberg much. to me he’s just a good “get the movie into the camera” type of director, a flawless craftsman, but not an artisan
I respect him as a master filmmaker but Im not a huge fan of him. Im more from the Scorsese/DePalma school.
I wouldn’t consider him the best ever, but he is great at making feel good hollywood entertainment. Just great fun to at least see once.
With most of his movies being in this genre it makes it very hard for me to accept Schindler’s List. It’s cashing a bit too much on the holocaust industry for my taste.
I like Spielberg, but in my opinion I think he’s just a tad overpayed. I consider The Coens, QT, PT Anderson and Scorsese the top directors of Hollywood today. I like his earlier work too, Jaws and Close Encounters in particular.
[quote=“Seth_Gecko”]
With most of his movies being in this genre it makes it very hard for me to accept Schindler’s List. It’s cashing a bit too much on the holocaust industry for my taste.
[/quote]
He didn’t get paid one penny for that movie.
When I was a young boy, I used to think Steven Spielberg was the only director purely because every film I used to watch had his name somewhere in the credits ;D
He has that sort of impact on children, he makes great family films and popcorn flicks. However, he is also capable of making a dark adult film so he does have an impressive range of abilities as director. I like his visual style too, and often he has some nice visual flairs. Anyone that rips on Spielberg doesn’t know what they’re talking about because his filmography alone is enough proof of his mastery of the art form in addition to his place as one of the top 10-15 directors.
It is apparent however, that he is fairly inconsistent and hardly hits the extremes in terms of great filmmaking and bad. A lot of his films are mediocre, but at the end of the day they get the job done. It pretty much sums it up - he can get the job done, though don’t expect anything too spectacular. I guess a major criticism is that he isn’t a writer, and therefore can’t completely be praised for his films.
I do think the likes of Tarantino, Scorsese, Leone, Coen’s and Kubrick are levels above him.
I think Schindler’s List is a masterpiece and Saving Private Ryan, Jaws and Munich follow closely behind.
- Schindler’s List
- Saving Private Ryan
- Munich
- Jaws
- War of the Worlds
- Jurassic Park
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- Catch Me If You Can
- E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
- The Terminal
- Hook
- Minority Report
(Although I’ve seen all Indiana Jones films, I can’t remember them enough to rate)
1 = Masterpiece, 2 = Great, 3 = Good, 4 = Ok, 5 = Below Average
[quote=“Seth_Gecko”]
With most of his movies being in this genre it makes it very hard for me to accept Schindler’s List. It’s cashing a bit too much on the holocaust industry for my taste.
[/quote]
I’ve never heard anything more stupid in my life.
I think you just used that as an excuse because of your inhability to accept what a truly good filmmaker Steven is.
Cashing in on the Holocaust? Steven made no money from that movie and as a Jewish man, he had every right to tell that story. Some people have no tolerence for books or documentries so through movies, we have an opportunity to learn more about history.
[quote=“Yasmin”]
I’ve never heard anything more stupid in my life.
[/quote]
Hell of a way to prove the point you made in the IB topic, Yasmin. Congrats.
Does it say admin under my name? No. Did I say his opinion was “wrong”? No. Is this getting tedius? Oh yes.
Do you have a specific reason why you feel it necessaryto create a problem on various threads whenever you see my name? Because I have to tell you, I bore very easily of people like you. Is your life really that dull, you have to go around chasing after arguments with women? I thought this forum had moved on since the days of IL_Buono…
Schindler’s List is like the biggest and most well-made exploitation movie ever. It exploits people’s emotions, and it uses history and facts, but also fictionalizes them. (otherwise it would be a documentary) There is nothing wrong with any of that, but I watch movies to be entertained and not to be manipulated and saddened to the extreme.
It may have historical relevance, and also filmhistorical relevance, it may be an important film, and it surely is a great movie filmmaking wise, but I. Don’t. Like. It.
P.S.: Tarantino once answered in an interview, when asked “Which director could you learn something from”: Steven Spielberg.
I like that quote. Quentin knows true talent when he sees it.
[quote=“Yasmin”]
Does it say admin under my name? No. Did I say his opinion was “wrong”? No. Is this getting tedius? Oh yes.
Do you have a specific reason why you feel it necessaryto create a problem on various threads whenever you see my name? Because I have to tell you, I bore very easily of people like you. Is your life really that dull, you have to go around chasing after arguments with women? I thought this forum had moved on since the days of IL_Buono…
[/quote]
Calm down, Yasmin. We don’t know another angry user since now some of the arguments have stopped. Scar must have just wanted to joke, he didn’t want to insult you or anything. 
Some things never change…
Oh, I think they have…