KarmaPolice
Footballguy
I would rather watch The Mummy than at least 1/2 of the Indy movies.
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FBG Movie Club - DotM: Steven Spielberg (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter KarmaPolice
- Start date
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
I was watching Saving Private Ryan last night. I think more than any movie of his I can think it has my central battle with Spielberg on full display. His skill and instincts behind the camera vs. his sentimentality and people he works with. I think Hanks is OK, but not somebody I gravitate to and there are a couple of Spielberg movies that I think I would like a bit more if not for him. I think his sentimental impulses also make films about very serious topics seem less serious to me, if that makes sense. I still really like Ryan and it's in the discussion for my top 5, but I was thinking about those 2 things and how I would like Ryan more if not for those 2 roadblocks.
Andy Dufresne
Footballguy
Mummy 1 and 2 are better, by a wide margin, than anything not Raiders or Crusade. I think they're fun and like them quite a bit.
The opening and closing battles are great.
Pretty much everything else is pretty saccharine. The, what, 20 minutes they spend waxing poetic in the church is so tedious.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Well I got more time on my hands than expected with this awful weather, school closings and ****ty playoff games. I am going through the non-Raiders Indy films. I've seen Raiders so many times including within the last 3 years so no need to revisit.
Temple of Doom
Grossed me out as a kid and still does. Don't care for it, feels very claustrophobic trapped in the same location for far too long. The female lead is poorly acted and poorly written. Key Huy Quan and Harrison Ford are both fantastic. It would be have been cool to see them team up in a better movie. I will say, the opening is fantastic though. We get a Busby Berkley musical and then a 1930s style gangster movie with a car chase. That's one of the best scenes of the whole film series but unfortunately the rest of the movie is a pile of problems. Lucas is probably more to blame than Spielberg though, the film making is expertly done.
Last Crusade
Just as fun as I remembered. I might actually prefer this to Raiders. It's so nice to get back to fighting NAZIs, traveling around the globe, hanging with Denholm Elliot. That's what the Indy movies should be about to me. Connery and Ford are a perfect pairing. Spielberg's action sequences are just perfectly done that I don't even notice the direction most of the time. Everything seems framed, set-up and put together exactly as it should for maximum dramatic effect without ever losing any clarity on the story.
Temple of Doom
Grossed me out as a kid and still does. Don't care for it, feels very claustrophobic trapped in the same location for far too long. The female lead is poorly acted and poorly written. Key Huy Quan and Harrison Ford are both fantastic. It would be have been cool to see them team up in a better movie. I will say, the opening is fantastic though. We get a Busby Berkley musical and then a 1930s style gangster movie with a car chase. That's one of the best scenes of the whole film series but unfortunately the rest of the movie is a pile of problems. Lucas is probably more to blame than Spielberg though, the film making is expertly done.
Last Crusade
Just as fun as I remembered. I might actually prefer this to Raiders. It's so nice to get back to fighting NAZIs, traveling around the globe, hanging with Denholm Elliot. That's what the Indy movies should be about to me. Connery and Ford are a perfect pairing. Spielberg's action sequences are just perfectly done that I don't even notice the direction most of the time. Everything seems framed, set-up and put together exactly as it should for maximum dramatic effect without ever losing any clarity on the story.
Andy Dufresne
Footballguy
Very quotable too:
Indy: I'm as human as the next man.
Henry: I WAS the next man!
Elsa: What's this?
Indiana Jones: Ark of the Covenant.
Elsa: Are you sure?
Indiana Jones: Pretty sure.
Everybody's lost but ME.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
No ticket.Very quotable too:
Indy: I'm as human as the next man.
Henry: I WAS the next man!
Elsa: What's this?
Indiana Jones: Ark of the Covenant.
Elsa: Are you sure?
Indiana Jones: Pretty sure.
Everybody's lost but ME.
Eephus
Footballguy
King Solomon's Mines (1985)
Not Spielberg but Indy-adjacent. This movie capitalized on the 80s craze for hatted adventurers chasing treasure in the early 20th century. It's set in Africa before WWI although its anachronistic dialog brings it up to more recent times. It's a Cannon Films production from legendary B-movie kings Menahem Golan and Yoran Globus and was directed by veteran hack J. Lee Thompson who did his most famous work two decades earlier with The Guns of Navarone and the original Cape Fear. He does a workmanlike job in this movie given the limited resources he had.
Richard Chamberlain stars as Allan Quatermain with a young Sharon Stone as his damsel in distress. Chamberlain plays the English Quatermain as an American with the casual air of Roger Moore era 007. Their quest to discover King Solomon's mines mostly consists of them stumbling upon clues, getting captured and escaping their captors. I counted four captures after noticing the trend but there may have one more that I missed.
The first 3/4 of the movie are a very fun mix of action and light comedy. It had a low budget compared to Spielberg's films but Golan and Globus were always good at making their money show up on screen. There are battle scenes with hundreds of costumed extras and some fine stunt work. An hour into the movie I was really enjoying myself more than I did while watching Temple of Doom.
The problems started once Quatermain finds the mines and everyone heads underground. Things go from a fun riff on Indy to a straight rip-off of Temple of Doom. The mines are bathed in red light that comes off more like a darkroom than the expressionistic lighting in Temple of Doom. There's a familiar pit of hellfire and a more familiar cave with a slowly descending ceiling. There's also a very cheesy looking giant spider and some sort of sea monster thrown in for good measure. All of the sets get blown up at the end, the good guys get away and the bad guys get buried. There was a sequel made a year later reuniting Chamberlain and Stone but I'm out on that one.
Not Spielberg but Indy-adjacent. This movie capitalized on the 80s craze for hatted adventurers chasing treasure in the early 20th century. It's set in Africa before WWI although its anachronistic dialog brings it up to more recent times. It's a Cannon Films production from legendary B-movie kings Menahem Golan and Yoran Globus and was directed by veteran hack J. Lee Thompson who did his most famous work two decades earlier with The Guns of Navarone and the original Cape Fear. He does a workmanlike job in this movie given the limited resources he had.
Richard Chamberlain stars as Allan Quatermain with a young Sharon Stone as his damsel in distress. Chamberlain plays the English Quatermain as an American with the casual air of Roger Moore era 007. Their quest to discover King Solomon's mines mostly consists of them stumbling upon clues, getting captured and escaping their captors. I counted four captures after noticing the trend but there may have one more that I missed.
The first 3/4 of the movie are a very fun mix of action and light comedy. It had a low budget compared to Spielberg's films but Golan and Globus were always good at making their money show up on screen. There are battle scenes with hundreds of costumed extras and some fine stunt work. An hour into the movie I was really enjoying myself more than I did while watching Temple of Doom.
The problems started once Quatermain finds the mines and everyone heads underground. Things go from a fun riff on Indy to a straight rip-off of Temple of Doom. The mines are bathed in red light that comes off more like a darkroom than the expressionistic lighting in Temple of Doom. There's a familiar pit of hellfire and a more familiar cave with a slowly descending ceiling. There's also a very cheesy looking giant spider and some sort of sea monster thrown in for good measure. All of the sets get blown up at the end, the good guys get away and the bad guys get buried. There was a sequel made a year later reuniting Chamberlain and Stone but I'm out on that one.
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Eephus
Footballguy
Ghost Train (Amazing Stories episode - 1985)
Spielberg made his well-publicized return to television in the fall of 1985. He created and produced Amazing Stories, an anthology program similar to The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. NBC picked it up and slotted it on Sunday nights opposite McGyver and Murder She Wrote.
Ghost Train was the first of two Amazing Stories episode directed by the great man. He's also credited with the story. There are a lot of Spielberg tropes packed into its 24 minutes. There's a kid recently forced to move to a country home with his somewhat out of touch family. They've also just brought grandpa to live with them and he's like an elderly version of the Richard Dreyfus character from Close Encounters. There are more crane and dolly shots than in the usual half hour TV episode. John Williams' theme music swells at the appropriate moments. It's like Spielberg in miniature.
It's kind of interesting to see Spielberg work the small screen again but Ghost Train isn't very good. I guess the approaching train is done pretty effectively considering the budget they had to work with. But otherwise, everything seems really rushed which raises more questions than the script has answers. The train is an obvious metaphor for death but in the most warm and fuzzy way. At the end Opa is gone and the house is destroyed but the family seems happy about it as they gaze toward the camera in wide-eyed wonderment because they got to be in a Spielberg picture.
I remember seeing The Mission, Spielberg's other Amazing Stories episode during the show's original run. It's a WWII flyer fantasy with an even dumber ending than Ghost Train. I couldn't find a free stream of it so Ghost Train will have to do.
vimeo.com
Spielberg made his well-publicized return to television in the fall of 1985. He created and produced Amazing Stories, an anthology program similar to The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. NBC picked it up and slotted it on Sunday nights opposite McGyver and Murder She Wrote.
Ghost Train was the first of two Amazing Stories episode directed by the great man. He's also credited with the story. There are a lot of Spielberg tropes packed into its 24 minutes. There's a kid recently forced to move to a country home with his somewhat out of touch family. They've also just brought grandpa to live with them and he's like an elderly version of the Richard Dreyfus character from Close Encounters. There are more crane and dolly shots than in the usual half hour TV episode. John Williams' theme music swells at the appropriate moments. It's like Spielberg in miniature.
It's kind of interesting to see Spielberg work the small screen again but Ghost Train isn't very good. I guess the approaching train is done pretty effectively considering the budget they had to work with. But otherwise, everything seems really rushed which raises more questions than the script has answers. The train is an obvious metaphor for death but in the most warm and fuzzy way. At the end Opa is gone and the house is destroyed but the family seems happy about it as they gaze toward the camera in wide-eyed wonderment because they got to be in a Spielberg picture.
I remember seeing The Mission, Spielberg's other Amazing Stories episode during the show's original run. It's a WWII flyer fantasy with an even dumber ending than Ghost Train. I couldn't find a free stream of it so Ghost Train will have to do.
Amazing Stories Season 1 [1985-86] S01E01 - Ghost Train
Amazing Stories Season 1 [1985-86] S01E01 - Ghost Train
vimeo.com
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Andy Dufresne
Footballguy
I never saw any reason to watch King Solomon's Mines... And still don't. Not even for the camp factor.
And even as an 80's kid that loved almost all such things, I found Amazing Stories to be rather lame/tepid. I didn't need a G-rated Twilight Zone.
And even as an 80's kid that loved almost all such things, I found Amazing Stories to be rather lame/tepid. I didn't need a G-rated Twilight Zone.
Andy Dufresne
Footballguy
If the anecdotes are to be believed, she was a nightmare to work with. From IMDB trivia:
massraider
Footballguy
1941 is a great example of being able to enjoy a movie, because your expectations weren't destroyed by public expectations.
I think this movie is a fantastic comedy, and holds up to repeat viewings
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I loved 1941 when I saw it in the theater; of course, I was 13 and easily entertained by slapstick and carnage. I guess what I don't get now is how it doesn't rank in Spielberg's pantheon, especially given it arguably had one of the best casts of any Speilberg movie not named Saving Private Ryan (Christopher Lee, Belushi and Aykroyd in their ascendancy, consummate character actors Ned Beatty and Slim Pickens, and basically everyone else cast to do what they were good at doing what they were good at) yet didn't catch on.
Though I haven't seen it in years, something just seems kind of off to me. I actually was considering watching this one and comparing it to another Tim Matheson vehicle, Animal House. Seems to have the same vibe, but more cohesive.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Toshiro Mifune is in it! I know Spielberg loves Kurosawa, Seven Samurai, etc. Deep down inside, he has to be embarrassed he got Mifune to do a movie and he made 1941.
Eephus
Footballguy
Karen Allen in Raiders was an interesting character who could hold her own in action sequences, at least in the beginning of the film. She became more helpless as the story progressed to provide Indy with someone to rescue. In spite of Kate Capshaw's real-life chemistry with Spielberg, her Willie character in Temple of Doom was a shrieking, gold digging ditz. Capshaw didn't get a lot to do in the movie because her character was such an obvious mismatch with Indy. I honestly don't remember the female lead in the Last Crusade.
Sharon Stone's character in King Solomon's Mines was inconsistently written. In the beginning of the movie her main function was to ask dumb questions so Quatermain could explain background to the story. She became a bit more spunky and useful as the movie went on although the underwater scene where she and Quatermain reveal their mutual affection was laughably bad.
Spielberg's work has been criticized by feminists. It seems like he's taken some of that criticism to heart with some of the projects he's taken on recently but he's never going to be mentioned in the same breath as Bergman or George Cukor as a women's director. The lack of female roles in the Indiana Jones series remains a constant with even the two 21st century entries in the franchise failing the Bechdel Test.
Andy Dufresne
Footballguy
Dr. Octopus
Footballguy
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull brought Karen Allen back as Indy's love interest and had Cate Blanchett as the main villian.
Eephus
Footballguy
Apparently their characters never engaged in any dialog.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Thanks for reinforcing one of my points.
Apologies in advance for cheating a little, but I believe I've seen both 1941 and Animal House enough to compare them from memory. As always with my rants, I will admit where/when I'm off base...
1941 vs. Animal House
Two young directors trending upward. One very mainstream, one more underground. One has multiple blockbusters under his belt, one has a future cult hit. The 'lesser' of the two released an instant classic comedy movie in 1978. A year later, the 'better' of the two releases a comedy with a cast of past, present and future stars, including arguably the hottest property in Hollywood at that moment, a comedy written by two young writers who will go on to create not only one of the most iconic franchises of the 80's but also one of the most iconic movies of the Baby Boomer Generation that won an Oscar for its lead actor. What could go wrong?
Part 1: Director: Steven Spielberg vs. John Landis
Prior to their respective movies, Spielberg had 3 theatrical releases under his belt (including 2 blockbusters), while Landis had 2 (no blockbusters but one was the cult hit Kentucky Fried Movie). While Spielberg was the higher profile of the two, Landis was in his element with comedy, while Spielberg only had 'comedy' lightly sprinkled into his films to this point and a full-on comedy movie was going to be a stretch, which I think this is the first sign that 1941 was going to be 'problematic'.
Part II: Script/story: History vs Experience
Right off the bat, 1941 was ill-fated because of how the story/script came into existence. Back to the Future masterminds Robert Zemekis and Bob Gale basically mashed together several actual events that unfolded in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943; the sub-plot of an anti-aircraft gun being placed in a private homeowner's yard is also factual but occurred on the east coast instead of the west coast setting of the film. Gale and Zemekis pitched the concept to John Milius (for those unfamiliar with Milius, his body of work ranges from Patton to Conan the Barbarian and for a long time, he was a go-to ghost writer, with a flair for war/warlike stories/dialog, and was the Coen Brothers inspiration for the character of Walter in The Big Lebowski. Basically he is/was the Ernest Hemmingway of his generation and a personal favorite). When Spielberg became attached to the project, the idea of a drama was scrapped and it became a comedy, albeit a risky one since joking about Pearl Harbor takes Mel Brooks-level comedic chops. No doubt that time proved Zemekis and Gale to be adept with comedy, but this film has no 'Springtime for Hitler' moment, just broad negative stereotypes that would get any director cancelled today.
Animal House, on the other hand, came from recent memories of college hi-jinks (much more fertile ground for comedy than Pearl Harbor) from writers Harold Ramis, Doug Kenney and Chris Miller. Kenney co-founded National Lampoon Magazine and Miller was a contributor to the magazine. In other words, three comedic geniuses combined events they lived through to create the script, giving it a more organic nature to it than 1941.
The advantage here goes to Animal House, by a landslide. While Zemekis and Gale went on to bigger and better things from here, Ramis did too, in front of and behind the camera, and I can't help but wonder how much funnier the world would be if Kenny hadn't left us after giving us Caddyshack. For those not familiar with Doug Kenney, he also had screen roles in Animal House (as Stork) and Caddyshack (he had a brief, silent cameo as one of the guests at the big party at the club the night before the big golf match).
Part III:Cast: Goliath vs. David
Even with sharing Tim Matheson and John Belushi, 1941's cast outshines Animal House's by orders of magnitude, despite the latter having a cast that had many bright futures ahead of them. And it's here that I really have to ding Spielberg.
For starters, he put the extremely talented and mostly physical comedic talent of John Belushi in the cockpit of an airplane, and one of his sight gags (falling off the wing of his plane) was an accident that was luckily captured on film. He had Christopher Lee and Toshiro Mifune sharing the screen in a cramped, dimly lit submarine and surrounded by the Keystone Cops in Japanese sailor uniforms. Dan Aykroyd is one of my all-time favorites and a master of creating and inhabiting characters, but I think in this film, Spielberg gave him too much space to improvise; he probably just said 'okay, Dan, your character took a blow to the head from a tank turret and you were out for a while. GO!'. On the other hand, Slim Pickens, Treat Williams, John Candy, Ned Beatty and most of the rest of the cast hit the marks they were good at. Commendable, but that's what supporting characters are supposed to do, and they were better at their jobs than half of the more 'main' characters. To me, Spielberg dropped the ball by not 'directing' the bigger names more, or at the very least, not recognizing that he wasn't getting their funniest possible performances.
In Animal House, the cast was full of solid character actors, while a young Kevin Bacon has had the busiest career of all, others put in memorable performances in future productions as well: Tom Hulce was nominated for an Oscar for Amadeus, as well as nominations for mutiple Tony Awards for his work on Broadway; Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark); Bruce McGill (of many, his role on the series finale of Quantum Leap is the first to my mind); and Mark Metcalf, who channeled just enough of his Neidermeyer character into his Maestro character on Seinfeld to be equally memorable. The 'kids' in this film were definitely front and center, though veteran actor John Vernon's Dean Wormer is top 20 all-time for menace, and even Donald Sutherland got to do Donald Sutherland stuff in this one.
While the sheer talent edge goes to 1941, the collective performances by the Animal House cast gives them the edge here.
Part IV: Execution of script: Actual vs. Scripted Chaos
This is the reason I picked Animal House to compare 1941 to. 1941 had no one central theme other than the time of the events, just multiple stories occurring at the same time, while Animal House had the central theme of Delta house vs. The World.
Both films also had an action-packed 'chaotic' climax, but one made little sense (1941), and the other was a planned descent into mayhem (Animal House). 1941 had bigger explosions, vehicle crashes and general destruction, but it wasn't as satisfying as the turmoil that culminated with the appearance of and havoc wrought by the Deathmobile.
Conclusion
From our current perspective, putting these two against each other was a lopsided affair, but in the context of their times, two young directors with one being WAY more successful than the other and with a much better cast, you can see that expectations were in Spielberg's favor. Why he didn't deliver, as I hope you readers will agree, is varied but clear; 1941 was a mess on paper, dealt with a setting where finding comedy is tough, and ultimately it was too ambitious due to its embarrassment of riches in cast and director.
What's odd to me is that Spielberg has dropped hilarious moments into his movies (Indy getting hit in the jaw by the mirror in Raiders still makes me
over 40 years on), they only come in the context of a larger dramatic story, and the closest he ever came to a comedy after 1941 was Hook (and it's next to impossible to make Robin Williams not funny, so little credit there). Kubrick needed Peter Sellers to help him get the hang of comedy; I wonder if it's too late for Spielberg to find his own comedy muse, or if he's even interested at this point.
Eephus
Footballguy
You really can't discuss Spielberg and Landis without mentioning The Twilight Zone and Landis' recklessness that ended the friendship between the two directors. Landis kept working afterwards but didn't have a hit after Coming to America in 1988. I guess Beverly Hills Cop 3 made money but it was a big step down from the other two films in the franchise.
Jim Harrison and Thomas McGuane have a stronger claim to Hemingway's mantle than Milius IMO.
Jim Harrison and Thomas McGuane have a stronger claim to Hemingway's mantle than Milius IMO.
Eephus
Footballguy
I think the sheer scale of 1941 worked against it as a comedy. Comedy is ultimately based in character and when there are so many of them vying for screen time everything gets diluted.
Admittedly, I haven't seen the movie since the days of VHS so I could be completely off the mark.
Admittedly, I haven't seen the movie since the days of VHS so I could be completely off the mark.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I'll believe you; I'm not that much into Hemmingway, just popped into my head. Milius definitely talked the talk more than walked the walk, though not for a lack of trying. That's probably why his work gravitates toward heroic violence. If I had a better knack for writing, I'd try to do something about him and Oliver Stone going back and forth. Both sort of occupied the same space, though both had edges that don't overlap. The difference being Stone served while Milius was 4F.
This is what I was trying to say, and I agree with you 100%.
Spielberg had so many pieces that should have had more time on their own (Lee and Mifume is an epic miss. Either cut them completely or give them a strategic cameo with a couple of great lines like Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets). Belushi was pretty much wasted in this film; despite what he brought, his character was superfluous. TBH, the main stories of the dancing kid and Tim Matheson trying to get the girl in the airplane should have been the main storylines, but then you lose a whole lot of star power.
Eephus
Footballguy
One of Milius' best films Big Wednesday has a scene at the draft board where the Jan Michael Vincent and Gary Busey characters try really hard to get declared 4F. It's played for laughs but it still a rare break in Milius' ultra macho kayfabe.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I think I saw Big Wednesday once, before I knew who Milius was. May have to find it again, maybe double feature with Lebowski. After all, Donnie loved surfing too.
massraider
Footballguy
Hollis P Wood deals with the Japanese and the Nazi
Speilburg made this funnier just in how it was lit.
Pickens swallowing the compass, and trying to choke it down while smiling/grimacing, his crazy expression was maximized while being lit from underneath. God, this scene kills me.
"One authentic early American Hari Kari knife! Pass it around boys, and maybe someone's got a use for it....."
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Maybe I'm holding Spielberg to too high a standard. The film has funny moments like this one, I just think everything was there for it to be funnier but it was doing too much. I remember when I saw it in the theater, and when the Ferris wheel started rolling down the pier, 13-year-old me lost it, but the thing took so long to reach its destination that I remember that I was forcing myself to keep laughing hysterically. Maybe if had been edited differently?Hollis P Wood deals with the Japanese and the Nazi
Speilburg made this funnier just in how it was lit.
Pickens swallowing the compass, and trying to choke it down while smiling/grimacing, his crazy expression was maximized while being lit from underneath. God, this scene kills me.
"One authentic early American Hari Kari knife! Pass it around boys, and maybe someone's got a use for it....."
Ilov80s
Footballguy
It’s really good, definitely worth another watch.
Eephus
Footballguy
The opening shot of this is very representative of Spielberg's style. The camera opens on Pickens and does a slow zoom out to reveal his predicament. Mifune enters from the right and the camera follows him around the table. There's a matching cut on motion that ends with Mifune standing over Pickens who is shown out of focus in silhouette.
Maybe I've been watching too much Spielberg but I feel like I've been seeing a lot of that sort of subtle camera movement to place characters into a scene.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
TCM airing “Close Encounters” at midnight ET tonight for any looking for a Spielberg watch.
(More broadly, TCM “Columbia Pictures 100 years spotlight” lineup through the morning is
— Lawrence of Arabia, Close Encounters, Taxi Driver, Funny Girl, China Syndrome back to back.)
(More broadly, TCM “Columbia Pictures 100 years spotlight” lineup through the morning is
— Lawrence of Arabia, Close Encounters, Taxi Driver, Funny Girl, China Syndrome back to back.)
massraider
Footballguy
I feel like Crusade is an easier movie to enjoy. I really liked Temple of Doom, but how often is one in the mood for popcorn movie that turns kinda dark?
Mr. Mojo
Footballguy
When someone asks me to name one of my favorite "sleeper" films, I usually mention it.
The surfing at the end is epic and the Poledouris score makes it even better.
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
Eephus
Footballguy
My dumpster dive into Indiana Jones knockoffs came up with Jake Speed, a 1986 pulpy adventure with very familiar VHS cover art. It was filmed in early Mugabe-era Zimbabwe like King Solomon's Mines. Sir John Hurt picked up a paycheck for this one.
I've only watched the trailer but it's on Tubi and it's supposed to rain here all weekend
www.youtube.com
I've only watched the trailer but it's on Tubi and it's supposed to rain here all weekend
Official Trailer - JAKE SPEED (1986, Wayne Crawford, John Hurt)
Theatrical trailer of "Jake Speed" by Andrew Lane. Starring Wayne Crawford, Karen Hopkins, Dennis Christopher, John Hurt, Leon Ames, Millie Perkins, Monte Ma...
www.youtube.com
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Ilov80s
Footballguy
Crystal Skull
I had only ever heard bad things about this so I just never watched it. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t anywhere close to as bad as I expected. I liked it and found it entertaining. The reveal it’s actually Indy’s kid with Karen Allen was lame imo and of course the hiding in the fridge during the atomic was preposterous but isn’t that the nature of these things? I was happy that it looked good after being really disappointed with the look of War of the Worlds, Minority Report. My biggest complaint is the ending which really pretty copy and paste from Raiders and Last Crusade.
I had only ever heard bad things about this so I just never watched it. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t anywhere close to as bad as I expected. I liked it and found it entertaining. The reveal it’s actually Indy’s kid with Karen Allen was lame imo and of course the hiding in the fridge during the atomic was preposterous but isn’t that the nature of these things? I was happy that it looked good after being really disappointed with the look of War of the Worlds, Minority Report. My biggest complaint is the ending which really pretty copy and paste from Raiders and Last Crusade.
Eephus
Footballguy
The only time I ever saw it was in the theater. I remember the CGI during a chase scene (in the jungle?) being distractingly poor. And yeah, the refrigerator
I found it mostly underwhelming at the time but in retrospect, some of that may have been driven by high expectations for Spielberg and the franchise.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
It started strong but couldn't keep it up. I think you are right that very negative word of mouth gave me very different expectations than someone seeing at the theater hoping for another Last Crusade. Next up for is Dial of Destiny. Why in the world is thing 2 hours and 40 minutes?
The only time I ever saw it was in the theater. I remember the CGI during a chase scene (in the jungle?) being distractingly poor. And yeah, the refrigerator
I found it mostly underwhelming at the time but in retrospect, some of that may have been driven by high expectations for Spielberg and the franchise.
Eephus
Footballguy
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
The comparison of Spielberg and John Landis by @Charlie Steiner got me thinking about how I'd never seen Twilight Zone. All I knew about the movie going in was the tragic notoriety of the production and that it was a four-part anthology with episodes from different directors: John Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller. The format is set up nicely for auteurists because each of the four directors got a crack at revising similar source material from the original TV show. Landis went for shock value and historical cosplay, Dante for absurdist surrealism, Miller dialed up the intensity while Spielberg delivered a commercial for reverse mortgages.
Spielberg's segment is a real piece of dreck. It's probably the weakest of the four but since nobody was killed during its production I'll rank it tied for third. Spielberg's episode includes all of his worst tendencies: sappy sentimentality with cute annoying kids and cute annoying elders, surging strings (from Jerry Goldsmith sounding very much like John Williams) and lots of that wide-eyed wonderment that he loves so much. There's even a scene that's looks like a screen test for Hook a decade later.
The story is based on an episode of the TV show that I went back and watched for masochistic comparison. It was an odd selection by Spielberg out of the 156 original shows to choose from. The movie script added a magical negro trope (with Scatman Crothers no less) and completely changed the ending and thus the meaning of the original. The TV show ended on an ambiguous note while Spielberg said cut with everyone happy and bathed in golden light. There never was any tension or much of anything to indicate the characters had entered the twilight zone.
Spielberg's segment is second in the film following a prologue and episode by Landis. My duty for this board complete, I considered bailing midway through but persevered for the entire movie. I'm glad I did because the final two segments directed by Joe Dante and George Miller were pretty good. They seemed to understand the assignment better than the big name directors in the first part. Both maintained the spirit of the original show but added their personal vision rather than just improving the production values of the TV program.
The comparison of Spielberg and John Landis by @Charlie Steiner got me thinking about how I'd never seen Twilight Zone. All I knew about the movie going in was the tragic notoriety of the production and that it was a four-part anthology with episodes from different directors: John Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller. The format is set up nicely for auteurists because each of the four directors got a crack at revising similar source material from the original TV show. Landis went for shock value and historical cosplay, Dante for absurdist surrealism, Miller dialed up the intensity while Spielberg delivered a commercial for reverse mortgages.
Spielberg's segment is a real piece of dreck. It's probably the weakest of the four but since nobody was killed during its production I'll rank it tied for third. Spielberg's episode includes all of his worst tendencies: sappy sentimentality with cute annoying kids and cute annoying elders, surging strings (from Jerry Goldsmith sounding very much like John Williams) and lots of that wide-eyed wonderment that he loves so much. There's even a scene that's looks like a screen test for Hook a decade later.
The story is based on an episode of the TV show that I went back and watched for masochistic comparison. It was an odd selection by Spielberg out of the 156 original shows to choose from. The movie script added a magical negro trope (with Scatman Crothers no less) and completely changed the ending and thus the meaning of the original. The TV show ended on an ambiguous note while Spielberg said cut with everyone happy and bathed in golden light. There never was any tension or much of anything to indicate the characters had entered the twilight zone.
Spielberg's segment is second in the film following a prologue and episode by Landis. My duty for this board complete, I considered bailing midway through but persevered for the entire movie. I'm glad I did because the final two segments directed by Joe Dante and George Miller were pretty good. They seemed to understand the assignment better than the big name directors in the first part. Both maintained the spirit of the original show but added their personal vision rather than just improving the production values of the TV program.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
I would say that Landis made a similar mistake with his segment that Spielberg had made with 1941, in that he tried to do too much, and did it with too much hubris to see it wasn't working.
Spielberg's hubris only cost money, Landis' cost lives. According wikipedia, this accident also ended their friendship. I guess Steven didn't like how Landis handled the aftermath of the accident.
Despite this horrible tragedy, Landis still landed some quality gigs, including directing Michael Jackson's Thriller video, though his biggest hit after the Twilight Zone debacle was Coming to America, of which I would say his biggest achievement there was keeping Eddie Murphy from not being funny.
Eephus
Footballguy
I agree that he bit off more than he could chew. It's impossible to cram four timelines into a 25 minute episode. The story's gimmick was given away early on and seeing it played out multiple times was more redundant than revealing.
Landis also had to revise his Twilight Zone segment after the helicopter accident: he obviously couldn't use the footage and a dead star complicated reshoots and post-production. I think the ending they finally used was better than the one from the original script. Morrow's character was such an abhorrent bigot that it was more appropriate for him to get his comeuppance than find redemption.
Charlie Steiner
Footballguy
Totally agree about the resolution of the story.
While any untimely death is a tragedy, Morrow's always seemed extra sad to me. Always thought he was one of the greatest character actors among his peers and wondered what it would have looked like if he'd gotten the chance to act alongside his equally talented daughter.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Also some BS that the 2 kids killed were working illegally. The poor father on set who's son died had lived through the Vietnam War and was able to escape to the US.
Eephus
Footballguy
It seems more egregious than the Alec Baldwin case but jurisprudence has changed in 40 years.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
I haven't followed the Baldwin thing too closely because I don't really care for him and somehow that whole convo took on a weird political angle that I just don't have any interest in...but yeah I feel like several people should have done jail time for the death of Morrow and those 2 kids.
Keith R
The Don
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
DVRed this from TCM a few nights ago, which I learned was the Director's Cut. I had never seen this. Some of the graphics don't hold up perfectly and a lot of the domestic stuff in the middle felt unnecessarily stretched out, though I did appreciate the character depth it provides. That said, it was very good capturing the sense of wonder regarding possible alien activity. The end of the movie is it's strength (no spoilers from me) and elevate this to - or at least near - Spielberg's top tier.
DVRed this from TCM a few nights ago, which I learned was the Director's Cut. I had never seen this. Some of the graphics don't hold up perfectly and a lot of the domestic stuff in the middle felt unnecessarily stretched out, though I did appreciate the character depth it provides. That said, it was very good capturing the sense of wonder regarding possible alien activity. The end of the movie is it's strength (no spoilers from me) and elevate this to - or at least near - Spielberg's top tier.
massraider
Footballguy
The chase scenes take a lot longer than they used to.
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
Is it a legacy sequel that gets bogged down as they drag out all the characters from the series like the newest Jurassic Park?
Eephus
Footballguy
We can only hope to be invaded by such pleasant aliens.
It seems obvious in retrospect but Spielberg making Close Encounters as his first truly personal project after his success with Jaws says a lot about him as an artist and a man. He's made a lot of great movies about a variety of subjects but this one is still a definitive "Steven Spielberg film" for me.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Yeah that makes sense. I’ll tell you what, all that extra time was not appreciated by me. What a slog.
