Munich (2005)

I own three films related to the events surrounding the 1972 Munich Olympics. One is a documentary (One Day in September), one is a TV-movie about the events of the massacre itself (21 Hours at Munich), and this one is about the response of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to those events. I’ve not seen […]

Amistad (1997)

I normally start a Steven Spielberg review by discussing the asinine attitude that has developed around him–either hero worship or envious/rebellious denigration. I’ve done that though, so for those unaware, let me strike my stance as follows: Spielberg is an excellent director who is typically overrated a bit too much by his biggest fans and […]

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

I don’t know if it’s a colouring of only personal response around me or big critical response or a mix, but I have this recollection of Catch Me If You Can being considered a pretty entertaining movie and that’s all, disappointing as a Spielberg film. It seems to me that it was simply in a […]

Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

Some movies are saddled with a need to honour respected source material. Some are saddled with a dark history (see also: The Dark Knight, The Crow…) in reality. In the case of the Twilight Zone movie, both are a problem. The deaths of Vic Morrow, Renee Chen and My-ca Dinh Lee are often suspected in […]

Hook (1991)

I grew up watching this film many, many times. It wasn’t until over a decade later that I started to learn it was at least considered mediocre if not outright bad–possibly even the worst in Spielberg’s career. I continue to find this relatively confusing, but I tend to find things like that confusing, so perhaps […]

1941 (1979)

Hmm. I’ve talked a number of times about the near venomous response Spielberg receives in many circles I run in, and my disagreement with it, but this is a slightly different situation. This film was pretty widely panned but just about everyone on release, sandwiched between Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Raiders of […]

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

I tend to be surrounded by people who hate Spielberg, or hate his fans, or hate his movies, or some combination of all of those possibilities. I find this about as tiring as people who “hate the Beatles.” Generally it tends to be sourced in an aversion to what is widely considered good, thus leaving […]

Empire of the Sun (1987)

I ignored this movie for a long time, thinking the title was vaguely familiar and that was about it. I eventually noted it was a Steven Spielberg film and my interest increased minimally, but not enough to draw me to even add it to a wishlist of desired viewing. I even found out the main […]