Steven Spielberg - classic or dud

re-screened SPR - not as sappy as I remembered but the last half kinda drags. a lot.

"we have top men working on this survey"

This line reads so kinky to me now.

top. men.

We (heh, heh) are not sehr-stee.

Spielberg was being interviewed by Kermode a few months ago and he admitted that he hopes to one day find something he likes about Hook.

is it really that bad? i saw it again a couple years ago and actually kinda dug it. but it was new year's eve and i was pretty hungover so my standards were fairly low.

I think the most effective lead performances in his oeuvre may be by Henry Thomas and Christian Bale.

hook is pretty horrible, the whole thing plays like the dwarf dinner in 'the hobbit' but with worse songs and even hammier acting, if possible.

bale is really good in empire of the sun! ben stiller also surprisingly malevolent.

Bale's best perf, period, is in EOTS.

I'm glad The Sugarland Express got some support down in that all-important #12-15 range in a number of categories.

what women got top billing in Spielberg films? Goldie Hawn, Dee Wallace, Holly Hunter?

Hmm, top billing? Sally Field? Kate Capshaw? Laura Dern?

It's a good question, though I would contend that Karen Allen in "Raiders" is one of the formative Hollywood strong woman roles.

I mean first. Although Hawn is arguably the only one who is the star of the film.

formative? in a retro film? after Hollywood had kinda fucking died?

surely Ebert musta wrote about Bette Davis once in a while?

what women got top billing in Spielberg films? Goldie Hawn, Dee Wallace, Holly Hunter?

Whoopi Goldberg

right

I meant formative in that for a huge segment of the post-Spielberg generation of movies lovers, for whom "Raiders" is especially iconic, she stands tall as the perfect foil for one of the greatest action heroes. Though she (and the film) are of the retro template, the movie itself was, of course, contemporary, and strong female leads in action films are (and always have been) few and far between, making Allen's role particularly effective in its impact.

ah, "action films" again

I've read that line, and to a degree you're right, but her strength gets exactly one scene to show itself: the bar scene. The rest of the movie Spielberg punishes her for it.

xpost

I do like the ending, though, where they are both tied together and clearly both scared shitless.

Steven Spielberg has found his next directing project: an adaptation of American Sniper, the autobiography of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, which is set up at Warner Bros.

Bradley Cooper is attached to star and has been developing the project as a producer.

gross

normally i'd say ugh yuck get it away, but i actually kind of trust spielberg at this point in his career to do something interesting with that.

with Bradley Cooper? that guy is such a worthless sack of shit

it's hard for me to imagine how it could be good, but i guess i should trust spielby

^^ xp

ZDT pt. 2 - get ready, internet.

i look fwd to glenn greenwald's 2,300 word 'i haven't seen it, but' review.

is Spielberg hate ilx'S MOST BORING MANIA? even w/ ethan gone?

im closer to a spielberg apologist than hater. but chris kyle... ugh

ilx seems fairly pro-spielberg these days

basically everyone just said that they dont like the idea but they trust spielberg dude

is consistently misreading other posters ilx'S MOST BORING MANIA?

gimme a hug

Yeah I love Spielberg but given the material I'm not sure he's going to pull off what I'd like.

Spielberg should make a movie out of "Where Men Win Glory," the Pat Tillman book, instead.

the Chris Kyle book has lots of opportunities for both first-20 minutes of SPR action and maudlin homefront stuff
there's no real narrative hook to it, though - he doesn't overcome anything, we don't even win the war; he was a very good shot who killed a lot of people and was apparently good at being a SEAL for his entire career.

Well he was shot and killed at a gun range. I

So you know he overcame "life"

On Saturday, February 2, 2013, Kyle and a companion, Chad Littlefield, were shot and killed at the Rough Creek Lodge shooting range in Erath County, Texas[16] by 25-year-old fellow veteran Eddie Ray Routh, whom Kyle and Littlefield had purportedly taken to the gun range in an effort to help him with his post traumatic stress disorder.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/It_Seemed_Like_a_Good_Idea_at_the_Time.jpg

weird. I hadn't made the connection that the victim was the one who had written the book.

Clint will do it, so I hope you're happy that a guy who hasn't made a good film in a decade or so has taken over.

http://twitchfilm.com/2013/08/breaking-eastwood-to-replace-spielberg-on-american-sniper.html

I'm ecstatic.

wtf, quit thrashing around for ilx villains to hate

what a disaster for snipers

changeling is underrated imho - weird cross between mildred pierce and texas chainsaw massacre - quite unlike anything else in clint's filmog, quite unlike most american movies made these days

wow this is gonna be awful

i mean, when was the last time spielberg actually made a film that was surprising or off-the-wall in any way - eastwood takes more chances, still, for gd or bad (fwiw gran torino was an abomination, but in a weird way it was much more engaged w/ the 21st century than anything spielberg has given us since...)

xxpost

Agreed. Changeling is an oddly enjoyable hysterical-woman melodrama.