Steven Spielberg - classic or dud

I saw the Spielberg Columbo recently and...it was okay? Not that it was bad but it was m/l just another episode of Columbo. Which (again) is good not bad! But it wasn't particularly Spielbegian (or proto-Spielbergian, to the extent that he was still acquiring a style).

Best TV Spielberg is probably his WWII Amazing Stories episode. It inches right up to his mid-'80s super saccharine tendencies (see: his installment of Twilight Zone: The Movie) but remains on the more favorable side of that line.

NV otm ant the visual hideousness of Tintin - frustratingly, the animated credits are actually quite nice. Also thought it was a mistake to mash together two different Tintin stories and then go for a generic action movie ending. Just feels like Spielberg doesn't trust the material, or understand it - American cultural imperialism at its most embarrassing.

Rewatch the opening shot again, OL - that's as technically / storytellingly impressive as anything in Raiders, and done by a 23yo nobody.

(The murder/cleanup shown as a split-screen in Robert Culp's glasses in the "next" episode is even more astounding.)

I've seen a bit of Tintin across a bar with the sound off, and it's absolutely repulsive, though looks like the virtual "camera"work would be impressive if it were possible to actually keep your eyes on the screen.

opening shot scene, but the first shot is ridonkulous

I liked Tintin

same!

The opening shot is great, but Jack Cassidy is just so memorably suave and repulsive. Spielberg isn't the main draw!

There is *so much* that could've been better with Tintin but it's just fun and the voice acting and script are great

it's been a few years since i saw it, but i remember it matching sic's description - just a nice sprinkling of shots where he went the extra mile and got something very very "cinematic" for 70s TV, even for a "movie of the week" show like Columbo. it's also the first non-pilot episode - so if it's a generic Columbo maybe it helped set the tone?

Tintin is interesting until the awful smash bang explosions ending but yeah I feel he was completely clueless about what made Hergé tick.

And CE3K is all-time. Ignore the haters.

I feel he was completely clueless about what made Hergé tick.

I'd guess Herge would have hated it.

I suppose someone mentioned this at some point, but I can't find anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbUM27qw6a8

Obvious first reaction: why?

Yeah, I love Spielberg, but this might be just the fourth movie of his I have absolutely no interest in seeing.

That burnished neon look Spielberg and Kaminski have been using since - I dunno - "Big Fat Giant" or something is distractingly ugly. Why? I realize it's more Kaminski's aesthetic than anything but it's awful.

I'm guessing that part of the why for this one is the original movie casting of Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer as Puerto Ricans.

The only thing he's done in the last decade I've liked is Lincoln. Haven't seen The Post but not particularly interested to.

It's good! Lotta folks liked "Bridge of Spies," too (I haven't ever gotten around to it, but plan to). Fwiw, my short list of skips have been "Always," "The Terminal," "War Horse" and "BFG," though I could imagine one day sitting down and watching all but "BFG."

War Horse is about as 1948 as it gets, but (or so, maybe) I enjoyed it.

Misread that as "about as *1941* as it gets" and I was confused! I briefly thought, wait, I thought it was supposed to be a somewhat mawkish drama?

“War Horse” ( the most John Ford-iest of Spielbergs) and “Lincoln” are the last two most memorable ones for me.

Lincoln holds up.

i'll defend Tintin, but not in a sustained or committed way.

Going to be terribly on brand here and say the 1961 version is a tad overrated and sign me right up for the Spielberg take.

Yeah I think I agree. I watch West Side Story for the color and movement - the prospect of Spielberg doing a lush kinetic big-budget dance movie, even if it turns out to be pointless I'm sure at the very least it will look and sound very good. Maybe its a low bar but after a year of pandemic nightmare idgaf, I'll pay 12 bucks to see his take on that.

Bridge of Spies and The Post are both perfectly fine middlebrow Hollywood popcorn, fun & worth watching once if you dont hate Spielberg and/or Hanks. Agree that Lincoln holds up, rewatched it recently and I think I like it a lot.

Ranking post-Munich Spielberg:

Lincoln (2012)
Bridge of Spies (2015)
War Horse (2011)
-------
Ready Player One (2018)
The Post (2017)
-------
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

I did not see Tintin or BFG.

It's not even that I think the original is great and sacrosanct, it's more that it feels definitively of its moment, both for better and worse. But Ward Fowler's point above makes sense.

Richard Beymer wasn't playing a Puerto Rican, FTR.

i was bored by Lincoln and turned it off. had lower than low expectations for Ready Player One and it was fine, i didn't hate it. Crystal Skull was just rubbish on every level. sat through The BFG and thought it didn't improve on the cartoon version.

I'd insist on your giving Lincoln another try. Few historical are this wise about political horsetrading and as fun.

I probably should, to be fair, only got about half an hour in and wasn't giving it my full attention.

It would be nice/cool for Spielberg to give Beymer a little cameo in this one if he's up for it.

Russ Tamblyn, too, why not

right!

I've enjoyed recent Spielbergs while watching them but tbh the last one that actually stuck in my mind was War of the Worlds.

And once you get Beymer and Tamblyn, work Kyle MacLachlan in as Officer Krupke.

Tintin is not bad. Ready Player One's problem is the amount of care and detail put into a story not worth caring about, imo.

I imagine Spielberg, one of the most prolific of big contemporary directors, has a lot of juggling of foundations, production jobs, etc., to contend with, which may explain his relatively uneven recent output, despite no apparent decline in his abilities beyond occasional lapses in project choice.

Check out Spielberg's oeuvre since 2000. The man's productivity would astound an indie director.

I've enjoyed recent Spielbergs while watching them but tbh the last one that actually stuck in my mind was War of the Worlds.

― Alba, Tuesday, April 27, 2021 9:36 AM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The first half in isolation would count among the best films he ever directed. But then there's that second half to consider.

Yes, of the second half I remember only the very end, and that for being bad.

Looking through his list since WoTW, the only two I haven't seen are Munich and The BFG, and I'm also reminded that Crystal Skull is also memorable to me and not only for the bad bits: the opening drag race scene soundtracked by Hound Dog is terrific.

Get on Munich right ... away!

I was a big fan of both Munich AND A.I.! /introduce_yourself

It's too bad that his Amazing Stories episode 'The Mission' isn't as widely known as it should be. It's like a mini-movie and it might be the gem of his mid-'80s 'whimsy & wonder' period. Looks like you can watch it on NBC's website, so it's good to know that it's available.

Is that the one with Kevin Costner and the WWII plane?

I still haven't seen Lincoln, either.

Yeah, that's the one.

Not the most original take, but watched The Terminal last night and it kind of took my breath away how offensive & ill-judged Hanks' performance is. He seems like he's been dropped in from a particularly xenophobic 50s sitcom, doing the thing where because he doesnt know English, it follows that he also acts & reacts like a toddler. Like the when when he hears the name of his fake country, he starts flashing thumbs up and yelling it individually at each person in the vicinity. Or when someone teaches him a new word and he proceeds to proudly yell the word at random people out of excitement, like a 2 year old might. I get that hes supposed to be an innocent abroad in the fairytale world of SpielbergLand, but still, it was kind of shocking to see him he play it somewhere on a spectrum between Latka Gravas and a talking dog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1G2iLSzOe8

Spielberg's Licorice Pizza?

I love Spielberg, I love Michelle Williams, but that seems a bit ... much.

Judd Hirsch: "LIFE!"

The reviews are pretty positive. I guess it makes sense, Jews know schmaltz.

(I kid, I bet this will be good, though I admit I kept watching Williams and Dano with Sarah Silverman's "Jewface" rant in mind. Hirsch and Rogan, on the other hand, have resting Jewface.)