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What Spielberg movies you didn't like and why?

post #1 of 95
8/27/09 at 1:07am
Thread Starter 
I saw the other thread and thought to start this myself. Even weak Spielberg movies are better than average and have some redeeming qualities. Now the more interesting question would be which of his movies you can’t stand!

From the top of my head, for me it would be Amistad and Minority Report.
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post #2 of 95
8/27/09 at 6:46am
JP2, AI, Indy 4
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post #3 of 95
8/27/09 at 6:58am
Hook. Even Spielberg himself thinks he hit rock bottom on this one :)

The Lost World. The plot doesn't make sense, there's no real feeling of intensity to it, unlike the first movie, and then that girl doing gymnastics in the jungle... Even JP3 stomps this one to hell.

Always. Must not be very good because I can never remember anything about it beyond reminding me that I don't like Richard Dreyfuss.

Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. It's actually not that bad a movie but I just don't like the ending with Dreyfuss (well, there he is again) abandoning his family to wander around with the aliens.

ET. I loved it when I was a kid. Now I just want wring Elliot's neck whenever I see this. Annoying little bastard.

AI. It was kind of interesting but, eh, I just don't feel any desire to ever watch it again.

Saving Private Ryan. Well-filmed action scenes (the video game industry will be indebted to this film for eternity) but the rest of it leaves me cold.

War of the Worlds. Man, I've tried watching this multiple times and I don't think I've ever made it all the way through. Somehow it just doesn't hold my attention.
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post #4 of 95
8/27/09 at 8:12am

While it's not that bad of a movie, I don't like Jurassic Park. And I don't think The Lost World: Jurassic Park or Hook are very good. That being said, the man is still one of the greatest directors ever.

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post #5 of 95
8/27/09 at 8:48am
IJ 2 and 4
The Terminal


Edited by JanuaryMan - 8/27/09 at 8:11pm
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post #6 of 95
8/27/09 at 10:30am
Schindler's List I find hard to like, ditto Amistad.

I have both on dvd.





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post #7 of 95
8/27/09 at 1:08pm
1941 - what a stinker
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post #8 of 95
8/27/09 at 1:16pm
The Lost World was terrible.  "Daddy, I want to go in the high hide!"  And they go in the high hide, nothing happens, and they come back down.  Then, she swings and kicks a raptor.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  JP wasn't great, but it was entertaining.  I'd rather read the book, but the music and the movie take me back to 1993 and it's nice.  JP3 was actually a fun little movie.  But, I don't think I'll ever see the second one again.

Didn't like AI.  I know some consider Spielberg to be in a golden period, but I pretty much lost interest after JP2.  I've only seen a handful since then and don't care that I've missed the rest.
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post #9 of 95
8/27/09 at 1:34pm
The Lost World
A.I.
Catch me if you Can(this one was inexcusably bad)

Turns out as time goes on, his craft is diminishing.  Too bad, he really had talent.
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post #10 of 95
8/27/09 at 2:09pm
E.T.

After years of having to sit through it 5, 6 times every school year as a child, I grew to hate it and will never, ever, ever watch even a minute of it again.
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post #11 of 95
8/27/09 at 7:54pm
Jaws - I hate it. HATE...IT.

I resent its manipulativeness, the  dumbing down, everything except the casting. I literally cannot watch it.

Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom - coming after the brilliant and joyful Raiders, Temple of Doom was tone deaf and offensive, an embarrassment from a flimmaker of this caliber. Whereas Raiders soared, Temple fell with a resounding thud.

I don't "hate" ET, but I don't like it either. I was an adult when it came out, so I wasn't enchanted by it as a youngster, therefore I don' view ET as a fond shildhood memory. It's too damned cute for its own good. Way too cute.

Hook - yuck, a misfire, well meant, but misconceived and miscast.

1941- Too much, too busy, too many half baked ideas crammed into this movie.

Lost World, once was almost too much. Jurrasic Park was fun - once. I didn't need to go back. A totally unnecessary filmic exercise.

I find Spielberg one of the most gifted directors working, but I don't always care for his cinematic sensibilities. I do find that some of his interesting "failures" are more entertaining to me than his popular movies e.g. AI, which has many redeeming features amid the flaws. I also like Catch Me If You Can, which was very entertaining.

I here confess I've never watched Amistad all the way through.
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post #12 of 95
8/27/09 at 8:49pm

Quote:
The Lost World was terrible.  "Daddy, I want to go in the high hide!" 

And that was not even the line. I think it was "I want to go somewhere...high" And that may have been without any knowledge that they had the High Hide.

Also the completely overly P.C. moment where all that "good guys" are looking with complete pained looks on their faces when the InGen people are rounding up the dinosaurs was awful,



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post #13 of 95
8/27/09 at 9:14pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy Sheets View Post
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. It's actually not that bad a movie but I just don't like the ending with Dreyfuss (well, there he is again) abandoning his family to wander around with the aliens.
One could argue his family abandoned him first.

I think Spielberg once said the ending of E.T. reflected his change of mind on running off with friendly aliens though.

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post #14 of 95
8/27/09 at 11:34pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by WillG View Post
And that was not even the line. I think it was "I want to go somewhere...high" And that may have been without any knowledge that they had the High Hide.

Also the completely overly P.C. moment where all that "good guys" are looking with complete pained looks on their faces when the InGen people are rounding up the dinosaurs was awful,

Ahh, gee.  I only saw the film once when it was first released and I've always thought that was the line.  I've been misremembering that for a long time!

Good things about Lost World: the first book's opening about the compy attack on Costa Rica was filmed.  The compys were cool and definitely missed during the first movie.  The raptors moving through the tall grass made for a great visual.  Other than that?  Crichton's book was generally panned, but it was a lot better than what they came up with when they threw most of it out.

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post #15 of 95
8/27/09 at 11:53pm
I never liked ET even when I saw it as a kid in the theaters. Way too high on the cutesy factor, predictable, and being practical minded it broke physic laws to the point it was just unbelievable. A magic glowing finger?   Just thinking of it now, was it one of the first in a long trend since where the actor dies and they don't stay dead?
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post #16 of 95
8/28/09 at 4:48am


Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Hewell View Post

1941 - what a stinker
 

Ack! One of my favorites!

I'd say I don't much care for Hook. War of the Worlds I found an unnecessary remake and didn't care for Cruise.
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post #17 of 95
8/28/09 at 6:15am
I've never been much of a Spielberg fan and find it to be a much shorter list if I list the films that I do like.

Loved
Duel - My favorite Spielberg film and the only one that I regularly re-watch
Jaws - This is still a great film, but I think more of that is due to accident than because of Spielberg (Malfunctioning Shark anyone?)
Raiders - Excellent adventure film, that is perhaps just a tad too long for what it's trying to do.  (Just short of great)
Minority Report - I really enjoyed this one, but haven't re-watched since it first came out.
Munich - Perhaps my second favorite Spielberg film, but once again I have only seen it once.

Hated
Catch Me if You Can
The Terminal

Haven't seen (...and probably won't)
Sugarland Express
1941
Empire of the Sun (I'll watch this one sooner or later)
Always
Hook
The Lost World
War of the Worlds

Indifferent
Most everything else

So I've seen 17 and I find 5 of them to be worth owning and re-watching.

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post #18 of 95
8/28/09 at 9:35am

Quote:
One could argue his family abandoned him first.
 

Yeah, one thing that always bothered me about the film was how unsympathetic Roy's wife is toward him. Granted, Roy was acting out in some strange ways, but it was pretty clear in the film that his wife was aware that Roy was not the only one to have witnessed the UFOs and that plenty of other people were having visions of Devil's Tower. I guess it kind of had to be that way though or else we would fault Roy for leaving with the aliens at the end.

Quote:
 Crichton's book was generally panned, but it was a lot better than what they came up with when they threw most of it out.

Yeah, the only thing I can think of that they kept from Crichton's book was the scene where the T-Rexes attack the trailer, and I'll say one good thing about the movie regarding that, when the Julianne Moore character falls to the bottom of the trailer and the rear windsheild glass is slowing cracking underneath her, it's pretty goddamned tense. Although, one might think that a vehicle like that designed to be in an environment with dinosaurs would use something stronger than plain glass for windows, like plexiglass.
 
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post #19 of 95
8/28/09 at 9:54am


Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg_S_H View Post
... Then, she swings and kicks a raptor.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing... 

 

Every time I see JP2, or someone even mentions it, this scene pops into my head.  And I curse.  I hate hate hate that scene. 
I don't mind swallowing some implausibilities in a movie about dinosaurs being brought back to life in modern times.  But when the precocious kid crap starts, you're walking a fine line.  A precocious kid who can apparently defy physics (I'm pretty sure conservation of momentum was not accurately depicted in her uneven-bars raptor fight routine ) is just too much for me. 
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post #20 of 95
8/28/09 at 10:12am
Growing up, I was a big Spielberg fan and eagerly awaited each new film.  'Hook' dug him such a hole, though, that it took both 'Jurassic Park' and 'Schindler's List' in 1993 to restore my faith in his abilities.  Since then, it's been hit-or-miss.  Following JP, all his "blockbuster" collaborations with writer David Koepp (JP2, Indy 4, War of the Worlds), have been disappointing at best.  On the other hand, I've found his recent dramas and "hard" sci-fi films to be interesting at worst.  In his whole body of work, the only films I'm indifferent to are 'Always' and 'The Terminal' (in that I forget they exist).  Indy 4 is probably the low-water mark for me, and that fact that he's in some way responsible for these 'Transformers' abominations also isn't a good sign.  However, he has some interesting projects on the far horizon, so here's hoping for another eventual rebound.
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post #21 of 95
8/28/09 at 10:42am
Who are you? Béla Károlyi?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralphie_B View Post


(I'm pretty sure conservation of momentum was not accurately depicted in her uneven-bars raptor fight routine )
 
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post #22 of 95
8/28/09 at 11:04am
I'd have to look up his movies on IMDB because I can't think of too many films I don't like, even though I know there are a bunch.  I can say I don't like AI at all, it was way too boring for me. 

The most recent bomb for me is Indy 4.  I pretty much can't believe how badly that turned out.  The biggest problem for me was the CGI, completely took me out of the movie.
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post #23 of 95
8/31/09 at 11:43am


Quote:
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. It's actually not that bad a movie but I just don't like the ending with Dreyfuss (well, there he is again) abandoning his family to wander around with the aliens.

[spits out drink] Whaaaa...?

Just kidding. We're all entitled to our opinions. For me the subversive brilliance of the film hinges on its ending--we shouldn't be cheering Dreyfuss abandoning his responsibilities, but we do.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Claire Panke View Post

Jaws - I hate it. HATE...IT.

Well, it takes some kind of bravery to say that on a movie discussion board. I commend you.

The "worst" Spielberg films all tend to have good things in them. But Indy IV really didn't. Not even any good action sequences to liven things up. It wasn't necessarily terrible overall, but tired and uninspired. Almost 20 years, and this was the script they all finally agreed on? Yeesh.

For years, I resisted seeing 1941, knowing that it was considered a misfire. Then one day I finally recorded it off cable and saw it, thinking that maybe I would find more in it to enjoy than others. But, no, not really. It actually is a misfire. Misbegotten, and simply not funny.

While "The Terminal" wasn't a bad film, it just wasn't memorable. A very minor work from a major director.

Oh, and to Eric Peterson--See "Sugarland Express." It's great.

--Jefferson Morris



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post #24 of 95
8/31/09 at 12:19pm

Quote:
Oh, and to Eric Peterson--See "Sugarland Express." It's great.

Thanks, I just saw an interview with Spielberg a few weeks ago and he mentioned how many scenes from this film were inspired by Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole" which is one of my all-time favorites.  I think that I will check that one out.

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post #25 of 95
8/31/09 at 12:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Peterson View Post



Thanks, I just saw an interview with Spielberg a few weeks ago and he mentioned how many scenes from this film were inspired by Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole" which is one of my all-time favorites.  I think that I will check that one out.

 


It's not hard to see the Ace In The Hole influence on Sugarland Express. Very good movie especially considering it was the first* theatrical feature he made.

* Counting Duel as a TV movie.
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post #26 of 95
8/31/09 at 7:14pm
This one is SO easy for me.

War of the Worlds - sloppy, silly and overblown. 
The Terminal - totally uninspired from beginning to end
The Lost Word - Spielberg phoned this in.
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post #27 of 95
9/1/09 at 3:19am
 It's a guilty pleasure, but I have to admit I like Hook. 

John Williams' score is absolutely epic too in Hook as well and I found Hoffman and Hopkins to be great as Captain Hook and Smee. 
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post #28 of 95
9/1/09 at 8:39am
I was 11 when hook came out, and enjoyed it as a kid.  Wasn't that the intended audience, children?  So what's with all the hate for it?
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post #29 of 95
9/1/09 at 3:42pm

Quote:
I was 11 when hook came out, and enjoyed it as a kid.  Wasn't that the intended audience, children?  So what's with all the hate for it?
 

Same here.  I never had a problem with Hook.
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post #30 of 95
9/1/09 at 6:05pm
Hook; I was 8 or 9 and liked it a lot (still do), as do all my friends of the same age. I guess the pieces just don't gel with some people because I can't find any major faults with the movie.

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