Hype Movie Club

[flickchick85]

Sorry I’m late naming a category for May (I really gotta quit traveling at the end of the month), so I’m gonna make it super easy in honor of the unofficial kick-off of the summer movie season and go with the father of the summer blockbuster:

Steven Spielberg

Like before, directing and writing credits are fair game, as are series/franchises, while just producing credits are not. And just a reminder, the Indiana Jones series has already been done by the club, so those are off the table. Everybody gets UP TO FOUR picks, voting will be open thru Thursday!​

 

[flickchick85]

My Stevie picks:

Amistad
Minority Report
The Jurassic Park series
The Jaws series

 

[squeekness]

Jaws
Close Encounters
Jurassic Park
ET

 

[Kane52630]

So I'm gonna pick Duel because I think everyone should see it as one of his underrated works that deserves more recognition...

and the other three picks are ones that I haven't seen yet:

Duel
Minority Report
Amistad
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (I actually have seen half of it but I don't remember anything)

 

[Spider-Fan]

Focusing on ones I haven't seen a million times:

Duel
ET
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
AI: Artificial Intelligence

 

[-Arya-]

Picking some movies that I think are weirdly underrated.

A.I.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Duel
Minority Report

 

[Babillygunn]

Jaws
Close Encounters
Jurassic Park
West Side Story

 

[Link]

A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Minority Report
The Sugarland Express
War Horse

Picking only films I've yet to see. This'll be a good opportunity to go back to 1941 as well, I've got my blu-ray ready.

 

[Drizzle]

I'm down to clown with Spielberg. I'll go with:

Jurassic Park - I don't care if the whole movie is tattooed in my brain, I'm always good for a rewatch
Hook - Underrated but as a '90s kid I've always loved it
The Color Purple - Haven't seen it yet
Duel - Haven't seen it either but I'm intrigued because it's his first movie

 

[Kane52630]

Duel - Haven't seen it either but I'm intrigued because it's his first movie

Spoiler

 

[Babillygunn]

Hook - Underrated but as a '90s kid I've always loved it

It’s so funny, but my friends who are 5-10 years younger than me love that movie whereas I, who was graduating college in the mid/later 90’s thought it was a huge miss.

This one is clearly a generational thing. I’d be interested in revisiting it now and also seeing how others feel upon revisiting it.

 

[flickchick85]

I have revisited Hook in the last year, and while I do actually kind of love it, as an adult I also find it quite sad because it feels like Spielberg bidding farewell to his inner-child, which is just a kind of depressing feeling.

That said, no lie, Captain Hook is easily my favorite Dustin Hoffman performance. He is soooooo good in that role imo.

 

[Drizzle]

It’s so funny, but my friends who are 5-10 years younger than me love that movie whereas I, who was graduating college in the mid/later 90’s thought it was a huge miss.

This one is clearly a generational thing. I’d be interested in revisiting it now and also seeing how others feel upon revisiting it.

It's definitely one of those movies like The Goonies where if you saw it as a kid and loved it you probably always will but if you saw it for the first time as an adult you most likely won't care for it. I first revisited it as an adult right after Robin Williams died and it especially struck a chord with me.

I have revisited Hook in the last year, and while I do actually kind of love it, as an adult I also find it quite sad because it feels like Spielberg bidding farewell to his inner-child, which is just a kind of depressing feeling.

That said, no lie, Captain Hook is easily my favorite Dustin Hoffman performance. He is soooooo good in that role imo.

I think Spielberg has even gone on record as saying it's his worst movie but I hope he at least realizes now that there are entire generations who grew up with Hook and loved it.

I might also have to agree with you about Hoffman. Hook might be my favorite performance of his too. Is it his best performance of all time? I wouldn't rank it above Rain Man, Tootsie, Kramer vs. Kramer or Midnight Cowboy but IMO he turned in an Oscar-worthy performance as Captain Hook. He DISAPPEARED into that role. I don't think we've seen a better Hook on film before or since, to be honest.

 

[Batgirl0202]

It's odd, for such an iconic director I've seen surprisingly few Spielberg films. However, at least one of them is on my all-time favourites list

Jaws: easily one of my favourite films of all time. I recently bought a digital copy on Prime for five bucks so this is a good opportunity to re-visit and finally review the film.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: I've only seen this once, and that was years ago as a kid. I'm curious to see how it holds up.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence: I've read about how divisive this film is, and the storied history behind its production. I never saw it but perhaps it's time.

Duel: Where it all began. Never saw it but I'll bite

 

[Drizzle]

Funny thing about A.I., I watched it when it came out in theaters and haven't seen it since outside of maybe a few bits and pieces of it on television over the years but I remember practically everything about it. It's nowhere close to being one of my favorites from Spielberg but it's still stuck with me after all this time.

 

[Babillygunn]

Jaws: easily one of my favourite films of all time. I recently bought a digital copy on Prime for five bucks so this is a good opportunity to re-visit and finally review the film.

It’s one of my favorites as well. In the last couple of years, some of my highlights of life has been introducing my youngest son to Jaws, Lost Boys, and the Rocky/Creed movies

 

[flickchick85]

Aaaaand we've got 6 winners this month! First place was a tie, with 5 votes each:


A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Brian Aldiss, Ian Watson and Steven Spielberg
Starring: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor
What's It About? A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become "real" so that he can regain the love of his human mother.


Duel (1971)

Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Written By: Richard Matheson
Starring: Dennis Weaver, Jaqueline Scott and Eddie Firestone
What's It About? A business commuter is pursued and terrorized by the malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer.


And then a 4-way tie for runner-up!


Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Steven Spielberg, Hal Barwood & Jerry Belson
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban
What's It About? Roy Neary, an Indiana electric lineman, finds his quiet and ordinary daily life turned upside down after a close encounter with a UFO, spurring him to an obsessed cross-country quest for answers as a momentous event approaches.

Jaws (1975)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Peter Benchley & Carl Gottlieb
Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss & Lorraine Gary
What's It About? When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.


Jurassic Park (1993)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Michael Crichton & David Koepp
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum & Richard Attenborough
What's It About? A pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.


Minority Report (2002)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Scott Frank, Jon Cohen & Philip K. Dick
Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton & Max von Sydow
What's It About? John works with the PreCrime police which stop crimes before they take place, with the help of three 'PreCogs' who can foresee crimes. Events ensue when John finds himself framed for a future murder.

Can't knock this group! Thanks for voting, everybody!​