Do you miss Amblin?

[fabman]

It's never too late for some nice nostalgia. I just watched The Goonies tonight, and about a week ago Gremlins - to the point - don't you miss the Amblin Entertainment films such as these helmed by Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future) and Joe Dante (let's add Innerspace) and produced (and sometimes written) by Steven Spielberg?

Amblin Entertainment was as big as Pixar is / was (it's Disney's now), and a great place for directors to make movies, since they didn't have to handle with ignorant studio execs but had Steven Spielberg, who'd defend their vision and finance / produce the movies.

I think the movie industry needs something like Amblin again. I mean, look at all those great movies (next to Spielberg's own):

Who Framed Roger Rabbit by Robert Zemeckis
Arachnophobia by Frank Marshall
Men in Black by Barry Sonnenfeld
Back to the Future (1 - 3) by Robert Zemeckis
The Flinstones by Brian Levant
Gremlins (1 & 2) by Joe Dante
The Goonies by Richard Donner
Innerspace by Joe Dante
- and of course that's just a few of the movies produced by Amblin / Spielberg.

...and let's not forget the cartoons:

Tiny Toon Adventures
Animaniacs
Pinky & The Brain
Freakazoid

P.S.: I'm aware that Amblin Entertainment still exists, but mostly just for Spielberg's own movies.

 

[PhotoJones]

I miss the animated shows, sure.

 

[coreymb16]

Don't worry, there will be more movies produced by Amblin. The Next Indy flim?

 

[fabman]

Yeah, but outside of Spielberg's own movies?

 

[Matt]

I watched Gremlins 2 yesterday. I love those movies. Gizmo is awesome.

 

[PhotoJones]

Oddly enough, I also watched Gremlins 2 recently. That movie did not hold up over time.

 

[fabman]

Watched it last week. For me, it did.

 

[Matt]

Oddly enough, I also watched Gremlins 2 recently. That movie did not hold up over time.

A lot of the jokes are reflective of the time it was made (the early 90s). But its still pretty good, I think. Though perhaps it is only for nostalgias sake.

 

[PhotoJones]

I had it turn it off. And I used to love the Gremlins movies.

 

[terry78]

When did Amblin disband?

 

[PhotoJones]

They haven't.

 

[fabman]

But they're really just producing Spielberg's own films @ the moment.

 

[Rac]

The Flinstones by Brian Levant

Whoa. Was The Flinstones good? Never seen it, looked like crap.

 

[fabman]

I think there's quite a lot of people who didn't like it. Not on par with other Amblin pics such as Goonies and Gremlins but I liked it. Great cast, especially Goodman, Moranis and MacLachlan. It's really the cartoon in live-action.

The sequel sucks though.

The point of the thread. I think Spielberg should really go back to producing with Amblin, giving other or aspiring directors a chance to direct a great movie, maybe based on an idea or story treatment by Spielberg himself, without the studio "molesting" them and their movie.

Chris Columbus should go back to writing, by the way. But I guess that's just the nostalgic in me talking!

 

[chaseter]

Jurassic Park was Amblin...

 

[Catman]

Ever since Spielberg launched his own studio, DreamWorks, there has been no purpose for Amblin.

DreamWorks movies include:
Saving Private Ryan
Small Soldiers
American Beauty
Galaxy Quest
Almost Famous
Cast Away
Chicken Run
Gladiator
Meet the Parents
What Lies Beneath
Shrek
A Beautiful Mind
Minority Report
Road to Perdition
House of Sand and Fog
Old School
Seabiscuit
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Collateral
Meet the Fockers
Shark Tale
Shrek 2
The Terminal
The Island
Match Point
Memoirs of a Geisha
Munich
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
War of the Worlds
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Over the Hedge
Letters from Iwo Jima
Bee Movie
Blades of Glory
Disturbia
Shrek the Third
Sweeney Todd
The Kite Runner
Transformers

Whoa. Was The Flinstones good? Never seen it, looked like crap.

It's the ONLY good live-action adaptation of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon

 

[Sam Fisher]

Amblin Entertainment was as big as Pixar is / was (it's Disney's now), and a great place for directors to make movies, since they didn't have to handle with ignorant studio execs but had Steven Spielberg, who'd defend their vision and finance / produce the movies.

I think the movie industry needs something like Amblin again. I mean, look at all those great movies (next to Spielberg's own):

Who Framed Roger Rabbit by Robert Zemeckis
Arachnophobia by Frank Marshall
Men in Black by Barry Sonnenfeld
Back to the Future (1 - 3) by Robert Zemeckis
The Flinstones by Brian Levant
Gremlins (1 & 2) by Joe Dante
The Goonies by Richard Donner
Innerspace by Joe Dante
- and of course that's just a few of the movies produced by Amblin / Spielberg.

...and let's not forget the cartoons:

Tiny Toon Adventures
Animaniacs
Pinky & The Brain
Freakazoid

P.S.: I'm aware that Amblin Entertainment still exists, but mostly just for Spielberg's own movies.

How dare you not put E.T on that list

I think there's quite a lot of people who didn't like it. Not on par with other Amblin pics such as Goonies and Gremlins but I liked it. Great cast, especially Goodman, Moranis and MacLachlan. It's really the cartoon in live-action.

The sequel sucks though.

The point of the thread. I think Spielberg should really go back to producing with Amblin, giving other or aspiring directors a chance to direct a great movie, maybe based on an idea or story treatment by Spielberg himself, without the studio "molesting" them and their movie.

Chris Columbus should go back to writing, by the way. But I guess that's just the nostalgic in me talking!

The sequel wasn't that bad...

It's the ONLY good live-action adaptation of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon

Except for Scooby Doo

 

[fabman]

I didn't put E.T. on the list because I said - next to Spielberg's own movies...

@ Catman: I know, that's why I (partially) hate DreamWorks. You can't compare DreamWorks to Amblin. DW is a studio, while Amblin is a production company, Spielberg doesn't really have much to say about most DreamWorks movies and it's not really his productions. In the 1980's Spielberg would have screenplays such as 'The Goonies' (based on a story by S. himself) and 'Gremlins' and would personally hire directors to helm the pics. Can't compare that to DreamWorks.

AMBLIN WAS EXACTLY LIKE PIXAR (...well, at least before Disney bought it) - they produced helluva movies, by Spielberg and other directors, but the directors and producers always had creative freedom, since Spielberg would protect the helmers' vision whenever the studio had something to say, which they didn't, since Amblin did almost everything on its own, except for distribution - at least in the 1980's.

 

[Hoedowned]

I saw Monster House the other day, and I noticed it had the Amblin logo at the start. So I guess it hasn't totally disappeared.

 

[Ratcrawler]

Jurassic Park's my personal fave.