[6] Steven Spielberg tackles his autobiography with this story of his youth and adolescence, discovering his love of film while coping with his parents’ untenable marriage. As Spielberg’s stand-in, Sam Fabelman, Gabrielle LaBelle is a disappointingly empty vessel, lacking the charisma or screen presence to carry us through this tale. Michelle Williams leaves a much bigger impression with her performance as Sam/Spielberg’s mother, a carefree …
[7] The five tenants of an old building in New York are threatened by a land developer demolishing buildings all around them. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy star as an elderly couple trying to keep the building’s storefront café in business. Elizabeth Pena plays an expectant mother, Frank McRae plays a mute boxer-turned-handyman, and Dennis Boutsikaris plays a struggling artist. Just when all these characters …
[7] Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood) won his third Oscar for his convincing portrait of America’s 16th president during the final months of the Civil War. Lincoln is a decades-long pet project for director Steven Spielberg, who chose Angels in America scribe Tony Kushner to make Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln the foundation …
[6] What if Peter Pan grew up? Steven Spielberg explores the question in his lavish production of Hook, the story of an adult Peter Pan (Robin Williams) who must return to Neverland to rescue his children from the dastardly Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman). But at first, Peter doesn’t even believe in Neverland anymore, or that he is the famous character in J.M. Barries’ books. He’s …
[7] Five young dinosaurs are separated from their tribes during an earthquake in this animated adventure from Don Bluth (The Secret of NIMH, Anastasia). The unlikely band must square off against a ferocious ‘sharp tooth’ (Tyrannosaurus rex) while searching for a lush new feeding ground where they hope to be reunited with their families — overcoming prejudice and learning the value of cooperation along the …
[7] Steven Spielberg passes the directorial reigns of the Jurassic Park franchise to the superbly capable Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer, Captain America: The First Avenger) for this second dino sequel. Sam Neill returns as Dr. Alan Grant, coerced by a wealthy couple (Téa Leoni and William H. Macy) to return to the prehistoric island for a personal guided airplane tour. But the wealthy couple turn …
[7] Jeff Goldblum and director Steven Spielberg return for the first Jurassic Park sequel. Goldblum’s character first scoffs at John Hammond’s (Richard Attenborough) request to catalog and study the flourishing dinosaurs at a second ‘Site B’ island. But when he discovers his paleontologist girlfriend (Julianne Moore) is already there, Goldblum launches a rescue mission. Once on the island, our heroes discover Hammond’s desire to preserve …
[8] Writer/director Steven Spielberg follows up his immensely successful Jaws with this tale of extra-terrestrials and government conspiracy. Richard Dreyfuss stars as a family man whose encounter with a UFO brings him into contact with a grieving mother (Melinda Dillon) whose young son has been kidnapped by aliens. Together, they are haunted by visions of a mountain. When they figure out their mysterious, shared vision …
[7] Steven Spielberg brings Ernest Cline’s book to the big screen. It’s about a dystopian future in which everyone is poor and living in squalor, so they spend most of their free time living in a big virtual game world called The Oasis. Now, I hate video games, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get into this movie, but …
[6] J.J. Abrams’ comprehensive homage to Spielberg’s early career is a decent spooky kids’ adventure movie. It does a good job stirring nostalgia among 30-somethings like myself. It’s not as mysterious or suspenseful as one might expect from Abrams, the creator of TV’s Lost and producer of Cloverfield. But it does have a solid emotional grounding like much of Abrams’ other work. The film is …
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