During my winter break, I managed to catch up on some Steven Spielberg movies I'd never seen before (largely inspired by Schaffrillas' ranking list).
Duel - Fantastic effort for Steven's first movie (technically a TV movie, but whatever). A simple but original premise that, aside from maybe one or two slow parts, manages to be gripping throughout its runtime. The most distracting thing for me though were the internal monologues. I get why Steven did them, but still, kinda weird.
Empire of the Sun - I had some trouble deciding whether I wanted to watch this or Amistad. And in the course of my research of these two movies to decide which one I wanted to watch, I noticed quite a few similarities between the two:
- Both are historical dramas based on true stories
- Both are 154 minutes long
- Both have a 78% on Rotten Tomatoes
- And, while they obviously weren't released the same year, they were released almost 10 years apart from each other, to the date.
So yeah, didn't exactly make the choice easy for me, but since I'm an anime nerd and have a strong love for Japan (even though this movie was set in China) and I wanted something a bit earlier in Spielberg's career, I chose this.
Anywho, it feels like there's a really good movie in here somewhere, but...man, whatever Spielberg was trying to sell me with this kid, I wasn't buying it. First, the kid starts off as a real brat, which, yeah, I guess that's the point is that he gets a dose of reality, and I really don't get this supposed grand emotional connection he has with airplanes. I'm sure Christian Bale did the best with what he was given and there are some really good technical aspects to this movie, but it just doesn't add up to a whole lot for me.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence - I really want to like this movie more than I do. Things start off fairly promising (David's separation from his mother is absolutely gut-wrenching), and I even dug the second act where David goes out into the harsh futuristic world, but then we get to the third act and the whole story just really falls apart for me. It just felt like this movie had no idea how to resolve itself. I will say though that Haley Joel Osment gave a brilliant performance in this movie. Maybe the best of his career.
The Terminal - Another movie that starts out pretty strong, but reveals its cracks and flaws as it goes along. Overall, I did like this one, but...man is it schmaltzy. Would've liked it if they'd played the movie just a bit more straight. And did we really need a villain for this story? Couldn't Stanley Tucci have just been a guy doing his job without him being a jerkass about it?
The Post - Probably the best of these five. Very well-written and acted and manages to keep you engaged as the movie explores this important and sobering moment in U.S. history. That said, the movie doesn't really have anything that makes it stand out that much. Honestly, it feels like it could've been directed by anybody. Kind of the same way I feel about Bridge of Spies. If you want a well-made movie that explores the Washington Post and its expose on these incriminating documents, then you'll get your money's worth, but I doubt it'll go down as an all-time great.
And with that, Sugarland Express, 1941, Always, Hook, Amistad, and BFG remain the only Spielberg movies I've yet to see. And with the possible exception of Hook and Amistad, I'm not really in a rush to see any of them.