My Top Ten Steven Spielberg Movies

Happy 75th Birthday (tomorrow, again, as I don’t post on weekends!) to Steven Spielberg. I thought now would be a good time to fully update & repost this old top ten list I first did years ago for The Sporadic Chronicles Of A Beginner Blogger.

As there are SO many Spielberg movies I’ve seen and I’m obsessed with lists, I figured it was time to just go ahead & rank every single film of his that I’ve seen (leaving a few out that I really do need to rewatch before knowing where to rank them, including Saving Private Ryan before someone tells me I forgot to include it…). 🙂

Here are My Top Ten Steven Spielberg Movies:

The Rest That I’ve Seen:

17-11:

17. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
16. Hook
15. Empire Of The Sun
14. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
13. War Of The Worlds
12. A.I. Artificial Intelligence
11. Ready Player One

Top Ten:

10. The Terminal

Fantastic story in this, even if I never bought the romance. Loved the extra characters who worked at the airport as well. And my hubby seems to absolutely love this movie, which I think is sweet…

9. Minority Report

Great film that I haven’t seen in a very long time. I think I need a rewatch to see how it stands up. Am sure it’s still good as Spielberg’s sci-fi films feel timeless to me.

8. Catch Me If You Can

Fascinating story and excellent performances. I’d always known Leonardo DiCaprio was an underrated actor but, being the same age as him, it took until I saw this one for me to finally see him as a proper grown-up actor.

7. Always

My controversial choice, maybe. I don’t care. I LOVED this movie when it came out and watched it over and over. So romantic and full of quirky, loveable characters – why don’t more people like this one?

6. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

This one doesn’t seem to get the credit it deserves. The mashed potato mountain, the entire ending and, of course, those musical notes: Classic.

5. Jurassic Park

This was mind-blowing when it came out. And it still looks a hell of a lot better than some of the CGI nightmares they’re giving us these days. This movie is pure fun.

4. Schindler’s List

Truly a masterpiece but very hard to place in a list like this. It’s not, as I like to call it, a “multiple watcher” for me. Too tough to watch more than once, I can’t “love” it in the same way I do the rest on this list.

3. Jaws

Starts out a little slow (trust me – re-watch it) but when the three of them get on that boat to go find the shark, this becomes a true classic. And, come on – that MUSIC! John Williams is a genius. Which is why Spielberg uses him all the time. Spielberg is a genius too but the John Williams scores are just as much to thank for his films becoming the classics that they are.

2. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Number one and two are so close and, to be honest, I changed them around a few times. I don’t know what to say about this one… Who hasn’t seen E.T.? Who doesn’t know the image of that flying bicycle with the moon behind it? Who doesn’t like this?!?! It’s the first film I ever saw in the theater more than once. (Oops – showing my age!) E.T., like Indiana Jones, is such a great character and just thinking about this movie never fails to make me smile. 🙂

1. Indiana Jones Original Trilogy: Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Temple Of Doom, Last Crusade (I had to put these together as it’s perfect as a trilogy. Wish it was only a trilogy…)

Raiders: The film that introduced us to one of the all-time best movie characters – Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford was so awesome (and sexy) as Indiana and we’ve not had “adventure” films like these since. Why can’t they make movies like this anymore??

Temple Of Doom: Temple Of Doom, that crazy and violent one with hearts being RIPPED out of chests and chilled monkey brains!

Last Crusade: Fun fun fun! And I loved Harrison Ford & Sean Connery together in this. I’ve watched this film so many times!

Need To Rewatch These:
Duel, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Saving Private Ryan, The Color Purple

Not Seen These:
The Sugarland Express, 1941, Amistad, Munich, Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, Bridge Of Spies, The BFG, The Post, West Side Story

And I should just mention that I loved the original Amazing Stories TV series created by Spielberg. The Mission, which he directed, was a great episode…

My Top Ten Hats In Movies

I’ve been lazy with these Top Ten Lists lately so it’s time to make a bit of an effort again. Here are My Top Ten Hats In Movies.

This is a pretty simple list & not exactly as creative as My Top Ten Carpets & Rugs In Movies but, thanks to discussing this one with my husband, he came up with the most creative answer (in the below Honorable Mentions). Other than that, I don’t think there are many big surprises – I’ve gone with some very well-known & iconic hats. I’ve also included one helmet but have drawn the line at full face masks, etc (so I’m not including things like Darth Vader’s helmet – that would open a huge can of worms).

As ALWAYS, these are my own personal favorites as opposed to what I think are “the best”. I like what I like. 🙂 But it means that some big ones will of course be left out. Feel free to add any more you can think of in the comments!

Here are My Top Ten Hats In Movies:

10. The Babadook in The Babadook

9. TIE: The Wicked Witch Of The West in The Wizard Of Oz & The Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter films

8. Mei Kusakabe in My Neighbor Totoro

7. Pvt J.T. “Joker” Davis in Full Metal Jacket

6. Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Fantasia

5. All those hats in The Prestige…

4. The bras on the heads in Weird Science

3. Wayne Campbell in Wayne’s World 1 & 2

2. Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp in various films

1. Indiana Jones in the Indiana Jones trilogy (& that other one…)

**Honorable Mentions:**

Woody & Jessie in the Toy Story films

Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare On Elm Street films

The Mad Hatter in Alice In Wonderland

Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange

Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins

Bonnie Parker in Bonnie & Clyde

And, finally…

Bonnie Rayburn’s ass in City Slickers

(Okay – I better include the quote for those who haven’t seen City Slickers. Which everyone should see, by the way!! Love it.) 😉

Bonnie Rayburn: [walking by] Good night! I’m going to bed.
Mitch Robbins: [smiling widely at her] Good night! Sleep tight.
[Bonnie smiles and waves]
Ed Furillo: [to Mitch] That was flirting.
Mitch Robbins: No, that was… politeness. That was “have a pleasant and restful evening.”
Ed Furillo: No, that was “I like your ass. Can I wear it as a hat?”

And, yes, I’ve left A LOT of hats out of my Top Ten. For the record, I did think of these…

Lawrence Of Arabia, Curious George’s man in the yellow hat, Dumbledore, V for Vendetta, Fargo, The Blues Brothers, Gandalf, The Mask, The Joker, Maleficent, Magneto, Audrey Hepburn’s various stylish hats, Elf, The Three Amigos, Dread Pirate Roberts, The Scarecrow & The Tin Man in The Wizard Of Oz, The Smurfs, Clint Eastwood in various Westerns, Fred Astaire in Top Hat, The Cat In The Hat, Oddjob’s bowler hat in James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Santa Claus in various films, Singin’ In The Rain, The Wild Ones, Jack Sparrow, Abraham Lincoln in various films, Robin Hood, Crocodile Dundee, The Seven Dwarfs, Rambo, John Wayne in various Westerns, The Pink Panther, Princess Mononoke, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Logray’s pig hat & Wicket’s balaclava

Now there’s really no other way to end this post than with the Tom Jones You Can Leave Your Hat On clip from The Full Monty: 🙂

My Top Ten Drew Struzan Movie Art Pieces

Yesterday I reviewed Drew: The Man Behind The Poster, which is a documentary about legendary movie poster artist Drew Struzan. Struzan has created some of the most well-known & iconic film posters and I love his work. I decided to do a separate post highlighting some of my favorite Struzan pieces of movie art.

At first I was going to focus just on his art that officially got used (whether originally or for anniversary editions). But in looking at his official website (HERE), I discovered a lot of art I like that I’d never seen before. So I figured I’d include all movie-related work (so, I’m excluding things like his super cool Black Sabbath album cover). I already KNOW I’ll be missing something & I’ll later kick myself for it. He’s done so much that it’s hard to narrow it down and, while there’s a long list on his site, I have no idea if it’s complete plus not all the images are shown.

So, after spending probably an hour looking up Struzan’s art, I’ve decided that these are my favorite. Probably. For now. I’m so indecisive! 😉 I’ll fully admit that I have a very hard time not letting how much I like the movie influence my opinion and, indeed, I like all of these movies. Remember I’m not an art expert in the slightest – I just really like the look of these. Especially number one. 

Now here are My Top Ten Drew Struzan Movie Art Pieces:

Honorable Mentions: 

Indiana Jones Quadrilogy, Squirm (I don’t know this movie but the poster makes it look awesome despite the 4.4 IMDB rating!), Star Wars Original Trilogy, Back To The Future 

  

10. TIE: The Goonies & Adventures In Babysitting

9. Big Trouble In Little China

8. Ladyhawke

7. The Dark Tower as seen in The Mist

6. The Muppet Movie

5. Revenge Of The Jedi

4. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

3. Back To The Future Trilogy

2. Pan’s Labyrinth

1. The Thing