Best Steven Spielberg movie of the 00s?

[Harvey]

I haven't seen The Terminal.

I felt Munich was preachy and too long, although it was less sentimental/offensive than most of Spielberg's attempts at serious cinema.

War of the Worlds told a fantastic, wonderfully dark story for two-thirds of the film, and then fell apart with a sentimental, unbelievable ending.

A.I. suffers the same problem as War of the Worlds. The last act doesn't work at all.

Minority Report is a decent, but not outstanding film, due to some silly plot holes (Cruise gets back in the police station using his eyes).

I like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There was no way it was going to please fans after such a long wait. It wasn't perfect, but it was certainly watchable, which is all I ask of an Indy flick. I hope they manage one more.

In the end, I went with Catch me if You Can. It's a wonderful film that manages to capture the spirit and tone of the book without being a slave to it.

 

[FPAlpha]

It's a toss up between Munich and Catch me if you can

The one is a very good drama played by a stellar cast (i'ma big fan of Eric Bana) about a very serious topic while the other is "just" a good story told masterfully which never gets boring.

A runner up would be AI if they had left out the ending.. the perfect end would have him remain undersea forever looking at the blue fairy. As it stands the ending was so much sugar on top of more sugar that it ruined a very good movie.

The rest.. 2 Tom Cruise star movies (entertaining but that's it), The Terminal is a nice comedy with good actors and the less said about Crystal Skull Indy the better.

 

[CaptainCanada]

I hate Minority Report

Why?

Overall on the list, looks like a dogfight between his two 2002 movies for first place.

 

[suarezguy]

Catch Me If You Can was my favorite, with The Terminal and Munich also very good.

Crystal Skull had a lot that was good but great flaws as well.
I felt the action in Minority Report was just-OK and wished it had been more of a straight drama film (the action detracted from that element); it's hard not to compare it and AI to the stories.
War of the Worlds was the worst, the focus on Cruise's character is lost and the film seems endless.

 

[Trek4Ever]

A.I. was my favorite, with War of the Worlds and The Terminal coming in close. I know it was not liked for various reasons, but I saw it again recently and was awestruck by some of the scenes like Rouge City, the NYC ruins, and the controversial ending that still has people arguing whether or not it was a happy ending. Personally I consider it to be one of those misunderstood classics that every gifted director has.

 

[LitmusDragon]

I voted for AI since I tend to feel that it doesn't get enough love.

I still haven't seem Kingdom or The Terminal yet.

 

[MyCylon]

Minority Report is a decent, but not outstanding film, due to some silly plot holes (Cruise gets back in the police station using his eyes).

That's something that bothers me about MR as well and is something I forgot to mention. It's just a silly and IMHO way too easy way of getting John into the police station. For a film that's so high-concept in terms of designing this vision of a possible future it's a let-down indeed.

Ironically, IMHO a far more satisfying and also far more believable solution would have been to have an insider let him in. It was obvious, I think, that his people liked and respected him. I don't think it would have been a stretch to imagine one of them helping him out, really.

Plus in a future with such sophisticated surveillance and monitoring technology the only weakness left is humans.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

If Spielberg works at the same pace as in the past, he'll make six or seven films this decade. One of those will be The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, for which he's already completed the motion capture shoot and which is now undergoing the long process of being animated. It's scheduled for release in December 2011.

Other films he may make over the next decade include a Tintin sequel, another Indiana Jones sequel, Lincoln (with Liam Neeson), Interstellar (a science fiction film with a screenplay by Jonathan Nolan), Pirate Latitudes (based on the Michael Crichton novel), and The 39 Clues (based on a young readers book series by Rick Riordan about the unravelling of the mystery of the world's most powerful family's source of power). However, like most major directors, Spielberg develops a lot of projects that he ends up not directing. Most recently he set aside plans to direct a remake of Harvey.

 

[davejames]

I'll be one of the few to say War of the Worlds. Spielberg could have gone for obvious, Bay-style theatrics and huge special effects sequences, but instead he gave us something unique-- an epic alien invasion story seen almost ENTIRELY from the perspective of people on the ground.

As a huge scifi fan, it's something I've ALWAYS wanted to see, and it's also very consistent with the tone and style of the book. I freakin love how much Spielberg relies on the art of suggestion in this movie, and only gives us a limited view and understanding of the horrors happening outside-- just as it would be in real life.

It's a bold choice, and frankly I'm amazed more scifi fans aren't able to appreciate that about it.

 

[Wynterhawk]

AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001) - didn't see this one when it came out. Very divisive among audiences.



Minority Report (2002) - a good sci-fi/noir hybrid, and one of the last films I can recall really enjoying Tom Cruise in before his offscreen antics overpowered his screen persona.



Munich (2005) - great drama, almost made my top 10 of the decade. This is his most "serious" work of the decade, and a very compelling one (the one scene I don't like is the really overwrought sex/violence juxtaposition at the end).


Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) - didn't see it.

Your thoughts on these films/your favourite?

Mmm out of the list, Munich was my favourite. The sex/violence scene at the end nearly blew the movie for me, though. It was really a baffling and terrible way to end the intense and compelling movie. Bana's performance was top notch.

AI was unbearably boring and I felt no sympathy for any of the characters. Minority Report was surprisingly entertaining and Cruise's performance was pretty cool. Watching him, I didn't feel like I was watching Tom Cruise acting.

 

[miraclefan]

War Of The Worlds.

 

[I am not Spock]

I love Minority Report. AI is good as well, but is really more of a Stanley Kubrick film which Spielberg finished.

Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal are both good, too.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Man am I out of touch, I have only seen two of those. AI I really didn't care for. Indiana Jones was decent. Effective action movie, but a convoluted plot. Really kind of pales compared to the original.

 

[Too Much Fun]

"A.I." has some neat moments, but I think it was too long, bloated, and melodramatic to quite work.

"Munich" had some great parts (I think the scenes with the girl answering the phone when it looked like a bomb might go off and Eric Bana hearing his daughter on the phone were worth the price of admission alone), but other than those scenes, the movie never really got me emotionally involved and I hated that sex/violence montage scene at the end so much.

"Minorty Report" really impressed me. When I finished watching it, I thought it was way underrated and that it should have been more successful and considered a classic. Unfortunately, I found the ending confusing, so that tainted it a little in my eyes.

"The Terminal" is enjoyable, but the big flaw was that the love story between Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones didn't work at all (they had no chemistry and the payoff was disappointing), so that drags it down for me.

I think overall the best one was "Catch Me if You Can". I considered calling it one of my ten favourite movies of the decade, and if it's not number ten (can't quite choose between it, "Sideways", and "Donnie Darko", it would definitely be in the top 15. It's a thoroughly entertaining movie from start to finish no matter how many times I see it. Part of why I like it so much is the performances.

It features my favourite performance ever from Leonardo Dicaprio, a lovely Amy Adams performance that I think has unfortunately been overshadowed by and forgotten because of some of her later work, and one of the best I've seen from Christopher Walken. Walken especially surprised me. I've seen "The Deer Hunter", but in pretty much every other movie I've seen him in, he's just popped into the movie for a brief role where he brilliantly delivered some delightfully kooky dialogue once or once in awhile.

In "Catch Me if You Can" he actually played a full-fledged three-dimensional character who was charming, poignant, and maybe even worthy of being called the heart of the movie. Tom Hanks was more subtle than usual too (I loved his accent, which sounded more natural than the one he had in "The Terminal"), and I found the interaction between he and Dicaprio wonderful. This may have been the most 'light' and 'minor' of Spielberg's work during the 2000s, but I think it was also the most consistent and flawless one as well. I never saw Indy IV or "War of the Worlds".

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I voted Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I think demonstrates just how crappy a decade Spielberg has had.

Catch Me If You Can & The Terminal were kinda sweet fun but nothing more.

Minority Report has plot holes you can drive a truck through. And the eye replacement scene is just gross.

I liked Tom Cruise well enough in War of the Worlds but I couldn't stand Dakota Fanning's whining.

Munich is one of the most boring movies I've ever seen.

I've never seen A.I. but I develop suicidal tendencies whenever I even hear a plot synopsis of it. (The only known cure is to immediately watch Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, the most mindlessly fun movie ever made.)

Munich (2005) - great drama, almost made my top 10 of the decade. This is his most "serious" work of the decade, and a very compelling one (the one scene I don't like is the really overwrought sex/violence juxtaposition at the end).

I love that sex bit at the end! It's the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've ever seen!
"Honey, when we were making love, were you thinking of me?"
"No, I was thinking of those Israeli athletes that were murdered."

 

[Pingfah]

I didn't want to vote for Catch Me If You Can, but I was disappointed to find that I had to.