Cheesy Fluff

Rating: 4/10 (14 January 2001)

This movie really disgusted me. But let me explain....
It is not that I don't believe in sentimentality. I am a HUGE Frank Capra fan. And I can't watch "Field of Dreams" (which I know isn't Capra) without tears in my eyes at many points in the movie.
So that isn't it. It's just that "E.T." is so phony, so synthetic, so made-up, so ENGINEERED to try to make me feel something, that I have to resent it.
I'll just never understand Spielberg. For so long, I had nothing but contempt for him. Till Schindler's List. (Does anyone (other than Nazis) not like Schindler's List?)
And then, too, he made Saturday-morning worth getting up for. (Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain). I finally (and grudgingly) had to admit that the man is a genius. But he is a genius who has done some bad work. And E.T. was some of his worst work.