The Thrill Is Gone

Rating: Null/10 (18 April 2002)

I have to admit, when E.T. hit the theatres in 82 I was a big a sucker
as anyone, compleatly drawn into the wave Speilberg had going at that
time. Going to the re-release, I was expecting to see one of those rare
perfect, or near perfect, works of pop art only a Scrooge can resist.
Well, I'm not a Scrooge, but alas, viewed with a light touch of
objectivity, this movie is barely good. Perhaps in the years since we
have been clobbered with so much Oprah type ca ca that E.T.'s warts all
but scream at you from the screen, and who need a screaming wart?
The script has one, very limited virtue: it's cute. Speilberg would
later try to cute his way through stinkers like "Always" and "Hook", but
even well modulated Cute can only take you so far. We all know the
story, what really surprised me this time is, that's all there is.
Major gripes: One of the things that no doubt made this a hit is
John Williams, endless sledgehammer score, bashing every moment over
your head. Terrible. And Drew Berrymore, for all he hype, wasn't a very
good child actor. On the other hand, Henry Thomas is good, and is
possibly the one honest thing about this bombastic adorablefest.

The cult of Saint Steven better get used to it: cooler heads will
no doubt start to size up "E.T." more honestly as the years go by: I
note the rerelease was a big box office let down. Salon's Charles Taylor
somewhat comicly gushed over it recently, but it's no surprise he's one
of the mainstream critics who slobbers over porno as well. Well, some
things are of their moment and that's no disgrace. It's just tough to
pretend hack movie making like the terrible E.T. gets drunk scene are genius anymore.