Not quite a Top 5 Spielberg Film, But Brilliant in its own way

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2003)

Spielberg's five best films are: Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, and a coin flip between Close Encounters of the Third Kind & Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. E.T. is not his masterpiece.
However....
his over-the-top skills as a filmmaker were cemented here with his painstaking attention to detail and his fantastic, almost child-like sense of discovery. For all the complaints about its bizarre subject matter (I still can?t explain the ?invasion? of the house by freaky-looking NASA agents) the film at its core has a remarkably simple message about communication, friendship, and love. Besides, you know the little brown guy is all right when he makes an important discovery in the fridge ? potato salad bad, beer good.