E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
An alien is left behind on Earth and saved by the 10-year-old Elliott who decides to keep him hidden in his home. While a task force hunts for the extra-terrestrial, Elliott, his brother, and his little sister Gertie form an emotional bond with their new friend, and try to help him find his way home.
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What critics compared E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to
When 8-year-old Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), the boy everyone is after, is pursued by government agents, it recalls E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, with the kid serving as a mixture of Elliott and E.T.
Other sci-fi films are nodded to here as well, including "E.T." and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and, in fact, seeing Nichols as someone like Steven Spielberg but with a darker palette is not a bad reference point.
The film has been compared to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Starman, with a dash of E.T. thrown in as well, but unlike a lot of sci-fi movies, we’re not given a set of rules at the start to then serve as our guide into the narrative.
Combine “Close Encounter of the Third Kind,” with “E.T.” and a mix of the television series, “Fringe,” and you have the plot for Jeff Nichol’s film, “Midnight Special.”
Thematically, Arkansas-born writer-director Jeff Nichols’ fourth feature draws capably from the models of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “E.T.” and “Starman,” as well as Nichols’ own affinity for spare widescreen compositions akin to Clint Eastwood movies of that filmmaking era.
It’s especially reminiscent of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the scarier, government-experimentation bits of ET.
What they're trying to do is evoke the innocence of an “E.T.” while introducing a more recent level of special effects.
And if you grew up watching E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, you’ll appreciate the references, but a flat-out nostalgia-fest isn’t really enough.
You only have to compare “Super 8" (unfairly perhaps, but inevitably) to the Spielberg film it most resembles, the impeccably entertaining “E.T.,” to see the ways the earlier movie felt fresh and inventive while the new one has the aura of stuff we’ve already seen.
The movie is a touchingly self-conscious homage to early Spielberg, to Jaws and Close Encounters and E.T., and if it's not at the level of those films, neither does it embarrass itself with the comparison.
Without giving too much away, let's just say there's a lot of "ET." here (albeit in a fairly modified form), along with obvious material related to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and even some bits of inspiration from "Jaws" as well as the boy group dynamic from "The Goonies" (that Spielberg didn't direct, but did produce and obviously similarly inspired way back when).
From its mysterious otherworldly presence with unknown motives to the late ’70s suburban kids whose vast imaginations are swept up in its path, “Super 8” contains echoes of “E.T.,” “Close Encounters,” “Jurassic Park” and even less essential entries in the Spielberg canon, like “War of the Worlds.”
It was nice to see some homages to some of the kids/blockbuster films from the 80s and 90s with references to E.T. and Independence Day, to name a few.
The kind of risk which family-friendly film The Adam Project shares along the same lines as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Last Starfighter (1984), and Flight of the Navigator (1986), pushing the bounds of the PG-13 rating in its action set pieces, character interactions, and narrative themes to feel a touch more like Timecop (1994) from time to time.
The many hilarious jokes and endearing scenes between the two Adams feel absolutely effortless, and are made even more enjoyable to watch by exciting sci-fi nostalgia that pays homage to cult films like Back to the Future , E.T. , Star Wars and Star Trek .
He referenced the sense of awe that moviegoers felt after they saw E.T. for the first time.
The Adam Project is a love letter to classic family sci-fi movies from the 80s like E.T. and Back to the Future with nods to them scattered throughout the film.
Not so much the Indiana Jones movies but the likes of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , Back to the Future , and The Goonies .
While the film's score (by frequent Shyamalan collaborator James Newton Howard) ingeniously combines homages to Bernard Herrmann's themes for "Psycho" and John Williams' music for "E.T.," in these scenes Shyamalan employs no score, letting the exterior sounds and actors' strong performances work the audience's anxiety.
A hard-to-swallow spookfest cum religious parable, the film, which also recalls everything from "E.T.
"E.T." and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" are paid homage via a riderless swinging swing and mashed potatoes.
Visual motifs of the seventies and eighties have turned the century with him: His fascination with science and the myth of Pinocchio (from Close Encounters to AI), the men in spacesuits ready to arrest our spirits (Close Encounters to E.T. to Minority Report).
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In the same year The BFG was published, Spielberg and Mathison collaborated on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which has endured as one of the most beloved family films in cinema history.
I can't understand why; it seems to me that it's one of his gentlest and most beautiful films, less frenetic than Hook , less grueling than E.T. the Extra-terrestrial and less wispy than War Horse .
Adapted by Melissa Mathison, best known for writing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the script often feels caught in this limbo between literary richness and the demands of a fast-paced blockbuster.
The BFG was written by Melissa Mathison, who died last year, and who wrote the screenplay for Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, one of the greatest children’s movies of all time.
Las referencias a E.T. no son antojadizas ni se cierran en la presencia de Mathison (fallecida en noviembre último) en la transposición o en que ambas películas tuvieron su estreno mundial en Cannes .
Steven Spielberg’s “The BFG,” adapted by the late Melissa Mathison from the 1982 Roald Dahl novel, harks back, thematically if not favorably, to “E.T.” It’s about Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), a spunky, bespectacled 8-year-old orphan from central London who is plucked from her forbidding orphanage in the middle of the night by a 26-foot giant with a spindly neck, sharp nose, and floppy ears, played by a special effects-enhanced Mark Rylance.
Nope is Peele’s most ambitious project yet as a filmmaker, a Wild West space-alien epic with overtures of Spielberg ( E.T. and even Jaws ) that challenges Hollywood’s time-honored concept of bug-eyed “little green men,” what intergalactic travelers might look like, or do, or why they might be interested in us.
Spielberg also loves combining awe and dread, as seen in his earlier titles (“Jaws,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and even “E.T.”) and some of his later works (“Jurassic Park” and “War of the Worlds”); these sources of terror are also impressive unknowns that instill wonder as well as panic.
Peele even includes a (bloody) visual nod to the finger scene in "E.T." and riffs on the catchphrase of the Spielberg-produced "Poltergeist."
Now, before you think I have a thing against sci-fi movies, in general, I love them, including those where beings from other worlds show up, be that "E.T.," "War of the Worlds," the silly "Mars Attacks," "A Quiet Place" or the superlative "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
With DNA strands from Signs, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and even E.T., Nope feels a bit as if Spielberg’s abandoned Night Skies project (intended as the malevolent counterpoint to Close Encounters) had finally reached the screen, but Peele has gene-spiced the elements into something instantly recognizable as a “Jordan Peele” film, mixing scares with social commentary.
It’s also because it’s a relationship we recognize from the other children’s classics to which it easily compares (“E.T.” being the obvious touchpoint), and possibly even, if we were very lucky kids, from our actual childhoods.
The very notion of blending an ET-style heart-warmer with a sometimes graphic exploration of industrial-scale food production practices might be a challenge too far for most tastes.
Some might say that “Okja” is a mash up of moments from such films as “Lassie,” “King Kong,” “Mighty Joe Young,” “Soylent Green” and, even “E.T.” And, in a way, it is.
On the one hand, it is a film that is clearly trying to hit the same sweet spot that “E.T.” did 35 years ago and there are a number of moments here that are indeed as magical, both technologically and emotionally, as anything that Spielberg whipped up back in the day.
The movie’s underlying premise — child bonds with otherworldly beast and defends it from cruel adults — easily calls to mind “E.T.” or “Pete’s Dragon,” but Bong bends the formula into his own agenda.
Much of Act 2 gives E.T. vibes, complete with every millennial’s recurring nightmare of hazmat-suited government researchers in billowing white duct-tunnels.
But not before Ridley touches its horn, forming a vague, E.T.-style bond with the mythical beast.
With plot points eerily echoing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial mixed with a bit of the 1983 sci-fi Brainstorm…
Writer/director Alex Scharfman makes his feature debut with the umpteenth twist on "E.T.,"…
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Really, though, a Lovecraftian monster might have made this movie more interesting, because the adaptation of the long-running Sega video game series is a dull, predictable family movie that borrows heavily from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and ALF , turning Sonic into an alien who’s taken refuge on Earth.
He’s certainly the best thing in the movie, which is otherwise pretty standard “family” fare in the low-rent “E.T.” mode.
Think "E.T." in running shoes.
Jeff Fowler and Paramount build a very serviceable amalgam of entertainment and action that invokes a lot of the classics like “ET” in interesting albeit vague shades here and there.
The plot isn’t too far from the classic “ET” or the more modern “Bumblebee” — an alien lands on Earth to hide and soon must team up with a kindly human (James Marsden, in a very Marsden groove) to escape the clutches of evil government scientists who want to dissect it.
When young Frank (Thomas Robinson) is zooming around Tomorrowland in his homemade jetpack, there are shades of The Rocketeer, a sense of wide-eyed wonderment not seen much since Steven Spielberg's 1980s heyday, and even the "kids are smart, adults are dumb" theme of E.T. and The Goonies.
There are many nods to Saturday family adventures like The Rocketeer , and quite a few to the bicycle-riding kids of ET .