Steven Spielberg’s E. T The Extra-Terrestrial envelops you in the way that his Close Encounters of the Third Kind did. It’s a dream of a movie -- a bliss-out.

| Sep 12, 2023

Don't be intimidated by those long lines. E.T. is worth standing in line for. Steven Spielberg's story is the essence of fairy-tale simplicity.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 9, 2021

This is a real movie, with all those elements that have proved sure-fire through history; Laughter, tears, involvement, thrills, wonderment. Steven Spielberg also adds a message: Human beings and spacelings should learn to co-exist.

| Nov 12, 2018

Spielberg has crafted with warmth and humor a simple fantasy that works so superbly on so many levels that it will surely attract masses of moviegoers from all demographics.

| May 29, 2018

Steven Spielberg's E. T., The Extra-Terrestrial is the best cinematic fairy tale since The Wizard of Oz.

| Apr 26, 2018

E.T. ...comes to a beleaguered industry like a gift from the gods. Not only does it get bums on seats but it encourages the kind of shared enjoyment that suggests the cinema still has something unique to offer.

| Mar 20, 2018

The marvel of this extraordinary movie is that it captures for even the most jaded grownup that pleasurable state of innocence and awe that only children are fortunate enough to experience.

| Feb 9, 2018

Spielberg would seem to be groping towards a virtual theology of space, space as Heaven, offering solace to a world which has foolishly renounced its traditional God but still aches to extend its own spiritual frontiers.

| Aug 1, 2015

E.T. is essentially a spiritual autobiography, a portrait of the filmmaker as a typical suburban kid set apart by an uncommonly fervent, mystical imagination. It comes out disarmingly funny, spontaneous, bighearted.

| Jul 21, 2015

Captivating, endearingly optimistic and magical at times, Steven Spielberg's fantasy about a stranded alien from outer space protected by three kids until it can arrange for passage home is certain to capture the imagination of the world's youth.

| Jun 29, 2015

What's perhaps most amazing about E.T., what distinguishes it from many of the other fantasy films of its era, is its ability to put an audience under a spell of childlike wonderment without infantilizing it.

| Jun 29, 2015

Spielberg's direction and Melissa Mathison's script never lose sight of the realistic, low center of gravity world of childhood, in which such marvelous adventures happen every day.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 29, 2015

It holds up beautifully.

| Jun 29, 2015

My heart still soars as Elliott goes airborne and pedals across the face of an impossibly full harvest moon on his bike.

| Jun 19, 2015

It is a hugely enjoyable romp, but compellingly spiked throughout with little stabs of anxiety.

| Jun 19, 2015

The film is full of funny scenes and magical moments.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 19, 2015

Though marred by Spielberg's usual carelessness with narrative points, the film alternates sweetness and sarcasm with enough rhetorical sophistication to be fairly irresistible.

| Jun 19, 2015

It is the kind of film that young people are going to want to see again immediately after they've seen it.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 4, 2013

Unchecked goodness has its price, after all, and childhood wonder wouldn't be nearly as sweet if it didn't fade. That may explain the film's appeal. It trapped that feeling, and its sense of possibility, in amber -- then, now, and for any time.

Full Review | Aug 4, 2013

An appealing film this new one is, with some charm, some glee in the childrens' triumphs, some share in their friendship with E.T.

| Feb 15, 2011