The Establishing Shot

A new era of Spielberg’s career was launched when he partnered with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to start a brand new studio from scratch: DreamWorks SKG. I talk through the history of this endeavor and what it means for Spielberg’s career. I also do a bonus review of the 2010 samurai film 13 Assassins, a movie chosen for review by a supporter of the show. 

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Spielberg’s Amistad, the telling of a true historical event in which enslaved Africans took over their slave ship and were then captured and put on trial to determine their freedom, has some things going for it. It looks great, the acting is really good (phenomenal, in fact, for Djimon Hounsou in his breakout role), and the design of the film is on par with any good historical drama. However, there can be problems that arise when a white filmmaker takes on a story that should be centered around the enslaved people, problems that I think cause this to be a bit of a misstep for the beloved director. I discuss all this and more in this episode.

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Sometimes critics or the general public get a movie wrong! This week, we let you know which movies deserve reconsideration or a revisit with our Top 5 Underrated Movies. These are movies that were critical flops or just considered not very good by the general public but that we thought were actually really good! It is a fun discussion with opinions that are destined to be vehemently disagreed with!

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A few years after the most successful year of his entire career, Spielberg released what he called his first true sequel in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Our discussion revolves around the fun elements of this film and it’s development as well as some of the major problems with its story. My guest really likes this Jurassic Park installment where I didn’t care for it too much, which made for a fun debate. Join us and Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm as we return to the world of dinosaurs!

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Joe George is a writer for several publications including Den of Geek and Think Christian, but he also wrote a book exploring superhero movies through a theological lens: The Superpowers and the Glory. This week we discuss his process for writing about pop-culture, his interest in superheroes and what he does with his book, why superhero films have become a staple in our culture, and an upcoming project he has in the works concerning the history of police in film. We might even tell you which superhero films are undeniably the best.

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Schindler’s List is almost undeniably Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, the pinnacle of his career, and releasing just 6 months after the record breaking Jurassic Park. However, it didn’t come without its struggles on an emotionally charged set or its controversy over its depiction of the Holocaust. We talk about all of this, the phenomenal acting, its beauty, and the ethics of it all in this episode. 

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Sometimes science goes all wrong, and sometimes that happens in movies! This week we do a draft of our favorite movies where some sort of scientific endeavor goes all wrong, whether technological, biological, or sometimes both like in Spielberg’s Jurassic Park which inspired this draft. We had a great time talking about these movies and what is interesting about them, and we hope you have fun listening!

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In 1993, Steven Spielberg once again awed audiences by giving them something they had never seen so real before on the big screen: dinosaurs. With Jurassic Park, he started what would turn out to be one of the greatest movie years for a director ever, started a technological revolution in film with advances in CGI, and even broke his own box office record. But maybe more importantly, he once again captured the wonder and fear of his audiences and left them with a great theatrical experience. We discuss all this and more about this classic in this episode.

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We follow up our discussion of Spielberg’s Hook with a semi-related Disney Villains Draft! Disney fan Colby Ewert joins me to go back and forth picking our favorite villains from Disney and Pixar films. We compiled some great lists along with some great discussion of these villains and what makes them great. We also start off the conversation with a bit of fantasy football talk, another love of both me and Colby.

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With Hook, Spielberg was beginning a new decade of filmmaking, but this adventure movie that acts as a twist on a classic tale really marks the end of a particular phase in his career. This film was a huge deal at the time, not only because of the well known names of Peter Pan and Hook attached to it, but also because of the actors in those roles: Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman. We talk about all of this, the amazing production design, the nostalgia, and even some things that didn’t hold up on a rewatch in this episode.

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