Steven Spielberg's blockbuster "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" has been a part of the world's consciousness since it debuted in 1982, but when you take off those nostalgia goggles and look at it with fresh eyes, you'll realize it's nothing more than a story about a boy and his dog, a horror movie aimed at kids, and, strangely, a story with strong Jesus Christ parallels.
This movie gave us many things: Reese's Pieces (one of the dozens of product placements in this), Drew Barrymore, the Amblin logo, and, of course, "Mac and Me."
Henry Thomas plays the main character, a child named Elliott, who creepily gets taken over by an alien botanist who was left behind on Earth by his species. Elliott enjoys not dissecting frogs, screaming, and being mentally brainwashed by a beer-drinking, Speak-&-Spell-ing, wax-candy-eating monster.
Dee Wallace plays Elliott's frazzled single mother, who is falling apart because her husband recently left her and then took off to Mexico with some woman. Her likes include: barely miss seeing E.T. at every step, dressing up as a sexy cat, and leaving children unattended. Her dislikes include: Mexico, pizza, and kids showing up minutes late of their vague curfews.
Robert MacNaughton plays Elliot's older brother, Michael, who looks like a mix of Charlie Bucket, Eddie Haskell and Steve Buscemi. He helps Elliott hide E.T. and heroically aides in his ultimate survival and homecoming. Michael loves Dungeons & Dragons, Space Invaders, yet also plays on the football team. A real Renaissance Man.
Drew Barrymore plays Elliott's little sister, Gertie, who says cute things, teaches E.T. to talk, and agrees to allow E.T. to take her place while they pretend to go trick-or-treating.
And Peter Coyote plays an unnamed (and mostly unseen) government official who is hunting E.T. and has a bunch of keys attached to his belt.
Join us as we dive deep into all the product placement in this movie, discuss Spielberg's daddy issues and really dissect this whole "E.T. is Jesus" thing.
Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or by shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.
This episode is sponsored by InMate.
Visit our website at https://www.filmsnuff.com.
Hey, guys. Jim is feeling a little under the weather, so we decided to wait on recording "E.T." for now and re-air a classic episode, one of our favorites. See you next week!
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ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES:
G'day, mates! The 1986 Aussie-American comedy "Crocodile Dundee" takes us deep into the Outback on a harrowin’ journey with poisonous snakes, gun-totin’ roos and giant rubber crocs. It also takes us to New York City where the hero of the story goes around Manhattan while casually assaulting newspaper editors, pimps, cross-dressers and small-knife-wielding, would-be muggers.
Paul Hogan plays Michael J. "Crocodile" Dundee, a possibly magical, fun-lovin’ big-knife-wielding bloke who enjoys knocking unsuspecting people unconscious, shooting at drunken idiots and poaching protected wildlife. He's perfectly content walking about the world by himself until he meets a "sheila" with a nice arse and is quickly swept away.
Linda Kozlowski plays Sue Charlton, a plucky young reporter who enjoys cheating on her boyfriend and jet setting around the world to write trivial articles while exclusively staying in extravagant 5-star hotels because her daddy owns the newspaper she works for.
Reginald VelJohnson (Carl Winslow from "Family Matters") plays Gus, the newspaper's apparent full-time kindly limo driver who loves to drink on the job and throw makeshift boomerangs at pimps.
Join us as we recount a time we almost got charged by an angry bull, as we wonder why Americans were so obsessed with Australia in the 1980s, and as we try to come up with interesting slogans for cocaine.
Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or by shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.
Visit our website at https://www.filmsnuff.com.
The 1995 smash hit "While You Were Sleeping" is about a mentally deranged woman who infiltrates the family of a man who was violently attacked and falls into a coma by claiming that she is his fiancée. She deceives his family into welcoming her as one of their own and she even manages to manipulate the coma patient’s godfather into conspiring with her. Last but not least, she seduces the coma victim’s unsuccessful but kinda charming brother which could potentially destroy this happy family she so covets.
Sandra Bullock plays Lucy Eleanor Moderatz, a sad Chicago Transit Authority worker whose only meaningful relationship was with her recently deceased father. She fantasizes about trading in her cat lady existence for becoming the wife of a rich handsome lawyer who she doesn't even know. The only problem with her dream is that it has no basis in reality and the only she can achieve it is through disgusting treachery.
Bill Pullman plays Jack Callaghan, a spineless ne'er-do-well who specializes in conning recently bereaved families into selling their furniture for for a fraction of its worth, but he aspires to make furniture rather than harvesting it from the dead, so that makes him a nice dude or something. He also drops everything when he meets his brother’s fiancée and focuses all of his efforts on stealing her.
Peter Gallagher plays Peter Callaghan, a one testicled slimy narcissistic lawyer with glamour shots of himself displayed all over his apartment and even a few in his wallet. He is also quasi-engaged to an evil-seeming married woman.
Peter Boyle plays Ox Callaghan, the patriarch of this family of ghouls who delights in profiting from the personal tragedy of others. He’s kinda the same character he played in "Everybody Loves Raymond," but he loves to dance on people's graves.
Jack Warden plays Saul Tuttle, an old jokester who was adopted by the Callaghan family after he lost his wife and was named the godfather of their eldest son. He repays the favor by betraying them and using Yiddish to criticize them.
Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or by shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.
This episode is sponsored by Zip Code or Bust.
Visit our website at https://www.filmsnuff.com.
In this installment of our periodical "In Theaters" segment, we give you our immediate reaction to seeing a new movie on the big screen. This time, we discuss a movie that has been dominating the box office for the last three weeks and shows no signs of letting up, "Crazy Rich Asians."
**NOTE: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS SPOILERS**
Quick Facts
Release date: August 15, 2018
Runtime: 2 hours
Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Harry Shum Jr., Ken Jeong, Sonoya Mizuno, Chris Pang, Jimmy O. Yang, Ronny Chieng, Remy Hii, Nico Santos
Directed by: Jon M. Chu
Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or by shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.
Visit our website at https://www.filmsnuff.com.