Rating: 
Summary: INCREDIBLY DISAPPOINTING TRANSFER OF THIS SCI-FI CLASSIC
Review: "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was a movie I fondly remember from my youth as kindling that spark of cinema magic that seems to be in short supply these days. For its day the visual effects were mesmorizing and the prospect that we are not alone in this universe became very real for me after viewing this movie. Plot: People from all walks of life are brought to the Arizona desert by a series of space ship visits to our planet earth.
Columbia Tristar has really angered me with this release. Steven Spielberg should be none too thrilled with them either. Their 2 disc special edition presents his masterpiece in a digitally grainy, thoroughly unsatisfying visual quality topped off by excessive aliasing, shimmering and edge enhancement, low contrast levels, colors that bleed and an overall visual characteristic that ranges from too, too soft to digitally harsh. There's no happy medium. The arrival of the alien mother ship is totally ruined by excessive pixelization that breaks up fine details. This is not the way I want to remember this sci-fi classic. The soundtrack is dated but overall well represented. The extras include a making of that is informative but a direct import from Columbia's laserdisc and some extra test and rehearsal footage that is somewhat dry. I think Columbia would do wise to just hand over their film library to more capable hands to preserve. Of late their transfers have gotten even worse than this. However with this DVD release, there was a definite beginning to that end!
Rating: 
Summary: "MASTERPIECE"
Review: It was November 1977 and the world was about to witness movie making history. At the age of 8 my family and I watched this masterpiece unfold. This motion picture set a landmark of memories for me, along with the same years release of STAR WARS! This DVD offers so much for so little. A beautiful crisp print in 2.35 is worth the price alone! Grab it now!
Rating:
Summary: I LOVED THIS MOVIE THE FIRST TIME I SAW IT
Review: and just as much when rewatching it.
Rating:
Summary: Words alone cannot describe it . . . . . .
Review: Okay, so it ain't "Independence Day" with big explosions, cool CGI, and aliens bent on our destruction. But that is what makes "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" so awe-inspiring: the notion that not only are we not alone in the universe, but that we also have nothing to fear.The film may very well be Steven Spielberg's masterpiece (I don't care how good "Schindler's List" is!) One thing is for certain: it is THE crowining achievement of science fiction on film. While it is definitely not for all tastes (many may call it slow and boring), no one can deny its unique beauty and sense of wonder. From the very first image of the mint-condition WWII planes in the middle of the Sonora Desert, to the final scenes of the encounter at Devil's Tower, "CE3K" will leave you breathless. Though there are practically no action scenes (in the traditional sense) whatsoever, the suspense never lets up. The intensity of that one scene in the farm house was almost unbearable! The acting is nothing short of astounding. Richard Dreyfuss should've won an Academy Award; his ever-growing obsession of the alien craft is mesmerizing. If Steven Spielberg knows how to do one thing, it is portraying an average family; as well as its disintegration, which is heart-breaking. And, as always, John Williams creates a magnificent score.....one of his best. And those ships! Never again will special effects look as they do here . . . . . . no CGI will ever come close to the magic of these alien craft! They are so beautiful, so intricate, so. . . . . (see review title). The mother ship looks like it just flew right out the Pearly Gates! In short, this film is not only the finest science fiction movie ever made; it is certainly among the top greatest finest films of all time. This 2-Disc DVD is one of the best I own (out of over 80). The picture/sound quality is actually not all that great at times; but every single minute of it somehow matches the mood of the film perfectly. This new Collector's Edition is the only version of the film I've ever seen, so I can't really compare it to the previous two versions. But knowing that this is the "definite director's cut", is kinda cool. The extras on Disc Two are actually very few. The main attraction is the 90 min. plus making-of documentary, which is very, VERY informative and entertaining. If there's one thing you can expect from a Spielberg DVD (well, most of them, anyway), it's a helluva-good documentary. There's also a short making-of from 1977 entitled "Watch the Skies", but it's pretty [bad] compared to the other one. By the title, I was hoping for a documentary on UFO's and alien contact; while it is pretty disappointing, with the 90-minute plus making-of already on the disc, it's not devastating. The deleted scenes are cool for a one-time viewing, as they add more insights on what's happening in the film (like, why is Richard Dreyfuss driving around in the middle of the night in the first place?). However, it really ticks me off that they actually dared to film the inside of the mother ship. At least Steven Spielberg himself admitted that doing so was a big mistake. However stupid of an idea it was, the scene is dazzling, with beautiful imagery and heavenly music. BUY IT NOW!!!!!! (Note: make sure you don't get fooled into getting the [inexpensive] single-disc edition, and buy this deluxe 2-disc DVD)
Rating: 
Summary: A little disappointed
Review: I had been hearing how great this movie was but I had never seen it. So I bought the dvd. I was a little disappointed. This version has the added scenes that were not shown in the original theatrical release, and maybe that is what I don't like. It is slow and too long. If you have already seen it and liked it then this is a good dvd, but if you haven't scene it, I would rent it first, just in case.
Rating:
Summary: A Sci-Fi Masterpiece
Review: I saw this film when I was very young and it was very haunting and beautiful at the time. After seeing it again recently I have to say that it is truly a masterpiece. Richard Dreyfuss's intense focus for answers along with the Miltitary's attempted cover up of UFO contact keeps you on the edge of your seat. Gotta love the mash potatoes and shaving cream scenes also. I don't know how it could have been any better. (Some people don't like this film?!) The exchanges with his wife are done wonderfully also. You want her to believe him but she just can't make that jump in faith. John Williams does a masterful job here and truly creates an atmosphere of intrigue and wonder. It is one of my favorite film scores also. If you are a Spielberg fan I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Cinematic Masterpiece
Review: "This could mean something special" exclaims Richard Dreyfuss' optimistic everyman in the first third of this remarkable, intelligent and complex 70s sci fi masterwork from Steven Spielberg. By the time the camera has moved from the blinding, burning sun rays, hurricane-like winds from the sky above towards its miraculous conclusion amidst the mothership, the idealistic quote doesn't seem at all exaggerated.
Proving he had no limits then, (and with this month's Catch me if you Can set to explode onto our screens) the pointed nosed, bearded dude from Cincinnati looks set to persue the legacy for a few more years yet. During filming of Jaws Spielberg penned the screenplay and the film's suburban take very much echoes his childhood experiences. "One night, when i was very young my dad woke me up in the middle of the night and said, "Come with me, i have a surprise for you. He got me into the car, drove me to his field, got out and looked at the sky. There was this amazing meteor shower." This memory was the inspiration for Dreyfuss' protagonist involving his family in the UFO experience. By focusing the character driven-plot on this dotty, irritating adult Spielberg adopts a more serious promise than the sentimental ET would 5 years later. "Encounters" does lacks ET's moving score, family-orientated spark and straight-forward narrative but offers a much more thrilling visual spectacle and proves that a special effects dependent movie need not be simple-minded or overly expensive(at least then).
Like 2001: A Space Odyssey before Close Encounters overwhelmes the cast and proves that the director can be as much a star as the people on screen. Had it not been for Kubrick's influencial masterpiece 10 years earlier the world would be left wondering what Star Wars and Close Encounters are. However, "Encounters" remains a unique and archetypal film in its own right, being the first movie to focus the possibility of alien life in an optimistic light by suggesting that there is hope of change and wonder outside everyday community. 25 years on, Spielberg's extraodinary film remains one of the towering highlights of his glittering career.
Rating:
Summary: Pretentious claptrap
Review: Close Encounters has great special effects and an amazing light show but the story is so humorless, cold and sterile, I cannot recommend this movie. We're supposed to sympathize with Richard Dreyfuss's character who becomes possessed with a vision imparted within him by super-intelligent, super-sensitive aliens. But how can anyone sympathize with a man who willingly throws away his wife and children to follow some vague abstract space vision. And yet we're not supposed to think of Dreyfuss as a victim of an alien-induced obsession. Rather, Spielberg wants us to be in awe of and admire these aliens who are, in Spielburg's view, a more intelligent, advanced enlightened species than the human species. But the facts of his story completely contradict this Spielberg vision of alien goodness and virtue. The aliens kidnap and/or brainwash innocent people for no apparent reason and yet, because they're "sensitive" and intelligent, we're supposed to go "awwww" and think how wonderful they are. The acting is fair but nothing special. The only truly good acting performance is by Teri Garr who realistically and grippingly shows what is like to have one's life turned upside down by a spouse who's caught in the grip of an obsession. Other than Ms. Garr, the rest of the cast is either way over-the-top (Dreyfuss) or forgettable. Close Encounters is long, pretentious, sometimes dull, but often visually interesting to look at. If you want to see a great light show, rent it. If you want to watch a compelling movie, look somewhere else.
Rating: 
Summary: Close To The Heart Of Spielberg
Review: ... Unlike the sci-fi films of the 1950's that revolve around UFO's and alien contact on Earth that usually had the aliens being evil and coming to dominate and destroy the Earth, Mr. Spielberg depicts them as benign and friendly. The visual effects were first rate in 1977 and are a far cry from today's studio wizardry, they are not hokey and actually hold up well. The cast all give fine performances including Mr. Dreyfuss, Teri Garr as his beleaguered wife and Melinda Dillon scored a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as a fellow contactee. Although the film was not nominated for Best Picture, Mr. Spielberg received his first Best Director nomination and the film won one award for Best Cinematography and a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects.
Rating:
Summary: Close Encounters of the Spielberg kind
Review: .... Spielberg re-released it with additional footage in 1980, then altered it again for the film's 1997 re-release on VHS with the extra footage dropped and some scenes never released put back in. Additional material aside, does the film itself deserve a place in the collection of all-time great Science Fiction? The answer is a resounding yes, as the film conveys a sense of excitement, wonder and obsession. Differing from other nihhlistic sci fi films (The Alien movies), Close Encounters is a story of a Roy (Richard Dreyfuss), who, after having an encounter with a U.F.O, starts to become fixated with images and sounds that draw him to the film's conclusion. Roy is the everyman in this movie, and the film centres on a reocurring Spielbergian theme of extraordinary events happening to ordinary people.
Dreyfuss, ... is brilliant in this film, with his gradual obsessions and transfixion creating a fascinating film, which has become an undisputed classic. The oft-imitated famous five note tune composed by the maestro John Williams is only one of the memorable moments of the film, including Roy's obsession with the image that haunts him, the chase up Devil's Tower and the re-appearance of all the people abducted by the aliens. Carlo Rambaldi's excellent alien creations surpass most CGI attempts at realism. As far as the various versions of the film go, the definitive one is this DVD, with the extended ending omitted, leaving the film more complete, regardless of the shortened running time. A true classic that will be remebered as one of the greatest Sci Fi films in film history.
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