Rating: 
Summary: Close Encounters with Speilberg's Ego
Review: 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' is more of a children's movie. Although adults will appreciate it, most of them will wonder what was the point behind it. On a crystal clear summer night, average citizens witness what appear to be UFOs in the sky. For some the UFOs affect them more than others. A child, his mother, Richard Dreyfuss, and a dozen other unnamed people begin seeing visions in their head. They see a geographical structure, but can't make sense of it. Later they find out it is Devil's Tower in the west. Cut between these stories are small stories of strange events happening across the world; stretching from Mexico to India. In the middle of the Gobi desert, a seaship is found.
Finally our heros, Richard Dreyfuss and a woman reach the Devil's Tower for the climax. The climax is enjoyable if one of able to make sense of it. Some people will look at it and say, "Wow look at all the pretty spaceships!" Maybe Speilberg was trying to entertain and mystify us for two hours, which he does at certain momements. I guess what he's trying to say is, "Aliens are not harmful. They are here to make peace with us." But at the end, when the gigantic spaceship rises behind Devil's Tower, the only thing I was thinking was, "Wow the only thing bigger than that spaceship is Speilberg's ego!"
Rating: 
Summary: Some of the Footage needs to be put back in.
Review: I was really disapointed to learn that in this new "Director's Edition" of Close Encounters of the Thrid Kind, the footage where we see the inside of the large alien ship was taken out and instead was placed in the "Deleted Scenes" section of this DVD. I really did not like that. I think that footage should be in the finished film, as it was in "The Special Edition" of this movie made in 1980. I wish Steven would reconsider and put this footage back into the completed film. I belive it really adds and makes the movie all the more special.
Rating: 
Summary: A good Spielberg movie? Of course!
Review: I am not a sci-fi fan. At all. But i just saw "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" on DVD and I loved it. Maybe not Spielberg's finest ("Schindler's List" takes the cake), it's definitely one of his best.
The setting is rural Indiana. Our main character is one Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), a struggling electrician who is contacted by aliens and travels to Devil's Tower to meet them. Accompanying Roy is a distraught mother (Melinda Dillon), whose little son was "kidnapped" by the aliens. But also heading to Devil's Tower is a band of government researchers led by a French scientist named Lacombe (Francious Traffaut).
In all, this is an amazing movie. Filled with great acting and mind-blowing special effects, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is truly a masterpiece. And a magical John Williams score only makes it better.
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Summary: Excellent collector's edition for sci-fi fans
Review: The Collector's Edition of Close Encounters contains material that every sci-fi fan/collector will enjoy. It's worth the extra money to upgrade to the collector's edition of this movie.
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Summary: Close Encounter is a contemporary classic
Review: This movie in question, i.e., Close Encounters of the Third Kind
VHS ~ Richard Dreyfuss , is an amazing movie starring a very young Richard Dreyfuss. His potrayal is academy award material and he shows true potential in this movie. The special effects look antiquated. However, one has to bear in mind that for the time this was top of the line computer graphics. Spielberg does not try very hard to send a cerebral message. Highly Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth encountering...
Review: Director Steven Spielberg's classic 1977 follow-up to "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" stars Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary. Neary's just an ordinary blue collar guy, a bit of a dreamer with a taste for Disney films and miniature railroads... until he witnesses a spectacular UFO appearance. Haunted by mental images of a mountain he's never seen before, Neary risks his job, his marriage, his sanity and, eventually, his life to uncover what it all means.
"Close Encounters" also marks the first appearance of the Spielberg formula. You know, the messy suburban house, the mouthy kids, the whole "just plain folks involved with something magical" storyline. And while he gets a lot of knocks, both justified and unjustified, for inflicting this on American movies in the 80s, Spielberg's use of documentary-like elements throughout (as the space people play some Burmuda Triangle-related tricks on what's apparently an international investigation team) and some funky casting (Teri Garr, French director Francois Truffaut, Bob Balaban and others) combine to lend this one a veracity some of his later films- and those of his imitators- sometimes lack. This is a very fresh and original take on sci-fi subject matter, completely without physical violence (although there is some of the emotional kind). Seeing decades later after so many heartless, bombastic, noise and light CGI fests, one can't help but admire Spielberg's ability to get to the emotional core of this material.
Plus, it helps that the cutesy elements are kept to a minimum. There's Melinda Dillon as a single mom whose oh-so-adorable-with-his-big-eyes kid gets kidnapped by the UFOs; the scene is played for scares, rather than laughs and it is genuinely terrifying. Neary's kids are mostly unpleasant, and gone after the halfway point. Dreyfuss downplays Neary's potential drippyness and plays up his frustration and rage as circumstances overwhelm him. And Garr is very believable as Neary's doubtful wife; she keeps the character from becoming a one-note shrew. You actually sympathize with her as she deals with what she thinks is her husband's selfish midlife crisis.
The film ends with an amazing sequence of events and actually takes on an epic scope without losing the human element that makes it all so enjoyable. This DVD release follows the format from the recent "Jaws" disk: a gorgeous widescreen print, a few deleted scenes, some documentaries. A handsome release.
Look for Lance Henrickson in a small role. He'd later appear as one of the Mercury 7 in "The Right Stuff," and investigate the unknown on "Millenium." And Carl "Apollo Creed" Weathers as a National Guardsman!
Rating: 
Summary: As ever,Spielberg stinks
Review: What more need be said about this other than that it is a film by Spielberg, the insipid director who brought us such films as "Always" or "Hook", other than that he is the worst filmmaker since Bill Rebane? This early effort is even more idiotic than most of his more recent, half-hearted efforts. This film is an incredibly boring, almost plotless, overlong borefest that may well cure you of insomnia by boring you to death. Also, a special note to the manufacturers of this disk: This is the 21st century! We want more than just some sorry movie on the disk. If all we the public wanted was the movie we would gladly buy the VHS. For your next release, try putting some worthwhile extra features on the disk. At least then you might be able to trick the public into thinking they are getting something worth the money they paid.
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Summary: A Thinking Man's Feel Good Movie?
Review: I just got done watching this for the third time. The first two times, I had seen it on TV, and kept getting interrupted. Either by people talking so that I couldn't hear, or having to leave the TV and missing scenes. So, when I finally got to sit down and watch this straight through, I was blown away like it was the first time.
This is one of those movies that you can watch no matter what mood you are in, and end up feeling good. This DVD contains the best version of it, too. There was an original and a special edition. The special edition cut out the scene of Roy Neary (Dreyfuss) tearing up his yard and throwing dirt and stuff in his window for a scene of him breaking down in the bathroom. Personally, I find the first scene to be more interesting and entertaining, but the second is more vital to the story because it shows that he thinks he's going nuts and so does his family. But, not to worry because BOTH scenes are spliced into the movie. Also, the SE had and extended ending of Neary in the spaceship which isn't spliced into this one. This movie, no matter how many times you see it, holds you spellbound. Everyone was brilliant in this. Speilberg's directing, Dreyfuss's acting (his performance in Jaws was damn good, but nothing compared to this), Terri Garr's acting, John Williams' musical score (somebody give him a lifetime achievement award, or better yet, three), and Paul Schrader-that's right, Paul Schrader's-brilliant screenplay. Yep, the man who brought you such masterpieces as Taxi Driver as wrote this. Speilberg rewrote it so much, though (probably because it was too dark, as Schrader's work tends to be), and Schrader said he didn't want anything to do with the new script. Regardless of who wrote it, it's perfect and entertaining as all hell. You would think that a movie of this caliber, with such a climactic and intense ending, would lose it's power to leave you staring at the screen in awe, but it doesn't. During the whole last half of the movie (the close encounter and the events leading up to it), I was not only riveted, I was anxious and nervous. Just like the first time I saw it. I was doing all those nasty habits I do when I get anxious or nervous, even though I KNEW what was going to happen. That's how friggin POWERFUL this movie is. Everyone knows the basic plot to this movie, but it doesn't matter. It spins it web over you, and you can't help but get caught in it every time. Now, about the DVD. Whoever put this DVD together is almost as brilliant as the people who made the movie. It's 11 deleted scenes show you everything that was taken out of the movie (the extending ending, etc.), and then some. The 100 minute(!) documentary is fascinating, if it had been any shorter(like those twenty minute ones, or even worse, one of those 7 minute "featurettes") I would have been mad as hell. Again, hats off to whoever made it. It also includes a featurette called Watch the Skies, which I admit that I haven't got around to yet, because I've been busy with the other features, and of course watching the movie! But even if the featurette wouldn't have been included at all, the documentary more than makes up for it. The DVD also includes trailers, which no one really cares about usually, but I always get a kick out of them. The best thing about this, though, is the restored picture and sound. The Dolby 5.1 sounds even better than the original sound!!! And the picture is a million times better than VHS! Definitely a noticeable difference!!
Oh yeah, the reason for my title is of course because this movie makes you use your brain, but it also leaves you feeling good after you watched with wonder as the close encounter unfolded.
Let me just say that this is one of the best sci-fi movies. Except most of it isn't a sci-fi movie, so you don't need to be a sci-fi nut to enjoy it!! This DVD NEEDS to be in your collection!!!
Rating: 
Summary: As Close An Encounter As I Want To Own
Review: There's been a raging argument since this film's release back in the late 70's: which is the better science fiction film, STAR WARS or CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND? I think those who've engaged that argument have been going about debate much the wrong way, for there are really no similarities in these two pictures except for the fact that both includes aliens and otherworldly craft ... but the comparison really stops there. After its initial release, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS enjoyed a second release not much later with CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: THE SPECIAL EDITION, which added footage cut and/or reshot to make the film a bit closer to visionary Steven Spielberg's dream picture. The added footage, however, really was tacked onto the end of the film, giving viewers a glance inside the Mothership of the UFOs that have been haunting Earth. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND: THE SPECIAL EDITION is an amalgam of the two films, preserving the best essence of the two pictures by creating one complete whole. Perhaps the greatest nod to this film is that there would be no THE X FILES without this film having been made. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS paved the way found countless variations on the theme of extraterrestrial contact. In fact, Spielberg himself had initially dubbed E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL as the unofficial sequel to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, but he changed his mind last minute as the two films really have very little linkage. This two-disc compilation boasts an excellent digitally mastered (audio and visual) product along with Dolby DTS and Dolby 5.1. The second disc includes a Making of Documentary that gives some valuable history to the picture as well as commenting seriously on the films of Spielberg as a whole. The deleted scenes add little to a film that already holds a complete rung on the ladder of the film industry.
Rating:
Summary: Not a kid's movie...
Review: Saw this one in the theater on my tenth birthday, and it was the most amazing movie I had ever seen up to that point, more amazing even than "Star Wars", which came out the same year. I remember my Dad lamenting to my Mom when we got home that night, "There wasn't any real violence in it... just a cop car crashing." Many people like my Dad probably thought this film just wasn't for adults. After all, it was a feel-good, non-violent film with a wide-eyed little kid in it, and nobody (except the cop in the car wreck), really got hurt. The aliens were cute and friendly, too. Some people, like Dad, have naturally made the mistake over the years of thinking that "Close Encounters" was just a kid's movie. But that was never so; if you take a close look, you'll see a very serious, intellegent film. There are really spooky, frightening moments that kids may or may not understand. Who can watch the abduction sequence or the Neary's encounter at the train crossing, and still say this was a kid's movie? Watching this film again, in pristine DVD clarity, reminded me of just how little talent and creativity remains in Hollywood these days. As awesome as the effects in "Close Encounters" were (and still are), they never overpower the human element. Today, sci-fi is filled with a glut of pointless CGI, explosions, cleavage, mindless action, and violence, in place of real human characters interacting. How refreshing to look back and see a film from a simpler, more idealistic time when ideas and original concepts still exited! I thought back to all the films and TV shows that came out around the same time; "Star Wars", "Silent Running", "Tron", "The Black Hole", "Logan's Run", "Space:1999", "Battlestar Galactica", "Buck Rogers". Heck, for that matter, even "Damnation Alley", and "The Cat From Outer Space"! Whether you liked any of these projects or not, all of them were highly original and different, unlike the tripe being force-fed to fandom today. The new, original documentary on the second disc is very, very informative, and included there are all the deleted scenes (I at long last found out whatever happened to that cop who crashed his car!), the "Special Edition" extra scenes, trailers, and an original featurette from 1977. Interviews include Spielberg, Douglas Trumbull, Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Bob Balaban, composer John Williams, the actor who played the child Barry (Cary Guffey), and others. Also, it's funny to see a young, beardless Spielberg! This DVD version of the film keeps some of the Special Edition extra scenes added after the film was originally released in 1977, and the result is the best of both worlds. The film clearly states that, although the unknown may be frightening at first, we may not really have anything to fear. Best of all, we wisely do not follow Neary into the ship.
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