Ready Player One 2018
The new release prompting the conversation; Chris hasn't seen it going in.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Top Five · Interview
Steven Spielberg's Top 5 Movies With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan | The Big Picture (Ep. 57)
March 30, 2018/ 65 min/ Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan and Sean Fennessy each build a Spielberg top five, then Bill Simmons drops in to argue with both of them.
35 films across 5 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Ready Player One Daysetting up the countdown
The Post 2017
Namechecked as the Best Picture nominee Spielberg made four months earlier.
Chris Ryan's Top 5 Spielberg Moviesrevealed worst to best
No. 1
Jaws 1975
His pick for a perfect movie: 'drama, humor, scares, laughs, tension, humanity, great performances, great music.'
No. 2
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981
The 'small adventure story' he says spawned a whole unraveling world of IP without meaning to.
No. 3
Empire of the Sun 1987
A personal pick: his dad's WWII childhood tracked Christian Bale's. Praises Tom Stoppard's script and Malkovich.
No. 4
Saving Private Ryan 1998
Calls the first 40 minutes the most virtuosic combat filmmaking ever shot, but says the back half runs baggy.
No. 5
Jurassic Park 1993
Praised for being lean, 'a three or four-hander' that still goes hard for a spectacle movie.
Sean Fennessy's Top 5 Spielberg Moviesrevealed worst to best
No. 2
Jurassic Park 1993
Calls it the 'median point' of Spielberg's career: spectacle, childhood, and pure IP at once.
No. 3
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977
The child-of-divorce movie, he says, with Truffaut's performance and Dreyfuss anchoring what he calls the most 70s American film in Spielberg's filmography.
No. 4
Schindler's List 1993
Comes with the story of Billy Wilder wanting to make this himself before Spielberg won the rights.
No. 5
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981
'The best action hero star performance': Harrison Ford as 'Clark Kent and Superman at the same time.'
Beyond the Top Fiveping-ponging around the filmography
Minority Report 2002
Chris's No. 6, 'shockingly cynical,' the darkest popcorn movie Spielberg made.
Amistad 1997
Grouped with Munich and Empire of the Sun as one of the 'master manipulator' serious films.
War of the Worlds 2005
Chris says it almost cracked his top five.
Hook 1991
A soft spot for both: Dustin Hoffman's Captain Hook and the Julia Roberts tabloid chaos around the shoot.
The Adventures of Tintin 2011
Filed under 'frivolous.'
The BFG 2016
Called 'completely uninteresting and bad.'
The Terminal 2004
Same verdict as The BFG: hard to watch.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008
The one they'd rather forget, cast without Shia LaBeouf's arc paying off.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984
Where Spielberg met Kate Capshaw, on a timeline Bill later disputes in the bonus segment.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989
Chris's answer for where the franchise should have ended.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982
Sean's lukewarm and knows it'll get him in trouble at home; Chris would rather rewatch Lincoln.
Munich 2005
Sean's high on it; Chris calls it overrated but says the opening 35 minutes silence the room.
Catch Me If You Can 2002
Chris's pick for best Spielberg performance: DiCaprio 'turned on to 100,' rare for him outside Django.
Lincoln 2012
Daniel Day-Lewis gets the same 'take my money' treatment as DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can.
Christopher Robin 2018
Cited as basically a stealth Hook remake with Ewan McGregor.
Bonus: Bill Simmons on Spielbergthe podfather's first Big Picture appearance
Bill Simmons
Jaws 1975
Bill's pick for the best movie Spielberg ever made, and the first modern movie that still fully holds up.
Bill Simmons
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982
Bill's case for one of the five greatest movies ever, especially once he watched it with his own kids.
Bill Simmons
Jurassic Park 1993
'He made the best movie of anybody that decade out of all those young guys.'
Bill Simmons
Saving Private Ryan 1998
On the first 20 minutes: 'absolutely one of the best 20-minute stretches ever.'
Bill Simmons
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977
Bill's take: it hasn't aged as well as the others, and drags watching it now with his kids.
Bill Simmons
Minority Report 2002
Bill's conflicted: 'a movie I'd never watch again,' though Chris disagrees.
Bill Simmons
Munich 2005
Bill likes it 'a lot less than most people' and wishes a director like Michael Mann had taken the assassination-thriller angle.
Bill Simmons
Catch Me If You Can 2002
Bill agrees it's a real swing, even among the Spielberg movies he doesn't fully buy.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing Star WarsLawrence of ArabiaThe MatrixThis Boy's LifeTitanicDjango UnchainedThe VerdictGet OutHugoThe IrishmanSilenceAmerican MadeShutter IslandCape FearApocalypse NowVisions of LightSpielberg
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
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