Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (re-release)

EMAILPRINTUniversal Pictures

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (re-release) reviews
94
7.4 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Sci-fi

Written by: Melissa Mathison

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 22, 2002
DVD: October 22, 2002

Running Time: 120 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG for language and mild thematic elements

Starring Dee Wallace-Stone, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, K.C. Martel, Sean Frye, and C. Thomas Howell

The 20th Anniversary re-release of Steven Spielberg's classic tale of an extra-terrestrial who is accidentally left behind on earth and befriends a young boy and his family.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An all-time classic that seems even better after two decades.

Read Full Review >
100

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Unchecked goodness has its price, after all, and childhood wonder wouldn't be nearly as sweet if it didn't fade. That may explain the film's appeal. It trapped that feeling, and its sense of possibility, in amber -- then, now, and for any time.

Read Full Review >
100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A sophisticatedly sappy masterpiece that bucked the prevailing Hollywood vision of aliens as nasty invaders and recast them as friendly collectibles for children.

Read Full Review >
100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Just as moving, uplifting and funny as ever in its slightly modified form.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This movie made my heart glad. It is filled with innocence, hope, and good cheer. It is also wickedly funny and exciting as hell.

Read Full Review >
100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The least fussy great movie ever made.

100

Variety Todd McCarthy

Had the aura of an instant classic when it was released, and the good news is that it looks at least that good, if not better, on the eve of its 20th anniversary reissue.

Read Full Review >
100

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Watching E.T now, in an era dominated by cold, loud special-effects-laden extravaganzas, one is struck less by its lavish grandeur than by its intimacy and precision.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Always a magical film. For its anniversary rerelease, though, it's been extensively restored and even partly reshot by Spielberg. It now looks better than it did back then.

Read Full Review >
100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Seeing E.T. again reminds us of how much we've remained the same, how gratified we still are by a film that connects so beautifully to our sense of wonder and joy.

Read Full Review >
100

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Beaming back on screens for its 20th anniversary, holds up spectacularly well.

100

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

It's one modern film worthy of being called a contemporary classic.

Read Full Review >
100

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Music for the eyes. That's why it has become a treasured classic. That's why we'll see it again and again.

Read Full Review >
100

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Spielberg wrote a poem. And all the best movies are poems. [25 Mar 2002, p. 86]

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

In E.T., Spielberg proved a herald of the age when moviegoers would make full-time friends with fantasy, but his most special effect was taking us into ourselves.

Read Full Review >
100

Salon.com Charles Taylor

One of the loveliest and happiest of American movie entertainments.

Read Full Review >
100

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

If we approach with sympathy and curiosity, we will be rewarded with same. And our souls, not to mention our bicycles, will soar to the heavens.

Read Full Review >
90

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

The film's real power to move flows from its low, childlike angles, which, rather than infantalize its audience, bring it down to where the hurt and fear, and hence the comfort, loom larger.

Read Full Review >
83

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

It's a fascinating look into what Spielberg truly loves, but it's not so much a masterpiece as a nice milestone.

80

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

When E.T. debuts on DVD, you can choose between the new version, which better matches E.T.'s words to his lips, and the sweetly clunky, digitally deprived version redolent of penis breath. I don't need to phone home to know which one I'm buying.

Read Full Review >
80

TV Guide Staff (not credited)

One of the most popular movies ever made, E.T. translates religious myth into cute, familiar terrain.

Read Full Review >
80

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

We're told that this new version is tweaked and enhanced, with the E.T. puppet digitally smoothed out, and the guns in the meanies' hands removed (silly, but bravo).

75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A fine picture because it can still, without fail, make an entire audience of children shut up and fall in love with a little green alien with big eyes and a turtlelike body.

Read Full Review >
75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Doesn't make it a masterpiece, but it's fun.

Read Full Review >
60

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

The story itself holds up fairly well though, twenty years later, does come off as thinner than I recalled.

Read Full Review >
60

Village Voice Don McKellar

E.T. is a dog movie. Genre-wise, I mean. It's about a boy meeting a dog, naming it, taming it, learning from it, and growing up. Of course, the genre is superficially disguised as science fiction, as was the fashion at the time.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 40 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Lauren S. gave it a10:
Spielberg's E.T. is one of greatest movies ever made, as a 13 year old, i've never been a fan of kid movies. But E.T. lives on as the friendliest alien Earth, or at least, the movie Industry has ever met. The effects are spectacular, everything is superb. It's a favorite of my all time movies.

Jens J. gave it a10:
Ask John Williams to play in your country live with his orchestra in E.T.'s 30th Anniversary Edition. Please enter here: http://sites.google.com/site/et30thjohnwilliams/Home

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Hmmmm...this is really interesting. When E.T. was first released, a lot of critics hated it. Now that it's re-released, they love it...i don't get it....Anyway, this movie is just a classic and one of my favorites. (Please stop calling movies "shows"...unless you want to look like an idiot)

Mon gave it a10:
One of the best modern classics!

Antoine T. gave it a10:
One of Spielberg's greatest films by far, timeless storytelling.

Sam gave it a10:
A masterpiece that you will fall in love with every time you see it. Key word, "will."

John B. gave it a10:
Don't listen to the cynics, those who reject anything with an ounce of heart. Forced sentimentality is junk, yes, but this movie has none of that. It's enchanting and wonderful. A great film all around.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use