Super 8

The 'kid-adventure' genre refers to a certain group of films that put kid's into the center of unlikely, freighting and very dangerous situations. These 'kid-adventure' movies are not just any type of movies that feature kids in main roles playing basketball with dogs or any other animals, but a more specific type of film that chronicles the last days of these characters' childhoods, a formula that leads to some of the most satisfying coming of age stories on the screen. FIlms like The Goonies, E.T., The Lost Boys, and Stand by Me are some of the films that fit into this category. 

Super 8 certainly falls into this category as well. It takes our characters into a journey that will leave behind everything they once were as the story serves as bridge between the last days of childhood and the next stage in their lives much like aforementioned films. It could be said that director J.J. Abrams, teaming with Steven Spielberg in the role of producer, wanted this particular film to be mentioned in the same class as the previously stated. 

Even Joe, the main character in Super 8 resembles Elliot from E.T., something that may have been done by design by Spielberg. 

While Steven Spielberg himself did not direct the film, J.J. Abrams was centered at the director's chair and helmed with the task of creating a new entry into 'kid-adventure' genre.

The Princess Bride

What do you get when you put comedy, adventure, fantasy, and romance into a pot add a pinch of salt for taste and stir them together? You get one of the most revered films in the history of modern (and all) cinema. Yet there is something else that stands out with The Princess Bride over all of its genre mixing, and that is the absolute charm the film has managed to keep for nearly three decades. Really, when you look at it, it is a very, very charming film.  It's filled with comical charm, charming wit and overall, a very, very charming Cary Elwes. 

The characters are so polite even even during fights to the death, and it's pulled off so effortlessly that it casts an unique aura to the film. Besides outstanding writing and direction, the cast truly makes this film come to live and reside in immortality. Who could not root for Cary Elwes' Westly, a simple farmboy turned Pirate turned selfless hero on his quest to save his true love, buttercup? Or getting a kick out of watching Andre The Giant, who was wrestling's number one villain at the time, as a gentle, and lovable Fezzik. But arguably to many the most memorable performance has to go to Mandy Patinkin in the role of Indigo Mantoya, the man responsible for getting over some of the most quotable lines in an already extremely quotable film. 

The Princess Bride is that film that will never get old, never become stale, never reach the point of absurdity, because it is just too damn charming to be anything else.

JAWS

Pure. Raw. Ability. Some things you cannot teach, others can only be enhanced. Steven Spielberg captivated us and our imaginations from the very moment he exploded on to the big scene.

We all know the story, in his major directorial debut, JAWS went into production hell with a young inexperience 24 year old new director at the wheel. The studio almost took the film away from Spielberg. That's right, Spielberg the man and career almost got derailed before it could've even begin. Fortunately for the world of cinema did this not happen which ultimately led to Spielberg going on and revolutionizing the idea of the hollywood director, something that could have been derailed before it even began.

Considered almost universally as a director's director, Spielberg pieced together one of cinema's greatest achievements in JAWS. The absolute direction and mixing of all the components and variables that make a film, from the the direction of the score,camera angles and overall scene presentation, Spielberg pulled it all. Your pulse intensifies with every single carefully calculated and constructed shot.

Nearly 40 years later, (wow!) new audiences still fall in love with the great white who terrorize a beautiful beach town on  the fourth of july. JAWS stands the biggest test of them all: The test of time passed, and Spielberg achieved this with honors and pure raw ability.

500 Days of Summer

Most of the time, when looking back into a previous failed relationship, we tend to jump around the timeline of events. We never really start at the beginning, but dig deep into the pool of memories we've created with this person. Sometimes we remember the magical moments that made you fight for the survival of the relationship, other times, we tend to focus on the moments that lead to its destruction.  That is why 500 Days of Summer's non linear plot works so well with the story. It deals with the break up just like you would deal with one in real life,

Tom Hansen is the everyday guy who gets the not-so everyday girl. Joseph Gordon Levitt really captures Tom's demeanor so much that you believe this could be Levitt in real life. 

We've all known a women like Summer. A women that completely infatuates us from the moment she walks into our lives. For a man like Tom, she is that image of the "perfect girlfriend," a beautiful, intelligent, funny and at times corky and eccentric female that gets all your pop culture references and comes equip with witty one liners of her own. Zooey Deschanel was casting gold for this role.

500 Days of Summer comes to us more like a coming of age story than a romantic one, since it is through Tom's eyes that we ride along this familiar road of found and lost love.