by Nevin Hooper (guest classic movie reviewer)

Hello, fans of film and lovers of the older, classic films I will be reviewing! Please join me and see the re-release of the Steven Spielberg classic “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” starring the memorable Richard Dreyfuss in his second role in a Spielberg film. For your benefit this is spoiler free!

Before I start the review, I will catch you up on our rating system for films. Our grading system goes from a 0/10 (which means it is absolutely horrible, shouldn’t have ever been made), to an 11/10 (which means movies that are so great, and so amazing, that you just can’t give the average 10/10 grade). Now that we have that over with, let me get into reviewing “Close Encounters of the Third Kind!”

Wow, forty years have already passed us since the release of this acclaimed Oscar-winning film. Winning Oscars for its cinematography and special sound effects, this fantastic sci-fi film tells the story of Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss in another great performance) who, in a miraculous turn of events, experiences what is called a “close encounter” with a lifeform from another world. After this encounter, Roy is determined to find out what these spectacular lights of special effects mastery are. Along the way he teams up with a woman by the name of Jillian Guiler (also played masterfully by Melinda Dillon), who has also experienced a close encounter, and together they set out to find out how all these strange events are possibly linked to them.

A wonderful film that is amazingly directed (I mean, come on, it’s Spielberg, what did you possibly expect, the guy’s a master at what he does), and brilliantly told by showing the slow descent into madness and paranoia that comes with Roy’s almost addiction to finding out what these strange lights are. A masterful film that has wonderful direction, a great screenplay, excellent cinematography, a number of great performances, and most notably, the now iconic John Williams score. Now, because of all these great things, I shall give Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” an 11/10.