E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is a reminder of what movies are for. Most movies are not for any one thing, of course. Some are to make us think, some to make us feel, some to take us away from our problems, some to help us examine them. What is enchanting about E.T. is that, in some measure, it does all of those things. [2002 re-release]

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

I have written elsewhere that love stories seem to be in short supply these days, as they have been in the last decade of American movies. . . . But the hunger for love on the screen is there, and director Spielberg gives it to us in E.T., and because the lovers are a little boy and a little creature, we accept it. Of such simple concepts, timeless entertainments are made.

Gene Siskel

Chicago Tribune