From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!upstill
Newsgroups: net.movies
Title: Poltergeist (a review)
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.7514
Posted: Thu Jun  3 10:24:28 1982
Received: Fri Jun  4 05:42:57 1982

  I saw one of the "sneak previews" of Poltergeist two weeks ago.  It
opens this Friday at a theater near you.
  Nano-review: massively entertaining.  I loved it.
  As one who has been passionately attached to the SF/fantasy genre 
since childhood, I have to say that Poltergeist is my movie.  Spielberg
has definitely reached the peak of his craft in terms of constructing
and executing a movie.  It's all there -- the slightly warped humor,
the little middle class tags we can relate to, the sense of the fantastic,
the relentless buildup from little eerie events to shivery spectacle.
I alternated between bursting out laughing and muttering exclamations
of awe to myself.  Of course I was completely unhyped and unprepared
for it all (which is one of the prime advantages of sneak previews).
  The technical credits on this film are just superb -- it is definitely
prime material for a first-rate theater with 70mm and Dolby sound; the
images on the screen are crystal clear.   ILM's special effects are
in a universe by themselves; I was stunned to learn that the budget of
the movie was moderate by Hollywood standards, only about 70% of the cost
of Close Encounters 3 1/2 years ago and half that of Empire.
  If these descriptions make the movie sound a little cold, that's the
way I can't help thinking about it...afterwards.  While it was running,
it blew me away.  Afterward, it became hard to see why I got so involved
on a gut level.  But I did, and I bet you will.