Steven Spielberg's 8 Most Underrated Movies, Ranked by How Much You Slept on Them

Spielberg made the blockbusters everyone quotes. He also made these, which score just as high and get way fewer IMDb votes. Time to wake up.

Number one is a movie you swear you've seen. You haven't, not really.

1. 8
   The Terminal (2004)6.0

   Tom Hanks stranded in an airport is pure comfort food.

   Critics gave it a 55 on Metacritic. Audiences ignored them, and it made $219.1 million worldwide. Weird premise, warm movie, Stanley Tucci as the world's pettiest airport boss.
2. 7
   Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)7.7

   The weird middle child is better than its reputation.

   Metacritic 57, but it beats 84% of movies with audiences. Its 575,911 IMDb votes are about half of Raiders. Too loud in spots, still a blast.
3. 6
   Minority Report (2002)7.9

   Smartest Tom Cruise sprint ever filmed. Somehow nobody brings it up.

   89% on Rotten Tomatoes, an 80 on Metacritic, $358.4 million worldwide. Colin Farrell and Max von Sydow back him up. It plays like a mystery that happens to have jetpacks.
4. 5
   Bridge of Spies (2015)8.8

   Mark Rylance steals a Tom Hanks movie. That almost never happens.

   An 8.8 movie.guru score and an A CinemaScore, yet only $72.3 million domestic. A Cold War prisoner swap built on calm conversations, and it's tenser than most car chases.
5. 4
   Lincoln (2012)8.5

   A movie about counting votes is a thriller. Fight me.

   Metacritic 87, CinemaScore A, Daniel Day-Lewis in the hat. Fewer IMDb votes (287,954) than Ready Player One (554,483). That's a crime against civics class.
6. 3
   Munich (2005)7.5

   Spielberg's toughest movie is also his most ignored.

   Only $47.4 million domestic on a reported $70 million budget. Eric Bana and Daniel Craig in a grim, patient thriller. A 7.8 Guru's Take says it aged better than its box office.
7. 2
   Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)9.0

   Fewest votes on this list. Also a 9.0. Explain that.

   Just 239,728 IMDb votes for a 90 on Metacritic and $306.9 million worldwide. Richard Dreyfuss sculpting a mountain out of mashed potatoes is still the most relatable obsession on film.
8. 1
   E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)9.0

   You think you know E.T. You haven't rewatched it since recess.

   A 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and an A+ CinemaScore, yet 478,679 IMDb votes, under half of Raiders. Grown-ups skip it as a kids' movie. It's a divorce movie with a spaceship.

$583.17 says the loudest person calling E.T. a kids' movie has it queued up by Saturday.

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Current mood: ready to fight about it