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It took awhile, but the Star Wars prequels are now considered cool. Will Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull get the same critical re-evaluation? It hasn’t happened yet, and maybe it shouldn’t considering the film features a scene where Shia LaBeouf swings through the jungle with a bunch of CGI monkeys, but… what was I talking about again? Oh yeah, the Indiana Jones movie with the aliens. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull writer David Koepp recently appeared on the Script Apart podcast, where he discussed the decision to add extra-terrestrials to the Indy...

In a July 18 article, columnist John Leo describes how David Koepp, screenplay writer for Stephen Spielberg’s recently released “War of the Worlds,” revealed his intent to draw a parallel between the U.S. military in Iraq, and the movie’s villains, an army of hideous space aliens. Based on a late nineteenth-century science fiction novel by British author H.G. Wells, the original story involved an attack from inhabitants of the planet Mars, whose aim it was to conquer and inhabit the Earth. Transposing the storyline from 1898 London to modern day New York, while still retaining a faithful portrayal of the...

Article published: Jun 28, 2005http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050628/REVIEWS/50606007/1023 http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050628/REVIEWS/50606007/1023&template=printart War of the WorldsCreaking Havoc Release Date: 2005 Ebert Rating: **    By Roger Ebert / Jun 29, 2005 "War of the Worlds" is a big, clunky movie containing some sensational sights but lacking the zest and joyous energy we expect from Steven Spielberg. It proceeds with the lead-footed deliberation of its 1950s predecessors to give us an alien invasion that is malevolent, destructive and, from the alien point of view, pointless. They've "been planning this for a million years" and have gone to a lot of trouble to invade Earth for no...

War of the Worlds screenwriter David Koepp admits political propaganda in movie KABC talk show host Larry Elder said today that David Koepp, one of the two War of the Worlds screenwriters, stated in a recent interview for a Canadian publication that the Martians slaughtering the humans are a metaphor for the adventurism of the American military forces, i.e., for the Bush Administration's war on terrorism, and the human civilians are a metaphor for the Iraqi people. He stated that this is going back to the original H. G. Wells book upon which the movie is loosely based. However, the...

"War of the Worlds" Spielberg-esque Message: Don't Fight Terror By Debbie Schlussel I'm violating Steven Spielberg's review policy for "War of the Worlds" and telling you what I think ahead of tomorrow's scheduled release date. I saw the movie at a press screening, last night, and was disturbed by the message: Don't fight terror, and everything will work out. (Security was literally tighter than that for going to the White House to meet the President. No purses allowed. Three wandings by security.) It's bad enough that Steven Spielberg is adding "balance" and factual inaccuracy to the story of the Israeli...