Customer Reviews
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS (Blu-Ray) 
2008-08-09
This is the clearest, sharpest and most colorful transfer to Blu-Ray DVD I have ever watched! This film was made in 1977, prior to the well explored theme of government conspiracies with evil aliens intent on colonizing Earth. Earlier and later sci-fi films (with the exception of E.T.) have generally attributed much less benign motives to space aliens.
Spielberg was able to get his audience to believe in well intentioned aliens interested in making first contact with authorities on Earth. A more difficult film to make interesting to audiences brought up on evil space critters, the film still works and many folks appear to enjoy it. While not one of my favorite films I do enjoy watching the very colorful visual effects.
It is just plain silly. 
2008-08-03
This is a joke of a movie. The plot (if you can call it like that) goes like this: guy sees some UFOs, gets a sunburn, goes berserk trying to re-create some kind of mound with mashed potatoes, dirt, etc. Guy tries to find the UFO. Woman loses her son to UFO. Both go to Devil's Tower to find the UFOs and aliens. Government says there is poisonous gas. There is no poisonous gas. Guy and woman find UFOs and aliens. Nothing happens.
Are you kidding me? This is a plot? And why do people give it 4 and 5 star ratings? What do you see that I don't? I am actually kind of a sci-fi fan, I like some of Spielberg's later movies (ET, Jurassic Park, A.I.), but this one? No way. It is just plain silly.
when will it end? 
2008-07-10
This movie lingered and lingered. I couldn't wait for it to end. The reason i gave it a 2/5 is because it somewhat kept my interest
After 30 Years 
2008-07-06
I know this was released back in November of 2007 but Amazon ask me to review it.
Finally, the 1977 uncut version of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" has been release on DVD. The first release on DVD still had three scenes missing from the 1977 version that I saw on the theaters. I did miss seeing the man with his family commenting on how far behind the aliens was in technology when it came to our highway systems. I also miss Ray wife (Teri Carr) complaining that she was not going to get a job and Ray looking at the pillow and seeing the mountain shape in it. The third scene was included with the outtakes. It was the scene with Ray walking into the Electric Power Plant (his job) and talking to his co-workers.
The first two scenes were not in the outtakes so the movie was missing something. These two scenes were less than a minute each but they really stood out in the film. I had to wait 30 years for this movie to be release the way I originally saw it in the theater in 1977.
If you enjoy the 1980 re-release version of this film it is also in this package and so is the release 1997 DVD copy. If you get it now it cost a lot less than it did in November of 2007 so, if you enjoyed the original versions of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" take advantage of this offer.
One of the greatest sci-fi movies of the 70s in a killer Blu-ray set! 2008-07-03
It's a good time to be a sci-fi fan! Between Blade Runner (Five-Disc Complete Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray], 2001 - A Space Odyssey [Blu-ray], and this marvelous Close Encounters release, it's an embarrassment of riches. These are some of the best films in the genre, and they're all getting the treatment they deserve on the new high definition format.
If you haven't seen the movie in any of its three versions (all of which are available here), no plot summary can do it justice. It's worth a blind purchase based just on its pedigree (Spielberg, fresh off of Jaws, is at his creative peak) and reputation (8 Oscar noms, #64 on the AFI top 100, 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) . If you need to know a little something before jumping in, it's the story of a man (Richard Dreyfuss) who, after witnessing a series of unexplained bright lights, becomes consumed by an obsession with UFOs that tears his family apart. At the same time, a multinational group of scientists investigating a series of mysterious events begin preparations for the first diplomatic visit from extraterrestrials.
So the film is a classic. What about the disc? First, this is the only Blu-ray I've come across that doesn't have that cheesy blue plastic top. The packaging is a stylish cardboard slipcase with shiny metallic artwork of a bright light on the horizon. Along with the two discs, which I'll get to in a minute, are a book containing on-set photographs and biographies of the cast & crew, and a poster outlining the differences between the three versions of the film. These are the kind of paper inserts I wish more movies came with instead of worthless lists of chapter titles and ads for other movies. All told, this set looks very nice on the shelf.
But how does it look on the screen? Great. Bright lights against a dark sky usually spell disaster for image quality, but everything looks as it should here. Sure, it's no Ratatouille [Blu-ray]; there are a few instances when the colors look saturated, but unless you high exceedingly high demands I can't imagine having any complaints. It's certainly the best this film has ever looked!
In case you couldn't tell (or are the type of person to skip to the end of a review to get the bottom line recommendation), I highly recommend it.
A sci-fi classic now on Blu-Ray! 2008-06-11
The Collector's Edition (CE) represents Steven Spielberg's third version of
Close Encounters. Created in 1998, this sequence contains most of the judicial edits made for the Special Edition (SE) in 1980, speeding up Roy Neary's first contact with the UFOs and adding a scene of a discovery in the Mongolian desert. The Collector's Edition also reinstates the comical madness of Neary tearing up his own front yard, replaced in the SE by a scene where he breaks down in the shower; both scenes are restored in the CE. The SE's revised ending, featuring an extended scene inside the mothership is deleted.
Keep The Original !! 2008-05-25
Well , 30 years after it's initial theatrical release Close Encounters of the Third Kind is now available with a 3 disc dvd format collectors edition. I saw the Original theatrical release in 1977 and that is the version that i believe is by far the best . I never liked the 1980 special edition , that ended up cutting some scenes and replacing it with some others. For instance "The dopey scene when Dreyfuss is sitting in his bathtub fully clothed with the shower drenching himself !! And they also cut the scene when Melinda Dillon , Dreyfuss and other folks go to government officials with their stories and have a Press conference was cut out from the 1977 version. Spielberg himself said he never wanted to show the ending with Dreyfuss entering the spaceship but was forced to. Spielberg then came back in 1998 to yet once again re-do this classic film by eliminating the ending from the 1980 special edition. I have kept the 1977 original theatrical release disc and gotten rid of the other two. I love the original version. It seems so much more pure and one of the funniest scenes in the film with Dreyfuss digging up his garden and throwing rocks and plants and chicken wire and his ladder through his kitchen window with neighbors watching so he could build his own copy of the Devil's Tower in his own living room which was of course the pre-determined meeting place with the UFO'S is hilarious and was cut out of both the 1980 and 1998 versions. KEEP THE ORIGINAL !!! Also , I never liked when Star Wars (1977) was screwed around with in 1997 with them adding some footage which i never liked either and when They came out with the 2 disc collectors edition I also kept the Original Version disc and got rid of the special edition !
It made no sense... 2008-05-22
...I watched it at school, and everyone in my class was either sleeping or scratching their heads in confusion. I just don't understand why Spielberg made this movie...along the way, people started talking in random languages (pardon me for being vague, I don't remember WHICH languages) and, well...it was just weird. Why did they? I have no idea. The ending just baffled me...*spoiler* why did he walk onto the spaceship? HUH? Maybe I was just having a bad day, but it really made no sense to me. I was alternating between bored and frustrated at not understanding the 'plotline'.
Quite a poor effort, conclusively...this movie was weak.
Close Encounters 2008-05-04
Very good transfer to BD, although I think a little more scrubbing would've made it even better. Great movie, sound is good, and really fun to watch.
Can't get it to play 2008-04-27
I've rented more than 30 movies from Unbox, and all of them played fine except this one. An email exchange with support recommended upgrading Windows Media Player - which I did - but it still wouldn't play. I really wanted to see this movie and I'm disappointed that whatever DRM Amazon is using in this movie doesn't seem compatible with the player.
