This is perhaps the most daunting Five Most challenge I've thrust upon myself: choosing my five favorite Steven Spielberg movies. Because, of course, there are way more than five great ones. He's one of the defining American filmmakers of our time. Even a top-10 list might have been insufficient. Some omissions are surely going to leave you guys feeling baffled, even incensed. How dare I leave out "Saving Private Ryan"? Where's "Close ... more 

This is perhaps the most daunting Five Most challenge I've thrust upon myself: choosing my five favorite Steven Spielberg movies. Because, of course, there are way more than five great ones. He's one of the defining American filmmakers of our time. Even a top-10 list might have been insufficient. Some omissions are surely going to leave you guys feeling baffled, even incensed. How dare I leave out "Saving Private Ryan"? Where's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"? Somebody actually pays me to do this? I'm an idiot! Hey, it would have been great to include "Minority Report" or "Munich" in here, too. But I only get to choose five. That's why the game is fun. So, with the opening this week of "Super 8," J.J. Abrams' loving and meticulous homage to the early work of Spielberg -- who's a producer on the film -- I humbly select my five favorite movies Spielberg has directed. Feel free to lemme have it: less