E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

To celebrate 20 years, director Steven Spielberg spruces up his 1982 masterpiece with a new soundtrack, “enhanced visual effects” and a little extra footage. The tinkering is minor and mainly cosmetic because, let’s face it, it was always pretty near perfect. E.T. himself is still an expressive marvel, and the human actors—Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote and 6-year-old Drew Barrymore—were never better. The perspective of two decades now shows this to be the apotheosis of Spielberg’s gee-whiz, enchanted-childhood phase (the film’s cover title, during the hush-hush shooting, was A Boy’s Life)—a treasure trove of magic and wonder.