Steven Spielberg is good at conjuring a lot of things — awe, wonder, even terror. It’s why he’s arguably cinema’s GOAT. But something he does better than just about anyone else, even though it’s brought up less than some of the other skills on his résumé, is directing action sequences. Spielberg knows where to move the camera and how to block the scene so that the audience always knows where everyone is and what the stakes are. Think about the dazzling opening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom or the visceral Omaha Beach sequence in Saving Private Ryan. Those skills are on display throughout the 1981 instant-classic action-adventure romp Raiders of the Lost Ark and the 2002 tech noir Minority Report — two movies that are, essentially, one set piece after another, strung together at a breakneck pace. Catch them in a rip-roaring doubleheader on Sunday as part of the Belcourt’s Weekend Classics: Spielberg series. Both films are screening multiple times over the next week (visit belcourt.org for showtimes), but Sunday is your sole opportunity to catch them back to back.
'Minority Report' at noon, 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' at 3 p.m. April 19 at the Belcourt
2102 Belcourt Ave.
