Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- 1989

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(1989)

Rated PG-13 for violence, language, horror and sexuality
My Rating: 4 Stars

Harrison Ford
Denholm Elliot
Alison Doody
John Rhys-Davies
Julian Glover
Sean Connery

My favorite Indiana Jones movie. I have always loved stories about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, so this film really hit the spot. But not only for that aspect of it. The movie is very well acted, with lots of history and laughs thrown in. Makes for an enjoyable evening of watching.

Summary:
Hitler had to abandon the Ark of the Covenant after it disappeared without a trace (thanks to Dr. Jones) but he hasn't given up hope for an easy victory. There is another “mystically-empowered” legend from the antiquity that he intends for himself and his followers: The Holy Grail.

One fine afternoon, Dr. Jones is followed and intercepted on his way home from the university. They bring him to a man who has in his possession part of a stone tablet and a request that Dr. Jones find it's twin. On the tablet is depicted a riddle of the location of the Holy Grail. But there is a problem and it lies with the fact the tablet is broken, therefore part of the riddle is missing. This man needed to find the other tablet, which is in the tomb of one of the Knights of King Arthur's assembly.

 Dr. Jones is impressed with the tablet but not by the request. His father had studied anything and everything related to the Holy Grail for over 30 years. In fact, the Grail was an obsession that took him away from his family and allowed room for few friends. Indy said that if they wanted someone to find the Holy Grail, his father would be a better pick. It was unfortunate, the man replied, but they had chosen Professor Jones first and he had gone missing. That was why they needed Indy.

As you well may guess, Indy and his father had never been close. The very fact that Indy hadn't realized that his father has been out of town for awhile says a lot for the amount of contact between the two. Immediately after the meeting, he rushed to his father's home, only to find it had been ransacked. He stood in his father's trashed living room and wondered who and why? What are they looking for? Where had his father disappeared to?

That was when he realized the package he received in the mail that day was his father's Grail diary. The one Professor Jones wrote all of his notes in... all the clues, the maps... everything he had discovered in his 30 years of study. Indy knows his father would never part with his diary unless he thought it would be in danger. And if it were in danger, it meant that Professor Jones was also in danger. The two may not have been close, but Indy is a good son. His only reason for excepting the job to find the missing tablet is to search for any clues that might lead him to his father.

The next day found Indiana Jones and Mr. Brody, a close friend of both the Jones', on a plane to Venice. Straight into the heart of danger and adventure... and face to face with Adolf Hitler.

“Germany just declared war on the Jones' boys!”

What I Liked:
1: The acting... phenomenal.
2: 99% of the special effects were so well done that you didn't realize they were.
3: Alison Doody was a beautiful woman and wonderful actor. She is my favorite of all Indy's love interests. But she also had an appropriate end.
4: The humor. My family and I nearly laughed ourselves silly. :-)
5: When there was sexual references, it was discreetly done.
6: All of the history, legends, story, etc.
7: The actor who played Hitler actually looked very much like him.
8: Sean Connery is wonderful. He was the perfect pick for Harrison Ford's father.
9: In spite of their differences, father and son learned to appreciate and respect each other.
10: The punch through the paper. That was clever...
11: How well Indiana Jones and his father are depicted. It's just about perfect.

What I Didn't Like:
1: Some of the adventure/script was pretty unbelievable. Some of the pickles could have been avoided with a little common sense.
2: The sexual references. It didn't help the story.
3: language.

“Junior...”
“Daaaadddd....!”
“No ticket!”
“You were named after the dog?! Hehehehehe!”

If you want to watch Indiana Jones, this is the film. :-)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom -- 1984

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(1984)

PG for violence, horror, voodoo, sexual references
My Rating 2 Stars

Harrison Ford
Kate Capshaw
Amrish Puri
Roshan Seth
Philip Stone
Ke Huy Quan

My least favorite Indiana Jones movie... but there were some aspects of it that I really enjoyed. For instance, his child side-kick. He's so funny and cute... a wonderful actor.

Summary:
Indiana Jones has just delivered a diamond to a customer and the customer just happens be a villain. Indy escapes with his life but just barely. But he also grabbed his customer's show girl (Kate Capshaw), a true blonde. She becomes his curse from that day forward, until they kiss in the end.

Of course.

Due to foul circumstances, the escape plane is going down and Indiana Jones and crew have to bale out with a rubber raft since the parachutes walked out with the same guys that emptied the gas tanks. After a wild adventure of landing, using said raft as a sled, going over a cliff, down a waterfall and life comes to a relative standstill, they find they have landed somewhere in India.

They are found and led to a village who have been robbed of their magic, the Ankara Stone, which is the protection the people have from evil. Along with the stone, their children were all taken from them. They all point to the palace on a high hill as the place of great evil. They ask Indiana Jones if he will help them. He says yes, to his lady-friend's dismay.

When they reach the palace, they find an adventure beyond their wildest imaginations.  But the trio are made welcome, fed a meal and given a place to sleep. Indiana Jones wonders if he is looking for trouble in the wrong place. But his suspicions are tripled with the meeting of the child emperor that rules the kingdom. The young boy seems strangely aloof... disoriented; not a child at all. But it is when an assassin enters his quarters and tries to strangle him that Indy realizes he is really onto something. He begins to investigate in earnest and discovers that an ancient and evil religious sect has revived under the guidance of an evil priest. The missing children are slaves in the mines below the castle but one by one, they are drugged and used for human sacrifices and helpers to the priests.

In the middle of his investigations, Indy failed to realize the only time bad guys aren't around is when you're walking straight into a trap. This time, Indiana Jones needs help and only his sidekick knows what to do.

What I Liked:
1: The theology was not quite as bad this time. :-)
2: How when a religious sect works, children (the innocents) are among the first to be hurt or put in bondage.
3: The kid. Good actor. :-)
4: Of all the special effects, the ceremony of the temple is the best done. I must say that I enjoyed watching it, in spite of how evil and horrible it was. What helped with that aspect was the fact that they were not promoting idol worship or the religious cult. It is evil and they were showing it for how evil it was.

What I Didn't Like:
1: Indy's lady-friend. She was so coarse and so stupid. Lol. Poor Indy. He ends up with the worst of women. Always. Also note how poorly dressed she is most of the time.
2: A lot of the special features were very obvious. I wasn't impressed with the quality of this movie.
3: The sexual references. It didn't help the story at all.
4: A lot of the action is very unrealistic. I never forgot I was watching a movie with this one!

Raiders of the Lost Ark -- Indiana Jones -- 1981

Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981)

Rated PG for violence, language and innuendo
My Rating 3 Stars

Harrison Ford
Karen Allen
Paul Freeman
Ronald Lacey
John Rhys-Davies
Denholm Elliott


The Time: early 1940's; World War 2.
Dr. Jones is a dedicated professor of archaeologist. His classroom is filled with bored and somewhat starstruck students who don't take him very seriously, except to write “love”  “me” on their eyelids. But take off the scholarly glasses and the suit, replace them with clothes of the Aussie outback and a whip and Dr. Jones becomes a man of steel and action that his students would have never recognized.

To the rest of the world, the studious Dr. Jones doesn't exist. Only the whip cracking Indiana Jones who comes sweeping in to help if you're in trouble or happen to possess an archaic object that he thinks should be in a museum. Regardless, wherever he goes, the bad guys are never far behind!

Summary:
The government comes to Dr. Jones and his associates with a riddle to solve. They have cracked a German code but they don't understand what the Nazis are talking about. However, they did know where to go for information on all things buried or ancient, and sure enough, Indiana Jones knew exactly what the German information was about and where to find it:

The Ark of the Covenant.

For many years, scientists and archaeologists alike had assumed the Ark was a myth. But Adolf Hitler was a man who thought all myths had some fact. If he could get his hands on the Ark and it's power, the war would no longer be an issue. And now, it seemed that his people had found evidence that the Ark existed and they were close to discovering it.

The United States representatives were grim after hearing the news. They looked at each other and back at Dr. Jones. They were not unfamiliar with his escapades since he always worked for the good guys (in most cases, the US government had claimed that particular title). Dr. Jones took off his glasses slowly and looked back at them.

Within hours, Indiana Jones was on a plane, headed straight into into the middle of the fray. First stop? A hard-bitten Marian and a blizzard.

What I Liked:
1: Indiana Jones. I love the fact that he loves books and teaching and wears owlish glasses. And I love it when he discards his tame occupation for a whip and dusty fedora and real archaeology. Harrison Ford is an excellent actor.
2: John Rhys-Davies. He adds such a nice flavor to the film: happy family man... but quite willing to take risks for Indy's sake.
3: The monkey.
4: I love how the bad guys give me the creeps. Not many movies have really good bad guys.
5: The way they overlay plane with map/destination. It's one of my favorite things about the movies.
6: The snakes. They looked very real.
7: How nothing on the movie seems like a set or unreal. You do forget you're watching a movie.
8: The massive feeling you get when he's down with the snakes. The statues are huge and impressive.
9: I love the part where they kidnap Marian.
10: My favorite part of the movie is after Indy kills all of his attackers with a sword/whip, etc, and the last swordsman leaps into the open, brandishing his sword so expertly that the audience is left asking, “How will he ever defeat him!” because not even Indiana Jones is that good. Indy sighs, pulls out his gun and blows the guy away. It always cracks me up.

What I Didn't Like:
1: Messed up theology. It's really bad. Lol!
2: Marian was too tough and too seductive.
3: Please tell me that every ship captain on the seven seas has a Vera Wong evening gown in his locker.
4: The almost bed scenes. Didn't help the story.
5: The language. Not too much but enough to be offensive to some.
6: How stupid Indy is at times. I suppose every hero has some down time but it seemed extreme at times.

I am still debating on whether to give this movie a 4 Star rating or keep it at a three. There are certain aspects about about this film that aren't that well done but there is a certain magic about Indiana Jones that I love, regardless of how well, or not, the film is done. :-) I understand why people flocked to the theaters whenever a new Indiana Jones movie came out.

And if it hadn't been for Harrison Ford...

Bravo!