Saw 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal

[FAST FRED]

.....Skull" and my wife and I enjoyed it very much.

The Link

We thought it almost tied with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for best of the series with that earlier film winning out perhaps simply because we were already so fond of it.

We enjoyed the story, the characters, the acting (which was just melodramatic and campy enough), the blend of humor and action, John Williams' familiar, stirring music, the pace (both when it was fast and slow) and the ending, all of which were in tune with or equal to the best of the corresponding qualities in the previous trilogy of these Steven Spielberg/George Lucas archeological, treasure seeking, action adventure flicks starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones.

"The Temple of Doom" was darker than any of the other three and I didn't care as much for that vibe or Short Round or Kate Capshaw.

I liked Sean Connery as Indy's dad, but, in retrospect, his presence changed the dynamics of "The Last Crusade" a little too much for me.

Just my opinion, you can choose your own order of favorites.

This time with the reappearance of Karen Allen and more of the flavor of the cliffhanger serials I enjoyed as a kid, this movie pleased me.

SOME SPOILERS DO FOLLOW!!!!!!



































I found this Harrison Ford showpiece much better than Michael Douglas' offerings as Jack T. Colton in "Romancing the Stone" or "The Jewel of the Nile," although Kathleen Turner, in her prime, was a very hot leading lady almost offsetting the smarmy presence of Danny DeVito.

Significantly better than Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connor adventuring and encountering the Mummy, probably including the latest one which was previewed today and opens at a theater near you this August, although those films are quite stylish and entertaining.

Certainly better than Nicholas Cage as Ben Gates in "National Treasure" and "Book of Secrets," a brazen Indiana Jones wannabe who, IMHO, just doesn't measure up.

All these movies were entertaining, but only to the point of making me remember Indy and long for Harrison Ford when I saw the comparable cinema.

There were a few parts of "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" that I didn't like very much.

The prairie dogs and the monkeys were a little cheesy, but my grandkids will dig them.

And some of the CGI effects were perhaps not as good as I have come to expect from these moviemakers.

Lots of good stuff using stunt men, however.

But Cate Blanchett was excellent, as good as Lotte Lenya playing villainess Rosa Kleb in "From Russia With Love," rivaling Ilse Steppat as Irma Bunt in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," closely close to Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil and occasionally almost as coldly menacing as that shark in "Jaws."

Shia LaBeouf fit in very well and was quite good as a new member of the Indiana Jones movie family.

John Hurt was as unrecognizable in makeup as he was in "The Elephant Man" for most of the movie, but he appeared for a bit at the end.

And watching those totalitarian Red Army soldiers being eaten alive by those totalitarian red army ants was totally neat.

Feisty Karen Allen rejoins the cast for this movie after being jilted at the altar by Indiana in the back story and completely left out of the next two movies by Spielberg.

She hasn't been in that many memorable movies besides her first one, "Animal House," and maybe "Starman" with Jeff Bridges, but I'm glad someone remembered to put her in this one.

She's not given a much to do here besides driving an all purpose jeep through the bushes and Indiana Jones crazy with her presence, but I welcomed her and the plot developments she embodied.

I thought the Russian half track that led the bad guys' expedition through the Amazon rain forest was pretty cool and all the chase scenes with motorcycles, cars, trucks and floating vehicles were imaginative and exciting.

And there are several pieces of business that I thought equaled the bit where Indy pulled out his almost forgotten revolver and shot that scary scimitar swinging dude in "Raiders."

I thoroughly liked this film as a sequel which continued this worthwhile series in a style and manner which I enjoyed and I genuinely appreciated it as probably being the very last time Harrison Ford will ever put on his fedora or lash out with a bullwhip........or favor us with that sly, silly grin.

 

[Kwisatz]

The Link
The Link

 

[jadedscenester]

for as much effort as they put into this review, i think it deserved its own thread. i'm excited to see this one.

 

[Napoleon]

In reply to:

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[Mesohorny]

Fast Fred, I've been waiting to see your review. Based upon your past posts, my taste in movies is close to yours, so the new Indy is now on my list of things to do this weekend.

 

[FAST FRED]

Mesohorny, I hope you enjoy it

My wife liked it even more than I did.

She appreciates her movie violence having less visible gore and more emphasis on justice, vengeance or irony.

Napoleon. I figured out who John Hurt was playing too, since I already knew he was in it.

I remember first noticing him in "A Man for All Seasons" as the young position seeker who begs Paul Scofield's title character for his patronage, is turned away and betrays him later.

And his explosive demise in "Alien" as the very first victim on the Nostromo in was certainly memorable.

 

[SomeMildLanguage]

I've not been this disappointed in a movie since Jar Jar. What a coincidence.

 

[Napoleon]

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FASTFRED-

When you saw that 3rd Waterfall, did you immediately recognize that it was IGUAZU FALLS? On the Brazil/Argentine border, just a few miles away from Paraguay.

Although they didn't film the scenes there. They just stole some overheads and used the falls as a backdrop while actually filming the scenes in Hawaii.

That being said, Iquazu Falls is NOT on the Amazon. The Amazon is like the Mississippi. Not a lot of waterfalls on the Mississippi.

 

[FAST FRED]

Sure I did, it's been used in many movies.

This flick is a mixture of fact and fantasy.

Did you think, anyone really believes that a floating jeep or its occupants really could survive that fall?

I thought "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was a little off the wall and just OK when I first saw it, back in the day, and it had to grow on me to be so fondly remembered now.

The reluctant, anti-hero thing was different from most full length adventure movies back then.

And the action Spielberg and Lucas gave us was certainly over the top for movies back then too.

Indy obviously should have been burned, stabbed, shot, crushed, poisoned or crushed or cut into pieces many, many, many, many times.

He has no immunities, no super powers and really no superior fighting skills.

He is just very opportunistic, persistent, smart and lucky and anyone else, without super powers, etc., who was in a comic book movie would have been dead a long time ago.

I remember lots of humor, both spoken and unspoken, in all the previous Indiana Jones flicks.

There were sight gags and lines like "Why did it have to be snakes?" and "It's not the years, it's the mileage" in all the other movies.

And there were parts that featured animals doing scary, silly or endearing things.

For me, all of those factors add to the mixture that makes up an Indy flick.

As I said, I thought this movie really fit in with what I had most enjoyed before about the Indiana Jones series.

I didn't care for the prairie dogs and monkeys or Mutt swinging through the trees on vines, but I thought the rest of the story and action in the movie was true to the vibe and the vision of the best of what had come before.

Overall, I thought they got it right, but I respect everyone's opinion as being just as meaningful to them as mine is to me.

I also thought that the change to the fifties was realistic and well done.

The actual aging of the actors matched the time difference between the movies.

And, having lived through the fifties, I can promise you that Russians, atomic bombs and travelers from space or another dimension were things that gave us pause and made us worry back then.

Communism, nuclear war and UFOs were the real or perceived threats in those days.

I thought this movie, with a few exceptions, was on the money as an Indiana Jones flick and a melodramatic portrayal of the fifties.

It's a movie.

And I enjoyed it.

That's why I said I thought it was good.

Opinions are permitted and even expected to vary.