rra
King Koopa
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Post by rra on Dec 24, 2007 3:18:44 GMT -5
INDIANA JONES & THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984) - ****I know now, and perhaps always did, that RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is the best picture of that franchise, and a perfect masterpiece of action cinema. But I actually prefered this movie as a kid. Much like another 1984 release in THE LAST STARFIGHTER, Steven Spielberg's INDIANA JONES & THE TEMPLE OF DOOM is a juvenile boy's adventure, except its as well-made as such a creative endeavor could possibly be. The tough hero has his shirt open, fist fights everyone, with a useful junior sidekick tagging along. The baddie is wild-eyed in his cartoonish yet evil presence. There is teases of sex everywhere, subliminal or overt. Henchmen are killed in creative ways. The chases and thrills are wonderfully over the top. Adults and girls are revolted when monkey heads and snakes are eaten for lunch, and shriek as hearts are brutally ripped out of people's chests, while us boys are just loving it. If RAIDERS was saturday matinee serials retooled and disguised as A-level filmmaking craft, TEMPLE OF DOOM is very frank and honest of its B-movie reality, and so very much in punch drunk love with its pulp trash roots. To make my point more clear, let's use a metaphor for the Indiana Jones trilogy. RAIDERS is the well-loved guy Valedictorian/High School Quarterback that is neat, clean, and perfect in an Aryan sort of way. LAST CRUSADE is the geek kid that imitates the RAIDERS guy in everyway, but falls well short and is sorta hollow. Then there is TEMPLE OF DOOM is the motorcycle-riding gang leader of a badass with a chilling charisma that people either dig or fear. He stays out partying late with his drinking and smoking, he beats up the LAST CRUSADE kid because the latter is a dork, and doesn't give a goddamn if the RAIDERS guy has a problem with that. Most people seem to hate TEMPLE OF DOOM, or at least well-prefer LAST CRUSADE, and I hang my head. TEMPLE OF DOOM has the action and popcorn one would expect from an Indiana Jones picture, but tries to be its own creature, a more dark and funhouse-quality brother to RAIDERS that is more rich and rewarding than LAST CRUSADE. It also succeeds because its the closest time that Spielberg, Harrison Ford, and George Lucas have come in producing a James Bond picture, and TEMPLE OF DOOM is their cinema-surrogate to play 007. There is the tension-filled opening at the Shanghai nightclub where Ford lavishes up his own Sean Connery persona. Indy Jones may be a rugged layman, but he can also be classy and slick when he wants to be. What follows is the first major action sequence, which is totally unrelated to the movie's plot. Nevermind the hero's own calm penetration entrance into (and explosive exit from) the villain's massive stronghold fortress, intercut with sexual innuendo and spectacular stunts. If TEMPLE OF DOOM is an unofficial Bond movie, then Amrish Puri is the essential Bondian villain. Full of dreams where his evil death cult wipes the other great world religions off the globe, a bald head covered with red paint, a menacing laugh, and he scared the hell out of me as a kid. Imagine if Osama Bin Laden ever had a personality. Besides his ultra-deadly fundamentalism, he also kidnaps children for slave labor. Much like Luther in THE WARRIORS, he's a great Crazy Asshole. What surprised me though in rewatching DOOM is the surprising chemistry that Jonathan Ke Quan had with Ford as Short Round. From playing cards to teaming-up in battling guards, he is like Dick Grayson in being a good surrogate-son/sidekick outlet for boys who wish they were out there kicking ass with Indiana Jones. Sure he gets whipped and beaten, but that's the prize to be paid. As much as I love TEMPLE OF DOOM, its not perfect. Some of the "comedy" falls flat, though they don't bother me as much as the gags in LAST CRUSADE. Kate Capshaw may be the doll, but she screams way too much at times for my liking. Plus I must admit, this is great trash...but its still trash. But this is a rare movie where Spielberg is obviously having a great fun time with the material, almost as much as I did.
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Post by Jason Todd Grisham on Dec 24, 2007 3:28:49 GMT -5
I thought you reviewed this one already? But I have to agree, this was my favorite too. I guess THE LOST ARK was just too well done for me to care. But TEMPLE OF DOOM, that had everything I could hope for in a movie. And it was much scarier, guess it just sucked me in.
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rra
King Koopa
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Post by rra on Dec 24, 2007 3:33:12 GMT -5
I thought you reviewed this one already? But I have to agree, this was my favorite too. I guess THE LOST ARK was just too well done for me to care. But TEMPLE OF DOOM, that had everything I could hope for in a movie. And it was much scarier, guess it just sucked me in. (1) You may have been confused with months back, when I had announced, via WC voting results, that I would review the entire Indy Jones trilogy. That plan fell through, but I still want to do it all. (2) RAIDERS is a better movie, and I prefer it to TEMPLE, but DOOM has a nice warm spot in my heart....before it rips it out and throws me into a lava pit.
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Boku AKA Da Green Guy
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Post by Boku AKA Da Green Guy on Dec 24, 2007 3:35:12 GMT -5
My personal fave of all three movies.
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Post by THE Dinobot on Dec 24, 2007 3:38:23 GMT -5
I've always enjoyed Last Crusade more, because he really should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers...Indy with Harpo would have made the perfect Indiana Jones movie.
This one is a little too dark and makes me poop my pants. The other two were much more safe.
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rra
King Koopa
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Post by rra on Dec 24, 2007 3:40:18 GMT -5
I've always enjoyed Last Crusade more, because he really should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers...Indy with Harpo would have made the perfect Indiana Jones movie. This one is a little too dark and makes me poop my pants. The other two were much more safe. WUSS!!!!
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Post by THE Dinobot on Dec 24, 2007 3:50:47 GMT -5
WUSS!!!! That's the truth. Will give it this, Ke Hun Quan was one of the better 80's kiddies and his stint as Short Round wasn't annoying at all. And it does have the better overall adventure/action situations. The mine cart chase is maybe my favorite bit of business in all three films.
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Jiren
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Post by Jiren on Dec 24, 2007 8:14:50 GMT -5
I actually think "Raiders" is the weakest
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ToyfareMark
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Post by ToyfareMark on Dec 24, 2007 8:59:53 GMT -5
This was the first VHS movie I ever bought, and I probably watched it like 100 times.
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Post by trixiedust on Dec 24, 2007 9:39:30 GMT -5
This is the one I hate the most. That stupid kid who can't act, Kate Capeshaw screaming through the entire movie. Both of them needed to be shot.
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Post by amsiraK on Dec 24, 2007 9:55:26 GMT -5
NO TIME FOR LOVE, DR. JONES!
I loved this. It was one of those movies that was a bone of contention in 1984 (the other being Gremlins) with the MPAA and tight-asses and actually brought about the PG-13 rating. My dad took me and my brother to this and we LOVED IT! It had action, it had adventure and it had more gross-out sight gags than you could shake a Thugee Guard at. Tons-o-fun!
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rra
King Koopa
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Post by rra on Dec 24, 2007 10:01:12 GMT -5
I actually think "Raiders" is the weakest Now THAT is an interesting opinion....
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Post by Mr Ismaeal Naji on Dec 24, 2007 10:33:55 GMT -5
isn't short round a fight Choreographer for action movies now?
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Post by T.J. "the Crippler" Stevens on Dec 24, 2007 11:57:00 GMT -5
I've always had more respect for this film than most people seem to. I like it for the originality of it. It's the same Indy that we all know and love, but it's a completely different kind of adventure. It broadens the scope of Indiana Jones as an adventurer and it dares to be different. Besides Indy, no other character from this film appears in either Raiders or in Last Crusade. I personally would have prefered it if Last Crusade had followed that same formula. A first time viewer could watch Temple of Doom without ever having seen Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's a stand-alone adventure, and a damn exciting one at that.
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Post by DiBiase is Good on Dec 24, 2007 12:08:30 GMT -5
Temple of Doom is better than Last Crusade IMO. That doesn't mean I dislike Last Crusade, I love it too but I just prefer Temple. It's a far better film than Spielberg gives it credit for. And some of the scenes he directs in it are some of his finest moments. The whole scene where Willie tells Indy he'll be back within 5 minutes and Indy kills time to prove her wrong is so well shot, acted and edited and is one of my favourite scenes of the trilogy. The opening dance number is brilliant and I always think Spielberg was poking fun at the timeless opener of Raiders by going the opposite way. The action scenes are cheesy at times but consistently great. There's some nice moments of tenderness between Indy and Short Round. The scene where they give each other their hats back and hug after Indy hit Shorty when he was possessed never fails to bring a tear to my eye. And it's got the late great Pat Roach dying yet another memorable death at the hands of Indy. After being chopped up by the propeller blades in Raiders (and also as a Giant Sherpa getting beaten up in Marion's bar) he gets to be killed by the rock crusher and he tries to kill Indy in his room at Pankot Palace. Useless fact, Pat Roach was the only cast member other than Harrison Ford to appear in all 3 Indy films (although if you blink, you'll miss him in Last Crusade) and was given a jacket to commemorate this.
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Post by Hulk With A Mustache on Dec 24, 2007 12:08:54 GMT -5
Didn't the woman in the movie end up marrying Steven Spielberg?
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Jiren
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Post by Jiren on Dec 24, 2007 12:09:28 GMT -5
Didn't the woman in the movie end up marrying Steven Spielberg? yeah
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rra
King Koopa
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Post by rra on Dec 24, 2007 13:55:32 GMT -5
I've always had more respect for this film than most people seem to. I like it for the originality of it. It's the same Indy that we all know and love, but it's a completely different kind of adventure. It broadens the scope of Indiana Jones as an adventurer and it dares to be different. Besides Indy, no other character from this film appears in either Raiders or in Last Crusade. I personally would have prefered it if Last Crusade had followed that same formula. A first time viewer could watch Temple of Doom without ever having seen Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's a stand-alone adventure, and a damn exciting one at that. I totally agree with everything you and DiBiase is Good just said. Really, I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my opinion regarding TEMPLE OF DOOM, or at least in varying degrees of agreement. And yeah DiBiase, some movies of Spielberg's that he fiercely defends, and rightly so, like say EMPIRE OF THE SUN or A.I., or even his recent MUNICH. And then others, he abandons because the public didn't like it much....like TEMPLE OF DOOM. A pity since you are correct in that it is among his most fun cinema.
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rra
King Koopa
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Post by rra on Dec 24, 2007 13:58:23 GMT -5
Didn't the woman in the movie end up marrying Steven Spielberg? FAMILY GUY made a joke about that. "She banging director!" Then again, I never had a problem with Capshaw in DOOM, as many do. Maybe its because she was also in another childhood favorite of mine, DREAMSCAPE. Her problem is what I call the "Helen Hunt Syndrome"....she won't hurt a movie, but she's so non-relevant, she won't help in improving the situation.
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Jiren
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Post by Jiren on Dec 24, 2007 14:00:44 GMT -5
I think "Crusade" is the best Jones movie followed by "Doom", i like "Raiders" but i find "Doom" & "Crusade" more enjoyable.
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