So I just finished watching Raider's and Temple of Doom for the first time in a while. I know Ed on the Indycast and Jason on the Forcecast think Temple of Doom is the best Indy movie so far and for the life of me I can't figure out why. How could anyone think "Temple of Doom" with a screeching Kate Capshaw, weak sidekick, indulgent 30's musical opening, gross out bug jokes, dark and weird child slavery understory, silly and non-sensical action scenes, compare to the brilliance of "Raider of the Lost Ark"? Even "Last Crusade" clearly tries to get back to the Raiders roots as opposed to the nonsense of Temple.
If I had a choice and could only watch one of the Indy films I would pick The Temple of Doom. I enjoyed Kate's character, loved his sidekick, really enjoyed the musical opening, loved the whole bug sequence, enjoyed the roller coaster ride in the mine cars and the final stand on the bridge. It was a fun ride.. not that the other two were not fun, but I've always enjoyed Temple more then the others.
I liked Raiders better... but Temple was good too. I happened to like Short Round! And 'Willie' was supposed to be annoying. That was the point. ;)
Raiders is still at the top for me. Harrison Ford and Karen Allen were great together. I just noticed watching over the weekend. It's Al Molina (Doc Oc) as the guy who get's "perforated" in the opening gambit. Hard to believe it was over 20 years ago
Quote from: markinro on May 21, 2008, 06:27:09 PM
I just noticed watching over the weekend. It's Al Molina (Doc Oc) as the guy who get's "perforated" in the opening gambit. Hard to believe it was over 20 years ago
Why didn't I notice that?! After all this time it never dawned on me until I read your post Mark!
ToD is my least favorite, of the three I've seen. :)
I love Raiders, but if I had only one Indy film to watch, it'd be Last Crusade.
Raiders = #1.
Epic storyline, believable yet quirky romance, death-defying adventure... This film is a classic.
See, I found the dinner table and bug sequence just cheap gross out contrivance. Cheap gags, gross out humor. Lame. Raiders had none of that, just great action that was so original.
I like all three Indy films but not equally. I think that ROTLA is the best and TLC is second and TOD is third. I do not dislike TOD the way you apparently do Bryan I just think it was the weaker story of the three. There are some pretty cool moments and like Kenny I like the cheesy musical opening, the kid and the roller coaster ride in the mine. And the heart extraction scene and monkey brains will never be forgotten once seen. Anyway, sorry you didn't care for it much. Perhaps it was better seeing it in the theater than on DVD?
Kevin
TOD is dated. And that is the problem for me. I love the film as i love all Indy films but TOD does look bad now. Effects are poor, and it has that terrible 1980's feel to it. All speilberg ET style bubble wrap. Raiders and Last Crusade all hold out and feel period, TOD does not. Still though i can put it in the DVD player and sit back and enjoy it. Good spike sequence (We are Going to DIE!!!!!!).
Yeah, The first and third are my faves. Great films. I am hopeful for the new one. We will see!
I was 13 when Raiders came out and saw all the films in the theater opening day and nymerous viewing after. Even them, TOD just felt very dark and gloomy while Raiders was such a high spirited romp. I mean, children being whiped, hearts being pulle dout of living people, the caves with inexplicable lava evrywhere, TOD felt and looked wierd. I don't mind it as a movie and will watch it when it's on, but Raiders really set the bar high and I think if you look at Last Crusade, they definatley went back to the Raiders roots. I think they realized they went a bit too far with TOD.
I liked all three films very much, basically in the order of magnitude that coincides with their releases. Raiders was my favorite, Temple of Doom my next favorite, and Last Crusade pretty far below the other two. I can't pinpoint exactly why Crusade didn't resonate as well with me. It has something to do with the suspension of disbelief: while I was very willing to let myself go and thoroughly enjoy the entirety of the first two films, there's something about the third act of Last Crusade that just goes too far for me. The Templar or whatever the old guy in the cave is called, just kills the whole third act. Not enough to ruin the whole experience of the movie for me, because the interaction between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford is priceless and wonderful. The ending of that movie seems tacked on and unfinished though. It's hard to believe that last Crusade came out almost twenty years ago. 1989 feels like yesterday to me. I am thrilled to see Crystal Skull and I'm probably going tonight...I feel ashamed for missing the midnight screening last night, this is exactly the kind of movie that gets me out to the theater for those midnight shows.
Raider and Crusade are my favorites. ToD I thought was actually too rough for a lot of viewers.
I thought it was ToD that created the PG-13 rating ?
I have enjoyed all the Indy movies, and even though I think Temple of Doom is the weakest out of the 3, not really by that much for me. I think it is a lot better then a lot of movies made, and I would rather watch it, then some other movies in the same genre. Some of the moments, well cheesy, I will remember for ever. Who hasn't played with their friends and pretended to pull a beating heart out of of someone, heck I think I even pulled that gag a few months ago in the office ;) and I am 39 LOL.
Quote from: markinro on May 22, 2008, 08:08:28 AM
I thought it was ToD that created the PG-13 rating ?
I'm pretty sure that was the first film with that rating. I actually like all the Indy movies and don't mind most of what is in TOD. I'm glad they mixed things up a bit. If they had just given us "Raiders" again we would all say it was just more of the same. Of course, for most people it's probably the weakest of the three films but I still enjoy it a lot. I liked the relationship between Indy and Short Round. That was something new and showed Indy's fatherly side. Plus it has lots of great sequences in it. So, for me it's still a great movie to watch.
I think I have to agree with pretty much everything Bryan said.
The BBC just showed all three films (one each sunday). On recent viewing I have to say I was very disappointed with Temple Of Doom. It was the screeching of Willie that annoyed me more than anything else. It may have been the makers intent to make her this annoying useless character, but If I have to keep turning the volume down on my TV every few minutes to blank out her painful wailing, then the producers are just causing resentment.
Also I didn't enjoy the dinner scene. Just shock tactics really and It went on far too long. I did enjoy the mine cart ride though, probably my favourite scene of the film. I also like the fight between Indy and the big bloke.
Yeah I must agree with...well half of ya at least. While I enjoyed ToD...it is by far the weakest of the 3 movies for me as well. I think it may have to do with Bryan's reasoning...the story was a tad TOO dark. Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily mind dark but that movie just didn't sit as well with me as the other 2. There are great sequences in the movie to be sure and I did not mind Short Round (Dr Jones, NO TIME FOR LOVE...shout out to Scott Johnson) or Willie for that matter. Let me put it this way...I LOVE the first hour an 15 minutes or so of the movie...after that it's not bad but a bit more...meh.
Still one of the best movie franchises EVER though.
Quote from: Darth Gaos on May 22, 2008, 01:15:06 PM
Yeah I must agree with...well half of ya at least. While I enjoyed ToD...it is by far the weakest of the 3 movies for me as well. I think it may have to do with Bryan's reasoning...the story was a tad TOO dark. Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily mind dark but that movie just didn't sit as well with me as the other 2. There are great sequences in the movie to be sure and I did not mind Short Round (Dr Jones, NO TIME FOR LOVE...shout out to Scott Johnson) or Willie for that matter. Let me put it this way...I LOVE the first hour an 15 minutes or so of the movie...after that it's not bad but a bit more...meh.
Still one of the best movie franchises EVER though.
I agree with all these points. I feel like it's splitting hairs sometimes to compare all these movies.