11/26/2009 --- John Hughes and Patrick Swayze were huge losses this year in the entertainment indust...
11/26/2009 --- John Hughes and Patrick Swayze were huge losses this year in the entertainment industry, and I intend to honor them over the next few weeks. Chris :)
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I think many people have been anticipating the DVD release of the Indiana Jones Trilogy, which was until today (Oct. 21) long overdue. I saw RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK when I was 4 years old and fell in love with it; hell, I WANTED to be Indiana Jones. When I heard a few weeks ago that the trilogy would be released on DVD, along with a 4th Special Feaures disk, I was estatic. I think these films were the best that came out of the 1980s, and I would watch them anyday over the STAR WARS and GODFATHER trilogys. I was the first one to pick up a copy at the Exchange on my base today, and now I'm ready to write a review on it after seeing how the movies look, as well as describing all the extra material.
DISK I: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (5 Stars)
This is one that started it all. The idea of this archeologist/adventurer was born in the minds of Steven Spielburg and George Lucas. They percieved a man who would be a college professor and also be on journeys to discover religious artifacts. Originally, Tom Selleck was going to play Indy, but he was committed to the TV series MAGNUM P.I. at the time; so they brought in Harrison Ford, and made the role of Indiana Jones all his own. The story in RAIDERS has Indy hooking up with Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), a girl that he deflowered when she was younger, to continue her father's search for the Ark of the Covenent. They travel to Egypt, and with the help of a digger (John Rhys-Davies) they find the Well of Souls, which has housed the Ark for thousands of years. However, Indy must deal with some really nasty Nazis who are also determined to grab the ark, and the film becomes a genuine roller-coaster ride from there on out.
Meant to evoke the 1930s Republic Serials, this film outdoes
all those dated films with it's nonstop parade of fights, shootouts, truck chases, and its most famous setpeice...the Well of Souls which houses about 10,000 snakes....including some lethal cobras. RAIDERS became an instant success with critics and audiences alike; Ford is so engaging and riveting as Indy, that he has now become a symbol of American pop culture. I think that Allen is the best of all the Indy heroines, as she manages to be just as tough as Jones and be quite beautiful at the same time. However, my favorite character is Toht, played by Ronald Lacey, one of the slimiest and scariest villians in history; he even out does the leader of the Nazis, Belloq. A riveting sequence where Jones takes over a truck carrying the Ark is also noteworthy; also, 2 classic gags I must mention is the now-famous "Shooting the Swordsman" scene and the one involving Toht's "hanger."
DISC II: INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (5 STARS)
Darker and more frightening than RAIDERS---but equal to it nontheless---despite all the negative criticism it got when it was first released. This "prequel" shows Indy barely escaping a brawl in a Chinese nightclub, and finds himself stranded in India, along with a whiny nightclub singer (Kate Capshaw) and a junior sidekick (Ke Huy Quan). He comes upon an Indian village that was raided by the Thuggee cult, which kidnaps all their children to use as slaves, as well as three "sacred stones," which protect their village. He is asked to rescue them all, and discovers that this cult is more sadistic than he realized.
Ford is back in top form as Indy, but the real scene-stealer is 10-year-old Quan, who would fight Jackie Chan-style at adults twice his size---in addition he was just damn funny. Although the film's one flaw is making Capshaw's character rather wimpy (I still like her performance), all that is overcome by some spectualar action setpieces, with the real highlight being a mine car chase---where, if you watch carefully---Capshaw does her ONLY scene of physical violence in the whole film. Some parents were outraged at the film for how violent was, most notably in a scene involving a man's heart being ripped out, but it's still a great sequal/prequal I think.
DISK III: INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (4 STARS)
In the conclusion to the IJ trilogy, we begin with a wonderful sequence which shows Indy as a young man (played by the late River Phoenix, who was terrific) stealing a cross and having to survive on a circus train because he feels "it belongs in a museum." We then jump-start to 1938 where Indy is wondering what happened to his father, who has been kidnapped; his search leads him to Austria, where he is held captive by the Nazis, who want to get their hands on his diary, which has the secrets to finding the Holy Grail. Along the way, he falls for a sexy blonde (Alison Doody) who turns out to be a Nazi herself---as well as having the honor of going to bed with Indy and his father (Sean Connery).
I didn't think this film was as good as the first two reasons. One, because it was a little too long, resulting in some scenes just dragging. And two, ever since I saw it in the theatre, I didn't like the fact that the "heroine" in this film turned out to be evil---and ended up dying at the end because of her greed. Still, a rip-roaring adventure over all, with a wonderful byplay between father and son; this is also the most comedic of the three films, with some truly laugh-out-loud moments; one example was when a Nazi fighter plane goes into a tunnel after the Joneses (the audience was in total laughter when I saw the film in the theatre).
DISK IV: BONUS FEATURES (5 STARS)
This was the disk I was looking most foreward to wathcing. It has approximately 186 minutes of bonus material, primarily consisting of a 2-hour documentary of the making of the trilogy with brand new interviews by Speilburg, Lucas, Ford, and everyone else that was involved in the making of the films. Dozens of reels of behind-the-scenes footage was found and dusted off, and I felt liking going back in time and witnessing how the filmmakers made the film. There is a lot of joking, as well, like one hilarious bit I loved is during the making of RAIDERS, when Spielburg picks up a snake and says to it "Didn't you read the script?? You are supposed to be afraid of fire. You are ruining my movie for God's sake.
In addition to the documentary, there are also the original theatrical trailers and four featurettes dealing with the Sound, Music, Lighting and Special Effects. The only thing I was disappointed is that Spielburg and Lucas didn't give any insight into INDIANA JONES 4, which is currently in production right now; in fact the ONLY person who mentions it is composer John Williams, who created the legendary score for all three films; he said if they are making it, he will be more than happy to jump in for the ride.
Paramount Pictures, who released all three films, as well as the Spielburg-Lucas team, has done an outstanding job of the DVD packaging and transfers of the original film elements. Presented in THX, and a beautiful scene-for-scene transfer with a sound and score mix, these films look (if anything) better today than when they first came out. Each of the films has terrific sound and picture quality, and I saw absolutely no flaws with them; and believe me, I remember when I father recorded them back in the 80's off the original VHS tapes, which had a surprising amount of grain and anomolies.
I think that this is one of the greatest trilogies of all time, as well as THE greatest adventure films of all time. Although there might be some violent scenes, I think that this is a trilogy worthy of family viewing as well. I have never met anyone who said anything like "I don't like Indiana Jones," or "He sucks." So basically I suspect maybe 75% of people out there who have a DVD player will go ahead and buy this, and it is well worth it, even at $50 or 30 quid for this set. In the words of Mr. Jones "Trust Me." Hope you enjoyed reading this Op and I look forward to your comments...Cheers for now...Chris
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Action/Adventure - Director: The Wachowski Brothers - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Monica Bellucci, Jada Pinkett
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
exceptional by (2%):
very helpful by (92%):
helpful by (6%):
