I generally don’t make reaction posts to movie trailers. I haven’t made any for quite a while, but this needs to be talked about. When you’re dealing with serious topics in movies, you really can’t afford to hit people over the head with a sledgehammer and expect to be taken seriously. The Karen trailer has the subtlety of a nuclear bomb. The movie is supposed be about a black couple that moves into an affluent neighborhood, but they move next door to a racist neighbor named…Karen. Oooooh. Let’s ignore the fact that the movie looks like dogshit. It really does. Let’s ignore the fact that the acting looks terrible. Let’s also ignore the fact that the movie is clearly trying to compete against better movies. Everything about this movie is on the nose. From the line “Look who’s slaving away in the kitchen,” to the soap dispenser with a Confederate flag on it, there is not an ounce of subtlety to be found here. Making a thriller about Karens is the wrong approach to begin with. This is the kind of topic that has so much potential for comedies and satires. That would work much better than a horror, especially since we already have movies like Get Out, which handles topics like this a lot better with more nuance and subtlety. I’ve seen reactions on YouTube from both the left AND the right. Nobody likes this trailer.
Racism is a serious problem in this country. It’s been a problem since the country was founded. You’re not going to solve the problem with a sledgehammer to the face. All you’re going to do is piss everybody off. You’re going to piss off white folks who, for the most, aren’t racist, but you’re also going to piss off the minorities for not being sensitive enough to their situations. Now, I’m not saying that Karen is going to be a problem movie. I highly doubt it. It’s so on the nose that nobody’s going to take it seriously, and rightfully so. It seems to me that the intent of this movie is just to get a reaction. You would think that this would be a parody, but it isn’t. It’s supposed to be a legitimate thriller, but the director clearly lacks the tact and talent to make it work. Can we also acknowledge the fact that very few people actually use the term Karen these days anymore? It was a meme about idiotic people that ran its course a couple of years ago. What’s next? Kevin? There is no doubt in my mind that this movie is going to tank. Big time. While I still check it out? Sure. I want to see how much of a train-wreck this is really going to be, but we don’t even have a release date yet. Makes sense.
I’ve talked about the best remakes. I’ve talked about the worst remakes. There’s a specific kind of remake that I haven’t really discussed yet: The reboot. What is a reboot? First, let’s define remake. A movie remake is when a studio or film-maker takes an existing property and updates it for more modern audiences and more modern film-making techniques. It usually doesn’t alter the original story that much. The approach tends to be a bit more different, but the overall film will still feel somewhat familiar to fans of the source material, even if it has new actors, visual effects, and all that other good stuff. Reboots are a little trickier. A reboot is taking an existing franchise or story and starting from scratch: New story, new actors, new EVERYTHING. But why would a reboot need to happen in the first place? Sometimes, a franchise has either completely run out of ideas and needs a fresh start, or it has gone so completely off the rails(like The Fast and The Furious)that the only way to salvage the property is to wipe the slate clean. The movies that I’m going to list here are some of the best and some of the worst reboots to be made. Usually, a reboot stands a better chance of being successful, because it’s a restart. However, it doesn’t always work. Let’s begin:
The Worst: Mortal Kombat 2021
I knew going into Mortal Kombat that this was not going to be a good movie. My expectations were almost rock-bottom, but the movie still managed to disappoint me. The only thing that really worked about the movie were the scenes with Hiroyuki Sanada’s Scorpion and Joe Taslim’s Sub-Zero. When those two were on the screen it was AWESOME. It makes sense, because those two characters have literally been the face of the entire franchise since 1992. But when the film focuses more on Lewis Tan’s Cole Young and everyone else, the movie suffers. Yeah, it’s violent and gory, but that alone doesn’t make for a good movie. The entire film was marketed on the premise of its level of violence, and as such, didn’t have a whole lot to offer beyond that. The story is awful, the dialogue is basically dog-shit, and most of the characters are bland outside of Scorpion and Sub-Zero. You can chalk that up to an inexperienced first-time director, Simon McQuoid and first-time writer Greg Russo. The movie did well enough in theaters and HBO Max to get a sequel, but they need to get rid of the director and the writer. This wasn’t a whole lot of fun for me. You know it’s bad when Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a far more entertaining movie, and that’s for all the WRONG reasons.
The Best: Batman Begins
Batman is one of the cornerstones of DC Comics. He was one of the first real superheroes besides Superman and Wonder Woman. So, he’s part of the trinity. There have been many attempts to bring the Dark Knight to life. Whether it was the Adam West TV series in the 60s or the Tim Burton films, Batman has always been a theatrical character. While Tim Burton’s Batman films were fantastic in their own right, Warner Bros wanted the follow-up movies to be more family-friendly, so Joel Schumacher was brought in to direct Batman Forever. To be fair, Forever wasn’t an awful Batman movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Tonally, it still had that dark edge that made Batman what he is, but it was bolstered by a lot of neon lighting and more one-liners. Batman and Robin brought the entire franchise to its knees, however, because it was such a bad film. Bad acting, bad casting, bad writing, bad story-telling. Nearly every aspect of Batman and Robin was a complete disaster. So, the studio hung up the cape while they tried to figure out how to bring the bat back. Enter Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer. These two brought a new and fresh perspective to Batman that hadn’t been seen before. The resulting film was Batman Begins, a new origin story that was darker, grittier, and more realistic than anything that had come before. Starring Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman, BatmanBegins was the movie that the shot in the arm that the franchise really needed. It was an outstanding film, and it led to one of the greatest sequels and superhero movies of all time: The Dark Knight.
The Worst: Terminator Dark Fate
I was debating whether or not to put Terminator: Genisys here instead of Dark Fate. Ultimately, I decided that Dark Fate belonged here, because despite the marketing and the return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Conner and James Cameron as the producer, Dark Fate ended up repeating the same story beats from Terminator 2. While I admit the film had the balls to kill John Connor at the beginning, the rest of the film felt inconsequential. Instead of Skynet, our protagonists were up against Legion, ANOTHER A.I. hellbent on humanity’s extinction. Really? THAT’S all you’ve got to offer us? Just another evil computer villain? While I enjoyed the film, it did feel like more of the same. Genisys at least had the audacity to tinker around with the original timeline. People were not buying into Dark Fate‘s story and characters, despite Linda Hamilton being the best part. She was fantastic, and I liked the new Terminator, but this wasn’t the reboot the franchise needs. As a result, not only are NOT getting a sequel, but Terminator is being put back on the shelf until further notice. It’s just as well. The original two movies are the best.
The Best: Casino Royale
“The name’s Bond. James Bond.” The James Bond franchise is perhaps the longest-running film series in cinema. There are currently 24 OFFICIAL James Bond movies currently available with a 25th on the way. The character has seen multiple actors take on the role: Sean Connery was the first, followed by George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and finally Daniel Craig. Pierce Brosnan had one of the best films in the franchise with Goldeneye, but ended his tenure with one of the worst, Die Another Day. I wouldn’t say that was as bad a film as say Batman and Robin, but as a James Bond movie, it was a wreck, loaded with highly-questionable visual effects, including the worst CGI wave-riding sequence ever made. So, the studio and the producers of the franchise decided to take the character back to the beginning when he first became 007. While there was controversy around making James Bond blonde with Daniel Craig, Craig has since proven himself more than capable of being the infamous British spy. Casino Royale was released to outstanding reviews and audience reactions. It’s considered by many, including myself, to be the best Bond movie in the series. It really is. It was a more gritty and realistic take on the character, in the same way that Batman Begins approached their character. Here, we have a James Bond that is more human and makes mistakes. The opening assassination sequence shows how raw the character is before he really becomes the suave British spy that everybody knows and loves. The villain is also amazing with Mads Mikkelson playing Le Chiffre. Even Bond’s love interest is an incredibly strong and sassy woman. This is about as good a reboot as you can get.
The Worst: Hellboy 2019
I’m going to be truthful here, I actually like the Hellboy remake. I really do. I think it’s a lot of fun. That said, as a reboot: It fails. Back in 2004, Guillermo del Toro released his adaptation of Hellboy in theaters starring Ron Perlman as…Hellboy. While the film was a hit with fans and some critics, it wasn’t the box office smash that it really needed to be. In fact, it lost money. Still, del Toro went ahead with a sequel: The Golden Army. Again, people really enjoyed it, but not enough people went to the theaters and the movie bombed. That’s two bombs in a row for our demonic hero. So, director Neil Marshall(The Descent, Dog Soldiers)and actor David Harbour(Stranger Things)teamed up to give the world a new take on Hellboy. Except this time it was going be R-rated and super violent. The film was R-rated and super violent, and I loved those aspects of it. David Harbour was fantastic, but the movie tried too hard to be similar to del Toro’s films, and as a result, it didn’t connect with audiences. Aside from issues behind the scenes, there were a lot of problems with the script and the story. The main villain was Milla Jovovich as an evil sorceress. Didn’t quite buy it. Also, Hellboy is the descendent of King Arthur. What? Seriously? Mortal Kombat had the same issues with the focus and marketing being on the violence and gore and not enough emphasis on the story and characters. The Baba Yaga sequence, though, is one of the creepiest things I’ve seen in a movie, so there’s that, but everything else was just…mediocre.
The Best: Wrong Turn
Back in 2003, a little slasher movie by the name of Wrong Turn came and went without a whole lot of fuss. The thing is, that little horror flick was a ton of fun. It featured a group of 20-somethings being hunted by a trio of inbred cannibal hillbillies in the mountains of West Virginia. It was a straight-forward slasher movie that didn’t stray from the formula. It was gory, intense, and one of my favorite horror movie experiences. The first sequel, while direct-to-video, was almost as good, featuring mostly practical gore effects, and again a lot of fun. After that, things took…a wrong turn. The third movie was brought down by weak gore and visual effects, and terrible acting. It was followed up by three prequels that sought to explain the origins of these three mutant cannibals. Wrong Turn 5, ended up being one of the most mean-spirited horror movies I’ve seen in a long time. It had great gore and Doug Bradley was awesome, but the movie just felt incredibly mean for the sake of being mean. So, after the 6th movie, the franchise got sold to Lionsgate, and plans were in motion for a 7th film. Somewhere along the way, it was decided that a reboot was in order. It makes sense, the franchise had long since gone off the rails. So, in 2021, we got a new Wrong Turn movie. This film is the very definition of the word reboot. The only connections this movie has to the original series is the name, the location in West Virginia, and the guy that wrote the original movie: Alan McElroy. Instead of mutant cannibals, the villains of this film are a brutal hidden backwoods community called The Foundation. This is a pretty intense movie all around and it actually works, especially given the political issues surrounding everything. It’s a timely horror film if there ever was one. At two hours, it runs a little long, but it’s a solid reboot.
The Worst: Godzilla 1998
Like James Bond, the name Godzilla is one of the most recognized characters in cinema. First showing up in Gojira in 1954, the famous monster would go on to be featured in countless movies. Some great, some terrible. Even if you had never seen any Godzilla movie before, you know who and what he is and what he looks like. The creators/owners of Godzilla, Toho would eventually allow Hollywood to make their own version of Godzilla. Enter Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the minds behind such classics as Universal Soldier, Stargate, and Independence Day. They would get their chance to make their very own Godzilla movie…and…oh, boy. There’s a special place in my heart for this movie, there really is. It delivers on the mass destruction that you would expect from a giant monster, but the writing is abysmal. Matthew Broderick as the scientific lead? Really? Hank Azaria as a news cameraman? The only actor here that I could buy as a French Secret Service agent was Jean Reno, and he steals the show. What about the creature itself? This ain’t Godzilla. It’s an over-grown irradiated iguana. The opening credits implied as much. It was bad. So bad, that Toho refused to let Americans make another movie, even though there was an animated series based on the 1998 film. No, Toho was pissed, so they started making Godzilla movies again. ‘Zilla, as he’s referred to these days makes an appearance in Godzilla: Final Wars only to be bitch-slapped by Godzilla-proper and blown to smithereens. Yeah, this wasn’t a good movie. Thankfully, Hollywood got another shot with the 2014 film, which was awesome. Godzilla still lives!
The Best: Star Trek 2009
Star Trek is one of the most recognizable franchises in pop culture. From the original series in the 60s to the new series that have shown up in the past couple of years, Star Trek has been a part of…well…everything for the past 50 years. It pushed boundaries, ideas, and is generally one of the most well-respected franchises ever. As far as movies go, the original 6 movies are classics for the most part, although most people will tell you that 2,4 and 6 are the best. The Next Generation-era of Star Trek films started with Generations which passed the torch from the old crew to the new, but it was bad movie. First Contact was the best film for the Next Generation crew. Sadly, Insurrection felt like an overlong episode, and Nemesis simply failed as a Star Trek movie. I loved Nemesis, but it had some serious script issues, including the ending. The movie also bombed at the box office, so Paramount, decided it was time to reboot the franchise. The main idea they had, and was the one that was actually used, was taking Trek all the way back to the beginning during Captain Kirk’s days at Starfleet Academy when he first meets Spock and Doctor McCoy. What makes this reboot so interesting is that it doesn’t flat-out dismiss the other movies, but instead sidesteps them in an alternate time-line. The story has a group of Romulans that end up going back in time to prevent the destruction of their planet, and because of they’re encounter with the Kelvin, things have changed. The U.S.S Kelvin was the ship that Kirk’s father served on, and that allowed for an emotionally powerful opening. But, the original Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, also traveled back in time, so there was still a connection to the original time-line. It worked. The new movie followed the original crew, who were played by new cast members: Chris Pine as Kirk, Karl Urban as McCoy, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana as U’hura, John Cho as Sulu, and Anton Yelchin as Chekhov. It was an amazing movie that still holds up after 12 years.
As you can see, reboots can be really good or really bad, depending on who is behind the camera. The best reboots are the ones that people will remember the most. The others? Not so much. Honestly, there’s not a movie on this list that I hate. I enjoyed them all, even the ones that suck as reboots. I’m a forgiving person like that. I’m all for reboots, provided that film-makers understand that rebooting a franchise can be a very risky proposition and could alienate fans and newcomers alike.
Cast:
Robin Wright: Edee
Demian Bichir: Miguel
Sarah Dawn Pledge: Alawa
Kim Dickens: Emma
Warren Christie: Adam
Finlay Wojtak-Hissong
Directorial debuts are a bit of a double-edged sword within the film industry. Either the film-maker bites off more than they can chew because they have an ego, or they ended up with something that isn’t even close to half-baked because they are completely inexperienced in any form of film-making. Just because somebody is a fan of film-making does not mean they have the instincts or the vision necessary to carry a film through to completion. Not everybody can be a Quentin Tarantino or a Ben Affleck. While it’s hard for any director to get a movie made, it’s even more so when an actor steps behind the camera. If they plan on acting on the movie they’re directing, the difficulty skyrockets. Not every actor can do it. Ben Affleck is one that can while Kevin Costner is another. Their directorial debuts were beyond outstanding. Costner’s Dances With Wolves was brilliant. For Land,The Princess Bride star Robin Wright sits in the director’s chair and the result is truly something special.
Land tells the story of Edee, a woman who has suffered an unthinkable tragedy, as she heads up into the Rockies to isolate herself from the rest of civilization. Reaching an abandoned cabin in the woods, Edee tries to survive on her own despite not having any real wilderness survival skills. She eventually befriends a local hunter, Miguel, as he helps her to survive. After spending time with Miguel, Edee begins to learn to live again. Land’s story is a very simple story about a woman’s struggle with PTSD and how grief has pushed her away from people. Grief has a way of doing that for a lot of people. It’s a movie about connections, both the ones that we lose and the ones that we forge. I wouldn’t say that Land is the most original story of its kind, but the way it’s brought to life is outstanding. It’s compelling and emotional. There are no last-minute jaw-dropping twists. It isn’t that kind of movie. It’s a story that has a purpose and it’s told rather efficiently over the course of 88 minutes. You don’t need a two-hour film to get the point across. It’s paced incredibly well.
When we first meet Edee, we know something bad had happened as she throws her phone away and has people take her car and trailer away over the next few days. She’s isolated herself in the wilderness to try and find some sort of peace away from people. While we don’t know exactly what happened until the end of the film, it has a real impact on how she deals with her grief. Like so many of us, Edee deals with her grief in her own way and sometimes it gets her into trouble. It’s when she meets Miguel that she begins to come back to life. Miguel is also dealing with his own tragedies, so there is a common connection between the two. I’ve been a fan of Robin Wright since she made her acting debut in The Princess Bride. She’s outstanding here. As the character deals with her situation, Wright’s lends more authenticity to what’s going on. Demian Bichir is equally fantastic as Miguel. As he teaches Edee to hunt and survive, they form a connection that is healing for both. The chemistry between the two is fantastic and it feels natural. While there are other actors in the film, obviously, these two are the heart and soul of this picture.
Land has some of the most beautiful imagery I’ve seen in recent years. The movie was filmed on location in the Canadian Rockies in Alberta, Canada. It’s incredibly beautiful up there. But the cinematography has another purpose. It’s there to showcase the isolation that Edee deliberately put herself in, and it allows the character to get inside her own head without distractions from everyday civilization. Dealing with grief can push people away, but sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes, we need that isolation and that time to ourselves to try and make sense of everything that’s happened. But we can’t always stay away from other people. It’s that human connection that we need to deal with grief and allow us to move forward. For some, it’s harder than others. While I would say what Edee did is pretty extreme, it’s not unusual for grieving people to shut everyone out, and it’s hard to reconnect after dealing with such hardship. That’s what I really love about Robin Wright’s direction here. It shows a natural progression from being isolated to finally opening up to another human being. As hard as some of us try, humans really can’t handle being apart from one another for too long. It’s painful and it’s really hard to let go sometimes, and Robin Wright really captures that aspect of humanity in this film.
At it’s core, Land is a very human story about dealing with grief and PTSD. As I mentioned earlier, it’s not original in that aspect, but I really like how Robin Wright approached the story and the characters. These are fully three-dimensional characters that share similar forms of pain and Wright’s performance is heartbreaking and powerful. If you’ve been through any kind of grief or tragedy, there’s something here for you to grab onto and connect with. For an actress to have such a powerful directorial debut is unusual. Yet, I think Land is going to be one of the best films of the year. It’s going to be going into one of my top lists, that’s for sure. Robin Wright is an outstanding actress, but her first movie as a director is going to be one that she should be proud of for years to come. I absolutely recommend this one.
Cast:
Harrison Ford: Indy
Karen Allen: Marion
Paul Freeman: Belloq
John Rhys-Davies: Sallah
Ronald Lacey: Toht
Denholm Elliot: Brody
Alfred Molina: Satipo
Wolf Kahler: Dietrich
It’s really something special when you watch a movie on its 40th anniversary. 2017 was the 40th anniversary of George Lucas’ original Star Wars, and last year saw the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. 2019 saw the 40th year of movies like Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. When you look back at when these movies were made, it’s really quite astounding that a number of them stand the test of time. I think the reason that these movies hold up so well after such a long period of time is because of how they were made. These movies were made long before CGI was a thing, and certainly decades before social media and the internet existed, so you didn’t know that one of these movies existed until a trailer showed up, and even then you had to go see another movie to see that trailer. Very different times. One of the greatest action-adventure movies of all time and one of my absolute favorite movies ever, Raiders of the Lost Ark, is celebrating it’s 40th anniversary today: June 12, 2021. Perhaps it’s fate, coincidence, or a perfect timing of Internet marketing, but earlier this week, it was announced that a fifth and final Indiana Jones film finally went into production. After years of speculation and delays, it’s finally happening. Also, the first four films have just been released in 4k ultra high definition. There is no better time to revisit these classic films, and that’s what I’m doing.
The film opens in the jungles of South America as famed archaeologist Indiana Jones and a group of native guides navigate the jungle looking for a hidden temple. After being betrayed by one guide, Jones finds the entrance to the temple and navigates the traps to find a golden idol. Grabbing the idol causes the temple to start collapsing so Indy and his guide attempt to escape, only to be betrayed by his SECOND guide. Indy escapes the temple only to be confronted by a group of native warriors led by rival archaeologist, Belloq. After escaping Belloq, Indy is recruited by US Army Intelligence to locate the lost Ark of the Covenant, which is said to have been buried in the Egyptian city of Tanis. He locates his former flame, Marion and recruits his long-time friend Sallah in a race against the Nazis to find the Ark. The story here is very reminiscent of the old black and white swashbuckling serials of the 30s and 40s. It was kind of an update on the old serials with a modern sensibility and film-making techniques. It’s a race against time and the film’s MacGuffin is the legendary Ark of the Covenant. What I love about the stories in these movies, is how they incorporate the supernatural into these films. Indy is a skeptic when it comes to these things, but finds no explanation when he’s finally confronted with the reality of the situation. The film wouldn’t have worked nearly as well if the characters weren’t memorable.
Before I go any further with the characters, I want to discuss something about the relationship between Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood. Over the past couple of weeks, some people have been up in arms about the relationship between Indy and Marion. See, in the film Marion would be about 24, 25, or 26 years old. Ten years had passed since she and Indy first fell in love, which would’ve meant that she would’ve been a teenager when she first met Indy, and he would have been about 27 or 28. Because of that age difference, people jumped to the conclusion that Indy was a pedophile. First of all, the film doesn’t explicitly explain what had happened, and it was implied that Indy broke off the relationship. What people fail to understand, and I had to do some research on this, was that the societal norms of the 1920s, which is when this relationship would have taken place, was very different than today. So, some of these relationships were more common and considered more acceptable than others, even though the times were changing. Would a relationship like that be okay today? No, and it shouldn’t be because of the obvious power dynamics, but people seem to forget the societal and historical context of when Indy’s and Marion’s relationship occurred. Here’s what I’m getting at: People are trying to dig up controversy when there really isn’t any, nor was there any implied. I can’t even believe that this needs to be a discussion. Karen Allen herself had to come out and defend against these ridiculous notions. Oh, and I forgot the most important part about all this: It’s a movie. That will be all that I’m going to say on the subject.
What THAT said, the chemistry between Indy and Marion is very strong, and her entrance is as memorable as Indy’s. After seeing her in a drinking game in Nepal, she punches Indy right in the kisser. It’s as amusing as it is emotional, considering their relationship. Funny tidbit: Karen Allen actually made contact with Harrison’s chin about 4 times. So, Marion is definitely a spitfire and just as tough as Indy. Marion is one of my favorite female characters, because she doesn’t fit the traditional mold of a damsel in distress. No, she fights back, and she fights dirty. She’s also smart enough to outwit people. She’s clearly a strong, independent woman, and Karen Allen was PERFECT for the role. John Rhys-Davis plays Indy’s sidekick Sallah, and Davies has a unique presence to add to the film. Yeah, the character is a little goofy at times, but his generosity and kindness allow people to really sympathize with him whenever he gets into trouble. Paul Freeman as Belloq is one of the series’ most memorable villains. As Belloq put it, he is a twisted reflection of Indy. While Indy is constantly covered in dirt, he does things for the right reasons, whereas Belloq is clean and well-groomed hiding that nasty interior. Paul Freeman just nails it perfectly with that uptight and bizarre French accent. Now, we came to Indiana Jones himself, played to perfection by Harrison Ford. He’s an everyman that most of us can relate to. He’s a teacher, which means he values a good education, but he also puts his knowledge of archaeology to good use when he’s hunting down relics around the world. Indy is such a great character, because he’s not flawless. He’s got a lot of imperfections. He gets hurt. He makes mistakes. It’s like the character is actually…human. That makes for a far more compelling hero than anything else, and Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. It’s probably his most memorable character. Yeah, Ford played Han Solo, but Solo was a fairly two-dimensional side-character. I can’t imagine Indy being played by anyone other than Harrison Ford.
You really can’t describe the action in this movie without using the word “iconic.” The opening sequence in South America is a hell of a way to start a movie, but not only does it set the tone for the rest of the film, it also sets up the antagonistic relationship between Belloq and Indy. The bar fight in Nepal is also memorable. Aside from Marion slugging Indy in the chin, where else can you see Indy taking on Nazis and a giant Sherpa at the same time? When Marion gets kidnapped, there is a moment in that sequence that is cinematic gold. It’s the showdown between Indy and the Arab swordsman. There was initially a drawn-out choreographed fight that was supposed to take place between the two, but Ford got sick during this point in the production, so they just had Indy shoot the swordsman in what would become one of the greatest moments in cinematic history. It also showed the sense of humor that abounded in the film. There was the dust-up between Indy and a bald engineer(played by the late Pat Roach, who also played the giant Sherpa)which ended in spectacular fashion. But the real action set-piece of the film is the desert chase scene. Bar none, this is one of the most iconic scenes in action movies. The only moment to come close to this was the tank chase in The Last Crusade. The stunt-work and the driving are all second-to-none. It’s all done with John Williams’ iconic music swelling in the background. When that scene starts, you can’t help but stop and watch. Now, I mentioned that these movies had a supernatural element to them, and Raiders of the Lost Ark doesn’t disappoint. When the Nazis open the Ark at the end of the film, it’s one of the most haunting, spectacular and gruesome moments in an action movie. This sequence, featuring melting Nazis and exploding heads, would’ve earned the film an R-rating, but through some clever camera and visual effects tricks, Steven Spielberg managed to garner a PG rating. This was before the PG-13 rating was created as a result of an Indiana Jones movie, ironically enough: The Temple of Doom.
Everything about Raiders of the Lost Ark holds up after 40 years. From the action sequences and characters to the music and special effects, not one moment of this film feels dated. I have to give total credit to both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for crafting one of the most memorable action movies in cinema history. Yeah, it borrows from older movies, but it doesn’t feel cheap. In fact, some moments feel like loving homages to some of these older moments like when Indy gets dragged under a truck. That’s a clear reference to an old stunt when a stunt performer was dragged under a horse-drawn carriage. The pacing is perfect, and the acting is outstanding. The film doesn’t take itself too seriously and as far as I’m concerned, beyond reproach. I reviewed this film back in 2014 and I gave it a perfect 10/10. To that, I still hold, but considering the time between reviews, I’m not going to give this film a review score, because it doesn’t need it. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a reminder that films can and should be fun. It’s a ride from beginning to end. Would I still recommend it? Are you kidding? If you haven’t seen this one yet, or don’t own a copy, I don’t know what I could do or say to convince you, aside from the fact that this movie is awesome. 40 years later, it still manages to impress.
My Final Recommendation: Do I really need to convince you on this one? I didn’t think so.
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