Release Date: May 1989

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Rated: PG-13

Cast:
Harrison Ford: Indiana Jones
Sean Connery: Henry Jones
Denholm Elliot: Marcus Brody
John Rhys-Davies: Sallah
Allison Doody: Elsa
Julian Glover: Walter Donovan
River Phoenix: Young Indiana Jones

In 1981, audiences were introduced to one of the most iconic film heroes of all time: Indiana Jones.  The movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark.  It was a wild ride from start to finish with exciting action, great writing and an astounding cast.  It also boasted some awesome special effects.  It was such a success that a follow-up film was commissioned: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  Released in 1984, Temple of Doom was released to mixed reviews with some praising it for being an exciting thrill-ride and others lambasted it for being too dark and overly violent.  I would certainly agree that the second film took a very dark turn as far as Indiana Jones goes, but it still retained that amazing sense of adventure that has become the trademark of the Indiana Jones films.  In 1989, audiences once again took another ride with Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  Only this time, Indy wasn’t alone.  He brought father along for the ride.

The movie opens in Utah in 1912 as a troupe of Boy Scouts are exploring southern Utah when young Indiana Jones(River Phoenix, Harrison Ford)comes across a gang of hooligans who have discovered the Cross of Coronado in one of the caves.  Believing that artifact belongs in a museum, he steals it and escapes with the thugs in hot pursuit.  Indy manages to escape the thugs only to lose the artifact to them when the “owner” of the cross wants it back.  Years later, Dr. Jones has been captured with the cross in his possession.  He eventually escapes and returns to his university when he’s contacted by wealthy businessman Walter Donovan(Julian Glover)and is told that there is a mission to reclaim the fabled Holy Grail.  Initially refusing, Indy learns that his father, Henry Jones(Sean Connery) who was obsessed with the Grail, has vanished.  In the previous films, each film centered around a particular supernatural object.  Raiders, dealt with the Ark of the Covenant and Temple of Doom dealt with the fictional Sankara Stones.  With Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Holy Grail is the object which is being sought by the villains.  For Indy, finding his father is more important, and that’s one of the main reasons why Last Crusade is such an amazing movie.

Steven Spielberg once claimed that the James Bond movies were the inspiration for Indiana Jones, so he cast the original James Bond as Indy’s father, Henry Jones.  The casting couldn’t have been more perfect.  When Harrison Ford and Sean Connery are on the screen together, it’s movie magic.  These two bounce off each other incredibly well.  While Temple of Doom was a very dark chapter in the series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade does a complete 180 and ends up being a much lighter film than the original and it works.  The father-son dynamic between between Indy and Henry Jones allows for some pretty hilarious moments.  It also works because while the characters are estranged from each other, the further into the film you get, the more these two begin to bond over the course of the adventure and it makes for an incredibly compelling story.  Along for the journey are returning characters Marcus Brody(Denholm Elliott)and Sallah(John Rhys-Davies).  Brody’s character is completely out of his element when he joins Indy on his quest to find his father, and some of the funniest moments in the movie deal with Brody’s “fish-out-of-water” situation.  The villains in the film are the Nazis again, with Colonel Vogel(Michael Byrne)as the villain that Indy gets to beat up.  Donovan is the main villain of the film, but there’s a twist regarding Indy’s love interest, Elsa.  Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones at this point, nobody can take his place now.

The action in this film is simply spectacular.  Raiders of the Lost Ark had the fight around the plane and the huge desert chase scene.  Temple of Doom had the opening brawl in the nightclub, the fights in the mine, the mine car chase scene and the bridge sequence.  Each of those pieces were fun to watch and were extremely memorable.  Because of Sean Connery’s presence in The Last Crusade, the action is amped up considerably and makes it more personal for Indy.  From the opening train sequence in 1912 to the escape from the Nazi castle the film leads up to one of the most amazing chase sequence put to film:  The tank sequence.  From horseback to fighting on the tank itself as well as inside the tank, the action in the film doesn’t let up and it really makes it feel like Indy is in real danger.  The boat chase is probably one of the most exciting scenes I’ve ever seen.  It’s fast-paced, explosive and intense.  Obviously, there’s a whole lot to love about this movie.  If there’s a downside to the movie, it’s that it has to end sometime.

This being and Indiana Jones film, we rightfully expect to see some very spectacular set pieces.  I’m not talking about the action, but rather the sets themselves.  From the caves at the beginning of the film to the deserts, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade definitely cements Indy as the world’s foremost globe-trotting adventurer.  In fact, for the final action sequence, the cast and crew are on location in Petra, Jordan.  The city literally carved out of stone is one of the most visually unique places in the world, and Steven Spielberg uses it perfectly for the film’s climax.  There’s no CG or visual trickery.  That is Petra they are standing in front of.  The interior of the temple is obviously on a set, but the exterior is just phenomenal to see.  John Williams is the master of the film score, and his work on the Indiana Jones films is nothing short of legendary.  From the iconic March of the Raiders theme, to Henry Jones’ theme, the music to Indiana Jones is filled to the brim with adventure and excitement.  If there is a perfect movie to cap off a movie trilogy, it’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  Sadly, it wasn’t the final film in the series, as a fourth film was released in 2008.  But that’s for my next review.  At the end of the day, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is one of the best and most memorable action movies of the 1980s.  10/10 is as good as it gets.

Directed By: Steven Spielberg

Released: May 1984

Run-Time: 118 Minutes

Rating: PG

Cast:

Harrison Ford: Indiana Jones
Kate Capshaw: Willie Scott
Ke Huy Quan: Short Round
Amrish Puri: Mola Ram
Roshan Seth: Chattar Lal

In 1981, audiences flocked to a new action-adventure movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The film introduced us to a brand new hero, Indiana Jones.  While Tom Selleck was strongly considered for the role, contract obligations forced him to drop out, and Harrison Ford from Star Wars was brought in.  Now, when anybody hears the name Indiana Jones, it’s synonymous with Harrison Ford.  It’s rather hard to see anybody else play the character at this point.  Raiders of the Lost Ark was a phenomenal success with an amazing cast that featured Paul Freeman, Karen Allen, and John Rhys-Davies.  It was such a success that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas began work on a follow-up adventure, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Opening in 1935 at a nightclub in Shanghai, we are first introduced to the singer, Willie Scott(Kate Capshaw).  After a dazzling opening number, Dr. Jones shows up to exchange the remains of an ancient Chinese emperor for a particular diamond.  Double-crossed and poisoned, Jones fights through a Chinese gang and jumps out the window with Willie in tow.  Waiting in a car below is Indy’s sidekick, Short Round(Ke Huy Quan).  They attempt to outrun the gangsters and escape in a cargo plane full of live poultry.  On their way across Asia, the two pilots who work for the gangsters dump the fuel and jump out of the plane.  Jones and company use an inflatable life-boat to escape only to end up in India a short while later.  Greeted by a mysterious shaman, they are taken to a remote village that looks like it has seen better days.  They learn that a sacred stone has been stolen along with the village’s children, so the elders ask Dr. Jones and his friends to help.  The first thing that one would notice about this entry, is that Temple of Doom takes place in 1935.  Raiders took place in 1936.  So the follow-up movie to one of the greatest adventure movies ever is a prequel?  Okay, I can go with that.  After all, Indiana Jones has had plenty of adventures in his life, so why not?

While Raiders was somewhat serious, it was very playful and had a grand sense of adventure throughout the entire film.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom retains these qualities, but it clearly has a different kind of tone throughout the picture.  It’s darker and it deals with some fairly disturbing topics, namely child slavery and human sacrifice.  The film was criticized mainly because of the level of violence in the movie.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom may be the most violent of the Indiana Jones pictures.  It certainly is bloody.  Watching somebody get their heart ripped out is something you don’t really expect in a PG film.  In fact, this movie is the reason why the PG-13 rating exists.  Steven Spielberg felt that the PG rating was too broad.  The level of violence in the film and the dark tone surprised and put off a lot of people.  They were expecting another grand adventure, but what they got instead was a borderline horror movie.  With that out of the way, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom still retained a good chunk of what made Raiders of the Lost Ark so memorable in the first place.  It’s got some very memorable characters.  I don’t care what anyone says, I liked Short Round.  He’s a better sidekick than Jar Jar Binks.  Roshan Seth does a fine job as the Prime Minister, but one of the real stars of the show is Amrish Puri.  This guy is terrifying as Mola Ram.  Mola Ram is probably one of the most evil characters that Indiana Jones has come across.  Unfortunately, one of the weak links in this movie is Willie Scott, played by Kate Capshaw.  I’m not faulting Kate for her performance of the character.  I’m faulting the writing that made the character an irritating shrew.  Constantly whining and screaming, she pissed me off a number of times.  Funnily enough, Dr. Jones makes note of her constant noise.  That’s pretty funny.

This is an Indiana Jones film, so there has to be action.  The action scenes in this movie are fantastic.  From the brawl in a nightclub that opens the film to the thrilling mine car chase to the bridge sequence, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom delivers on the action that helped define the character.  While this is a very dark film, it still has a sense of humor.  The film does get disgusting at times.  The dinner sequence is just revolting and has no place in an Indiana Jones movie.  There’s also a scene that deals with bugs, lots of bugs.  That was creepy.  If you can get past some of the main issues dealing with the story and the tone of the movie, there’s still a lot of fun to be had in this movie.  It is Indiana Jones.  While it is a dark film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has some pretty iconic moments.  That whole mine car chase sequence that mentioned, was actually supposed to be in the previous film, but they didn’t have time to film it.  Indiana Jones facing off against the giant guard is probably one of the best fight scenes in the series.  The bridge sequence is nothing short of brilliant.  When you see that thing collapse, that was done in one take with multiple angles.  It was quite an achievement.

Growing up, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was actually my favorite Indy film, even though it was clearly inferior to the previous picture.  I loved it because it was action-packed and it was fairly gory.  I’m a bit of a gore-hound so stuff like that doesn’t really bother me, even though I can see why some people were turned off by it.  But I think the violence actually added to the peril that Jones was in, and that made it even more intense.  When it comes down to it, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is not the worst movie or worst follow-up ever.  I’ve seen much worse.  But in the Indiana Jones series, it’s by far the weakest link, because it’s such a huge departure from the light-hearted and adventurous tone of the first film.  Some of the grotesque stuff like the dinner sequence really didn’t need to be put in there, and people in India were actually offended by how they were portrayed in this film.  Here’s an interesting tidbit: the government in India actually wanted Spielberg to change certain aspects of the movie, because they deemed those parts offensive.  So, instead of filming in India like Spielberg wanted to, he shot the film in Sri Lanka.  John Williams delivers on the music as it’s thrilling and spooky at the same time, but it still has that feeling of adventure that defines the Indiana Jones films.  Even at its worst, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is still a hell of a lot of fun.  I’m giving this one an 8/10.  Some of the glaring issues and departure in tone bring it down a bit.

Warning: It’s hard to talk about sequels without spoiling the original film, so if you haven’t seen the original Sin City, proceed with caution.

Released: August 2014

Directed By: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller

Movie Trailer

Cast:

Mickey Rourke: Marv
Jessica Alba: Nancy
Josh Brolin: Dwight
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Johnny
Bruce Willis: Hartigan
Eva Green: Ava
Powers Boothe: Senator Roark

Back in the early 90s, comic writer, artist and director Frank Miller released the Sin City comic books, which took place in a fiction city called Basin City in the American West.  The comic draws heavily on film noir, and as a result, had a very unique look.  Most of the pictures were in black and white with a few colors thrown in for some of the stories.  The comics won multiple awards throughout the years for it’s artwork.  It was very surprising when director Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller decided to adapt the comics into a movie.  By this time, a lot of comic book movies had been pretty successful.  Movies like The Crow, Blade, Batman, and X-Men, proved that you could have a serious film based on comic books.  In 2005, the movie adaptation of Sin City was released to audiences world-wide.  It was one of the most unique movies that anybody had ever seen.  It was a film that had multiple stories told over two hours, so it wasn’t a straight-line to the end of the movie.  Some parts at the beginning of the movie took place after events that happen towards the end of the movie, but it wasn’t hard to follow.  Utilizing an amazing cast, Sin City was one the best comic book adaptations ever made.  9 years later, we got a sequel.  Finally.

The film opens as local bad boy Marv(Mickey Rourke)sees a bunch of punks attempting to light a homeless person on fire.  Marv intervenes and kills two of them, he chases them around and makes it Old City where the other two are quickly dispatched.  The film cuts to a private detective, Dwight(Josh Brolin), as he’s preparing to set up a local business owner(Ray Liotta)for a black-mailing operation.  Later at a local bar, he’s visited by an old “girlfriend,” Ava(Eva Green).  At the same time, a mysterious stranger known as Johnny(Joseph Gordon-Levitt), shows up to play poker with the corrupt and powerful Senator Roark(Powers Boothe).  I’m going to try and avoid spoiling this movie, because it gets a bit….twisty.  Like the first movie, the film sports comic book-like visuals that are impressive and over-the-top.  It’s mostly in black and white, so that makes the carnage that much more ridiculous.

I touched on the visuals a little bit, but I’ll get more into that later.  For now, I’m going to discuss a particular issue with Sin City: A Dame To Kill For:  Continuity.  If you’ve gotten this far without seeing the original movie and don’t want it spoiled, I would suggest you hit the back button on your browser because I can’t really discuss this particular issue without spoiling the crap out of the original Sin City.  Still here?  Okay.  When I first saw Marv again, I asked myself, “Wasn’t he executed at the end of the first movie?”  Also, why is Josh Brolin playing Dwight instead of Clive Owen?  I guess you would have to read the comics in order to find out why this stuff happens, but for regular movie-goers, it gets pretty confusing.  I understand that in comic books, dead characters tend to come back to life, but Sin City 2 seems…..schizophrenic when it comes to particular details.  It seems to me that some of these stories in the new movie overlap with the events of the first film.  It strikes me as odd that this stuff wasn’t addressed properly, and some people knock A Dame To Kill For, because of that and rightly so.  This is the biggest problem facing Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, and it’s going to factor pretty heavily in my verdict.

Like the original film, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For sports a phenomenal cast.  Some of the characters were re-cast for obvious reasons.  The guard with the golden-eye had to be replaced by Dennis Haysbert because Michael Clarke Duncan passed away two years ago.  Josh Brolin takes over for Clive Owen and Jamie Chung is the new Miho, that was originally played by Devon Aoki.  Some of the cast changes may be….jarring.  But the others come back: Bruce Willis as Hartigan, Rosario Dawson as Gail and Powers Boothe as Senator Roark.  Everybody is fantastic in this movie.  It’s over-the-top, so the performances are either low-key or over-the-top.  Mickey Rourke is just fantastic as the deformed Marv.  Powers Boothe steals the show as the senator.  The character is clearly evil and Booth just chews the scenery like it’s nobody’s business.  He’s quite the villain.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a fantastic actor at his age, and it shows.

Visually, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, is a stunner.  Like the original film, this movie has great visual style.  From the action to the story, it’s got noir in its veins.  Most of the film is in black and white, while some characters and objects have some color.  A movie like this can also get away with far more carnage because of its color palette.  Speaking of violence, Sin City 2 is extremely violent.  I would not expect anything less from Robert Rodriguez.  It’s stylish and gruesome at the same time.  Like the first movie, this film is a comic book come to life and overall it is spectacular.  Aside from the major continuity issues that plague this movie, another issue is the down-time between action set-pieces.  There’s too many scenes where nothing really happens, and you end up looking at your watch.  The first movie didn’t have this problem, it was well-paced and didn’t center on a particular story-line for very long.

Robert Rodriguez is a fantastic director.  He’s directed a lot of fantastic movies including From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado, and the Machete films.  He does a fantastic job here, and gets the best performances that can out of the cast, but I can’t help but notice the problems that Sin City: A Dame To Kill For has.  It’s not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination.  Far from it, it’s awesome.  But as a sequel, it just doesn’t quite live up to the original.  Then again, most sequels rarely do.  I was just hoping for a little bit more than what we got.  Will we get another movie?  It’s hard to say at this point.  The first Sin City is clearly the better of the two, so I suggest sticking with that one unless you’re a die-hard fan of these movies.  It’s stylish, violent, and has some awesome acting.  It’s just some of the issues that I brought up earlier drag it down.  Overall, I’m giving this one a  7/10.  It’s slightly disappointing.

Released: 2014

Directed By: Doug Liman

Cast:

Tom Cruise: Cage

Emily Blunt: Rita

Bill Paxton: Master Sergeant Farell

I have a question for everyone: What’s in a name?  The reason I ask is because some of the movies that we all know and love have recognizable names: Star Wars, Alien, and Indiana Jones among others.  That’s not always the case.  Sometimes movies start out with entirely different titles and as time goes on, it changes.  It happens all the time.  It just so happens that from time to time, a movie that’s based on a book or comic will start out with a recognizable name, and the studio will change it.  Why?  The studios seem to think that people might not recognize the original title.  Take The 13th Warrior for example: That’s a movie based on Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead.  The film had the same name as the book, but they changed it because they thought the movie would be….weird.  Here’s the issue: when you change the name of a movie from it’s namesake people end up getting confused as to what exactly it is they’re watching.  Anyone who was familiar with Michael Crichton would be familiar with Eaters of the Dead.  They got confused when the studio changed the name.  Sometimes the original name will stick with the movie in international markets.  Again, that does happen a lot.  Earlier this year, there was a science fiction movie released with the title of Edge of Tomorrow.  When it was first announced, it was called: All You Need Is Kill.  It was based on a Japanese graphic novel of the same name.  Warner Bros. came to the conclusion that most people would have absolutely no idea what All You Need Is Kill would be, so they changed the name.  The new name actually added to the confusion, and as a result people stayed away.

Edge of Tomorrow begins as Major William Cage(Tom Cruise)is ordered to the front lines against an alien menace.  After attempting to blackmail General Brigham(Brenden Gleeson), he’s zapped and wakes up face to face with Master Sergeant Farell(Bill Paxton).  Stripped of his rank and forced into battle, Cage comes face-to-face with a giant blue alien, so he detonates a mine and kills the alien as well as himself.  Cage wakes up with a start face-to-face with Farell again.  Cage is on the front line again when he comes face to face with another soldier, Rite(Emily Blunt).  Killed again, Cage wakes up again, and seems to repeat everything until he saves Rita from getting killed.  She tells him to find him when he wakes up.  If this sound suspiciously like Groundhog Day, you’re really not far off.  We have a character that wakes up every time that he gets killed at the same time he wakes up the first time after getting zapped.  I’m not going to say anymore about the plot as it does get more interesting as the film goes on.  How Cage gets the ability to repeat the same day is one of the interesting surprises that the movie throws at you.

When the film came out, it wasn’t well-received because people were confused as to what kind of movie it was.  It recently came out on Blu-Ray and DVD under the moniker: Live. Die. Repeat/Edge of Tomorrow.  I don’t think that really helps the movie’s cause when it’s constantly undergoing name changes long after it’s been released.  It’s a shame too, because this is a damned good movie.  You could call it Groundhog Day With Aliens, but I don’t think that really gives the film enough credit.  This is a smart movie with some clever writing, and while certain elements don’t really gel, the overall picture is just phenomenal.  Some people would claim that there’s a video game element to the movie, and they aren’t wrong.  Dying when you screw up and then waking up at an earlier point is a tried-and-true video game mechanic.  Putting that into a movie seems weird, but when you see Tom Cruise in action, it actually benefits the film, because you see Cage get frustrated every time he gets killed.  That’s the kind of feeling that gamers get when they have to restart.  It does get frustrating.  It’s also very amusing to see Cage end up breaking his leg and as Rita aims her gun, he goes: “Oh, come on!”  The film definitely has a sense of humor.

It’s very interesting to see Tom Cruise in a film like this.  Usually, he starts out being the hero and blah, blah, blah.  In Edge of Tomorrow, he starts off as a bit of a coward.  Again, that’s pretty funny.  As the film goes on however, we see Cage evolve from a coward to the hero that we all expect him to be.  Emily Blunt’s character of Rita is very interesting.  She’s a hard-ass in every which way, but she’s connected to Cage in the fact that she had the same power that he does, only she lost it.  Seeing Emily Blunt go toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise is a sight to behold.  She doesn’t really come across as a love-interest, because her character is a decorated combat soldier, and doesn’t really have time for that.  I just love watching these two bounce off each other.  The rest of the cast does a pretty good job.  Bill “Game Over, Man” Paxton plays the tough Master Sergeant with a bit of a smile.  I have to say, it’s awesome seeing Mr. Paxton in a science fiction movie again.  He just seems so comfortable with the genre, and he’s clearly having a great time hamming it up.  So, yeah, the performances are fantastic all around.

You would think that the action sequences would get boring after seeing them repeat each other.  That doesn’t really happen, surprisingly.  No, every time that Cage dies, he gets the chance to change things until he can win the war.  Sometimes he gets run over by a truck; sometimes he gets blown to smithereens.  Whenever he starts again, he remembers what happened before, so he can predict where the aliens will be or and when certain people die.  This make for a rather unique film experience, because it still ends up being unpredictable until the end.  Yeah, there are big explosions and tons of gunfire, but that’s just icing on the cake.  If there’s a downside to the film, it’s the ending.  It’s not bad, but it’s pretty cliche.  That’s the only downside that I noticed.  This is a movie that deserved much more attention than it got, and that’s partially because Warner Bros. kept changing the name.  It’s surprisingly important to have a set name so people know what kind of movie it is that you’re selling.  That aside, this is a pretty smart movie with interesting dynamics and characters that hits the ground running.  It’s not the only science fiction movie that has this kind of mechanic, Duncan Jones’ Source Code is also very similar, and also very good, but it’s a different set up than Edge of Tomorrow.  I don’t think I can recommend this one enough.  It’s awesome.  It’s action-packed, funny and intelligent.  Maybe Groundhog Day With Aliens would be a better title.  9.5/10.