Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

John Chard

2018-12-24T01:23:21.660Z

Spielberg on devilishly OTT form! Prior to the long mooted and eventual release of part 4, Temple Of Doom was often thought of as the weakest part of the series, yet it actually appears to me to be maturing nicely with age. With honest appraisal I see the only crime that Temple Of Doom can be charged with is is not being as good as Raiders Of The Lost Ark. But since few films can match that movie's classic status I find it churlish to do the second film down for it. Temple Of Doom is a frenetic roller-coaster ride, full of enough crash bang wallop fit to grace any action adventure in the history of cinema. The set pieces are pure outrageous fun; life raft escape from a crashing plane, mine cart thrill ride & a bridge sequence that is pure boys own brilliance. And while the film finds Spielberg cramming the action with a darkly sinister streak (hence the PG13 rating), we find that the fun still far outweighs any horror that junior viewers might get from certain scenes. The film also finds Ford giving his best performance as Indiana Jones since the plot calls for a more humane Jones. In fine physical shape, his witty interplay with Short Round is coupled with a textured feel of friendship that plays real well up on the screen. Kate Capshaw was always going to struggle to get close to Karen Allen's wonderful turn as Marion Ravenwood in Raiders, for where Marion was feisty and tough, Capshaw's Willie Scott is more scare-d-cat and reliant on Indy's guile to save her from peril, but she does OK and looks gorgeous into the bargain. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was a massive hit at the box-office and firmly bought Spielberg the time to then go out and make two dramas in Empire of the Sun (1987) & The Color Purple (1985). He would then return with the third Indiana film to finish what was then a marvellous trilogy; of which Temple Of Doom is the prime piece of meat in the delightful (original) trilogy sandwich. 8.5/10

Kamurai

2020-08-17T18:34:13.182Z

Decent watch, might watch again, and can only recommend for people who are already big Indiana Jones fans. This is a much cheaper movie than it's prequel, not in budget, but in writing and characters. With the trade out in female co-leads, Willie is an annoying if not irritating character and the movie might actually be improved if you just edited her out of the movie. Short-Round is fun, but not to any degree to go as far as saving the movie. The atmosphere of the movie is darker than it is funny where it matters. I'm not saying it's a bad movie by any means, but I'm not a big Indiana Jones fan and this is definitely the worst of the 4 movies.