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Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
"As for the enemies: no Nazis? No, instead Indy must defeat this guy with a very bald head and very bad acting lessons...this Kojak wannabe is a far cry from the more menacing Nazis Indy often fights. He's just not a very menacing villain, for whatever reason." --from the review
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Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
A Techtite ReviewAs Always, a review of The Film and The DVD (extras)! The Film: In this, the middle of the (first?) Indiana Jones trilogy, poor Indy was a man without a cause. Though still directed by Steven Spielberg and still produced and co-written by George Lucas, this was to many the worst of all three films. Let's put it this way: the biggest reason these films are only being sold (presently) as a collector set, is probably because there's little or no chance this film would sell by itself. Ouch! The first flaw with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was how Indy wasn't going after a real historical artifact, like the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail. Instead, he's going after a rock. Yes, a glowing rock. This rock is said to be magical (hence the "glowing," I suppose) which was stolen from a third-world village, leaving their rivers dry and their crops dried up. Indy must bring this rock back to save the village. Assisting Indy on this quest is an ex lounge singer named "Willie" (Kate Capshaw) and an Asian kid nicknamed "Short Round" (Ke Huy Quan) It's important to note that Kate would soon become Mrs. Spielberg, so one can only presume that the (accept it!) total lack of chemistry between "Willie" and Indy is because Harrison Ford wisely kept himself at arm's length from the lady who would soon be the director's wife. As for Short Round; he's performed so humorously, Spielberg rehired Huy Quan for his very next film, The Goonies. In short; he's a great addition. Not that Capshaw isn';t a good addition, too; it's just that, for whatever reason, the romance subplot doesn't hold water like it did in Raiders of the Lost Ark. As for the enemies: no Nazis? No, instead Indy must defeat this guy with a very bald head and very bad acting lessons, who kidnapped all the boys of the aforementioned starving village, forcing them to work in his mines. Yeah; clearly, he's a total idiot, because if he had mind-control tricks up his sleeves (as we learn later) he should've kidnapped the men of the village, DUH! The point I'm getting to is: this Kojak wannabe is a far cry from the more menacing Nazis Indy often fights. He's just not a very menacing villain, for whatever reason. I think what always defines a controversial, love-it-or-hate-it film is that one scene that, indeed, makes or breaks the film. For Temple of Doom, that would have to be the crashing plane scene. At one point in the film's opening scenes, Indy and friends must escape a crashing plane by jumping onto an inflatable raft --which is inflating in mid-air-- only to land softly onto the snow 100 feet below them. I am no aeronautical expert but I'd say they'd have a fair share of broken bones if they landed onto hard ground (snow covered or not) 100 feet below, while jumping out of plane going at least 80 MPH. This is silly. Sure, the Indy films were always campy. However, they never resorted to me saying, "Oh, come on now!" and this film was the exception. Indy is poisoned by "quick and deadly" poison in the prologue of the film, only to live ample enough time to retrieve the antidote, which someone conveniently brought along with them! Elsewhere, the trio of heroes are invited to a dinner including eyeballs and animal brains that seems dragged into the script only so Steven Spielberg can show off his then-new fiancée's (Capshaw's) many funny faces. Sure, she's funny, but there's a big difference between a bunch of funny faces in this film, and the hilarious well written dialog between Indy and his father in The Last Crusade. Kate deserved a far superior script. So did everyone. Of course, there are those who would disagree. Sadly, they are in the minority. Not that they're wrong; they're just so much into the mythos of Indiana Jones, one wonders if Indy searching for fossilized magic dino-poop would be a worthy sequel to these guys. Not that I'm giving anyone any ideas for the inevitable Indiana Jones 4. I'm just saying...
The DVD: So ill received is this middle sequel, some accredit this as the reason the films "must" be sold on DVD as a set, not individually. Seriously; why sell the films individually, when the middle film will barely sell to anyone other than the blindest of fans? So; the Indiana Jones films are sold as a trilogy set. No problems there. The bigger problem is in the lack of
extras, "individually." As a set they threw all extras onto a
fourth disc, with the individual movie discs as barren as the deserts Indy
explores. Click here to jump to the review of the set, to see a list of
all extras on disc 4. Or just take my word for it, and buy the full set
already! I didn't like this film, but that doesn't keep me from wanting
this collection. It wasn't as bad as that!
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