Today I watched Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade released in 1989. This was Steven Spielberg's 10th full length theatrical feature and a return to the action adventure summer blockbuster after his last two more serious films.
1989 was also the first year that Spielberg released two films, one for the summer season and one in the holiday season. He would repeat this five more times in his career and will probably do it again in 2011
May 1989 - Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
December 1989 - Always
June 1993 - Jurassic park
December 1993 - Schindler's List
June 1997 - The Lost World: Jurassic Park II
December 1997 - Amistad
June 2002 - Minority Report
December 2002 - Catch Me If You Can
June 2005 - War Of The Worlds
December 2005 - Munich
December 2011 - The Adventures Of TinTin: Secrets Of The Unicorn (scheduled)
Unknown 2011 - Lincoln (scheduled)
The Last Crusade is almost identical in structure and pacing to Raiders Of The Lost Ark and is a big improvement over Temple Of Doom. The film also has one addition that takes it beyond just a repeat of the first film with a different treasure. That addition is Sean Connery as Indy's father. Harrison Ford and Connery create a complex father/son dynamic that is almost completely communicated with comedy, and it works. You can tell the actors had a lot of fun with this because all the joy is up there on the screen for the audience to see. Their relationship takes the film in a whole new direction and allows us to enjoy lines such as "Not that Jones! The other one!"
The script is sharp and the search for the Holy Grail a noble goal. Spielberg and his team masterfully manage the production so you end up with a seamless action adventure pic from beginning to end.
At the Movie House rating *** 1/2 stars
2 comments:
Well written review, appropriate rating...and I am not an Indy fan
Any chance of reviewing, There will be blood?
I saw this movie twice recently and each time his acting impressed me more.
Dear Anonymous,
How can you not be an Indy fan? No wonder you are uptight and stingy with your stars, you have no sense of adventure left in you.
I plan on viewing There Will be Blood sometime soon. Watch for my comments.
Want to see a great actor like Daniel Day Lewis completely miscast, watch the movie Nine based on the Broadway musical. he fails completely to portray the obsessions and excesses of a famous Italian filmmaker. But the music is nice and the woman are good to look at.
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