Since TOD and KOTCS have their own threads I figured I'd paste my comments from a recent viewing of TLC here, and allow for further discussion of the third entry in the series:
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - 7.5/10
I finally came to the realization that this film isn't so much a sequel as it is a reboot of the entire series (consciously or unconsciously due to the bad taste TOD left in Spielberg's mouth.) The emasculated, Beta-male, gay-painter-disguise wearing, used-and-abused-by-women Indy for most of the movie most certainly was not the same man who just two/three years prior (going by movie chronology) faced down an entire thuggee cult and Belloq and the Nazis and had a "take her or leave her" approach to beautiful celebrity women he encountered. The prologue with River Phoenix just further cements the fact that with TLC they just cleared the palette and started from scratch.
TLC isn't a throwback to adventure serials of decades past, it has more in common with wacky 80's action comedies like Top Secret or Jewel of the Nile than even other Indy movies themselves. Tom Hanks or Val Kilmer could have easily played the lead in TLC, as its almost certainly a parody of itself for most of the film, and you wouldn't even notice. Heck it might have even been a better movie because it would have been easier to "get" the jokes.
I'd be more upset over it being such a poor representation of the Indy we knew from Raiders and TOD (he's every bit as emasculated in TLC as Vader became in the PT or Han was in the SW:SE) if it wasn't such a DARN GOOD father/son adventure comedy. Its a reboot, and a lesser version of the character on top of that, but it has a real heart, some fantastic action sequences, and is genuinely funny! Even umpteen times watching the movie I still chuckle when Henry drops the lighter on the rug, shoots up the tail of their biplane, and says "You call this archaeology?" As a cartoony adventure with even cartoonier villains, its a riot.
It does do harm to the character of Indy if you take all the films as one continuous story, but it doesn't need to. Each Indy film, with the possible exception of KOTCS, introduces the character as if its the first chapter in the story and closes out the movie with him getting the girl/getting married/riding off into the sunset. Very easy to compartmentalize the chapters and mix and max the genres to accentuate the aspects of Indy that you, the viewer, like most.
TLC is lesser, dismissable, even at times uninspired--but its still a fun, appreciated, and even "worthy" chapter in this beloved film franchise. Just make sure you're in the right mood beforehand.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - 7.5/10
I finally came to the realization that this film isn't so much a sequel as it is a reboot of the entire series (consciously or unconsciously due to the bad taste TOD left in Spielberg's mouth.) The emasculated, Beta-male, gay-painter-disguise wearing, used-and-abused-by-women Indy for most of the movie most certainly was not the same man who just two/three years prior (going by movie chronology) faced down an entire thuggee cult and Belloq and the Nazis and had a "take her or leave her" approach to beautiful celebrity women he encountered. The prologue with River Phoenix just further cements the fact that with TLC they just cleared the palette and started from scratch.
TLC isn't a throwback to adventure serials of decades past, it has more in common with wacky 80's action comedies like Top Secret or Jewel of the Nile than even other Indy movies themselves. Tom Hanks or Val Kilmer could have easily played the lead in TLC, as its almost certainly a parody of itself for most of the film, and you wouldn't even notice. Heck it might have even been a better movie because it would have been easier to "get" the jokes.
I'd be more upset over it being such a poor representation of the Indy we knew from Raiders and TOD (he's every bit as emasculated in TLC as Vader became in the PT or Han was in the SW:SE) if it wasn't such a DARN GOOD father/son adventure comedy. Its a reboot, and a lesser version of the character on top of that, but it has a real heart, some fantastic action sequences, and is genuinely funny! Even umpteen times watching the movie I still chuckle when Henry drops the lighter on the rug, shoots up the tail of their biplane, and says "You call this archaeology?" As a cartoony adventure with even cartoonier villains, its a riot.
It does do harm to the character of Indy if you take all the films as one continuous story, but it doesn't need to. Each Indy film, with the possible exception of KOTCS, introduces the character as if its the first chapter in the story and closes out the movie with him getting the girl/getting married/riding off into the sunset. Very easy to compartmentalize the chapters and mix and max the genres to accentuate the aspects of Indy that you, the viewer, like most.
TLC is lesser, dismissable, even at times uninspired--but its still a fun, appreciated, and even "worthy" chapter in this beloved film franchise. Just make sure you're in the right mood beforehand.
Very well said. Right there with you. Same exact age, too.
