A couple of weeks ago, Dick Staub, Jennie Spohr, Greg Wright, and I discussed Iron Man, Standard Operating Procedure; The Visitor; I’m Not There; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; Steel City; and the upcoming summer blockbusters that we’re hoping will turn out to be worth seeing… like Indiana Jones, Get Smart, Wall-E, The Dark Knight and Hellboy 2.
Of course, Indiana Jones has already opened now, and I’ve seen it twice.
But in the meantime, you can listen in on our conversations (and debates!) about these films here.
i’d love to read your thoughts on indy4 as i really can’t believe you made it through two viewings. personally i barely made it though one.
Did you read my review?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/2008/indianajones4.html
It’s a movie for the imaginations of ten-year-olds.
Or better, it’s a movie for the imaginations of grown-ups who want to be reminded about how much fun it was to watch real people have looney-toons adventures when they were ten years old.
All three sequels to Raiders of the Lost Ark have ventured further and further into the ludicrous, and if you don’t go to enjoy the hilarity of seeing impossible play out before your eyes, then you’re not going to have much fun.
Personally, I love Ford’s performance. I didn’t know he could still be the same Indy that I used to love. He is, even if the world around him is zanier than ever.
I’m thrilled, grinning ear to ear, when he and Marion are reunited.
The stunts and action are a little more artificial (and, sadly, digitized) than they used to be, but I expected that would be the case from George “The Faker, the Better” Lucas.
And the story lacks the heart and soul that made Raiders and Last Crusade the best films in the series.
But it’s so much more fun than Temple of Doom, which was all doom and gloom, and which featured the most annoying sidekicks of the franchise.
For all of its ludicrous, frivolous antics, there really is a theme… “the nuclear family” (pun intended). And for Indy, well, it’s about time he learned something about accountability, relationship, and responsibility. So even if Last Crusade was a better series-closing chapter, at least this “bonus story” wraps up a few loose ends and teaches Indy one of his most important lessons.
Jeffrey,
Somehow I missed your formal review. Before posting earlier I did a cursory look around LookingCloser to see if I could find it but didn’t think to check CT.
I don’t know, I can certainly see your points. I wanted to like it and certainly didn’t hate it, but it still didn’t do it for me. I think I might just need to distance myself from Lucas as it seems that I can’t get past my dislike of him these days to enjoy his material. I don’t know.
Did you review Iron Man? To me, that has been the most fun movie of the summer so far.
Peace,
Nathan
Just for the record, I think my own favorite movie of the summer so far might be … Speed Racer. Not only is it the most interesting of the would-be blockbusters visually and so forth, but its exploration of family — the father-son and brother-brother dynamic, in particular — actually moved me, ever so slightly, in a way that Iron Man (a fine pilot episode, but I’m still waiting for the series), Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones did not.