Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Plot Outline: Indiana Jones goes on the hunt for a sacred stone which was stolen from an Indian village. His search leads him to discover an underground Thuggee cult, which has stolen the stone and forced the children of the village in slave labour. It's up to Dr. Jones to retrieve the stone and free the children.

The Review: I don't see why this has such bad press. I have never considered this film to be the weakest link in the Indiana Jones trilogy (I feel that honour goes to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and actually when I was younger, I felt that this was the best. As I've grown older I have realised that this is not the case but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is still the second best in the series. In reality, all of the films are superb and much like the original Star Wars trilogy, it's really hard to pick a favourite out. It is true that this film gets gory and violent (you get to see men have their hearts ripped out and watch as a man gets crushed to death under a huge stone crusher) but what people forget is that Raiders of the Lost Ark had people's faces and skulls melting away, not to mention big Germans getting shredded up courtesy of aeroplane propellers. This film does have a very dark and sinister edge to it though, with slavery, child labour and other nasties being thrown into the fray. Harrison Ford is as great as ever and needs no introduction. The man easily slots into just about any role given to him. Jonathan Ke Quan isn't as annoying as 'Short-Round' as you might expect from being the main kid role (as is the case so often that the kid leads are terrible). His accent gets annoying but has a certain Young Indiana Jones quality about him that helps. However Kate Capshaw is definitely annoying as the female lead role, who screams at just about anything that moves or looks at her, not to mention continually gets herself into trouble. It's insulting when we get bombarded with stupid females in these films but hey, that's Hollywood for you. This film also contains some of the most famous of the Indiana Jones scenes including the thrilling mine cart chase and the cliffhanger finale on top of the rope bridge. These are classic scenes which have been re-created and spoofed countless times since. Surely if this wasn't as good as people say it is, then these scenes would have been forgotten about (name one famous cinematic scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that has been spoofed- can't can you?). Even the hilarious opening where Indiana Jones is poisoned and he tries to retrieve it in the nightclub is brilliant.

Final Verdict: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a great action/adventure film and despite it's unwanted and undeserved criticism, it's about a hundred times better than anything anyone else could do. As with so many excellent sequels, it just followed an exceptional film and was in a lose/lose situation from the start. Long live Indiana Jones.

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