Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), directed by Steven Spielberg.
A Hindu village prays for a deliverer. They get Indiana Jones & Co. Luckily for them he takes their sacred stones more seriously than he does the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail.
It's grim, the worst of the series (so far) and the years have not improved it. The comedy is forced and irritating. The thrills are repellent. The future Mrs Spielberg's screaming could have been turned down from 17 to say 11.
And this hokey subplot with Indy drinking blood, getting flogged, becoming the bad Indy, later controlled by a voodoo doll: I know they were trying to recapture the adventure serials of childhood, but they could have tried harder. Maybe Lawrence Kasdan could have made it work?
Notes:
In the opening segment Indy gives up his relic and doesn't get the diamond. Loser. And why did he want the diamond: was it just loot?
Of course he'll have a kid companion when bullets are flying. We totally believe that.
The doom temple is built over a Hell Hole. How do you get one of those?
I kind of like the chief villain, Mola Ram. He has a lively wit and can rip out phantom (?) hearts.
The low rent script makes him rave about world domination, a pity.
(a) What's that monster water tank for in the mines? and (b) it is not large enough to cause that flood.
Why do the evil minions have rifles in one scene and bows in the next?
They don't eat that food in India. Never have.
Available on Blu-ray.
