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| Harrison
Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth,
Roy Chiao |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Willie (Kate Capshaw): You're gonna
get killed chasing after your damn fortune and glory!
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford): Maybe. But not today.
In India, Indiana Jones agrees to
look for a village's lost magic stone and in doing so, stumbles
onto a secret Thuggee cult.
 The
oft-maligned sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark
caused the MPAA to invent their PG-13 rating and has subsequently
been more or less disowned by Lucas and Spielberg. Similar in some
ways to Batman
Returns, it's
one of those weird, rare sequels that takes the heroes and situations
from the
original film into strange, dark territory that may not sit well
with family audiences, but that offers some of the most memorable
sequences in the franchise in spite of the film's rather unbalanced
nature. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, with its
child abuse, human sacrifices and torture scenes, is the least
popular of the three films in the Indy cycle, but its breakneck
pace, technical ingenuity and willingness to go over the top make
it refreshingly original sequel that deserves a better rap even
with its obvious flaws.
Foremost among them is the screenplay's dearth of good dialogue,
stapling together clichés and bad jokes where the other
two films succeeded in combining exciting action scenes with a
witty lightness
of touch in the writing. The ill-conceived Willie Scott character
bears the brunt of the screenplay's poor construction, in a demeaning
role that requires her to do nothing but run, scream and utter
witless observations and lame retorts. The film's pacing (or rather:
lack
thereof) is
also a problem, starting off with a nigh-on perfect opening reel
with more action than most other action movies hold in their entirety,
the film then slows down for too long before ending in a frenetic
final hour of wall-to-wall action. Each moment of tension and excitement
is topped by another, even more outrageous set-piece, leaving the
viewer fatigued and worn-out rather than invigorated.
But in spite of all this, Temple of Doom holds many of
the series' most memorable moments: the impeccably timed scene
with the spiked-ceiling room; the goofy excitement of the minecar
chase; the perfectly judged chaos of the diamond/antidote scramble
on the floor of Club Obi Wan; and of course, the classic rope bridge
finale. Peppered with dark thrills and breathless action, it's
the gutsiest
film in the cycle, and one that deserves a second shot at fortune
and glory. |
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Released for Region 1 and 2
in identical four-disc box sets that include all three Indiana
Jones films and a fourth disc of extras.
The anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 2.35:1. Fully
restored by Lowry Digital Images like all three movies in
the collection, Temple of Doom has slightly better
image quality even than the already highly impressive first
film in the cycle. This film has hardly any soft moments
in it at all, while colors are similarly pronounced and detail
is incrediblby rich throughout. There have been no digital
'enhancements' to the film, though the UK version has been
trimmed down in its more intense sequences to secure a milder
rating. Other European territories carry the original cut
also found on the US release.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound mix is another room-filling surround
sound experience, with slightly better fidelity to the music
and effects than the first film, and strong use of the surround
channels in action sequences and supporting the orchestral
score.
See our separate
review of disc four, which contains all the
extras in this box set. The
elaborately animated menu screens were clearly meant to reproduce
the design of Drew Struzan's poster art, but really just give you
a headache with their fuzzily rendered scene outlines.
Noah
Eamon
Reviewed:
October 27, 2003
Click
here for IMDB info on Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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