For the love of god, and all that is holy, avoid the new Indiana Jones movie.

[Murgos]

I didn't actually have that much of a problem with the nuke scene.  One of the major things that came out of those tests was that the immediate blast was survivable, hence all the "Duck and Cover" stuff from the cold war era.  The wave front travels in a straight line, get below the level of the ground, like in a ditch, and it goes right over you.  There is footage of tests with live soldiers near ground zero in ditches waiting out the blasts.

Getting into the fridge was the wrong move and certainly would have been a deadly decision but I chalked it up to 'light humor'.

[NiX]

I had a good time for my $5 and that's what I was after.

I paid $12 and 50 fucking cents. TOO MUCH FOR WHAT I GOT!

[Kitsune]

Holy shit, Merusk is posting through a time-portal to 1989!  That explains so much.

[schild]

Or he's 65 and got his AARP discount at a Matinee showing.

[Merusk]

AMC theaters in Cincy show movies for $5 if you go before noon.    It's the only reason I still go to theaters.

Also, wtf was up with the Cinematography in the movie?  I don't normally notice things like this, but the scene in the diner between Indy and Mud was horrible.  I wanted to know if Spielberg was fucking the blonde extra at the table behind them because for 80% of it she took up as much of the screen as Shia and Harrison.

Oh, and 'fuzzy filters' and extreme over lighting don't give you a "50's feeling," Steve.  They just make it obvious you're trying to cover up your lead's age and wrinkles.

[Riggswolfe]

Ok, I saw it yesterday. You guys know I'm a forgiving movie-goer because I liked most of the prequel trilogy. This movie was...ok. I left feeling unsatisfied and trying to figure out why, then it hit me.

We were cheated out of the Indy action. Time and again Indy would leap onto a movie vehicle, then the camera would cut to a low angle beside the truck/car/jeep/whatever and you'd hear a punch sound effect then show a bad guy falling down. This happened alot and it was my biggest "non-vine swinging" issue. If Harrison Ford is too old to do the fight scenes then call it a day guys!

Oh, and on the magnetism, they sort of "explained" it later. Remember in the tomb when they find the skull and Indy says something like "gold isn't magnetic" when it gets stuck to the skull. That wasn't magnetism as we know it.

Edit: The chase scene encapsulates why I didn't enjoy this movie that much. The Shia Lebouf stuff was cool (other than the vines, even the nut slapping didn't bother me really.) But it had to be. Why? Because Indy's main contribution was...driving. And watching the action.

[Phildo]

Except for, you know, him swinging from his whip and landing on the hood of the Commie's car then hitting the guy in the face?  Or jumping across the tops of huge stacks of boxes full of military secrets?  He got a little action at the beginning, at least.

And saying "oh, it's LIKE magnetism and has all the same properties, except it's intelligent and can turn itself off and on at a whim... oh, and it IS magnetic when we need it to be" is bullshit.

[Venkman]

I didn't really notice much less Indy-action than in prior flicks. He still had the whip swinging. He did that thing with the two assailants when he and Shia visit the temple. He had the usual fight against the big baddy, with camera work that was reminiscent of Raiders (remember, that was not filmed as a boxing matched either, a lot of sfx and implied stuff). All in all, Harrison Ford came off looking better than I do, 28 years his junior

[Riggswolfe]

Except for, you know, him swinging from his whip and landing on the hood of the Commie's car then hitting the guy in the face?  Or jumping across the tops of huge stacks of boxes full of military secrets?  He got a little action at the beginning, at least.

And saying "oh, it's LIKE magnetism and has all the same properties, except it's intelligent and can turn itself off and on at a whim... oh, and it IS magnetic when we need it to be" is bullshit.

It started off well but after that it was mostly implied action with a the big fist fight near the end being a major exception.

[Morat20]

I thought it was fine. It wasn't Robot Jesus, but fuck -- it's an Indiana Jones movie.

Look, the first one was a straight-up homage to old-time serials, right? The second kept the serial feel, but Spielburg was going for the feel of the 40s/50s big costume epics. Hell, the opening to Temple of Doom practically shouted "Hey, you know Gunga Din? Keep that in mind. We're working with that feel, okay?"

I'm a little iffy on the thrid -- I think he just went back to the original formula and did it again.

This one -- straight up serial + Red Menace film. You think the Russians were campy and stilted because Spielbrug thought "hey, that's Communists for you!". They were that way because that's flat-out how Communists were portrayed.

As for space aliens -- well hell, that was the tenor of the times. That was the era of Roswell, the nuclear bomb (they mentioned both right off the fucking top), when America started pushing science and engineering because we had to stay ahead of the commies. Both sides were chasing psychics even. (And I like Stargate, so I'd already seen the OMG the Skulls are alien tech storyline). Even the ending was straight-up Red Menace films (the solid American Hero always got his happy ending after the Reds were defeated).

So the aliens didn't bug me. I never associated Indiana Jones with "religious archealogy" -- and hell, I'm an atheist so the glowy Ark of the Covenent is no more weird to me than space aliens. Sure, parts of it were ridiculous. It's Indiana Jones, and its roots trace to the ridiculous notion that when you see the hereos' plane going down, to certain doom -- there's always a parachute the hero forgot to mention. He could be naked and he'd find one while falling.

Ridiculous Russians, vine-swinging, space aliens -- if you've moving the story to the 50s, there's nothing else you can use. The Soviets were more fans of blowing up old ruins, not exploring them.

Admittedly, I enjoyed Temple of Doom a LOT more after I saw Gunga Din and a few other period films.

But hey, YMMV. I associate Indiana Jones films with serials/pulp based versions of one film genre or another. Not Nazis and Christian artifacts. I can't help but think a lot of people went in with 25+ years of expectations. It was fucking light-years better than, say, the Phantom Menance. :)

Of course, I also was drinking when I saw it...:)

[WayAbvPar]

I was surprisingly unannoyed by it overall. The refrigerator nuke scene and the vine swinging scene made me want to gouge my eyes out, but the rest of it was pulpy goodness. Definitely not a deep movie, but fine for a blockbuster summer shut off your brain movie.

[crawford]

I didn't really dig the whole Mutt Williams character, but the Sean Connery as Indy's dad bit in "Last Crusade" was kind of cheesy as well.

The one thing that pissed me off was that there were no live creepy-crawlies getting dumped on the actors. If Spielberg had to put Shia in the movie, the least he could have done is thrown real scorpions on him instead of CGI ones. He covered Doc Ock with tarantulas in Raiders, and dropped Ford into that pit of cobras. Then he covered Ford, Capshaw and Short Round with giant bugs and spiders in Temple of Doom, and there was the rat scene in Last Crusade.

I guess the ants were that Indy staple, and it was a cool scene. But I was kind of expecting to see real bugs. 

[Morat20]

I didn't really dig the whole Mutt Williams character, but the Sean Connery as Indy's dad bit in "Last Crusade" was kind of cheesy as well.

The one thing that pissed me off was that there were no live creepy-crawlies getting dumped on the actors. If Spielberg had to put Shia in the movie, the least he could have done is thrown real scorpions on him instead of CGI ones. He covered Doc Ock with tarantulas in Raiders, and dropped Ford into that pit of cobras. Then he covered Ford, Capshaw and Short Round with giant bugs and spiders in Temple of Doom, and there was the rat scene in Last Crusade.

I guess the ants were that Indy staple, and it was a cool scene. But I was kind of expecting to see real bugs. 

I suspect CGI is, all around, less expensive, safer, and less stressful for the actors when it comes to creepy-crawlies. Sure they're getting paid a lot of money to do it, but....hell, working with real live animals is always a hassle. (I'm always amused in Raiders when I see the glass keeping the snakes away from Harrison Ford. I also know that no amount of money would have me do some of the scenes in Indiana Jones with real bugs.).

Mutt Williams was too heavily telegraphed to be who he was (sorry, trying not to be TOO spoilery). The comb and switchblade were overly-clever analogs to the whip and hat. I thought the  Easy Rider homage was a nice, actually. John Williams's score was, as usual, stellar. There's some nice musical cues in there if you were listening. :)

I think the pitfall with Indiana Jones in general is that the line between "cheesy" and "homage" is pretty thin, depending on how familiar you are with the source works and if you're viewing it the way the director wants you to. Some movies (Galaxy Quest, True Lies, the first Scream) can manage a homage/parody and STILL make a perfectly serviceable genre piece even if you didn't get the jokes.

Indiana Jones isn't parody, it isn't genre, it's some sort of mash-up of the two, and the line veers wildly back and forth. I used to loathe Temple of Doom and have really come around on it after watching it more recently.

[WayAbvPar]

John Williams's score was, as usual, stellar.

We sat through the full credits just to listen to it. Just great stuff.

[crawford]

I suspect CGI is, all around, less expensive, safer, and less stressful for the actors when it comes to creepy-crawlies. Sure they're getting paid a lot of money to do it, but....hell, working with real live animals is always a hassle. (I'm always amused in Raiders when I see the glass keeping the snakes away from Harrison Ford. I also know that no amount of money would have me do some of the scenes in Indiana Jones with real bugs.).

No shit, it's stressful on the actors. That's what makes it fun to watch. It's much more fun to watch an actress waist-deep in a pool foaming with hundreds of rats than it is to watch a woman pretending to be waist deep in rats in front of a green screen.

Will Ferrell grappled with a live bear in "Semi Pro." The least Spielberg could have done was throw some real scorpions on Shia.

[tazelbain]

Indiana Jones and Expectations Game.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Indiana Jones and Expectations Game.

Well as to live animals i completely agree, lucas and spielberg seem to have a hard on for CG and that really turns me off. Iron man would be a good example of cg done right where sometimes you get the cg but other times you see an actual suit to give definition,

[Aez]

Fear not my friends, it's over. 

http://arnoldendsit.ytmnd.com/

[Trippy]

Will Ferrell grappled with a live bear in "Semi Pro." The least Spielberg could have done was throw some real scorpions on Shia.

That bear killed one of its trainers recently.

[Murgos]

Will Ferrell grappled with a live bear in "Semi Pro." The least Spielberg could have done was throw some real scorpions on Shia.

That bear killed one of its trainers recently.

Probably when they told him they needed to free up time in his schedule to shoot Semi Pro 2.

[Chimpy]

So I went to see it yesterday.

I was not really expecting much, but I was also not overly impressed with what I did get.

The whole aliens made slaves of the meso-american cultures schtick annoyed me, but meh.


What bothers me the most is that I was sure Michael Bay was going to rape my childhood memories like I was forced onto the pinball machine in The Accused with the Transformers movie last summer. And I actually really liked that movie. I expected Spielberg to at least give me something on par with Temple of Doom, and was not given that.

People in Hollywood have lost touch with the artform.

[JoeTF]

I didn't actually have that much of a problem with the nuke scene.  One of the major things that came out of those tests was that the immediate blast was survivable, hence all the "Duck and Cover" stuff from the cold war era.  The wave front travels in a straight line, get below the level of the ground, like in a ditch, and it goes right over you.  There is footage of tests with live soldiers near ground zero in ditches waiting out the blasts.

Getting into the fridge was the wrong move and certainly would have been a deadly decision but I chalked it up to 'light humor'.

I always though that those duck and roll yourself in bed sheet was to make body disposal and identification easier (they wouldn't have to use body bags).

[Murgos]

I always though that those duck and roll yourself in bed sheet was to make body disposal and identification easier (they wouldn't have to use body bags).

I don't know where you're from but duck and cover doesn't mean roll yourself in a sheet.  It means get under a solid object.

[HAMMER FRENZY]

Although there was some silly parts to the new Indy movie, I still was pretty entertained all the way through. I don't think it was as good as the other stuff, (for me it falls around the Tomb level in quality) I am still happy I saw it and I would still buy it when it comes out to complete my set. It was one hell of a popcorn flick.

I didn't go in with really high expectations and the things that really annoyed other people didn't really get to me in the slightest. I think the alien stuff could have been better done and implied in  a way that was not so silly, but it was all still enjoyable for me.

Oddly enough, I had heard that the aim of this was to get new youth fans and my kid who really like Indy said he still really enjoyed this one and immediately went back to watch the other ones and said that he felt the movie fit in pretty decently.


On another note, for the toy collectors out there, is it me or are the new Indy toys fucking god-awful? Really they suck like no tomorrow, and they are really popular amongst many toy collectors. It is really crazy. Nasty looking little action figures they are... 

[Fabricated]

I saw it yesterday. It was an Indiana Jones movie with George "There is never enough CG" Lucas shit all over it. Holy fuck can we please stop with the ultra wide shots with the over-processed colors and overwrought CG? The whole secret of the skull thing was pretty retarded as well. It wasn't terrible IMO but it felt like...half an Indy movie. I don't know how to put my finger on it, it wasn't bad IMO, but it felt like I had watched a 30 minute episode of an Indiana Jones TV show instead of a 2 hour movie.

[Jayce]

I feel like this movie was the polar opposite of the first three Star Wars movies (by number) - Phantom Attack of the Sith was a good concept ruined by Lucas's terrible dialog and pacing; this Indy movie was a terrible Lucas-influenced story saved by decent writing and direction.

[UnSub]

I suspect CGI is, all around, less expensive, safer, and less stressful for the actors when it comes to creepy-crawlies. Sure they're getting paid a lot of money to do it, but....hell, working with real live animals is always a hassle. (I'm always amused in Raiders when I see the glass keeping the snakes away from Harrison Ford. I also know that no amount of money would have me do some of the scenes in Indiana Jones with real bugs.).

No shit, it's stressful on the actors. That's what makes it fun to watch. It's much more fun to watch an actress waist-deep in a pool foaming with hundreds of rats than it is to watch a woman pretending to be waist deep in rats in front of a green screen.

In "Temple" during the bug scene, Kate Capshaw was apparently drugged to the eyeballs to even go onto the set because she hated / feared the bugs so much. I'll leave you to create your own jokes about how it impacted on her performance.

I think Alison Doody in "Crusade" was a bit icked out at having rats in her hair, but she wasn't phobic about them.

Also having seen "Crystal Skull" and "Transformers" in close relation, I really, really, really don't get the Shia buzz. He comes across to me as a flat actor who isn't even that pretty to look at. I can at least see the appeal of Josh Harnett, even if his performances should attract termites.

[Chimpy]

Also having seen "Crystal Skull" and "Transformers" in close relation, I really, really, really don't get the Shia buzz. He comes across to me as a flat actor who isn't even that pretty to look at. I can at least see the appeal of Josh Harnett, even if his performances should attract termites.

People think he is "funny" in a young Tom Hanks kind of way. (He really isn't, but I have actually heard people compare him to the younger Tom Hanks).

He comes across as a dork to me.

[Murgos]

People think he is "funny" in a young Tom Hanks kind of way. (He really isn't, but I have actually heard people compare him to the younger Tom Hanks).

He comes across as a dork to me.

Have you seen Bosom Buddies?  Dork is exactly what a young Tom Hanks was.

[Chimpy]

People think he is "funny" in a young Tom Hanks kind of way. (He really isn't, but I have actually heard people compare him to the younger Tom Hanks).

He comes across as a dork to me.

Have you seen Bosom Buddies?  Dork is exactly what a young Tom Hanks was.

Yes, and Bosom Buddies was good stuff.

But Shia is no Tom Hanks. I should have put "unfunny" before "dork" in my original post I suppose.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Big > transformers

[Teleku]

Big > transformers

shotgun to the face > transformers

[Paelos]

Big > transformers

shotgun to the face > transformers

The toys are fun though.

[Phildo]

Constantine > Transformers

[Der Helm]

Constantine > Transformers

Oh god, I agree.