Kevin's Watch

www.rottentomatoes.com/m/indiana_jones_4/


With 60 reviews logged so far were getting a clearer sense of what to expect from Indy and company. I will see the film in any case however I really wanted the 4th film to make sense and to be a worthy addition to the canon thus far. The reviews are somewhat positive but not overwhelmingly so. There seems to be a lot of "but"s in each review.
I guess I'll just have to see for myself.

I rewatched both Temple of Doom (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and Last Crusade (not so much) this weekend, and I think what everyone needs to remember is that these are silly, cheesy movies, not high art.

I really hope the new one doesn't suck, and I hope they've kept the CGI to a bare minimum (though with Luca$ and $pielberg helming it, that seems unlikely).

I read last night that Speilberg, probably against Lucas' wishes, kept the CGI down in the movie.

Damelon wrote:I read last night that Speilberg, probably against Lucas' wishes, kept the CGI down in the movie.

From the reviews I've read so far it appears Spielberg wasn't entirely successful. There are many complaints of a CGI overdose.

That's really a shame. Part of the charm of the original films is the low-tech approach.

Some of the reviews say the parts they disliked most were the obvious "Ahhh! Run away! Its CGI!!" action moments - yet at the same time, they complain that some of the assumedly-live sets looked 'rickety'? Those two comments don't jive well, in my opinion.
In the earlier movies, the slapdash look of many of the sets added to the appeal - which was either authentic to the in-movie locations/periods, or contributed (in a good way) to the cheese-factor.

dw

I have quite thoroughly enjoyed every Spielberg movie of the past 20 years. (Except for the last 10 minutes of "War of the Worlds"... And "The Lost World") And, most of them in the 20 years before that too. Lucas has been consistently disappointing me, but Spielberg has not. Munich easily ranks as one of the greatest thrillers ever made. Minority Report easily ranks as one of the greatest Sci-Fi movies ever made. Catch Me If You Can easily ranks as one of the greatest caper movies of all time.

It's easy to snub him because of his extreme success. But just maybe, in this case, his success is due to his supreme talent?

Sorry TD. Jaws was the best thing he ever did, the Indy movies are enjoyable, not great, and everything else he's done has been forgettable.

To me, at least.

Goonies was totally awesome. I really want to share it with my kids, but it was made in a day when ten year old kids swear like sailors.

Close Encounters blew me away.

You know, Close Encounters blew me away when I originally saw it, but it hasn't stood the test of time.

I'm expecting nothing but a fun ride. I'll probably be nitpicking afterwards, but I expect when all is said and done I'll have had fun. It seems that it is getting harder to say that with action films lately.

There's nothing forgettable about Schindler's list. It is the only movie I have ever seen that brings me to tears every time I see it. (I could only maybe name five movies ever that even have) The D-Day scene in Saving Private Ryan is permanently ingrained in our collective consciousness. Honestly, I really think most of his best work is fairly recent. A.I. Was a little out of left field from him, but I really enjoyed it. (I was one of few though)

In fact, it's always been curious to me that his movies are so good, and yet so easily dismissed. Take Amistad, another movie that moved me to tears. It's nothing but a footnote to the career of Djimon Husou now. Munich was easily (to me) the best movie of 2006. (Also moved me to tears in the opening sequence, and I knew nothing about the events depicted). It was almost completely, yet fondly, dismissed.

I guess I can understand it from anyone who saw 1941 when it came out.

I felt Temple of Doom was by far the weakest Indiana Jones film. The las Crusade was better to me in that it didn't go overboard on the gory crap, but the effects in it were the worst of the 3 Indy movies. I never liked Jaws; it's interesting that it is so highly regarded. To me it's just another crappy horror flick. Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan were IMO the most powerful films Speilberg ever did.

It's all a matter of taste and preference, of course. Temple is excellent, Raiders is a masterpiece, Crusaders is borderline irrelevant. Jaws is probably his best film. I've always found ET interminable, and his films of the last fifteen-twenty years have seemed for me a mix of totally forgettable (Jurrassic Park 2), excellent (Schindler's List), downright terrible (Terminal), and ridiculously over-rated (Saving Private Ryan). But he's a prolific film maker who probably works more often than he should, probably believes the hype surrounding him too much these days, and is bound to put out some less than satisfactory work.

That he's a great film maker is beyond doubt - he and Lucas, for better or worse, literally changed what American cinema was about with just two films (damn them). However, I would not call him a great film maker in the sense that someone like Kurosawa, Kubrick, Herzog, or Tarkovsky etc were/are great film makers. Very few of Spielberg's films have inspired much profound thought or feeling in me but, well, that's not what he's really about. And again, it's down to preference.

Well put Montressor.

For good or ill Spielberg's films (for the most part) entertain most audiences and make tons of profit for the studios that finance them.
The impact his movies have on me are generally such that I enjoy them when I watch them at the theater but rarely revisit with the exceptions of Jaws, Raiders & Jurassic Park. When I was a kid I loved Close Encounters. Thought ET was cute etc. Nowdays you can't get me to sit and watch them even if there's nothing else on cable.

See, I just rewatched JP, and it was painful. I do still enjoy Minority Report, but I'd hardly call it a cinematic masterpiece.

www.rottentomatoes.com/m/indiana_jones_ ... 8796/1.php

Rotten Tomatoes countdown of Spielberg's best reviewed films.
I guess if you have a difference of opinion about the ratings your argument is with the critics not any one person. Its funny that best reviewed doesn't always equal best performing at the box office.

Cail now has the greatest Avatar of all time.

Good grief. Jaws is still being hugely overrated, IMO; though I admit I cannot suspend disbelief when sitting through any horror flick; they are all just too implausible for my brain. I did like Catch Me If You Can, though I had no idea Speilberg did it. I liked Minority Report at the theatre, but rewatching it proved to be painful.; I just saw way too many glaring plot holes the second time through. Cail's Avatar was justly killed by the Three Amigos.