Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Sadly Over-hyped

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I feel like not much happens in this movie... I always heard of Indy's great adventures but I didn't find it really exciting... Sorry!

Indie's on a quest to find Shiva lingam, and save a village, and rescues some kiddies on the way. I saw this twice in 1984 at the cinema; it was genuinely scary and suspenseful. Some of those set pieces were great. It's a good movie, and if nothing else it brought Kate Capshaw and Spielberg together. Some of it was shot in Sri Lanka. Feminists hated this film.

This is the one film of the Indiana Jones series that I've always been divided upon, when I was young and would watch all these movies over and over again this was the one I would watch the least, mainly because of how scary I found it to be. I re-watched this film again recently and appreciated it a lot more and while it is defiantly my least favourite Indy film it's probably the most admirable one. I loved that this film decided to go for a darker and more gritty tone, it was good to see that Spielberg and Lucas weren't interested in recreating Raiders of The Lost Ark, they made this film stand on its own by making it a fairly scary movie. The blood magic and death cult additions were set up as a very imposing threat that I was always freaked out by. Even though Spielberg has come out and said that he didn't think this was the right choice I respectfully disagree. The use of location was done in a perfect way in this film, the use of the India and the actual Temple of Doom look stunning but they really do give you a sense of dread that the other films didn't, it makes the main story of this movie a truly undesirable situation. This is definitely the most atmospheric of the Indiana Jones films and in many ways the most risky one. The now iconic characters in this movie are some of my favourites of the series. Short Round was the perfect sidekick for this film, he was really funny and had great chemistry with Jones yet you got the sense that he could stand on his one and added a lot to this movie. Mola Ram was a great villain, he didn't have much in the way of motivation but he was definitely the creepiest villain of the franchise. Willie on the other hand added absolutely nothing to this film, I understand that the filmmakers were trying to do something different from Marion in Raiders but they didn't do anything that made her as good as that character. She does nothing in this film but complain and scream, Indiana and Short around have to keep rescuing her over and over again, she slowed down the plot and dragged the film down quite a bit. Another big issue I have with this film is that the prequel concept was completely wasted, it could have been a really good opportunity to show a less experienced character in a scenario he doesn't know how to deal with but instead it just seems like the same for him. It would have been good to see the film pick up after Raiders and see how he came out of that situation for the better and see how he applied his experiences for that film to this one. I really do like this movie, its defiantly my Keats favourite of the four but it's no less enjoyable than the others. It's takes and darker and more mature tone, a great sense of location and new characters but other new characters don't fair as well and they didn't really do anything with the prequel concept. It scared me when I first saw it and it still does to this day.8.1/10: A- (Fantastic)

My opinion of this film has improved over the years. There is much to criticize about this film. It's much more violent than "Raiders" yet I totally agree with Roger Ebert who also gives it 4 thumbs up. The opening sequence has nothing at all to do with the rest of it, as it pays homage to every James Bond movie ever made, plus a very sly reference to the "Chinese Cuties" (wearing practically nothing) dance number from "International House", an old W.C. Field's classic! The grossest banquet in history at the boy-shah's palace. Eyeballs and chilled monkey brains. Moving insects for dinner! Fantastic sets and a fabulous "legend of the enchanted stones" that must be returned to the native people to restore peace and harmony. Non-stop action from the beginning to the end. The shaman that pulls beating hearts from his victim's chests as they explode and burn up as fireballs! Many memorable and nightmarish scenarios. The best roller coaster mine ride ever filmed. A movie that stands on it's own and is not just another sequel.