The big wheeze
May 8, 2008The advance word on this new Indiana Jones movie is pretty bleak – considering how tired the whole franchise had become, 10 minutes into the second movie, the prospect of a fourth go-round with two decades of extra cobwebs sounds like pure chloroform.
In fact, hardly any of the big popcorn movies front-loaded this summer sound like they’re worth the trouble. The new Narnia movie is a big deal for Dances With Mermaids, so I guess I’ll be duty-bound to take her to that. I prefer my memories of Speed Racer as a daffy, crummy looking cartoon from Japan, as opposed to a daffy special effects spectacle from the Wachowskis. (Remember their lean, sardonic debut — Bound? More of that less-is-more spirit in the future, guys.) Iron Man is supposed to be good, but I’m not a comics fanboy – maybe I’ll rent it.
I took another look at Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom last night and I’d forgotten the sheer balls-out nastiness of the thing, with its army of enslaved children being whipped and burned, the gross-out banquet of bugs and brains, and the coarse insult-slinging between Harrison Ford and Kate Capshaw serving as a poor replacement for the fizzy banter with Karen Allen from the original movie. Except for the fleet-footed opening sequence in the Shanghai nightclub, the movie was leaden and coldhearted, with endless action scenes and moments of gore that courted an R rating. I’d forgotten that the uproar over this movie led to creation of the PG-13 rating. If I’d taken my kids to the movie, I’d have been pissed off too.
The Dark Knight looks really interesting, chiefly because of Heath Ledger’s fresh, weird take on the Joker, which should be a big improvement on Jack Nicholson’s overrated hamming. I’ll want to see that one in the theater.
May 9, 2008 at 7:09 am
The preview for Indy IV is a tedious re-hash of gimmicks from the other films, two of which were themselves tedious.
I may see it in order to cast aspersions a la Ignatius J. Reilly. “Filth!”
May 11, 2008 at 4:30 pm
See Iron Man. I gather the fanboys enjoyed it too, but it’s barely even a comic-book movie.
I guess there’s no real reason NOT to wait for the DVD–the sweep of the film ain’t epic, and the action setpieces are few and perfunctory–but Downey’s performance really is as good as you’ve heard, and the rest of the cast clearly came to play. You don’t get many opportunities to see actors having that much fun on the big screen.
May 14, 2008 at 9:19 am
I’m wondering about the new Narnia movie. All the commercials have the stunning one-word review-bits IN REALLY BIG LETTERS but the name of the reviewer being blurbed is in veeeeerrrryyyy tiiinnny letters.
Makes you wonder if the film is going to stink.