Ever the atypical one, this has long been my favourite of the trilogy thanks to the fact that I saw it at a young, impressionable age and that its stuck in my heart ever since. Maybe it's the constant stream of action or the numerous macabre and downright horrific aspects of the tale that appealed to me at such a young age, but I still can't see why people are so down on this movie. Sure, there's plenty of unwanted comic relief, some of it stupid, but at least Spielberg still kept the sentimentalism out of his films at this stage. As a roller-coaster ride (literally too, at one point) of special effects and bad guys getting whacked, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM is a fantastic popcorn movie and one that can be watched over and over.
Harrison Ford had by now settled comfortably into the role of Indy like a glove and puts in an assured, wisecracking, heroic but human performance just like in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK - with the addition that he now has to act "evil" too after getting possessed by evil blood (see, I told you it was horror-tinged) in one scene. Aside from Kate Capshaw, saddled with a hugely grating blonde bimbo sidekick/love interest character, the rest of the cast is made up of either Chinese, Japanese, or Indians, guys who do pretty well with their respective caricatures - particularly impressive is the downright demonic Amrish Puri who glows pure evil as the bad guy Mola Ram. Kudos too to Jonathan Ke Quan as a child sidekick who isn't too annoying (compared to the similar kid in RED SONJA a year later, he's magnificent).
The movie jumps from one outlandish action sequence to next, bound together by great locales and hummable tunes. A shoot-out (at the Obi Wan restaurant, a not-so-subtle joke imposed by George Lucas as executive producer) is followed by a jump from a plane on to a dinghy (!), rides through the jungle on elephant back, sacrificial rites in an underground Satanic temple, near death perils, a wild mine cart ride, and finally an outstanding finale on a rope bridge overlooking a crocodile-infested river. The special effects are very good (especially the back/forward projection during the excellent mine cart sequence), and the film enjoys plenty of in-jokes like references to the first movie (Indy's run from a flood instead of a giant stone ball, his attempt to defeat two skilled swordsman in a same manner as he did previously only to be thwarted).
The horror elements include a gruesome banquet (consisting of sheep's eyeball soup, boiled beetles, snake, and monkey brains - a great highlight as a kid), mouldering corpses, creepy-crawlies, hearts being ripped out, human sacrifice, and voodoo, and also a perfect death for the chief baddie as he gets torn apart by crocs. Plus all the near-death escapes from falling ceilings and spikes in the same style as the first movie. The body count is huge, with dozens of bad guys snuffing it in one way or another, it's amazing that this was PG when a similar film like COMMANDO was strictly 18. A third film, INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, followed five years later and added Sean Connery to the brew with reduced success - this is as perfect a brain switch-off blockbuster movie as you are likely to get.
Harrison Ford had by now settled comfortably into the role of Indy like a glove and puts in an assured, wisecracking, heroic but human performance just like in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK - with the addition that he now has to act "evil" too after getting possessed by evil blood (see, I told you it was horror-tinged) in one scene. Aside from Kate Capshaw, saddled with a hugely grating blonde bimbo sidekick/love interest character, the rest of the cast is made up of either Chinese, Japanese, or Indians, guys who do pretty well with their respective caricatures - particularly impressive is the downright demonic Amrish Puri who glows pure evil as the bad guy Mola Ram. Kudos too to Jonathan Ke Quan as a child sidekick who isn't too annoying (compared to the similar kid in RED SONJA a year later, he's magnificent).
The movie jumps from one outlandish action sequence to next, bound together by great locales and hummable tunes. A shoot-out (at the Obi Wan restaurant, a not-so-subtle joke imposed by George Lucas as executive producer) is followed by a jump from a plane on to a dinghy (!), rides through the jungle on elephant back, sacrificial rites in an underground Satanic temple, near death perils, a wild mine cart ride, and finally an outstanding finale on a rope bridge overlooking a crocodile-infested river. The special effects are very good (especially the back/forward projection during the excellent mine cart sequence), and the film enjoys plenty of in-jokes like references to the first movie (Indy's run from a flood instead of a giant stone ball, his attempt to defeat two skilled swordsman in a same manner as he did previously only to be thwarted).
The horror elements include a gruesome banquet (consisting of sheep's eyeball soup, boiled beetles, snake, and monkey brains - a great highlight as a kid), mouldering corpses, creepy-crawlies, hearts being ripped out, human sacrifice, and voodoo, and also a perfect death for the chief baddie as he gets torn apart by crocs. Plus all the near-death escapes from falling ceilings and spikes in the same style as the first movie. The body count is huge, with dozens of bad guys snuffing it in one way or another, it's amazing that this was PG when a similar film like COMMANDO was strictly 18. A third film, INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, followed five years later and added Sean Connery to the brew with reduced success - this is as perfect a brain switch-off blockbuster movie as you are likely to get.