Indiana Jones, Revisited

I've realized it's actually been a while since I last saw an Indiana Jones movie. With Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull already out, I thought that it might be a good idea to watch the three previous Indy films before I watch the latest installment in the Indiana Jones series.

So I was able to round up the DVDs of the first three movies, and watched 'em all last week. Here's a quick review.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Note that the first time this movie came out, I was probably 7 or 8. No, I didn't know the entire film was actually set in the 1930s- hence the Nazi Germans and Indy's choice of handguns.

This movie set the tone for all the other Indiana Jones movies, painting us a picture of what Indy is all about- respected archeologist/professor and occasional adventurer. With the trademark fedora hat, bullwhip, leather jacket and WWI-era revolver.

In Raiders of The Lost Ark, the Nazis are scouring the world to recover the legendary Ark of the Covenant (yeah, the one in the bible), with the idea that it makes an army unstoppable. As such, we see Indy prevent them from doing so, and finding the Ark before the Nazis do.

We were also introduced to Rene Belloq, Indy's nemesis in the movie- an archeologist just like him, but in league with the Nazis. We also meet Marion Ravenwood, Indy's love interest, Sallah- an ally in Egypt, and the sinister Gestapo officer Toht.

For its time, the movie did very well: it cost US$20 million to make, but raked in US$384 million worldwide- making it one of the highest grossing films of all time. Raiders of the Lost Ark also bagged a whole lot of awards, including four of its eight nominated Academy Awards. Almost overnight, the Indiana Jones character became a pop culture icon.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

No, I didn't know that it was a prequel- set before the first Indy movie. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was set about a year before, in 1935. This time, Indy has to deal with a bloodthirsty cult, and saves the day by rescuing children and the occasional sacred artifact.

Compared to the first movie, this one had more adventure elements and is more horror-oriented. In fact, we hardly see Indy at his day job as respected archeologist/professor. Rather much more of Indiana Jones the adventurer.

Here's something I didn't know: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actually came up with the PG-13 classification. According to Wikipedia, because of the movie's particularly gruesome scenes,

Spielberg spoke to the MPAA about creating a new rating that would cover the middle ground between a clear PG and a clear R that his films often found themselves on. This led to the creation of a new rating category: PG-13 (which you can read more about here).

Though not as huge as the first, the film was nevertheless, a success. It cost US$28 million to make, and made more than US$333 million worldwide.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

For some reason, the producers decided to go back to the original Indiana Jones formula. Not only do we see the whole Indy character (as a professor and as a globetrotting adventurer), we also get flashbacks into Indiana Jones' childhood- and explains a lot of the trademark elements: why he's scared of snakes, what's up with the fedora hat and the bullwhip, etc.

Some characters from the first movie come back for this one, and once again, Indy is up against the Nazis, who are after the Holy Grail this time.

As we all know, River Phoenix plays the young Indiana Jones (during the backstory elements) and Sean Connery plays Indy's father.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade had a production pricetag of about US$48 million. It turned out to be the biggest movie in 1989, and came back with US$474 million in worldwide box-office sales.


So there you have it. Without a doubt, Indiana Jones does have a reputation to live up to. And personally, I wonder if the latest movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull can hold up its own and achieve that sort of legendary status that the previous three films had managed to accomplish.

Cheers, everyone!

A Quick Review on 2008 Summer Movies

As the TV season has come to a close, what with all your favorites shows airing their finales already, and networks announcing the upcoming fall lineup, you know it's definitely summer.

For some, the summer started as early as mid-March. But even now, the kids are on holiday, the ladies' shorts are just getting shorter, and yeah- summer movies are still pretty much in full swing.

Let's take a quick review at Summer Movies 2008: what we've had so far, and what's headed our way these next several weeks.

May 2008

Definitely the biggest movie this month was Marvel Entertainment's Iron Man. The Jon Favreau-directed live action adaptation of one of the biggest names in the Marvel Universe has paid off very nicely for everyone involved in the project. Indeed, Iron Man has the distinction of having the 10th biggest opening weekend of all time, and has (as of this writing) already made almost half a billion dollars in worldwide box-office receipts.

Due to the generally lukewarm response to the first Narnia film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian didn't open as well as the first (about US$10 million short of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe's opening weekend of US$65.6 million), but is doing rather well. In fact, reviews from both the public and critics have been generally favorable, with the sales to prove it. With worldwide box-office receipts at US$113 million (as of this writing), and still climbing, Disney does have a reason to be happy.

The buzz is, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just might be another big summer cash cow. In its opening weekend, the latest movie in the Indiana Jones series of flicks had already made US$151 million, making it the second biggest Memorial Day weekend movie (right after Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End). As of this writing, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had already made over US$311 million worldwide.

Coming up this week is the highly anticipated Sex and the City movie. Heck, you can probably already call it the chick flick of the year. Let's see how it turns out this week.

Also out this month were the romance comedy Made of Honor, starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan, the British comedy Son of Rambow, Frontier(s) - the After Dark HorrorFest movie that had to be shown separately because of its NC-17 rating, and the surprisingly disappointing Speed Racer.

June 2008

Coming out this month: Adam Sandler's latest comedy You Don't Mess With The Zohan and the DreamWorks animated feature Kung Fu Panda starring Jack Black both open on June 6. June 13 sees the re-imagining of the Marvel Universe's The Incredible Hulk, as well as M.Night Shyamalan's latest thriller- The Happening.

Then we also have Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway teaming up for Get Smart and the latest Mike Myers project The Guru, coming out on June 20. Finally we have the Pixar/Walt Disney animated feature Wall-E, and the action-packed Wanted starring Morgan Freeman, James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie coming out on the 27th.

Also interesting: the limited release foreign film Mongol by Sergei Bodrov. It's about a young Genghis Khan and his epic rise to power. Check out the trailer here.

July 2008

This month, we have the off-beat superhero movie Hancock starring Will Smith opening on the 4th of July, and then we have the Guillermo del Toro-directed Hellboy II: The Golden Army opening the week after that.

On July 18, we have Mamma Mia! (the Abba-themed movie starring Meryl Streep) and the Andy Samberg-created Space Chimps. But most importantly, out comes the highly anticipated sequel to Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight- which I personally hope turns out to be one of the best Batman movies ever.

Check out the trailers here, if you haven't yet, and read about the accompanying animated anthology direct-to-DVD project, Batman: Gotham Knight here.

Wrapping up an impressive summer movie lineup we're going to see Will Ferrell and John C. O'Reilly team up again in Step Brothers, and something for fans of Mulder and Scully- The X-Files: I Want To Believe. Personally, I haven't seen much of the X-Files, but now I have a month to scrounge around for old X-Files episodes and catch the first movie before this one comes out.

We'll come back in a few weeks to see how all these movies have done. I'd say it's a great lineup. And 2008's definitely a great year for summer movies.

Theatrical posters from Wikipedia.

Cheers, everyone!

Gotta Have a Copy of Batman: Gotham Knight

You remember The Animatrix from 2003? When Warner Brothers and the same team that gave us The Matrix came up with a collection of nine animated short films set in The Matrix universe, and set in between the first 2 Matrix movies? That was totally kick-ass.

Now, what if you had the Animatrix all over again, but this time, it's all about Batman? Should be pretty awesome, I say.

Batman: Gotham Knight is due out on July 8 this year, just before The Dark Knight hits cinemas. It features six animated short stories set in between 2005's Batman Begins and this summer's highly-anticipated Batman movie.

Just like The Animatrix, the powers-that-be behind Batman Begins and The Dark Knight have collaborated once again with top anime directors and animators to come up with yet more Gotham City action and kickassery.

Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman for "Batman: The Animated Series", "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited" comes back to reprise his role as the Dark Knight.

Check out this video posted by WarnerBrothersOnline on YouTube:

Now check out the trailer posted by Georgem2789, and a preview/sneak peek shared by Lowekinder, both also shared over YouTube.

Batman: Gotham Knight is the third animated direct-to-DVD project of Warner Premiere and Warner Brothers Animation, the first two releases being Superman: Doomsday and Justice League: The New Frontier. A fourth project, this one on Wonder Woman, is due out either later this year or early next- another DVD worth watching out for.

Picture of The Dark Knight courtesy of Wikipedia.

Cheers, everyone!