A movie much admired in its time and since but I've always found it disappointing. I did when first seeing as a teenager and was always bemused seeing its reputation rise so high against Temple of Doom (in part because Spielberg trashes Temple). Then I thought "maybe I'm wrong, maybe it actually is awesome" so I watched it again and nope, still didn't get into it.
I love River Phoenix as young Indy and Sean Connery as Indy Snr but the rest of the movie feels like a dull retread of Raiders. There's a Biblical Macguffin, talk of God, fighting Nazis, a rival archeologist. So many of the reverses and twists feel mechanical - almost every scene it's like "well we'll do this... and then they'll be something unexpected" but the reversals are predictable and their constancy.
Some scenes feel downright lazy - a boat chase in Venice - how's that for freshness?; Indy teaching love struck students; Indy loses the book and goes to Germany to get it and then just... retrieves it really easily; the rich, cultured American turning out to be bad; the final test for the grail (v H Rider Haggard); the other group who are defending the grail but who then let Indy go; Denholm Elliot and Jonathan Rhys Davies going along on the trip for no real reason other than nostalgia.
Some bits are great particularly the relationship between Indy Jnr and Senior, helped by Connery and Ford's playing - this relationship feels fresh and real, with neither as a baddy (eg "we never talk", "okay talk"... and Ford can't think of anything to say). There were some good action bits too like the boat being destroyed by the propeller, and the baddy shooting Connery.
It's always pleasant to be around actors like Connery, Elliot and Rhys Davies, but Alison Doody is poor in her part and the villains unmemorable. It feels too much like a dull retread too often.
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