A few months ago, I finally bought the Indiana Jones trilogy (ahem...quadriology) on Blu-ray and having immediately watched Raiders of the Lost Ark I promptly put the set back on my shelf.Why? I couldn't bear the idea of watching Temple of Doom.
Temple of Doom has never been my favourite of the series. Fantastic opening scene aside, it all grinds to a halt when they hit India and then becomes a bit of a grim, nightmare image laden slog. Child slavery, starving villages, banquets of monkey brains and people getting their hearts ripped out before being chucked into molten larva is not exactly my idea of a Saturday afternoon adventure.
It's not awful, just lacking in fun. There are few good set pieces though - including those that riff on the best bits of the first movie. Ford is also at the top of his game here and hugely charismatic as as the titular character.
Elsewhere, Capshaw does her best with what is generally a pretty unsympathetic character while Ke Quan is clearly there to provide comic relief and not much else.
Still, it's done - and I can put this one back on the shelf for another twenty years or so, before I feel compelled to visit it again.
Verdict: Glad I got through this.
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