Buried (2010)

Group Ratings (out of 5):

Val: 3
Kyle: 3
Micah: 3

Which averages to 3 used up light sources out of 5.

Shares this rating with The Breakfast Club, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Notes on a Theme: Indiana Jones

So we've been talking about Indiana Jones a lot here at The Great Society of Movie Watchers. Micah's been walking around our house (Micah and I are roommate's) waiting for me to pick up things so he can belt them out of my hand. It's starting to get annoying.

References to these movies are everywhere. Here are two examples:

Scrubs (Awesome Show BTW)



Family Guy



There are tons more examples but I'm feeling lazy and don't want to look for more.

So yeah, Raiders is pretty good. It's probably the most well known of the three in the trilogy. This movie lays the base work for the other two. It sets up his character, the style of the films, and the tendency for poor female leads. Poor as in bad characters, not poor as in financially lacking.

So i know that Raiders sets up every thing for the movies, but Tod still takes a wide divergence from the first film. It's incredibly dark. Short Round is annoying. The female lead is even more terrible than the first, and it just sucks by comparison.

I love Last Crusade! They took all the good stuff from Raiders and added more greatness to it. Sean Connery for one. A good female lead for two. And character development for Indy. For the first two films he doesn't grow as a character. They tried to in Tod by trying to make you care about Short Round, but it just doesn't work. The relationship that they create between Indy and his Father is wonderful. It is an incredibly satisfying way to end the trilogy.

If you want to see more Indiana Jones movies the pickings are slim.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)























They tried really hard with this movie. They stayed true to the style and tone of the old film, but ultimately they failed. I have to recommend against seeing it. You're not missing much.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (1992)






















Now I haven't seen all of these. But I remember one where he was trying to find out something about a cult that was mummifying people alive. There were dudes in black hoods shooting people with psychotropic poison darts and they would hallucinate themselves to death. For example this old guy sees this small stone dragon statue comes to live and crawl into into his coat sleeve. So he freaks out and starts stabbing himself to death. I was around twelve at the time and it was intense.

Thus ends our adventure with the man with the hat. Tune in next week when Micah* kicks off our new theme. Which should be an adventure in and of itself.

* I have to tell this story. Micah doesn't have a strong track record for bringing stuff. When we were still doing Oscar winners he brought The Conversation one week. Which was a great movie, but was only nominated for an Oscar, it didn't actually win. That same semester he also brought us the choice between Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. Which are both shoot me in the face type movies. So that was strike two. We're not mad at him, it's just really funny to us.

The Great Movie Review: The Temple of Doom

Talk about your let downs right? I know I made it out be all kinds of mind blowingly coolness through all the movies, but I had to get you to push through. You just gotta push through the Temple of Doom. Not only is it the most ridiculous, it's also the darkest and least humorous. It's just not very fun to watch. They also made the classic kid side kick mistake. I can't decide which is more annoying Short Round or Willie (the female lead). Now, I realize that these movies are made to be an homage to the serials of the 30's, but holy cow (get it, because it was set in India) this was too much.

So let's compare Temple of Doom, henceforth referred to as Tod, with Raiders. * Spoiler Alert! In Raiders we open with a great transition from the Paramount logo to an actual mountain. We then have the exchanging/taking of an artifact. Dr. Jones is then gets into trouble and a chase scene ensues whereby he escapes by boat plane. Tod pretty copies the opening event sequence: Mountain transition, check; Priceless Artifact, check; Dr. Jones getting into trouble, double check; Chase scene that ends with Indy getting on plane; check and ... check. I don't know if it was intentional, but it happened. And if it was intentional, it probably just follows the 30's serial format even more.

So we watched Tod on Halloween. Which was my plan all along. It is so creepy. There has got to be at least one thing in this movie that makes your skin crawl, or at least throw up in your mouth a little. For me it's when they cut open the snake surprise. SURPRISE! It's live eel. Blech. And they pull out a dude's still beating heart! Think about that for a couple minutes. Or don't because it's just weird.

Valerie being our only girl this week pointed out what a terrible representation of a woman Willie, the female lead, was. She was incredibly girly, and couldn't do a thing for herself. The only helpful thing she did in the whole movie was to release the trap in the room of spikes. Which she promptly set off again. I say that, there were a couple things she did really well. You could count on her to hate everything, to whine and complain at all times, scream at everything and be a general waste of space.

I'm not going to talk about Short Round because he shouldn't have even been in the movie.

Micah grew up on these movies. Apparently he would watch them over and over, back to back as a kid. Which, to me, explains why his belt makes him feel secure and ready for anything. Need to lash yourself to something, belt. Need to beat up a bad guy, belt. Need to restrain someone, belt. Now take belt and replace it with whip. That's right, Micah is Indiana Jones.

So the next time you are looking for a movie that combines all of your favorite elements: musical numbers, gross out scenes, unnecessary heart surgery and wacky mine cart rides just remember Tod.





















Also, Dan Aykroyd (yes it is really spelled that way) is in it briefly.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Group Rating (out of 5):

Stevox: 3
Valerie: 2
Kyle: 3
Micah: 4

Averages to 3 still beating hearts out of 5.

Shares this rating with several movies, including Vertigo, The Conversation and Bonnie and Clyde.

Best use of unnecessary heart surgery.