Review: "INDIANA JONES and the Last Crusade" Stills Feels Like a True Ending

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 28 of 2023 (No. 1917) by Leroy Douresseaux

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Running time:  127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13

DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg

WRITERS:  Jeffrey Boam; from a story by George Lucas and Menno Meyjes (based on characters created by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman)

PRODUCER:  Robert Watts

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Douglas Slocombe (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Michael Kahn, A.C.E.

COMPOSER:  John Williams

Academy Award winner

ADVENTURE/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring:  Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Alison Doody, Denholm Elliot, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover, River Phoenix, Michael Byrne, Kevork Malikyan, Robert Eddison, Richard Young, and Michael Sheard

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 action-adventure film from director Steven Spielberg.  It is the third entry in the “Indiana Jones” film franchise that began with the 1981 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).  The Last Crusade finds Indiana Jones searching for his father, who along with the Nazis, are search for the Holy Grail.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade opens in Utah, 1912.  It is there that teenage Henry Jones, Jr. (River Phoenix) has his first experiences with raiders of an archaeological site.

Over a quarter-century later, in 1938, Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford) recovers the treasure he lost as a teenager.  Jones returns to teaching (apparently at Barnett College in Fairfield, New York) when one of the college's wealthy patrons approaches him about a special mission.  Walter Donovan (Julian Glover) wants Jones to help him locate the Holy Grail.

Jones informs him that his father, Professor Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), is the expert on the Holy Grail and the one whom Donovan should seek.  Donovan shocks Jones by informing him that he had hired his father to find the Grail, but the senior Jones has disappeared.  Jones and his colleague, Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliot), race to Venice, his father's last known location.  Waiting for them is Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody), who was working with the elder Jones in Venice as he sought to find more clues about the Grail's location.

Before long, Indiana Jones and Henry Jones Sr. are racing for their lives, staying one step ahead of the Nazis, who also want the Grail, and the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, who want to protect it.  Reunited with his old friend, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), the Jones boys get closer to the Holy Grail, but the secret of the Grail is that it offers both eternal life and total destruction.

In preparation for the upcoming fifth film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I decided to see the one Indiana Jones film that I have not watched in its entirety since the 1990s, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  I have seen the first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, countless times, and I rewatched its follow-up, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), in November of last year (2022).  I have watched the fourth film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), many times since its release.

I have long considered Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade the true end of the Indiana Jones film series because it was the third film in the original trilogy and because it felt like the end of something.  The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull felt like a “coda,” in the sense that it was both an addition to the three-film series that ran from 1981 to 1989 and a final piece added to the ending of The Last Crusade's tale of family and friends out for one last adventure.

Seeing The Last Crusade in its entirety for the first time in decades, I still feel like I'm watching the end of trilogy.  If there was going to be another film after it, that ceased to be when River Phoenix, the actor who played teen Henry Jones, Jr. in this film, died in 1993 at the age of 23.  Actor Denholm Elliot, who played Marcus Brody in the original film and in The Last Crusade, died at the age of 70, a year earlier in 1992.  Henry Jones Sr., actor Sean Connery, only recently died (2020) at the age of 90.  So, you see, dear readers, because of the passing of a number of cast members, more and more, I associate Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with endings.

The Last Crusade is my least favorite film of the original trilogy.  I know that some audiences prefer it to the darker Temple of Doom, and apparently, director Steven Spielberg made The Last Crusade the way he did to offer a lighter film in response to the criticism of the Temple of Doom's violence and exotic mysticism.  However, I find Temple of Doom to be wildly inventive, darkly imaginative, and a roller coaster ride.  If Raiders of the Lost Ark is an original, in a way, Temple of Doom still seems determined to be something very different from its predecessor.

Honestly, I find The Last Crusade to be only mildly entertaining until the film's last 45 minutes.  Then, it explodes and really finds itself with lots of Nazi-punching and killing and also with a spine-tingling jaunt to the Holy Grail.  Besides, Indiana Jones is always at his best when he's beating Nazis.  Honestly, I think it is important that audiences who have not seen the original films watch them all before moving on to the new film.  By the time they get to the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, many newbies may finally understand what Indiana Jones meant to American cinema once upon a time, and why, over four decades after the release of the first film, there is a new one.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

You can purchase the "INDIANA JONES 4-Movie Collection" Blu-ray or DVD here at AMAZON.

NOTES:

1990 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Ben Burtt and Richard Hymns); 2 nominations: “Best Sound” (Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, Shawn Murphy, and Tony Dawe), and “Best Music, Original Score” (John Williams)

1990 BAFTA Awards:  3 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Sean Connery), “Best Sound” (Richard Hymns, Tony Dawe, Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, and Shawn Murphy), and “Best Special Effects” (George Gibbs, Michael J. McAlister, Mark Sullivan, and John Ellis)

1990 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Sean Connery)

The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#28DaysofBlack Review: Eddie Murphy's "HARLEM NIGHTS" is Still Cool

[A little over 21 years after its initial release, Harlem Nights remains unique.  It was the dream project of an African-American movie star, Eddie Murphy, who had reached heights that few African-American stars ever have.  I'm glad Eddie Murphy made this movie.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 11 of 2021 (No. 1749) by Leroy Douresseaux

Harlem Nights (1989)
Running time:  116 minutes (1 hour, 56 minutes)
MPAA – R
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Eddie Murphy
PRODUCER:  Mark Lipsky and Robert D. Wachs
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Woody Omens (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Alan Balsam and George Bowers   
COMPOSER:  Herbie Hancock
Academy Award nominee

CRIME/DRAMA with elements of comedy

Starring:  Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello, Michael Lerner, Della Reese, Berlinda Tobert, Stan Shaw, Jasmine Guy, Vic Polizos, Lela Rochon, David Marciano, Arsenio Hall, Thomas Mikal Ford, Joe Pecoraro, Robin Harris, Charles Q. Murphy, Uncle Ray Murphy, Desi Arnez Hines II, Roberto Duran, and Gene Hartline

Harlem Nights is a 1989 crime film and period drama written and directed by Eddie Murphy.  The film is set during the 1930s and focuses on a New York City club owner and his associates as they battle gangsters and corrupt cops.

Harlem Nights introduces Sugar Ray (Richard Pryor).  In 1938, Ray and his surrogate son, Vernest Brown, best known as “Quick,” run a nightclub, dance hall, and gambling house called “Club Sugar Ray,” located in New York City's Harlem neighborhood.  Ray's other associates include Madame Vera Walker (Della Reese), who runs the brothel at the back of Club Sugar Ray, and her longtime companion, Bennie Wilson (Redd Foxx), the craps table dealer.

Club Sugar Ray is wildly successful, making fifteen to twenty thousand dollars a week, and that has drawn the attention of a white gangster, Bugsy Calhoune (Michael Lerner).  Calhoune wants the majority share of Sugar Ray's revenues, and to that end, employs his criminal associates:  his black enforcer, Tommy Smalls (Thomas Mikal Ford); his Creole mistress, Dominique La Rue (Jasmine Guy), and a corrupt police detective, Sgt. Phil Cantone (Danny Aiello).

Ray decides that he will have to give up his business and move on, although Quick is vehemently against this.  Ray decides to use an upcoming championship boxing match between the world heavy weight champion, black boxer Jack Jenkins (Stan Shaw), and a white challenger, Michael Kirkpatrick (Gene Hartline), the “Irish Ironman,” to disguise his ultimate heist plan against Calhoune.  But for the plan to work, Quick will have to avoid all the people trying to kill him?

Harlem Nights has some of the best production values that I have ever seen in an Eddie Murphy film.  The costumes (which were Oscar-nominated), the art direction and set decoration, and the cinematography are gorgeous.  Herbie Hancock's score captures Harlem Nights shifting tones – from jazzy and sexy to mixes of comic and dramatic violence.  The film's soundtrack offers a buffet of songs written, co-written and performed by the great Duke Ellington, plus performances by Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Buddy Clark, to name a few.

Yet, upon its initial release, that is not what some critics noted about Harlem Nights.  They were obsessed with how many times Eddie Murphy's name appeared on the poster.  They counted:  Eddie was star, writer, director, and executive producer; it was too much – at least according to them.  That all played into the “Eddie Murphy is arrogant” argument that many of these critics, mostly jealous white guys, made.

Harlem Nights remains the only film that Eddie Murphy has ever directed, which is a shame.  Granted that his acting is stiff in this film.  Granted that the screenwriting is average; it is never strong on character drama, and sometimes the story really needs it to be.  Still, Harlem Nights moves smoothly through its narrative.  It is slow and easy, although there have been those that have claimed that the film is “too slow.”  Still, Eddie Murphy has a silken touch at directing.

None of Harlem Nights' problems matter to me.  At the time, there had never been a film like it.  Harlem Nights is a big budget, lavish, Hollywood period film that is thoroughly Black.  Its cast is a once-in-a-life-time event.  I'm not sure a black director could have gotten funding with Harlem Night's cast even as a low budget film.  Harlem Nights is a film that only Eddie Murphy could get produced, and one could argue that it was not until well into the twenty-first century that any other black filmmaker could get something like Harlem Nights made.  So I'm good with its problems, and I am simply happy that it exists.

Harlem Nights is an entertaining film, and I have highly enjoyed it every time that I have seen it.  It stands as a testament to what Eddie Murphy became by the late 1980s – the only African-American who was a real Hollywood “player.”  Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, and Della Reese:  they were a dream lineup, a fleeting coming together that seemed to be gone in an instant.  Harlem Nights lives on, as a gorgeous, strange hybrid drama-comedy-gangster-period film.  And I, for one, am always ready to recommend it.

B+
7 of 10

Tuesday, February 9, 2021


NOTES:
1990 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Costume Design” (Joe I. Tompkins)


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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"Ghostbusters II" Shows Less Spirit Than Original

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 161 of (2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Ghostbusters II (1989)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – PG
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Ivan Reitman
WRITERS: Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Chapman
EDITORS: Donn Cambern and Sheldon Kahn
COMPOSER: Randy Edelman

COMEDY with elements of sci-fi and horror

Starring: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Peter MacNicol, David Margulies, Kurt Fuller, Wilhelm von Homburg, and Will Deutschendorf & Hank Deutschendorf

The subject of this movie review is Ghostbusters II, a 1989 supernatural comedy film produced and directed by Ivan Reitman. It is a squeal to the 1984 film, Ghostbusters.

Five years after the events of the original film, Ghostbusters II finds the Ghostbusters out of business and reviled by the New York City municipal government even after the Busters saved the city from Sumerian Armageddon in the first film. However, a resurgence in spectral (ghostly) activity allows the four Ghostbusters: Dr. Peter Vinkman (Bill Murray), Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) to revive the business.

Vinkman also attempts to rekindle his romance with Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), which fizzled between films. Barrett has a son, Oscar (infant twins Will & Hank Deutschendorf), and though she’s wary of Vinkman’s peculiar ways, she comes to rely on him when evil spirits start trying to abduct Oscar. When the team discovers a massive river of ectoplasm beneath NYC, they know something big and evil is on the way.

Ghostbusters II is really a domestic comedy about reuniting with old friends and strengthen bonds, whereas the first film was a big, funny summer genre picture. Ghost Busters featured well-known and popular comedic actors and what was at the time spectacular special effects; the talent and an off-kilter sci-fi/comedy/horror-lite tale mixed into a popular family friendly comedy with mass appeal.

The sequel is funny, but it appeared five years after the first film, and it seemed, at the time, as if the film’s window of opportunity had closed long before it was released. Years later, it still seems like something tacked on to the original film. Still, there is something appealing about it; maybe it is the sense of camaraderie and easy humor. It’s like a Ghost Busters for old people – a funny, light-hearted film that lacks the zing of high octane SFX films aimed at the young ‘uns. Besides, Bill Murray, who seems to be phoning it in, is still as sharp as ever. It’s amazing that he can be so laid back, so cool, so disinterested and make his sardonic and sarcastic humor twice as sharp as someone else trying three times as hard.

6 of 10
B

Review: "Star Trek: The Final Frontier" Has Some Good Moments

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 232 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Running time: 107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR: William Shatner
WRITERS: David Loughery; from a story by William Shatner, Harve Bennett, and David Loughery (based upon the TV series “Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry)
PRODUCER: Harve Bennett
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Laszlo
EDITOR: Peter Berger, A.C.E.
COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith

SCI-FI/ACTION/DRAMA

Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, David Warner, Laurence Luckinbill, Charles Cooper, Cynthia Gouw, Todd Bryant, and Spice Williams

The subject of this movie review is Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, a 1989 science fiction adventure film. It is the fifth film in the Star Trek film franchise, and the second-to-last (or penultimate) to feature the cast of the original Star Trek television series. The Final Frontier takes place shortly after Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and pits the crew of the USS Enterprise against a renegade Vulcan.

The crew of the original “Star Trek” returned for its fifth cinematic adventure, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) is sharing his shore leave with Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) in Yosemite National Park, where Kirk is attempting to climb the mountain, El Capitan, freestyle (without gear). The festivities, however, are cut short when the Federation sends the U.S.S. Enterprise on an emergency mission to the Neutral Zone.

The Enterprise arrives at the planet, Nimbus III, where, Sybock (Laurence Luckinbill), a renegade Vulcan who shares a past with Spock, hijacks the Enterprise. He pilots it on a journey past The Great Barrier to a mythical planet named Sha Ka Ree, where Sybock hopes to uncover the secrets of existence. It’s up to the Star Trek holy trinity of Kirk, Spock, and Bones to keep the crew and this new Enterprise (Enterprise-A) safe while Sybock obsesses on his quest. Meanwhile, a Klingon warship, a bird of prey, stalks the Enterprise.

Star Trek V stumbles because it tries to be a sci-fi action flick, a tale of brotherly love, a therapy session, and a spiritual odyssey. It doesn’t do three of them well, but The Final Frontier does work as a nice spotlight on the relationship of Kirk, Spock, and Bones. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is the least of the six movies featuring the original crew of the Enterprise, but production problems (including loosing their special effects house of choice) played a part in this film not coming together as director William Shatner envisioned it. It isn’t all that satisfying as a Trek flick, but it’ll do in a pinch.

5 of 10
C+

Friday, November 10, 2006

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Review: 1989 "Batman" Movie Wanders Without a Plot

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 124 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Batman (1989)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITERS: Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren, from a story by Hamm (based upon BATMAN characters created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger)
PRODUCERS: Jon Peters and Peter Guber
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Pratt
EDITOR: Ray Lovejoy
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award winner

SUPERHERO/ACTION/CRIME

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, Jack Palance, Jerry Hall, Tracey Walter, Lee Wallace, and William Hootkins

The subject of this movie review is Batman, the 1989 superhero movie directed by Tim Burton. It was the first film in the initial Batman film series, which ended with 1997’s Batman and Robin, before being rebooted with Batman Begins (2005).

Although Warner Bros. had a “Batman” movie in various stages of development for most of the 80’s, the 1989 box office smash Batman was not green lit for production until the film Beetlejuice became a hit. In 1985, Warner Bros. chose Tim Burton, the director of Beetlejuice, to helm the long planned Batman after his first theatrical feature, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, became a box office hit. However, when Beetlejuice’s also became a hit, that success that made Warner Bros. realize that Burton was definitely a director who could make box office hits, and being that Warner was putting so much money into Batman, they needed it to be a hit. Comic book fans raised (un)holy hell over the choice of Burton to direct and Burton’ selection of Michael Keaton to play Bruce Wayne/Batman. Warner Bros. toyed with and appeased their nerdy emotions by regularly releasing Batman movie trailers and other sneak peeks of the film. The choice of Jack Nicholson to play the Joker also got people excited (and quieted angry comic book nerds), and the film went on to be a huge hit.

Gotham City has been astir with rumors of a giant bat, called The Bat, by criminals who claimed that it attacked them; indeed, the mysterious figure is said to prey upon Gotham’s criminal underworld. This figure is actually a costumed hero who calls himself Batman (Michael Keaton), and he gradually comes out of the shadows to investigate the criminal operation of Gotham’s chief criminal, Carl Grissom (Jack Palance). During a police showdown with Grissom’s thugs, Batman causes the apparent accidental death of Grissom’s chief enforcer, Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson). Napier, however, is not dead; nearly-drowned in strange chemicals and scarred by a bullet, he emerges from the shadows as the homicidal and clown-like, The Joker (Nicholson), and begins a murder spree against his rivals for control of the city’s criminal underworld. The Joker also initiates a crime spree on the city as Gotham prepares to celebrate its 200th birthday. Meanwhile, Batman’s secret identity, Bruce Wayne (Keaton), is trying to figure out a way to stop The Joker, while a lovely reporter, Vicky Vale (Kim Basinger), shows interest in both Wayne and Batman.

This movie is a large plot-less beast that meanders into its third act. The movie even starts off with a cacophony of countless actors mouthing awkward sounding dialogue. Keaton is unconvincing as either Bruce Wayne or Batman. Kim Basinger struggles with role made gimpy by a script that treats her like a typical action movie girl-attached-to-the-hero, one the filmmakers only grudgingly accept as necessary. Tim Burton’s signature gothic and darkly comic fantasy hardly ever shows in this film; this is mostly a Tim Burton film in name only. However, Jack Nicholson takes the script and elevates it. Except for a few hammy moments, he’s brilliant and his delivery brings his lines to snappy life.

Compared to the recent Batman Begins, Batman 1989 doesn’t hold up, but the two films are actually quite different in tone and style. This Batman is a combination of the wrong ingredients or at least incorrectly measured ingredients (from director and cast to the music and other production elements) plus a big helping of Jack Nicholson’s miraculously funny performance; both make this an average and (for reasons unknown to me) curiously entertaining film.

5 of 10
C+

NOTES:
1990 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Anton Furst and Peter Young)

1990 BAFTA Awards: 6 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Jack Nicholson), “Best Costume Design” (Bob Ringwood), “Best Make Up Artist” (Paul Engelen and Nick Dudman), “Best Production Design” (Anton Furst), “Best Sound” (Don Sharpe, Tony Dawe, and Bill Rowe), “Best Special Effects” (Derek Meddings and John Evans)

1990 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” (Jack Nicholson)

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Animated Short Review: "A Grand Day Out with Wallace & Gromit"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 84 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Grand Day Out with Wallace & Gromit (1989) – animation
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
Running time: 23 minutes
DIRECTOR: Nick Park
WRITERS: Steve Rushton and Nick Park
PRODUCERS: Rob Copeland and Soozy Mealing
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Nick Park
EDITOR: Rob Copeland
Academy Award nominee

SHORT/ANIMATION/COMEDY/FAMILY/SCI-FI

Starring: (voice) Peter Sallis

Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out is a 1989 animated film short. It is the first in the series of Wallace and Gromit short films that use the stop-motion animation process. A Grand Day Out earned an Oscar nomination for “Best Short Film, Animated,” while winning the BAFTA Award for “Best Animated Film.”

A Grand Day Out follows Wallace (Peter Sallis), the wacky inventor, and Gromit, his exceedingly patient and brilliantly resourceful canine. The duo builds a rocket ship that takes them to the moon so that Wallace can sample the different cheeses of which the moon is made. However, this “cheese holiday” isn’t free of trouble when they encounter a stove-like contraption. This moon resident wants to go back to earth with them so that it can ski.

A Grand Day Out is a bit technically inferior to the Wallace & Gromit films that would follow it, but its charm lies in the short’s imaginative settings and the fantastical execution of its scenario. There is lots of charm here, and Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out (also known as A Grand Day Out with Wallace & Gromit) shares something with the great fantasy films like The Wizard of Oz and classic Disney animated films, which is a sense of wonder that can capture the heart of young and old viewers alike.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1991 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Short Film, Animated” (Nick Park)

1990 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Animated Film” (Nick Park)

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