Review of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) by Bill M — 19 Mar 2012

On it's initial release temple of doom had a very mixed reception and was considered far too dark and gruesome, it even led to the creation of the PG-13 rating, and was thought to be the lesser indy film of the first three.

Well those fuckers were wrong wernt they? temple of doom is one of the ultimate rollercoaster ride movies, it's furious, relentless and inventive, with amazing set piece after amazing set piece, it dosent let up for a second and yes it is dark, once things end up in the underground thugee cult, this adventure definately takes a sometimes nightmarishly nasty turn, often resembling a horror film more than a summer blockbuster, with ripped out hearts, human sacrifices and blood drinking, it gets shockingly heavy and you cant imagine how they got away with some of the content, they certainly would never attempt anything this fucked up in a modern blockbuster.

On top of that it's also really gross and discusting, especialy the dinner scene, filled with bugs, eyeball soup and chilled monkey brains served in severed monkey heads, apparently speilberg was in a dark, cynical frame of mind during this film, having gone through a divorce, and it really shows, this is probably his meanest, nastiest and most violent blockbuster (outside of war of the worlds) but it has an energy and pace that few other action movies come close to, from the big glamorous bugsby berkly musical number of anything goes and the whole hugely inventive, freewheeling james bond esc shanghi set opening in club obi wan to the mine cart chase and bridge showdown this is the defination of a non stop action movie, with a craft, creativity, and giddy sense of thrilling invention to it all, temple of doom is one of THE great action adventure movies, any one who dissagrees otherwise is a fuckin idiot.