Review of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) by Ben L — 23 Feb 2012

Without a doubt this was the low point of the Indiana Jones trilogy. In their desperation to give this film a different tone from Raiders, they just went too far. At every single turn they seem desperate to push the envelope with something more disgusting or disturbing. I mean you know they were taking it too far when rumors say the MPAA had to make a new rating level to fit movies like this. By all rights this movie probably should have ended up with an R rating because of all the dark content (I've seen horror movies with less,) but Spielberg's got the clout to slide it in as a PG.

Honestly, watching Temple of Doom is like watching a 2-hour-long episode of Fear Factor. They overload viewers with everything one can imagine, that might disturb a viewer with a weak stomach. There's bugs, snakes, gross-out foods, human sacrifice, voodoo dolls, mind-controlling blood, and of course the legendary heart-ripped-out-of-chest scene. And, just to make it all worse, most of these are utterly irrelevant to the plot. It all just seems to be thrown in for shock factor. The movie makes no excuses for this either. They seem perfectly willing to put the plot on hold in order to disgust the audience some more.

It's a real shame because the movie has so much potential. In fact the beginning and ending are so good that they rival the best scenes in both of the other Indiana Jones films. If you could take those bookends and put them around a different middle, then you might really have something here. Sadly, once the scene in the Chinese club has passed you've got a lot of crummy movie to watch before the mine ride. I still watch this movie occasionally because I do enjoy those moments, but I never look forward to watching it. That's a real disappointment, because the other 2 Indiana Jones movies are simply superb.