Something happened with Speilburg in the late 80′s that he forgot how to have fun. His movies aren’t bad and some of his best work came out of the past 15 or so years, but they have all been really dark (which is fine because I love dark movies—don’t get me wrong) I’m simply saying it seems he doesn’t know how to have fun anymore—not the way he used to. I guess it called growing up. People change and their views change. I get all that.

But getting something and wanting something are little like trying to be at two different places at the same time.

These are the films I want to have fun with. The ones that have lines like “Do you have anything besides Mexican food?” from the Three Amigos.

or “”Why don’t you make like a tree…and get outta here!” from Back to the Future.
To be honest, maybe none of us knows how to have fun anymore. I think movies that were pure pop-corn fun ended with Indy 3.

The last three “Star Wars” films weren’t much fun. They were good. Probably even “better” films than the first three, but they just didn’t have what swashbuckling zest of those unabashed blockbuster movies of the ’70s and 80s had.

The word might be “Pizazz.” I don’t know. I don’t know honestly what the word would be. But its definition is something that captures why a 10 year old kid would spend all Saturday morning gathering soda cans to turn in for the buck fifty matinée ticket.

Perhaps I’m getting old and then just ignore what I have to say, but I haven’t walked out of a film feeling more alive, more like I just had the “greatest time.” At least not sense “Die Hard” perhaps “Terminator 2″ Those moves were pure shove the popcorn in you mouth and forget to breath kind of fun. You know?

I think if you’re old enough to remember what it was like to walk out of Ghostbusters and wanting nothing more than to turn right around and watch it again, you might know what I talking about here.

Indy 4 didn’t do that for me.

As far as master film making goes, shot for shot, camera movement for camera movement, etc. etc. this film is by far the best one. I just wish the story had been as good.

Like a man being kissed by his wife of sixty years, we enjoy the old films, we watch them over and over again. But it’s not like the first time. The first kiss.

Thanks for popping by. Keep in mind that just as you are entitled to your opinion, so is everyone else.

Best,

Vic

Have a line in the 5th film where the bad guy is talking to his second in command, “Tell me again why you can’t stop this senior citizen? He came in and did what? I’m supposed to believe Jones did all that?”

Corny but could be a lot of fun if they played up the fact that Indy has gotten older. Heck, if Indy can sky dive out of a plane in a rubber raft and safely land on a mountain side then his getting older will be of no problem.

Could be a lot of fun. Just make sure to keep Jones fighting with the bad people ruining their perfect plans for whatever it is they want to do.

Still the same, I absolutely do want to see an Indy 5. I’d love to see more adventures in writing, too. I know it may not be with Ford, but who knows? Someday, it’d be great to see Indy on the small screen — a tv series and not something stupid like that Young Indiana Jones bit that failed to meet the mark for the audience.

For me, the *p-chow, p-chow* sound effect from the original was every bit as iconic as the whip crack, and sorely missed here.

There were some nice moments and touches, but they seem like just that now: moments. The Aztecs randomly appearing out of nowhere and without explanation threw me too.

Still, I do think that the whole notion of passing the torch to Shia is a pretty weak idea, though I do see the point of trying to bring the adventure film genre to a new generation of fans.

All in all, I still think that if we want another Indy adventure, they should go back a few years and spotlight another of Indy’s solo quests. Need to do it fast, though, or we’ll be watching “Indiana Jones and the Quest for Loose Change in the Sofa of the Retirement Home”

Come to think of it, THAT might look pretty cool in IMAX, as long as they don’t try to add Abe Vigoda as one of Indy’s rest home pals.

Basicly felt like Mummy meets ET

I already retracted my hyperbole. George was best as an idea man. To the extent he has limited himself to that role, and found the right supporting cast and crew to bring it about, his films have been successful.

In my review of the film (Indy IV) posted on this site a while back under a different column pointed out my frustration was that the script was decidedly uneven, meaning there were both gems and rocks mixed in with each other, so I’m not surprised if there was some help from Kasdan, it’s just a shame he wasn’t involved more. If anyone knew the character front to back, left to right and three times on Sunday, he’s the guy you want. He wrote the character to be as cool as he ended up being in Raiders, establishing, alongside Harrison Ford’s excellent performance (that part at least was consistently maintained) an iconic role for the ages.

Lucas started these franchises, and there’s no denying that, but his successes, where they have occurred, have largely occurred on the shoulders of seemingly more skilled artists than he himself seems to be. Whether it’s the level of performance given by the actors (Star Wars) being able to lift itself above the corny dialog (which must be admitted), or the screenwriters and directors he’s occasionally hired to helm his ideas (Spielberg, Kasdan, Kershner, etc.) When left to his own devices and without that caliber of artist supporting him, he has mostly floundered. Jar Jar Binks was all Lucas, as was having Haden Christensen flatly deliver analogies contrasting sand to skin in Episode II.

Episode III worked a little better, but I believe that has more to do with the dramatic setup we’d all been waiting for, the final showdown between Anakin and Obi-Wan.

I don’t begrudge the man for having had the original concepts and germs of ideas that grew into those franchises, but I cannot say the man has any skill in fashioning and executing character moments and dialog or directing actors on the set. When he runs solo on these fronts, for all the potential greatness in the idea, the execution has fallen flatter than pancakes.

Lastly, Lucas once said that he looked forward to life after Star Wars (when shooting the prequels) because he had so many other ideas he wanted to explore. But then he chose to fall back on the only other successful movie franchise he helped start as his next project. The guy has enough money to finance practically any film he so desires, and that’s what he runs to? Where’s the idea man of years ago?