Raiders is my favorite. I saw it with my Dad, and it's the first movie I had seen where I was able to string scenes together into a plot. I guess I used to watch movies as a string of unconnected scenes.
I remeber getting the "Ah HA!" feeling as I connected the scenes.
Temple of Doom came out when I was in 4th grade. I saw it three times - once with a "girlfriend". We had enough money between us to buy the Making Of magazine, back when theaters sold such things. We bought it and because she's a family friend, we still hand it off to each other. Heh. I just went to her niece's birthday party with my wife and two kids, and we laughed when I asked for it back. (She didn't have it - damn!)
Kate Capshaw. Some people think she destroys ToD, but she was my first movie-star crush. I used to think she was so pretty. I remeber having innocent 4th grade dreams of her.
Anyway, I have too many good memories of ToD for it to be a real stinker in my book.
The Last Crusade. I saw this when I was a freshman in High School, I think; with my cousin, definitely. It's actually my least favorite movie of the three in memory, but in fact I like it better than ToD. Did that make any sense?
I can't stand seeing Sallah and Dr. Brody turned into bumbling fools. That's just mean. They were both "real" characters in Raiders, but here - empty comic relief. Not good.
The evil heroine? Whoop de doo. I could care less.
Sean Connery? His character was too stupid to make me care. Singing a song inside a German tank? C'mon! Caring about the vase more than Indy? Eeeeeh. I guess. He was too much "bumble" and not enough substance. It was a fine line the character walked, but, in the end, he crossed it. Not good. (This is NOT Connery's fault - the script sucked)
The boat chase was good, until it gets cheesy. The boat explodes when squeezed by the freighters? The boat stays horizontal - and even afloat! - as it gets chopped by the propeller? What the hell is a huge propeller like that doing half-submerged, anyway?
Swimming in petroleum? Indy has his
eyes open!If the stuff is so flammable, how come the many drops of fire that fall from his torch don't set the place off? No one in the past 2000 years has wondered where that manhole leads? It's right there - in the middle of a cafe!
The dirigible was cool. The airplane scenes were good. I don't have a problem with the plane with no wings skidding though the tunnel, oddly enough. The seagull technique was cool. More of that kind of stuff would've been cool.
I love the scene where Indy gets the Grail Diary autographed by Hitler. That is some funny stuff!
The motorcycle chase is great!
The best part of TLC is... the opening scene with River Phoenix. Excellent.
Off-Topic (Enzian History):
Growing up, we had a B&W TV with UHF and VHF dials. I adopted it. When we got a VHS camcorder, I adopted that, too, and made movies with a friend. The thing was always in my possesion, and my Dad rarely asked for it. I used to hook it up to my TV and watch VHS tapes in
my room! When I was watching TLC, my TV finally gave up the ghost, leaving a huge black scorch mark on my wall, and scaring me to death with a loud bang! Cool and sad, at the same time. End of an era.
Gotta run.