Sardonicast - Sardonicast #82: The Indiana Jones Series

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

Support the Show for $2 a month and receive all future episodes early at https://sardonicast.com and https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast. Buy Sardonicast T-Shirts, and other merchandise at https://teespring.com/stores/sardonicast. Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/sardonicast Website: https://sardonicast.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Sardonicast Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/sardonicast Twitter: https://twitter.com/sardonicast Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sardonicast Ralph's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ralphthemoviemaker Alex's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/IHEOfficial Adam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/YourMovieSucksDOTorg Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHE_OFFICIAL Ralph's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ralphsepe Adam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/2gay2lift Adam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/YMS Ralph's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ralphthemoviemaker Intro music by: https://www.youtube.com/user/anUnkindnessvideo Fan art: https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/m2k22l/alex_ralph_and_adum_and_the_temple_of_sarcasm/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/m7xl71/heres_the_fanart_you_ordered_mr_johnston/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Sardonicast/comments/m7ibz9/sardonicast_epic_failure_moments/ Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 6:17 - The Indiana Jones franchise 6:49 - Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (SPOILERS) 36:40 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (SPOILERS) 1:03:51 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (SPOILERS) 1:37:35 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (SPOILERS) 2:21:54 - Q&A 2:22:04 - Q1: Adam said in the last episode that he doesn't like the idea that people will only watch something different when it has a superhero label on it. Is it really a bad thing that this seems to be the case considering people won't watch something alternative at all when it doesn't have a superhero or franchise related to it? 2:32:01 - Q2: My impression from listening to the podcast is that you guys all think of movies as a form of art that you enjoy. What are some mediums of art that you don't enjoy yet but you'd like to enjoy in the future? 2:35:16 - Q3: After listening to your episode about pirating movies I'd like to ask you what your thoughts are on emulating video games. Do you frequently download and emulate games or does it feel too immoral for you? Does the argument of failing to provide a product to people apply when they have no literal way to play a game like Mother 3 or games released outside of a region? Alex's recommendation for the next episode is Paddington 2 (2017)

Three, two, one. Hello, friends, it's me. Adam, from your movie sex, and this is Sardonicast. Who else? I'm here. Ralph the Movie Maker, YouTube.com slash Ralph the Movie Maker. I'm also here. I'm Alex from R. He.

I gotta say, I don't know what their intro was, Adam. You're going to have to enlighten me. Yeah. Well, so you watch my highlights channel. Did you see the video where I watched videos from life-changing YouTuber, known as Darmann. No, I don't remember Darmat. Okay, it's a recent one.

He had a cameo appearance from another YouTuber in a video about gaming and that YouTuber is Sniperwolf and so I decided to check out some of Sniperwulf videos. Very clickbaity, but there was an intro there

and I was like, well, that's one I haven't done. So I decided to do it. I was going to play the Indiana Jones theme on a recorder, but... Oh. Well, I could try to learn it real quick. Let's hold on. Yeah, give it a shot, man.

Wait. Oh, that's awesome. It doesn't go as high as I want it to. That's pretty good. I could tell it's the Indiana Jones theme. All right, I'll stop. Okay. Movie news, very important before we get into the very meaty Indiana Jones discussion.

We got some very important news that's shaking culture and affecting the world as we know it. Lola Bunny's titty has got totally nerfed. What are you found? I'll let you know about this. Very odd. Is this for the new Space Jam movie? Yeah. Okay. Space Jam. There's two controversies, aren't there? It's the Lola Bunny one and

the Peppy Lapew is being removed from Space Jam 2 as well. Yeah. And they've got to say, I don't know, I don't know, I don't give a shit about either of them, to be honest. It's funny because it doesn't, it's not like they'd remove moved the original's existence, it's just people deciding, whether it's corporately or from the artist or both, it's people just deciding, yeah, we don't want to make that movie. It's like, okay, whatever. So if they were remaking it and they missed the point of the original, then, you know,

somebody who's passionate about it could make, like, a really long video about it, like the Lion King, Ruby or whatever. Yeah, I feel like this Lola Bunny drama is, like, such an example of the internet just being detached from any reality, you know? Yeah. How much of it is real? Yeah, exactly. Like, you go into the street and ask like a random old lady.

What do you think about the Lola Bunny redesign? You know, like, no one cares. My nerve her kids, sunny. Everyone's bored in lockdown. There's nothing else going on. It's just Space Jam to you. It's like the people who are excited for the Snyder cut. Yeah.

Uh-huh. Next episode. We'll all have seen it probably. It leaked early. That's funny. It accidentally got posted instead of Tom and Jerry on HBO Max somewhere. I love that. It's up for like a few hours.

Yeah, that's pretty hilarious. I don't know how that. Yeah, what a giant fuck up. Like millions of dollars on the line. I love a lot of what HBO Max is doing, but they need to fix a couple things. They really need to, like, iron out things about their streaming service. You see the picture of Jared Leto as, like, Joker?

Oh, Jared Letto Jesus Joker or whatever. None of them are as good as Netflix. Yeah. Yeah. It's the third Joker. There are a lot of streaming services now. HBO Max, Paramount Plus, Peacock, Disney Plus, Um, Netflix, Hulu.

Criterion channel, trauma channel, or whatever they call it. There's like the horror one, screamer. Yeah, I've got like subscriptions within subscriptions. Like on my Amazon, I've got like mooby films as well. Oh yeah, movie. Yeah. There's so many. It's like, come on.

I had to get a free trial for Paramount Plus to watch the SpongeBob movie. Oh. The new one. That was important. Oh, right. There's like a million different ones. got to have though. That's all I wanted for Paramount Plus. That's it. So now

I'm done. I wish Disney would just buy all of them. That's, that might happen. What's funny is if they did, you would still be paying for separate services too. Because Disney has like four of different ones, five different ones. They would just upcharge it. Yeah, I would just be

paying $30. Like Disney owns a bunch of them already. They're not consolidated into one affordable thing. So, yeah, little buddy, her tits. Sorry. Back to that. Okay. It's important.

Is there any hope for the movie? As soon as it got announced, I didn't think it would be good or anything. It's like, it's not going to capture the spirit of the original. Yeah, that's what I mean. Good's kind of the wrong word. I don't think any movie can. It's kind of a flash in a pan, right? Yeah.

And when we covered the original, when we were talking about it on the podcast, it's like, I don't know. Like, there's so many things about it where I'm like, yeah, you can't do this today. Like this wouldn't... It had to exist then. They would be a bit more conscious of how this would be perceived, you know? So this wouldn't, like, this is just 1996 in a bottle, which is why I love it. Yeah. I don't expect Space Jam 2 to be, like, memorable.

I expected to be just, like, boring schluck, like any other nostalgia cash grab remake thing. I don't know. Apparently a lot of people love Detective Pikachu, but I sounded to be really boring. Yeah, I couldn't sound that one. Well, if you want them to restore her titty, sign the petition bring back her tits also really funny side note here in the furry porn community basically the porn is the exact same but now she has a speech bubble saying i was just wearing a sports bra earlier it's like all these different pictures of just like trying to retroactively

explain why there is like a canon image of her with smaller breasts but still retaining the larger breasts i find that hilarious oh i need a drink hold on It's early. I guess it's earlier for me than it is for you. Yeah. It's late for me, man. Yeah. It's after 12 here.

True. All right. Indiana Jones. Take it away. Oh, I'm so excited to talk about these. Holy shit. The Indiana Jones trilogy and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Did you both recently watch Crystal Skull?

Or do you just have it in memory? No, I watched all four. I watched all of them again. Okay, awesome. I pumped him out in one day. Yeah, that's like what I did. Okay, awesome. I mean, I remembered them very,

well. Yes, man. Because I've seen him a lot. But, yeah, I watched them all again. I love these movies. I think, well, not to spoil my opinion, but yeah, I love these movies. They're very easy to rewatch. So let's start with the first one.

Spoilers, right? Raiders at a Lost Ark, directed by Steven Spielberg. It came out, 1981, and follows Mr. Indiana Jones as he goes to find the, what is that fucking thing? It's like a... The Chintamani Stone. That's it. He's trying to find the arc of the covenant.

The Covenant with his friend Marion Ravenwood, and he's chased down by a bunch of Nazis. And the movie's fucking awesome. It's a bunch of action. It's an action adventure. It's paying homage to the action adventure serials of like the past, like Flash Gordon or something like that. And Lucas and Spielberg were really inspired by those kinds of films in their early career because, you know, Star Wars is basically that. And so is this. It's a tribute to those, but it's also a modernizing of that where they actually made the,

The character's good and the action sequences are fantastic and the music and the violence too is, you know, really out there. But yeah, let's get your thoughts on it because I'm really interested in what you all have to think about Raiders of the Lost Ark. I think it's the best indie film. It's my personal favorite one. Yeah, everything you said, it's, I do have a connection to it based on nostalgia, obviously I grew up with these films. I especially connected to the third one, but revisiting this one, I was the most. impressed by um it has been a while since i have watched them like i don't think i have actually seen them as an adult um maybe crystal skull i have but um yeah raiders is a really solid like pulpy action movie i'm just so impressed by the the the execution of those action scenes

combined with the music especially that's kind of what indie balls down to to me it's like yeah anytime it it just filters itself down to the pure essentials of what it's trying to do this pulpy kind of I read a quote saying the idea kind of came about aside from the homage to these pulpy stories from the 30s and 40s. It also

was Spielberg expressed a desire to direct a Bond film and Lucas suggested an idea supposedly better than Bond and you can kind of see how this is their own take on that style of story where you have

each kind of episode or movie starts with an action sequence that's like completely irrelevant to, well, in three of the four, it's irrelevant, but a detached action sequence that establishes the characters, in Raiders especially, I think that opening sequence is brilliant, not just in terms of all the, you know, the set piece moments, everyone knows, like the boulder and the sandbag and everything like that, but it does a really good job of establishing the character and a bunch of setups with the snake and the whip and every thing. It's all the pulpy stuff, the adventure, serial stuff that I just love. And it really captures that, the imagination of a child. And I just love the purity of Indy. In terms of his motivations,

it's all about, it belongs in a museum. It's all about, you know, fighting against evil and having pure intentions and him, like, dueling the dual life with him being, like, a teacher by day and an explorer, in his spare time. Yeah, his students love him. Yeah. Yeah. It's, It's very silly in that kind of Star Wars way. But I love it for that. They're very episodic, these movies. Goes back to the James Bond thing. I was thinking of that, too.

Even in Temple of Doom, the opening of that film was more like a James Bond kind of movie. But Adam, what do you think of these? You may not be as positive, maybe on me. Just gathering from, like, seeing maybe some of your ratings. But I'm sure there's a lot of you appreciate about it. I mean, yeah, there is. It is, I'll agree that it is very much like a mixed. between Star Wars and James Bond in ways.

I'm not a big fan of Star Wars or James Bond. What am I going to do? So, yeah, in terms of what it's going for tone-wise, this is going to sound very strange to a lot of people, as I'm aware. But everything that I wanted to get out of it is what I got out of the second film and none of the others, which I know is universally considered, like, the worst of the trilogy, maybe not as bad as Crystal Skull.

And I'll go into more detail about why I love the second one when we start talking about that as its own discussion. But in terms of the first film, there were a couple things that were kind of like preventing me from getting the pure experience out of it that I know so many other people are able to get. One of those being out of all, all four of them, it's the most like referenced pop culture thing. and because this was my first time seeing it and because I'm a human being that exists on this planet and have seen every, you know, reference.

Like, I thought there was like more to the bolder thing. I didn't know that that was like the intro of the film and then it just like kind of went away. So it was like, oh yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, I've seen that. The Nazi villain shows up and immediately as soon as I see his face, I'm thinking of that giff of his face melting off.

I'm like, yeah, like that's coming. And it's like part of it might just have to be one of those, like you had to be there sort of things and I know neither of you were like alive when this movie came out I wasn't either but you two are at least able to watch it when you were younger right I don't know how young you were when you watched them I was pretty young I was like a teenager yeah yeah ever since I was a little kid that's the thing kids like as kids like people watched Indiana Jones we loved it even though these movies are pretty hardcore like watching them now they're really violent they're really bloody there's some sequences yeah

Spielberg does not shy away from the Nazi imagery at all in the first film. It's, you know, swastika's everywhere. It's like before the PG-13 rating, right? Yes, it was. And I believe Temple of Doom is what basically created the PG-13 rating because that film was so dark if guy gets his fucking heart ripped out. But we'll get to that. I mean, yeah, this movie is insane.

Like, there's a guy, like, lit on fire, and Indiana Jones shoots him in the head and, like, blood comes out. Like, holy fuck. But there's so many badass moments like that. people getting thrown in propeller blades and, you know, it's a ballsy movie. There's a lot of ballsy decisions that I think had an impact. Even though Indiana Jones, like you said, Alex, is very, like his goals are very simple. Like, he's just a good guy who wants to put it in a museum. And he doesn't really progress or change too much as a character, and that's okay.

You're coming for indie, the action hero, the man you want to be sort of thing, that you daydream being, the adventurer, the, goes out. and, you know, saves slaves. And yeah, it's just a lot of fun. And Harrison Ford, I think, really carries the identity of the movie. He takes a huge role in the physical side of it. He loves doing his own stunts, and he has his own kind of beliefs on what the character should represent and go through.

And it's cool reading that, like, when, you know, the lead on a huge franchise actually is invested in how the characters portrayed. I think Harris should form. is like very charismatic. I feel the same way about the Marion Ravenwood actor, which I'm going to look up her name quick, but I feel like that both of them worked really well. And that's something that a lot of the other films might be missing,

aside from Last Crusade, is that kind of a dynamic where they're actually like really good together. It's Karen Allen is her name. She was the most naturally likable out of all of the female leads in the series. I'll say that much. The like Kiss My Boo Boo Boo Better scene was like, really weird and awkward as fuck. Yeah.

Kind of cringing that whole time. I'll give you that. There's like a moment where like the bad guy looks at her in a mirror. She's like she has her shirt off. I'm not sure why that was necessary. It's just like kind of pandering like, ooh, look, it's a naked lady. Like yeah, that didn't need to be in there. But for the most part, she really holds her own.

I like the setup a lot where she has a, you know, she has the drinking contest with the guy at the beginning. And then later she tries to have a drinking contest with the Nazi guy who has his own wine. Like that was really well set up and and yeah She's got some good moments in this yeah She didn't have a whole lot of screen time though I thought she had enough for me this movie flew by like you know Before I knew it was over so I guess it's better to be left wanting more I love music and music makes up a very

Important part of what I consider to be like a film if it's going to use it I mean films can always decide not to use music and that's equally as valid The score for the film very memorable Get stuck in your head This film in particular Out of all four of them I would say that this one's like the worst culprit

For spamming the main theme And mostly in places Where it clashes against The tone of what the scene otherwise would be So what I say that I mean The tone of the main theme It's so triumphant Right

Yeah there's the implication of the emotions from the song itself are those communicated of accomplishment achieving some sort of goal, you know, there's no danger here sort of thing. And the first film, especially the first film, keeps using it in scenarios where I wish that I could have felt some sort of tension. Like, it's not at the end of the action. It's during the action before threats are eliminated, like while he's rolling around on the ground with the rotating play and fighting the big guy.

It's not like at the end of the scene where it's like bump but up. Like it's the emotion is like, yay, we've accomplished something. There's no danger. But it's in the middle of the scene. So while I'm watching it, I'm like, oh, there's no danger instead of being able to like, like, I don't know what the point is of setting up a threatening situation if the music's going to take away from that. And when I say spamming, I mean like, I actually, last night I skimmed through the film again just on my like, a Blu-ray player on my computer just to fact check myself because what I'm saying right now is something that I had.

felt watching the movie, but I just wanted to make sure it was accurate. And so I got the time stamps of like when they were using literally the main theme of the song. And it's like they literally play it four separate times within a span of six minutes in completely different scenarios. And each one of them is just so inappropriately used in the sense where it's like, this is in the middle of tension. Like you have the barrels lighting on fire. You filmed the oil trail leading to the plane. Indy is trying to like break open that window but the song's just going but but da but i'm like well okay i guess he's destined to get like there's no tension right so that really it really takes away from the first film for me because of that like it's it's unbearable just how much they spam that song and

how inappropriately it's used it's a great song though that's a great thing i love that song on its own it's like a well-composed catchy theme i just think that the first film in particular not all of the films, but the first film really uses it super inappropriately and takes away from any tension or implied danger or drama that otherwise I would have been able to feel in the scene. So, yeah, it's used like fucking what, like, nine times like in the movie, but I'm not even kidding. I timed six times or sorry, four times within six minutes of screen time, all just at incredibly inappropriate moments. And so that's one of my gripes with the movie. I mean, like, obviously there's a lot to appreciate about the film, too, but that's one major thing that's really preventing me from being, like, fully into it, especially if so many of these scenes I'm supposed to be able to view in like an unironic way, you know?

I don't think that spamming the theme song was some sort of meta-commentary on theme songs being overused in films. Yeah, that'd be a little out there. Yeah. I find it interesting you chose that scene with the plane, because I think that's my first. favorite action sequence out of any of the Indiana Jones movies. I think it's just a perfectly executed action sequence in terms of the escalation, the tension and pacing of it. To me, the whole fun of Indiana Jones is actually the tension where you felt you didn't

feel it. It's putting him in a situation that just, he's so out of his league, so out of his element, but every time he manages to just get out of it, and the plane scene is a great example of that. The way it builds up, it establishes the plane. And then the big guy. I loved that as a set piece. That was my favorite part of the first movie.

Yeah, it's just, I love the elaborate nature the way it builds up crescendos. And then it's like not enough that there's just a plane and there's just a big guy. Marion gets trapped inside the plane. And then the plane starts moving a circle. Yeah. It's fun. Yeah, it causes the gas to leak. Yeah.

It's an amusement park spectacle sort of thing, you know? And then there's a little bit of comedy thrown in, too. He usually has a quip or there's like a little funny moment. There's the funny moment where the swordsman comes out And he starts doing all kinds of flips And then Indiana Jones just shoots him I thought that was hilarious And it comes into play in Templeton tomb

It's great Again it might just be a pop culture thing During that moment I wish that I would have like saw that moment as a kid I probably would have loved it But like I created like a short film A dumb little fucking cringe thing When I was 18

And I did that exact same thing Without having seen Indiana Jones And then someone was like, oh, that's from Indiana Jones. I'm like, what? And so like, not only did I know that that was coming, but like I had already, like, done that independently at a younger age. And I was like, oh. You might have seen it somewhere because it's such an iconic, like, moment. Like, even if it was from something else, you know, maybe.

Sure. Like a parody of something. Yeah. I'm not going to, like, sue them. I do feel that way about some moments. Like, I wish I could have seen it for the first time again or, because, you know, I had. of that resonance from when I saw it for the first time. But I can still appreciate, like, these are really clever moments.

Like, the tone of the film for me is very clear, the adventure tone. I was always having a good time. Maybe some of my criticisms with the next film coming up is that it's a little too dark. Although this film, I think one gripe I have with it, maybe they sensationalized that the Nazis a little too much, made them look a little too cool. Yeah, 100%. It's fetishistic. Yeah, they were just like the Empire in Star Wars.

And the Empire in Star Wars is fine because it's an allegory or like, it's not literally Hydra. Whatever. Yeah, or Hydra. Hydra is a great example. They say Hail Hydra. You know, it's implied, you know, because you don't want to see Nazis in a Marvel movie. You don't want to see, you don't want to see Iron Man fight a Nazi.

In this film, although I'm not going to tell Spielberg is a Jewish man. So it's a little, I do feel he's insane. Like, there's literally like close-ups of Swazzer. Like swastikas are everywhere. I'm like, wow, okay. It doesn't it's it's just an interesting choice. The monkey does a sick ho. I'm like I'm like not even bothered about it in terms of like the implied effect on like I guess culture or like social responsibility. I'm more upset about it because it's just a really lazy villain and that doesn't say anything about anything like if I'm going to watch a. movie with Nazis in it, I'd like it to be something about World War II, or I'd like it to be something that like delves into like the psychology or something, you know, like the white ribbon, there's no Nazis in it, but it features characters that would later grow up to be Nazis, and that's like

a central part about the movie. It makes it really interesting. But there's so many movies out there where it's just like, we're fighting Nazis and it's like this weird like boner that a lot of people have for Nazis in a movie that I just don't understand and have never connected with. where it's like you place that group of people, those symbols, those characters, you place them in a film, and all of a sudden it's like, ooh, this is awesome, this is epic. And I've just, I've never understood that. It's always just seemed so lazy and just unspecial and really boring. Well, it depends on the context, too.

There's a once upon a time in Hollywood. There's a scene where Leo comes in. It's like a movie. It's like a parody, basically, Indiana Jones. He comes in with a flamethrower and kills a bunch of Nazis. Like, it's fun. I thought that was supposed to also parody like Inglorious bastards

Yeah, that's too. I mean, parroting himself. Yeah. But it's a, killing Nazis is fine, like sensationalizing the death, like the end of this film where their heads are melting.

Like, that's great. That's a great moment. I love seeing the Nazis have their head melted. But that's why it's easy and that's why it's kind of a cop out is because you don't have to like... Yeah, but there's such... You don't have to actually say anything

about the characters to make people dehumanize them. It's just like an automatic. like oh yes this is like already a part of society everybody recognizes this sort of thing you know like i don't know it's just it just feels lazy to me does that not that kind of makes it the perfect foil for indie there doesn't it he's a simple poppy story and he's got simple motivations he he's the like simple good and the nazis are the simple evil there's no grayness about it yeah it's all very black and white in terms of that stuff i would feel differently about it if i just if i felt

like I was watching something new, you know? I think maybe that's my biggest great, is that it just feels like more of the same old, you know? Yeah, I actually find it weird of like, for example, like when video games like take out the Nazi flag, when the story is so... Oh yeah, when it's literally a World War II video game. That's stupid.

It's like Indy's motivation is he's trying to get the arc before, like, Hitler can. And it is so over the top with the signaling monkey, with the exploding heads that, honestly that part doesn't really bother me because everything is just so ridiculous and over the top in that pulpy way i just feel like it it mostly didn't bother me either it was just the swastikas like there's a few too many swastikas right yeah or if they were like i don't know obscured or i think even in the in the third film last crusade they do a better job like they're obscured they're kind of in the background more like they're on fire like you see like that's fine like i don't just want to see like a close-up of a swastika like it's fucked up Yeah, and it's a fun adventure movie Those are like the only moments to me that feel dated I don't think maybe it's like ignorance

Like they just didn't understand I don't know I feel like also in the 80s There was like less of an understanding of like I don't know if this is true But like anecdotally I feel like 80s and 90s Like Nazis were more of a joke Because you didn't see them on Twitter right It was like oh who could actually believe this

So it was always easy to just be like ha ha ha Nazis You could cosplay as a Nazi and not offend anybody because everybody would recognize it's a joke whereas now it's like, oh shit, these people actually I thought this was a problem that was dealt with. Oops. These people actually kind of still exist, oopsie. Sad to say.

And, you know, that kind of realization kind of ruins it for modern media. Like, oh, shit, some of you are actually serious. It's still fun to see them, you know, get blown up. The end of the film's great where their heads melt. I love that part. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah.

Yeah, I love that practical. effect. A lot of the sets and a lot of the sequences for the practical effects, a lot of the setups, set pieces, I guess. I don't feel as though that made up the bulk of the film. And I felt like when those moments weren't there, I was kind of bored. Out of all of the Indiana Jones films, I guess I'll wait until the second film to specify, but the second film didn't waste as much time independently of these things that I enjoyed, whereas in the first film, there's literally two exposition scenes in a row at the beginning. And it's like, yeah, it's at the beginning. It's like setting things up, but it's like, man, they could have just been so much more efficient with that, you know?

I didn't find this film boring. That's not what I felt at all. And I think a large part of it too is Spielberg's directorial style. I think he's got a great, the way he shoots his films is really great. I think there's a lot of moments in here that are fantastic. The opening of the film is iconic, like that whole swapping out the bag for the Golden Idol and the bolder. Yeah. I wish I could have seen that before, like, the 8 billion parodies. Alfred Molina as well, I believe that's Dr. Octopus.

Yeah, he makes a, it's like the first time he's ever been in a movie, maybe. Yeah, there's a lot of good, like, little parts. How do you guys feel about this idea that Indy actually has no effect on the plot of the movie in terms of. the Nazis would have got to the same end goal with with with with with with that's true personally that doesn't bother me at all I think it's just like a funny observation yeah but he rescues Marion that's like he does he does at the end he rescues Marion tells her closer close your eyes or you're going to die and then uh I

believe in the bar scene as well like they're going to kill her or something before they burn down that's that's one thing that I do it's like a slight nitpick like when he says to close the eyes I wish there was some kind of set up for that somewhere. I assume there's some kind of deleted line or scene that maybe explain that, but it does come out of nowhere but... Yeah. Okay. I think that's all my criticisms with it, though. There's a lot of a... Yeah, like, I don't know how to phrase it. In sensitivity, maybe.

Yeah. In this whole trilogy, I'll say that. If it's an older movie, I feel like that kind of makes it more interesting. That was like half of my enjoyment of King Kong. I love it. time capsules, right? I love relics of the past and seeing like what was culturally acceptable at one moment in time, you know? Like, I find that infinitely more engaging than if that doesn't exist in a movie and it's otherwise the same. Oh, yeah. Like, it's just so much more, there's so much more to chew on. I still love both those films. Yeah, I just like to view them

in that context, yeah, and I'd ask like anyone listening to my opinion, just watch them in that context, it was a different time I still love these films Yeah the amount of times you'd say to yourself Oh my God, they'd never do this in a movie now Throughout the trilogy in particular There's actually one of the things That really lets down the fourth one

When we get to that I just kind of stands out Compared to the original trilogy to me Yeah But we'll get to that later Yeah I want to make clear that like Even completely ignoring What moments of the first film have been parodied and replicated in pop culture, et cetera, even ignoring that completely.

All of the other important scenes in the film where there are implied moments of drama, like, I'm going to torture you with this hot fire poker thing. I'm like patiently waiting like, okay, somebody's going to burst. Like, you're not going to do this. Like, you know, it was predictable independently of that and very formulated, very, I didn't get much out of it from a narrative sense. I don't know if either of you feel as though the writing is particularly great in these films, or if it's mostly like a production value spectacle action set piece.

Like, I don't know how either of you value the writing in particular, I guess. I guess I think it's a blend of both. Yeah, I really value. I think Indiana Jones has a lot of memorable lines with snakes, why don't have to be snakes. I mostly like the adventure story as well. Like, I like the adventure serial kind of story. where you have to find some artifact. And I enjoyed Indiana Jones, like, looking through tombs and doing all these things.

Like, oh, I got to figure out how to get the staff to line up with the sun. And, you know, I bet if you enjoy these kinds of adventure movies, then there's a lot of great stuff like that. I feel like the National Treasure movies try to capture that, Nicholas Cage, like going around trying to find stuff, like underground. I feel like people like the mystery. They like finding, like, oh, there's this artifact from the past that can, do crazy shit. Ghost come out of it or it's the Holy Grail or it's the, you know, the crystal skull or whatever. I like that mystery.

I like those things as settings for films. I like having films or even video games like Uncharted. Like those can be a fun way to write your script around those ideas. But I need a bit more than that in terms of writing for me to be like a, or connected. I didn't really find any of the characters like memorable or interesting except like one guy that barely had any lines

where he was like, they're digging in the wrong spot. Like he had some charisma. You know, there was nothing like very engaging about like the dynamics between the characters in my opinion. Yeah, it was very, it was a movie that did not surprise me or engage me in pretty much any way.

But I respect and a pre- a lot of what went into this movie and a lot of what it inspired despite I guess how derivative like the whole thing is anyway like I don't know yeah it is it's an homage to adventure serials it's just much better done it's like popularizing these sorts of things I guess I'm never gonna watch it yeah Alex you have anything you never gonna watch it again no no I would when the 4k release comes out in a few months I think I'm gonna try and find out if sell the second movie on its own. Otherwise, I'm going to have to buy the whole quadrology.

It's interesting, like the second one. Is there anything else you want to say about this one, Alex? I mean, I got everything. I basically said everything I want to say, but I love them. Just on the writing, I guess, I like it for what it is. I'm not going to sit here and say the dialogues like blow in my mind. But I think it's appropriate for what they're going for, the intent of what they're going for.

And as I'm saying, I think the best, writing is the following through of the action scenes and the way they kind of flow together and the way they build up. Each action scenes like its own little mini story in of itself and that's really what keeps it going for me and what keeps

the whole trilogy interesting to me. The set pieces are the most interesting. Especially in Raiders actually and Doom a little bit too but in Raiders the last hour or so of the movies just like non-stop. It's so much fun to me and I think it flows the best out of the four movies in my mind.

I just, I'd love the way the story comes together and the journey of the characters. It's just perfect, pulpy, fun adventure for me. Yeah, I just wouldn't say Raiders is my favorite one. They're really close. I think the opening of Raiders, though, is probably the best scene of any Indiana Jones film. I mean, that is the scene. That's like, that's the scene that's Indiana Jones. You know, everyone knows that scene from Indiana Jones because that's, you know,

It's exciting. Yeah, it establishes the hat, the whip, the snakes, the, yeah, just everything you need to know. Exactly. It's perfect. That on its own is wonderful, yeah. And then, yeah, I don't have many other criticisms. Some of the imagery, it's not very, it's not a deep film. The characters aren't.

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's light. It's light adventure pulp, and it's really fun. It's really well made for what it is. I really love the music, too. Like, the soundtrack for this is iconic. And maybe, I've never noticed. The theme being used too much, but...

Oh, man, I was surprised when I skimmed through it. It was just something that I felt watching it, and then when I fact-checked it. Yeah, maybe it's because I've heard the theme so much. It's like, it's kind of like white noise for me now, the Indiana Jones theme. Yeah. It's just so... I could say, I could hum the whole thing right now. Especially you have to watch them in a row.

Yeah, that too. I've memorized the song before I've seen a single film. Like, it's everywhere, right? But it's just the tone works against the scenes in many ways. Like, imagine making an Indiana Jones film without this theme song. Like, you can't. You can't. Oh, yeah, I'm not saying remove it or anything.

It just wouldn't work. It's almost like how the Superman theme is so tied to Superman and then, like, man, a steel got rid of it. And it's just a big, like, okay, so what's even the point? If the Superman theme is most of what Superman is. And I feel the same way about Indiana Jones. It adds so much to him. It adds so much to these movies.

I love, I think, like, the, music is uh it would it would really detract from the film if the music wasn't there oh yeah it's half the movie to me in the same way it is in Star Wars it it communicates so much and as I say I think all of the indie movies are at their best when there's no dialogue and it is the visuals doing all the work definitely all right film number oh wait I guess we're giving our ratings after each one yeah film number one I would give Raiders the Lost Stark nine out of ten yeah I'm with you nine. Indiana Jones, the first one. I'm given this one a five out of ten. I'm sorry, everybody. What? Did not connect with me. There are elements that I thought worked against the film.

Yeah, it's not like everything needs to be like a super complicated art house piece, as evidenced by my upcoming opinions about the second film. Take it away, Ralph. Temple of Doom is the second one. Sorry, this one's way lower on my list. Temple of Doom, the second one. Deblot Dune, the second one, 1984. So he goes to India, and there's a village that is like going, they're starving, there's no food or water or anything. It's because this guy stole their stone. It's like a magical stone, and he's using it to, like, sacrifice people or something, take their souls. And he also has like a cave full of child slaves. And then Indiana Jones, I guess, has to get the stone back and bring it back to the village.

So to save the town. I guess that's the plot. It's a really fucked up film. It's really dark. So, yeah, you guys talk more about this one because I would, this is not my favorite one, definitely. I have a lot of, a few complaints with it. I still like it. But, yeah, I wanted to hear what you have to say.

Yeah, I was, I never enjoyed Temple of Doom growing up as much. I never watched it as much. But revisiting it here, I really enjoyed it, actually. It's the most true to that pure. pulp just like nonsense. I agree. It's so over the top, so silly. But it doesn't,

I don't think it flows as well. It's more awkward in the way it jumps around the story in my mind. And yeah, tonally, it is dark in places in ways I don't know if it was fully necessary. But then it is what makes it stand out in the trilogy is the thing. The

darkness, the depressing nature of it, with George Lucas and Spielberg, we're going through divorces and break up at the time which might explain the ripping heart out stuff. Yeah, that's what they've both said. Lucas is like, I was going to a divorce. I was in a very bad state of mind. And Spielberg said, like, he doesn't like the film.

He thinks it's too dark. It's too mean. That adds a level of intrigue to it. Yeah, yeah, that makes me like it more. Yeah, and as far as the sensitivity stuff, I know it's a lot more in this one. Yeah. With short round a bit.

When they're eating monkey brains. Yeah, in the monkey brains, there's, you know, there's some stuff, but again, it's things. It's the 80s, man. It's a different time. Just the India, yeah, they set the film in India, and I guess people would criticize the story for being the white savior trope of the Westerner comes to a foreign country in the East. And, you know, he saves everyone because he's the Westerner who knows, you know, he's strong and he knows the way. You know, he doesn't take anyone's orders.

And that could be seen as a bit, like, insensitive or, you know, there's a million other words for problematic or whatever. Yeah. In the context, just watching it, I don't know. I don't care that much. I'm not going to pretend to be offended by it. It's, yeah, it's definitely a criticism I would have. It's a time capsule. It is a time capsule.

And I would say more so, it's more like poorly communicated because the point on that scene where they're eating like the monkey brains in the palace, Spilberg said that's supposed to be like they're almost like making fun of Indiana Jones and his friends. Like, oh, the Westerners think that we need like monkey brains. So they're going to bring out monkey brains to them to, like, kind of mess with them, kind of fuck with them. You know, but that wasn't really communicated well to me at all. Yeah, I don't know if I believe it. Didn't they actually eat them?

Yeah, that sounds like an excuse. It feels like so poorly thought out. I think it was more they had an exposition dump they needed to do. And they just set it in a dinner scene and they just wanted to make it as entertaining as they could and didn't need them. Yeah, they just wanted to be funny. Right. Exactly. Yeah. So, like, in the first film, they had two particularly long.

exposition scenes one after the other at the beginning of the movie and I was just like oh get back to the action set pieces you know there's like there's a couple exposition scenes in this film but there's so much more appropriately handled in terms of like what I want out of the movies so the first one there's the the most boring exposition scene is where the Indian tribesmen or whatever is explaining that he has to go into the temple or whatever and at least in that scene he's He's kind of like kooky. He's kind of like, you know, a weird kind of character that is a little bit interesting to watch.

And, you know, contrast that to first Indiana Jones films. It's just, like, boring to, like, two normal-looking white dudes talking about what needs to be done later in the movie. I'm just like, ah, get on with it. And in the second film, it's, like, so much shorter, too. It's, like, so much more compact. It feels like it doesn't waste any time in the same sense that, like, a movie, like, Crankwood. or it feels like the priorities of this film are to be more wacky and outlandish and really like everything that I was hoping to get out of the entire franchise is just in the second movie. The intro for the film, the opening scene with like all the dancers as they're still trying to dance and there's like a shootout going on and like you know, diamond and the antidote and you know like that gigantic cylinder that he like runs behind as they're shooting.

It's like, it's all so fast-paced and so crazy that it feels so engaging to me. Like, it doesn't stop. I love it. It's a lot of fun. I really love the opening of the film, too. And I really like that. It's very different from the Raiders of the Lost Ark opening. It's a totally different setting.

Indies in a suit. It's like, yeah, the flaming shish kebab and all that shit. Yeah, it's hilarious. The introduction of short rounds very good. I think after that the film really takes a giant lull. Like, there's an hour of the first. film that I just thought was really boring and I wasn't into it. I think toward the end it picks up again once the action starts like the mind cart chase is really good. That's when the film started

getting good for me again. I thought all that was really exciting. I was going to ask you, would you consider the sequence where they're like lowering people into the lava and the female lead is like in danger of having that? Is that a part of the hour where you were bored? Oh. I just want to like understand where that was in the movie. Yeah, I don't even remember where that was necessarily. I just liked when the action picked up again. There wasn't a lot of action. Even that part, I guess it was fine. But there just wasn't any action going on.

I didn't particularly care for that character nearly as much as Marion. Oh, yeah, I was rooting for her to die. It was so much fun. I guess they made her different than Marion by making her a bumbling before. They're like the total opposite. So I guess they wanted to do something different. Kate Capshaw. Steven Spielberg's wife.

She's like a, she can't do anything. She can't even ride an elephant. Yeah, she's a frustrating character to me. I do like that she is an inverse of Marion from the first movie. I think that probably is what they were going for, because it gives Indy a different dynamic to kind of bounce off. She doesn't have much to her, and she does get quite grating after a while, especially when you're used to Marion, and she's just so much more capable.

And then at the end, she's like, oh, I love you, Indie. Like, just, okay, after all that. And you never see her again. Yeah. It's a prequel, too. It is balanced out by Short Round a lot. like short round does help her annoying like balances it out you know i thought short round was an entertaining character and his dynamic with indy's very good yeah he's the heart of the movie to me

in temple of doom yeah how like he he has in the action sequence towards the end where they're like freeing all the slaves and short rounders you know he has his little fight with the the other kid there's just like all the kid thing that's going on with the slaves and stuff there's and his relationship with indy they never like explain how they how that relationship began or whatever but it's it is really fun but what they do with it is he's really charming. Mm-hmm. There's different types of cringe.

The female lead performance cringe in this movie is the kind of cringe that I kind of like. I was having fun with it. Like I love it compared to like the cringe of the first movie with that weird like kiss my boo-boo better scene like that was just like like come on when she said, I'm broken nail for like the second time, I'm like, this is so stupid. I love it. It felt like pretty self-aware about what it was. And perhaps like, I get it. Like, those comedic elements aren't going to land with everybody. And in a way, they didn't with me, but I still loved it because it didn't in a way, if that makes sense. Sometimes they did. Indy had some good responses to her. Like, she was throwing a tantrum and then he was like,

let's camp up that way. Like, just ignoring her. That was really funny. There's moments like that, yes. Yeah, it does bring out a funny side of him. One of my favorite parts of the movie is that shot of him looking through the hole and he says, We are going to die. Sad face. That little face he makes right before it cuts. I saw that gift before and I didn't know that this movie was what it was from. It's so funny.

I love it. There's so much entertainment for me in this movie. I just wish there was more action and I wish it was spaced out better because it's all basically at the end. I find that so strange. Yeah. I just, once the mind cart, that's the moment. that's the moment where I like the movie again. That's when it really picked up for me.

This film felt like it was packed with action for me. And so I guess, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if, like, if we timed it out and fact-checked this, I wouldn't be surprised if there's an equal amount of action in both films or something. Who knows, right? It might just be based off of our perception of, like, how much we're enjoying either film. Yeah. Because, like, yeah, there's, like, a good amount of set pieces in the first movie. there's also a good amount of set pieces in the second movie like there's tons especially near the end yeah i think

it's paced out differently it's a very differently paced film yeah at the end of the film that once it gets to the bridge scene to me that's like the peak like that that that scene is fantastic and it's so simple like it's just a wooden bridge and the suspense they built up like there's only one way out and he's got to cut the rope and then they do and like that that that's that moment is spectacular it's so exciting yeah i'd agree but i'd include the whole section before it too. Exactly. It flows continuously. The voodoo stuff. I love that as well. The fight on the conveyor belt. I like that a lot as well.

Oh yeah, that was pretty good. Part of what I really love about this is like the moment where they escape the water by going outside the tunnel onto the cliff edge. That was the moment where I was like, okay, like narratively like things are going to start calming down. They're going to go somewhere else.

But then it's like, oh no, the side. sides of the tunnel exit are like crumbling apart and that huge practically done too. I love it. This big set that they built with like all the water gushing out and like pieces breaking off. And then it's like, whoa, they're still going with this. And then immediately like, oh, we're doing the bridge thing now. It's just like, man, you're really not like it caught me off guard. I felt like I was watching something that genuinely surprised me. And I was really into it. And I would also like to be. bring back up the usage of the theme song in this film. I fact-checked this last night because it was just something I was feeling the first time I watched it, but the usage of the theme song in this film,

like, every instance I found of it, was like so much more appropriate. It's used like a couple times in the actual temple tunnel or whatever during fight scenes, but it's always like at the end of the it's like once the dude is like in the steamroll conveyor belt, like, that, That's when the theme goes because that's the accomplishment. The emotions that I have associated with that theme song, it's triumphant. There's an implication of having achieved or accomplished a goal. So it doesn't take me out of the fight scene because what's happening visually

and what's happening narratively is already expressing the emotions that are being communicated through the score. And then, yeah, it doesn't spam it like the first movie. I skipped through just to make sure. and yeah, it's only used like a few times. They play it at the end, which is like the most appropriate place to play it because you've accomplished the narrative goals of the entire film.

And I'm pretty sure at the end is like the only time where you hear like the full song with like the bridge and verse, you know, it's not just the chorus. So yeah, yeah. Music, the way it's used in this film, not even just the theme song. There's a highlight that just got uploaded

to the YMS Highlights Channel where I'm talking about the music and the Lion King and just how it's difficult to notice on like a first watch but there's a lot more happening musically than you think and you know how you're watching like a looney tunes cartoon their actions are synchronized to the music whether or not it's a pre-existing score that's being animated to or or a score that's trying to match what the animation is doing each movement each motion has a corresponding part of the music basically imitating the emotions of what's happening right so That's the most obvious thing is Looney Tunes.

Like people know exactly what I'm talking about there. In both the Lion King and in this second film, there are moments like that that I've really appreciated where there are individual actions that characters are doing that are just so clearly reflected in the film's score. Throughout this film, like, just as I was skipping through it, I was like, holy crap. Like, the very clear changes in like the tone of the score just for like individual shots where it's like the composition. is working with the film and not against it. So even completely ignoring the triumphant main theme thing, like the rest of the score does it so well. And the other films, not so much.

It was super, super noticeable for me in the second film, and I really, really enjoyed that part of it. And I understand that's not something that a lot of people pick up on it. I do love the score for this film, too. I think they all have great music. The music's great in all three of them, yeah. I'd say for me, the set pieces in the first film

are just stronger. The opening of Raiders the Lost Ark is so iconic. And I love that scene more than most of this film, especially once it gets toward the end, I picks up. That's what I'd say for it. How'd you guys feel about the mind cart scene? There was a lot of models used. Yeah. It's pretty seamless, the whole thing.

Yeah, I was expecting it to age worse because there are certain elements in the movies that have aged a bit. Actually, I think Raiders has aged pretty damn well. There's not much I can really think of. There's some green screen stuff that looks bad, but that's it. Yeah, yeah, it's the old bit here and there. But in Temple of Doom, I thought it was pretty immaculate in terms of that stuff. That scene in particular, because in my head I was even imagining, like, this can't look as good as I remember it looking from when I was a kid.

But no, I was really impressed by the execution of that sequence in particular. Because that one is a real, like, it's literally a roller coaster, basically, in the movie. It's so honest with it. itself because all of them are like spectacle theme park movies but this one is like no this is like literally a theme park ride yeah oh great you know like it's so self-aware i love it i'm surprised it didn't go that way with the indiana jones ride because there's a ride in disney world or disney land it's in disney land yeah yeah i've been on that Disney world has a stunt show with Indiana Jones where they recreate like the plane fight uh then there's the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland I went on that it's like

you like go on a car and And there's the guy, like, who's the fat guy? What the fuck's his name? This guy they meet the first movie. He makes a short cameo in Las Crusade. Yeah, he's like Indiana Jones's friend or whatever. I think that was the guy I liked. Yeah, I like him, just fine.

He's like the tour guide on that ride. Yeah, he's awesome. It was very similar to Temple of Doom, though. Like, you go into Temple and there's like this ghost or whatever, and they possess you. It's a cool ride, it reminded me of this a little. Yeah, they should have gone with the Mind Cartman. Yeah. Yeah, it's so self-aware and honest about what it is.

That's like one of the biggest reasons why I love this movie is. Yeah, right. It is like a big theme park ride. I don't feel like it's ever working against itself from what it's trying to do, you know? It is dark. I don't know if I would say it's too dark. I don't think it's too violent to where kids can't handle it or families can't handle it. It's just you got to know what you're walking into.

I'm really harsh on this one, but I really like it. I've seen this one the least out of any of them. and I think that made me remember at the least. So it was actually really exciting to like watch a lot of these scenes again because it was like watching it almost for the first time. Like I didn't really remember it as much as a Raiders or Last Crusade. So that was good. I'm in the same boat.

So it was interesting seeing it from that perspective because it almost feels underappreciated in the trilogy because like just going off the ratings. It's the ugly duck. Yeah, it is exactly the ugly duck thing, the black sheep of the, the movies if you'd discount the fourth one. But it does do all the same things, basically just as well, it just has a different skin. So the action scenes, for example,

they're paced in a similar way. They have the same sort of elements being juggled. It is just so much fun. And the creativity they come up with. And you mentioned the sets earlier, Adam, and the practicality of it all. I think this one probably has the most impressive sets to me. Yeah.

Yeah, with the whole. the mine car and the bridge and the... It's crazy. And that's forgetting about the beginning even when they're in a different continent. Like it captures that pulp thing really well. But yeah, I was saying with the... As far as the tonal stuff and the violence,

the one time I was wondering if it was necessary was the like whipping, flaying scene. Talking about like imagery like that. It is... Which one? Sorry? It's a lot. It's a lot. When, like, short round is getting whipped and...

Oh, yeah. And it's hilarious. It's getting whipped as well. I mean, yeah, it's funny. And the way, like, has the whip, like, integrated. It is funny. But, like, that is... If I was showing that's, like, a six-year-old, it would be like, oh, it's kind of weird.

But, I mean, I'm not. This is a perfect movie for me as an adult. Right? I get such Sam Ramey vibes watching this movie. And I love... Right. I love cheesy Sam Ramey shit. I love Spider-Man.

I love Evil Dead. And this very much felt like one of those movies, like, throughout, like much of it. Yeah. Like, maybe that's it. It felt like almost like old Peter Jacksony at times or, you know, like without being so gratuitous, without being like super gory or anything. But yeah, like even moments where it's like you got fucking evil indie and like just that as a concept and especially how it's acted is just so good.

goofy and stupid and funny. I love it. But the film kind of knows that that's what it is, too, in a way. I think. That's what they all are. I don't know. That's why I like all of them. Yeah, but this one really, like, embraces it, you know?

It doesn't do this, like, half, you know, serious sort of thing, like the other films do. That's the most peril, that's for sure. Yeah. And I want to go back to, um, we were talking about the mind cart scene. Again, like, I am huge when it comes to. music and sound design and that's like it's it's an essential part of films you know if they're including it in the film obviously and during the mind card scene so much of it like the first half of it

no music and that's like that's such a restrained purposeful and effective choice that correct me if I'm wrong I don't remember seeing in any of the other indie films and for a movie in the 80s I don't know like that's that's more common of like like an editing choice technique today, I feel. You know, when your movie is like loaded with a musical score and then all of a sudden you get to like one of the most intense action sequences, it's like, no, there's no musical score here. And then it becomes like legitimately more intense. So like even unironically, even though I enjoy this film so much from a humorous like, ha ha, that's stupid, fun, pulpy action, blah, blah, blah. I enjoy a lot of that. But even unironically, I think it does

the best job at actually making me feel tension in a scene and making me feel like, oh, wow, this action's like actually fun and engaging and exciting. And even ignoring the lack of musical score during a significant part of the Mind Cart Chase sequence, the sound design in that sequence is just so well done. All of these like crash action like cave sounds, the echoes. Yeah, like the echoes and like the ding ding like burr-w-w-w-you kind of got that like, I don't remember what that effect is called where something gets lower pitched because it's you're moving fast as it goes behind you or whatever like oh yeah there was so much effort and detail put into the sound design of not just that scene but like the whole movie that it just like it i i don't see it replicated in any of the other

indie films and it means a lot to me so i don't know it really helped my experience yeah definitely we mentioned star wars before did you guys notice the name of the club at the beginning i hope you won isn't it oh yeah yes so it was like a little reference to... The waiter was named Wuhan. Yeah. I mean, if you got no problem with Indiana Jones killing Chinese people or Indian people,

it's a great movie, but, you know, I'm not going to pretend I give a shit. In a film. In a film. Not really. Yeah, last thing I'll mention about just like the sound design and the score is like I have another note here because I skimmed through it recently.

Yeah. There's a point where like the intentional choices of how the music is used is like so incredibly clear in terms of just how much intent there is behind it when they get separated because they're on both sides of the gushing water and India has to climb up the hard way and short round and the annoying women go the other way then he's like running back to connect with them we get the first part of the main chorus of the

score it goes bum but um-pah-pah and then immediately there's like two dudes with swords right in front of him, like blocking him. And the song gets cut off as a part of the score as an intentional choice, and it moves into a more sinister, kind of like, oh, this is like an actual serious moment, and it's reflected in the music. There's nothing like that as far as I remember,

and especially after skipping through them. There's nothing that obviously intentional and clever about how they use the music in any of the other indie films. So I don't know. It's just the audio. throughout this movie is awesome. And I just, yeah, I love how it doesn't take itself too seriously.

Short round is hilarious. I don't care, you know, like there's so much cultural insensitivity in this movie, but I love time capsules and also, you know, I assume ignorance over malice. So, you know, I don't think that Steven Spielberg hates Asian people or Indian people or any, I don't think he, you know, wrote these things into his film because he's like, ha ha, that'll teach them. They're taking over my. I don't think he's one of those.

Well, George is the ideas guy, remember? Yeah, it's a different time period, and people... If you don't want to watch that kind of thing, then you don't have to watch it. Exactly. Yeah, it had the guy from The Shining that said the N-word. Mm-hmm. Like, yeah, the, whatever, his name is... Yeah, I forget his name.

Floyd? Lloyd. Yeah. Yeah, something like that. So, yeah, I really like this film. I don't mean to be too negative on it, because I agree a lot with what you said. I still think it's really well done. And like, I initially I gave it a, I believe, a seven, but, you know, it really stuck with me, like, after a week. Like, yeah, there's some really great moments in there.

Like, the bridge scene at the end is really exciting. Like, that moment's fucking awesome when they're all falling. And then they fall into the lake of crocodiles at the bottom. I'd probably raise it to an eight. I'd say eight out of ten for this Temple of Doom. Yeah, again, I'm with you, Raphai. I was expecting to dislike it more just based off just the zeitgeist around the movie, but it is, it is the underrated one. It does have the great set pieces. It's so

memorable. I can almost remember every frame of the movie. It's so vivid and colorful. Yeah, and when you were saying with the guys with the swords jumping out and just the imagery of it, I can picture also clearly, it's so much fun and so memorable. I think it just doesn't quite capture the same energy of the first movie for me and it doesn't have the relationship dynamic of Marion from the first one but exactly or Sean Connery in the next film yeah yeah or or mutt of course um yeah yep four stars eight out ten awesome love it I'll totally buy the 4k version even if that means I have to buy the whole collection again yeah I I think it's awesome, very enjoyable, very cheesy, feels like a Sam Ramey movie to me.

It's very different from the other two, and that's part of why I like it, is because I'm not, I feel bored watching the other words. Very engaged into this movie. Yeah, the action never stops, super memorable, want to watch it again right away. Genuinely love it. Six out of ten could be a seven at some point in the future, but I would probably want to watch it a second time. That's cool. I'm glad you liked this one more. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Don't you feel also the fact that this is kind of the ugly duckling of the trilogy, the fact that it's talked about the least and kind of reference the least in pop culture might have added to your enjoyment. Maybe that's why I was able to feel like I was watching something new, I guess, but... Yeah, exactly. Because all these other things, like Indiana Jones with the Boulder and the Golden Idol and the thing where he shoots the swordsmen, all these other things. Yeah, you've probably seen it before. Those are all in the first film, though. Yeah, the guy melting his face. Yeah, like, you've seen all that shit. Yeah. It's just so good. Like, it's so iconic that stuff.

How can you not? The snakes, why there have to be snakes. That's definitely possible. Are there even snakes in this movie? It may be pretty. Yeah, exactly. Like, there's things that are just like so specific to the first and third movie only that the second didn't do. And so it was like, oh, wow, I'm like actually watching a movie and not just, you know, something that's a part of a pile.

I'm watching like an individual piece of art, you know. And so, like, even with the third movie, which hasn't been referenced as much in pop culture as far as far. as I know. There was nothing about the third movie where I was like, oh, I know what's happening here because I saw that blah, blah, blah, but I still didn't connect with it as much as I did with the second one. Like, it felt, it felt like in the same way that you have a lot of remakes coming out today of, it was like the episode seven to episode four, you know, the third movie was very much trying to like follow the same structure and same beats and a lot of the same, not entirely, but like, A lot of like callbacks to the first movie where it was sort of like a wink, wink, wink, nudge, like, hey, you remember this, you like this.

And with that being said, take it away. All right. Indiana Jones in the last crusade. It's the final film and the good trilogy of Indiana Jones. It came out in 1989. It was intended to be the last one. That's what Spielberg said. It's in the title. Yeah.

Yeah, Indiana Jones teams up with his dad, played by Sean Connery, and they go to find the Holy Grail, which will grant you everlasting life. And they're stopped by Nazis and chased by Nazis again. So I guess this film is a bit of a reaction to Temple of Doom. It is a bit toned down, I noticed, in terms of the violence and the sensitivity and all of those things. But in other ways, I feel it excels, largely because of Sean Connery and Harrison Ford. I think they work really well together. And I like the father-son dynamic.

I also feel the film is a really strong opening. as well, like the other two. Yeah. It's very different. And young Indies, played by River Phoenix, who's, is it Joaquin Phoenix's brother? Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

He passed away. But, you know, it was cool to see him. Yeah. I would have preferred to see him kind of take on the role of Indiana Jones in a more modern time than a shy LeBuff, which is what they were grooming him to be, you know. So yeah, I just thought I'd mention that, too. What did you guys think of Last Crusade?

There's a lot to talk about with this one. This was always my favorite one, as a kid. I think I just connected with the father's son thing that they're going for in the movie because it's kind of the first more traditional arc that a character goes through in one of the indie

movies because his dad comes to learn to appreciate his son in ways well they both learn to appreciate each other basically because they're kind of you know when the movie starts they have their problems you kind of learn a bit more about indie's backstory and what motivates him like in the intro as you said

it's him as a kid as like an ode to Spielberg's youth and the scouts and stuff and the way it kind of sets him up again and does the yeah the fan servicey stuff of explaining how where he got his whip and a hat it is a bit fan servicey yeah all in the same scene up i love that cut when it cuts from him being young to an adult i think that's excellent yeah yeah that's great i like all that stuff and yeah i do like the the core of the movie with the dad and son learning to appreciate each other and again there are some really good action set pieces and with the music and everything. I just think it's a really consistent trilogy, like bringing up the intros to each one.

Each time we're talking about one of these movies, the intro is like a standout and trying to choose your favorite one can be difficult. Second one. I just like the consistency of it and bringing back like the Gimli from the first movie and bringing back just enough elements to kind of make it feel conclusive and literally riding into the sunset at the end and having a nerve to continue it after that point. Exactly. I really like it.

I like the bringing the Nazis back again. And some of the gags they do with that, I think the Hitler gag is hilarious. Yeah, I thought that was funny too. He literally meets Hitler and he gets his journal signed by Hitler. He gets an autograph by Hitler. It's so silly over the top. And like, Hitler's literally signing one of the Macuffins of the movies. is what Hitler's searching for as well

to add some irony to it. Yeah, that was very funny. I don't know what the point I'd see was. He just went there to, I guess, get the journal back. Yeah, he's got to, like, go back to Berlin. He has, like, a brief exchange with the girl of this movie who was, I guess they changed it up again. Elsa, is her name?

Her name's Alison Doody. Nice. I don't know if you're children. But she's like, I liked how they changed it up again, where she's kind of the bad guy, she's a traitor, she works with the Nazis, but she's also kind of got a thing going for Indiana Jones, like they have a little flirting kind of have a thing going on, you know? And Indy's dead.

Yeah. And oh, yeah. That was a fucking hilarious moment, too. I think that's why this film works so well for me. I think it's the funniest film of all the three. Like, for me, the comedic beats work really well. I love the lines they have. I love the dynamic between Sean Connery and Indiana Jones.

it was never distracting like the insensitivity or the really dark violence like the first two. Not that I don't like those moments, but for me this is the one where all of that was the least distracting. I just kind of go along with it. You say distracting, I say entertaining. Yeah. Well, those moments just catch you off guard, you know, like a guy gets fucking thrown in molten lava. Yeah, that's what I'm. Like, oh my God.

Yeah, I love that stuff too. Yeah, it's fucking awesome. I like the tonal consistency of this one. I like the comedy. I like the lightness. I like the lightness of this movie. And I do think the action set pieces are really fucking great in this film as well. The tank chase at the end, which I guess we'll get to, is really one of my favorite set pieces in the entire series.

Maybe of all time. Like, I thought that was so fucking cool. And Uncharted 3, of course, pays homage to that scene with its horse chase at the end. You know, it's really well done. It's all practical. Looks great. and it's still goofy at the end. Like the Nazi falls down and you see like a close-up of his face.

I guess it's like as he's falling down the mountain, you know, it's like a close-up of him like screaming. Like I thought that was perfect like comedic note to like end the scene with. I mean, it ends on a gag too revealing that Indies like name. He's named after his dog. Yeah. It's really cheap. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or even like Indiana Jones like coming up the hill like they all think he's dead.

you don't seem so positive on this one. I don't... Yeah. The comedic beats in this film I wasn't... I wasn't super into. Like, the way that I felt when they were like,

ha, it's just named after the dog. Ha ha. It just felt reminiscent of like Blumhouses Fantasy Island where they're like, and that man was named tattoo or so, like, I don't know. Those are like different goals, I guess.

There's so many moments, though. Even in just the action, like there's the fireplace sequence. The action said people, as I liked. I was just thinking about the fireplace. I liked that. That's a good comedic set piece. There's things happening. There's an actual set that's done practically. It's fun. I like that kind of stuff. But then I don't know. I guess I have to retract my previous statement that not as much of this made it into pop culture because I have in my notes here that I just remembered like so much so much of this isn't uncharted three. And then also I've heard the it belongs in a museum line probably. from friends or something. I don't remember where I've heard that, but that definitely was something before. And it's not even just like, oh yeah, the line's in the film, so it's not a good line anymore because I heard it or something. It was like, in the context of the film, it happens like, I don't know,

a minute and a half after the flashback where he said it the first time. So I was just like, man, in terms of like callbacks or reincorporation, it just seems so lazy and cheap. But I will give credit to the X marks the spot or never marks the spot reincorporation. That's a good one. Because that one was actually kind of done in a clever way. It was like, oh, Roman numeral 10x, X does mark the spot. You know, he's like, oh, this is the exception sort of thing. Like that.

I wasn't expecting that as much, you know. It wasn't so quickly after he said it the first time where I was like, what, what the fuck? Like, you know, where it's no longer reincorporation. It was like, oh, okay, enough time has passed. It was like 15 minutes at least or something. And it was actually a part of what was driving the narrative forward anyway instead of just the you know a line that you can meme you know yeah there's so many

references in here that i really got a kick out of yeah i i i think overall this one probably has the weakest action of the trilogy to me compared to the first two because i i can't really think of any throwaway action scenes from the first two but i'm not mad about the motorcycle chase in this movie with the like jousting bit it it doesn't feel like the the third you know stage of a story it's not like topping what came before I don't know if it's too much to ask for but where it does make up though

is in the humour where you said that Sean Connery I think really works with Harrison Ford and like the scene with the plane and the birds and there's a lot going on with that and the way they make it work and the dynamic he has with you know like they're really good at establishing

characters in the Indiana Jones universe like when in the opening of film with the young indie scene where he goes into his dad and like his dad forces him to count to 20 but then stops him and forces him to count in Greek. There's a lot of like filling in the lines with the characters from just such a simple interaction that establishes everything you need to know about the guy really well. And yeah, I really like his arc. I like the story of the movie. I like the the places they go. I do like the boat set piece and the the practical set they made I love that

when indie has him hold up again that was yeah I'd love to see yeah yeah that's an example where their practicality adds so much whereas um yeah

I'm actually really looking forward to me about the fourth one um but yeah it was from his like experience with like uh jaz is like doing these underwater like sort of mechanical or like partially in water mechanical set pieces yeah like that was super intense. I love how the

boat was like falling apart as it was being pushed into it. Yeah. And yeah, just so much to think about in terms of like how they would have filmed that, how they would have built it. You know, I probably have like a pretty good idea of how it was done, but it's still super, super cool and effective. And like you don't see anything like that

today in terms of like something where it's like, it looks like the actors are actually in danger right there, you know? And it was like it was a long enough shot where you could see the action was still happening. The boat was crumbling. They are moving towards it. It wasn't just done through cuts. The actor is there. You can see Harrison Ford. So yeah, super effective. That's one of my favorite

moments for sure. Like one of the best set pieces. Whereas another snag I have against the movie is one of the most aged pieces of effects work is the blimp sequence and the plain dog fight to me. I felt the effects were pretty shoddy and aged. I guess they would have looked great. when I was watching this on a, on like a VHS, and the screen is all blurry, but now it's all, like, up-rested. And now you can watch it on your fucking phone. Yeah. Yeah, I felt that was the only time I was pulled out of the aged nature of the effects work of some of it, because those first two, I think, are really, really solid.

And most of the third one, actually, in terms of just the commitment to that look. But obviously blimps, they couldn't really get a real blimp. They're only, like, 20 in the world. It's so bizarre. because when I was skipping through the films to fact-check the way the music was used, I was noticing a lot more green screen in the second film that I had remembered. I was like, holy shit, I just didn't notice most of this while I was watching it because I was so into it and it flows so well and it's edited so well.

And also, I think it has a good amount to do with like the lighting conditions for each time that they used a green screen. Because in the second film, a lot of it is used. used in like really dark kind of environments and perhaps that allows it to you know the background and the foreground to like more convincingly blend and feel like they're a part of the same environment whereas in this film the third movie so much of it was done like broad daylight daytime and so like this huge contrast of like how the foreground and background are lit and it pops out way too much where all I'm thinking now is like,

damn, you could have had like a backlit projector and it probably would have looked better than doing a green screen for like these scenes. And there's so much of it in the third movie. And yeah, that's what's really weird about it is like there was a lot of it in the second movie too, but I just didn't notice it until I was skimming through it out of context. It just worked better.

I don't know what happened. I like that motorcycle chase a lot. It has some good moments in there, I think. When he shoves the pole and the guy's wheel and it flies up, like I think that's a great moment. I liked that in concept. I don't have much issue with the action. I guess I understand the criticism with the effects,

but yeah, it doesn't really, it didn't really bother me in this film. That was a particular moment, the motorcycle thing, where I felt like there was one shot that was missing, where I was like the action, like, I could understand what was happening action-wise after thinking about it for like a few seconds after, but I didn't immediately understand it. There should have been like a shot of the front tire hitting the ground

is how I felt. It just felt like there was. a shot missing in terms of like how to show that. I liked it in concept though. I like the idea. Yeah, sure. I mean, who knows? They might have had that shot and it didn't work in editing.

Yeah, maybe. I mean, who knows? Yeah. But yeah, action is not real. I have my criticism with this movie. Yeah. Yeah. It would just be mainly that it does feel a bit sanitized compared to the other two.

I, you know, I said I said it's good that this movie isn't as dark or as violent. But at the same time, I do kind of miss it. I do kind of miss it. I do kind of miss the violence and the darkness. The film is maybe a little too friendly, a little too not trying to be Temple of Doom. That's almost what it felt like. Yeah, it feels like an apology. This movie is going to try as hard as it can to not be.

Yeah, I mean, that's what Spielberg even said. Like, this movie's an apology. Like, we're really not going to be Temple of Doom. He literally said that. I love that whole Blimp scene. I understand the effects, like, when they're on the plane or, like, some of the shots of the Blimp. them. But I just like that whole set piece. Yeah, the green screen took me out of it for sure.

Yeah, yeah, and I understand that. But there's green screen in all three of these films that took me out of it as well. Just this one particularly, though. The way it was used was so obvious. Yeah, like, the first film has green screen too. That's like, man, that's bad. You know, maybe it's the best they could have done at the time. Yeah, again, who knows? You try to put yourself in that state of mind. All I can say is, like, watching it the first time or the past few times, it didn't really take me out of it at all. Like, I was totally fine with it.

And, you know, those two actors really carry this whole fucking movie. Like, their dynamic is so great. I love to watching them together. And this is another film that really flew by for me. By the time it was over, I'm like, wow, that's it. We're at the Holy Grail already. And, you know, the end is kind of similar to, like, it reminded me a Monty Python a little. I think that's what Spielberg was trying to avoid.

Like, the guy, you know, the guy who keeps track of, like, all the, Holy Grails or whatever. Oh yeah, yeah, the night. And I do think that's a really iconic scene as well, like picking out the Holy Grail. There's all these fancy cups and, you know, the bad guy picks the golden one and he dies. And then Indiana Jones picks like the shittiest looking cup and that's the one. I love that idea. I feel like that's a very popular kind of thing that's made it into pop culture as well.

Just that. Yeah. Like I was even playing, um, it's like a jackbox. What the hell is the name of that game? Jackbox game. Yes. And there's like a horror game. where, you know, you know, you pick the chalices.

Yeah, something like that. You know, you put poison and run the chalices. It's all the different Indiana Jones chalices. Yeah. Yeah, trivia murder party. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, it's like all these little things that are referenced in culture. I'm like, yeah, that is a great moment.

It's really well done. I feel it's a bit better to go after like a Christian religion, like that kind of stuff. Instead of like India. Like that's a bit insensitive. Like all the like child slaves and like the, you know, sacrificing to the gods. I'm like, that's a little less. Yeah, but it's funny, but like, this is so insensitive.

And this is like, you know, it's more focused on a Christian, like Western ideology, Western religion and history artifacts. I found that more. I found that more palatable. It was so much better for me to watch. Like, I don't feel guilty watching this. This is actually, like, just fun. Like, I'm really having a great time watch it. Yeah, there's no moment that written.

you out in the same way. There's none of that shit. Yeah. And I would give this film a lot of credit for that. Spielberg at least learned his lesson somewhat. It's hilarious. He doesn't like Teppel of Doom. It's the best one for me. Yeah. Love it. What you said about the music, yeah, I mean, you're totally right. But also, I feel this film has a great score as well. I feel it's used really well, especially in the action scenes. I skimmed through this one. I couldn't find a single inappropriate usage of the main theme for sure. Okay. That's good. They used it like, I think it, they just used it once at the end. Yeah, yeah, my reasons for not connecting with this one are different.

Yeah, same. Mm-hmm. I would say, yeah, my main criticisms, that's way toned down in terms of some of the violence and some of the, you know, the darker elements that really made Indiana Jones the first two, like really powerful maybe. Yeah. Like, really intense. Yeah. There's just so much more comedy involved, like the, we haven't mentioned the Marcus Brody character.

He's like a bumbling, like, sidekick to indie. He doesn't do anything. Yeah, he doesn't do anything, and I find him quite endearing for that, like, when indeed, like, bigs him up saying that he's got the book and you're never going to find him. He's, like, an elite guy, and then it, like, smash cuts to him, like, bumbling through the streets. Like, you can't find anything. I found that rich on me. Yeah, that's the other appearance of that fat guy. I was mentioned in earlier where he, like, picks him up at the airport, and he literally rescues him from the guys, the Nazis who are about to entrap him. And then he runs into a cart and then, like, or he runs into a truck, and then it just drives away with him. Like, oh, fuck. Like, he's such a moron. He couldn't even do that. I feel like there's a lot of good comedic bits like that.

You wanted to talk about the tank scene. Yes. There's a lot of different techniques going on there. You know, there's models used, like the tank falling off the cliff. There's a lot of really impressive horsework. Like, you know, there's just, once he actually, once he's on the tank and they're fighting, like, I feel like there's so much about that scene that is really exciting. That's probably my second favorite set piece in the whole trilogy.

Yeah, I find the way it's the way it jumps from inside the tank to the outside of the tank and how the different like characters are affecting each other in different action sequences basically but they're in like the same vehicle like the guy in the tank's looking through he's like looking at Indy through the binoculars and then Indy like kicks it and then that like tips him over so then his dad has a chance to escape it's it's the kind of thing we've been talking about with the escalation of action and does it really well like when he gets caught on the gun and he's being dragged up against the side of the edge. It is a really good sequence that one.

I just want to go back to that fat guy I was talking about. His name is, that character's name is Sala. He's in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and he's also in Last Crusade. He's played by John Rice Davies. I guess that's how you see his name? John Rice Davies. Correct me if I'm wrong, please, guys, in the comments. It's Cayula.

Luca Guardino. He also, this actor also plays Gimli. what I wanted to mention, Gimley and Lord of the Rings, which when I learned that, I was like, holy shit. But yeah, he's a very accomplished actor. He's played a lot of different things. So it was cool that he was in Lord of the Rings as well. I just wanted to mention that.

Yeah, I like that he comes back. Yeah, go back to the set piece, the action. Yeah, I love the, I love the, like, conveyor belt logic element to it, you know? Oh, that's great. It's a very long sequence, but it works better because it's long, because there's a lot you can do with it and I like that they essentially exhausted like, you know how like a Mr. Bean sketch is kind of written where it's like, okay, you got one idea.

What's all the crazy shit that Rowan Atkinson can be doing with this one idea? And that's how I felt like they kind of approached the tank scene. You know, you had Harrison Ford like on the side of it about to be like crushed off and like the, not just the conveyor belt where he has to like whip his dad's ankle and it's moving. like that alone isn't as effective without the previous shot of the dude getting run over in the first place. So it's like a nice little hint of like the potential danger. You know, it's like, oh, you just saw it happen to this guy. It could happen to Indy's dead.

I like that. It's the same logic that applies to like, you know, if you're doing a horror movie, you want to see a kill at the beginning. Otherwise, you're not scared. So yeah, that was done effectively. It was really well designed and well exesious. sequenced sequence throughout. I liked it a lot. He did a lot of his own stunts, too.

That's what it looked like. A lot of great stunt work. I would like to know exactly how many. Because there's some moments where I'm like, I would be surprised if it wasn't a stuntman, but you never know, you never know, because you don't see his face in some shots. There was a lot of rats in this movie.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, didn't they have to breed, like, thousands of them specifically for the movie? They like stepped on one for a second. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, they had rat insurance. Oh, no. I hope the rats were okay.

But yeah, that was pretty impressive, like all the fucking rats. I was like, holy shit. It's really scary shit. What do you think they did with them once the shoot was over? Yeah. Food? I don't know. Cat food?

Yeah, probably. Just throw one cat in there. Just let them loose. They just open the doors and just let them run out of the warehouse. Just toss them into the poor neighborhoods. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah.

That actor who played Marcus Brody as well. He had HIV at the time. Fuck. Like right before the film started shooting. Oh, really? Yeah. I learned about that. But, you know, he was, you know, it was a struggle a bit for him to be on set. But, you know, he finished the role.

And yeah, I thought he was quite good in the movie. I'm glad you mentioned it in Malix because, yeah, he's one of my favorite parts of the whole thing. The bubbling nature of him. Yeah. I feel it works better than the other girl in Temple of Doom. I don't know. She was just annoying. Yeah, that's a good point, yeah.

Yeah, and this one just worked a bit better. I like that Indiana Jones basically has to carry the entire movie, like everyone else. Like, everyone else is coming after him or they're useless. And he's the one who has to save the day. It works better in this context, yeah. I forgot to mention it in the first movie, but he has the line where he directly acknowledges that he doesn't know what he's doing. And he's just making it up as he goes along. And that is his character.

And I love that so much. Yeah, I do too. He's got a very exciting life aside from being a teacher. Yeah, and they go back to his students again in this one. Like you see him being a teacher again. Yeah, and I thought that was good as well. Yeah, good callback. You know, I guess a lot of this film like stems, if you like the first film or not, if you like those references, because I really like the callbacks and all that stuff. I think it's clever. And I feel like in the context of this film, it works really well. I agree, yeah. I don't know if it was as common to do it at that time, but actually, Temple of Doom does have some callbacks too. because there's the scene where right before the bridge scene, there's like the two swordsmen, and Indiana Jones, of course, wants to shoot them like he did the last time, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but he doesn't have his gun this time,

so he has to fight them. Like, that was a great callback, too. I feel all of these films have callbacks to each other. This one definitely has the most callbacks to Raiders of the Lost Ark, though. There's, like, 10 in the first five minutes. Yeah, these movies feel the most, like, together. Temple of Doom feels like it's not even part of these. it's so separate.

It's the interesting child. Sure. Again, going back to Nazis again, very similar tone, similar setting. I don't know, because on the subject of callbacks, within the flashback of like, you know, young indie, the amount of, I guess, notable character traits of indie that they felt they had to explain was a bit much for me in a way where it's like, yeah. If we were all watching a sequel or whatever for a film that we love today, if we saw an opening scene where they're like, and this is why he wears a hat, and this is why he's scared of snakes,

and this is why his name is Indy. Like, haven't we criticized that exact same kind of thing? Like, didn't they do that with one of the Star Wars movies where it's like, Obi-1, what was this fucking? Like, they was like, oh, we just have to explain his name. Oh, they did it with Han Solo. Yeah, solo, blah, blah, blah. It's like, eh, it's a little bit.

cringe for me. I feel like these are going for every different tones. This film is very over the top and campy. I like that stuff. I think it's funny. Yeah.

It's not as like explicitly campy as the second one. In solo it doesn't work because that movie looks like a war film. It just looks so brown and disgusting. That film is horribly unfunny.

It's boring. This movie's going for something way more lighter and at fun and goofy. Like what the way you enjoyed Temple of Doom for being really goofy. Yeah.

Even though it's like super violent over the top. I love that shit too. But I really like, I like that they explain everything in this over-the-top way. I don't know. It doesn't, and it's not even these, like, these character traits are that important. Like, it's just his hat. They're just the only things you could note about the character really good.

For Indiana Jones, right? Because there's really nothing to him. He's a guy who's a teacher, and then he goes out and finds treasure with a hat and a whip. And it feels like this trilogy is so perfectly wrapped up. I feel like I know everything I need to know about Indiana Jones, even where he got the whip and even where he got the hat, like all that stuff. I like having a conclusion all that. Every question mark.

Like, I guess that shit doesn't matter, but it's funny. Like, I like learning all that stuff. Every single thing that's defined his entire adult existence culminated within a five minute span. Whereas like in one sequence he's like, oh fuck, these are just everything that's

that is going to define me for the rest of my life. Scared snakes, whip hat, like, I found all this shit in like five minutes. I find it funny that it's like he gets, he's like so not scared of snakes like at the very beginning where he's like, see, it's just a snake and just like picks one up. And then because he like fell into snakes, it's like, bam, like instantly terrified of snakes forever. But it's like he's not scared a lot. He fell into like the lion thing too.

I don't know. He doesn't have a lion phobia as far as we know. That lion seemed a bit more intimidating than the fucking snakes. Yeah, true. Whatever. I like the opening of the movie too. So I just wanted to mention the opening shot where it's like the Paramount logo and then it fades into the rock face. Like I thought that was clever too.

I like that. It was like a great little detail. I think it's very memorable and only in this movie. I find the Mr. Bean comment really funny because I think it actually does summarize the Indiana Jones movies quite way. And not in an insulting way. I'm not trying to be insulting. I just mean I mean either. I think the way they write the movies is they come up with a concept of Macuffin.

It's all about the Macuffin. It's like, what's the Macuffin for this one? It's the holy grail for this one. It's the arc. It's why the fourth one stumbles so much and why they've struggled to continue it. It's so much about what's the setting. What has this character done so far?

What are the set pieces we can think up of the to do with the MacGuffins that we've set in place? And how do we fulfill that in the story? I think the trilogy is perfect for the character. It's stretched about as much as it can do. There's not much more you can do. It feels very complete and suitable for what they're doing. I just need to get into skull.

soon because it's driving crazy. Not me not to talk about it. Yeah. He like turns into craft punk at the end of this movie. He cannot die anymore. Well, that's one of his lines. He's like, did you know I cannot die? Sorry, there was a little bit of reference, but...

Yeah, the whole immortality thing was interesting. I love how immediately they solidify how fucking stupid the female lead is in this movie. Don't cross the seal. But I want to... and then like, Oh, Doug, you're gonna, I can't hold. I'm holding onto your one glove.

Maybe if you want to live, give me your other hand. No. It just falls to her death. Okay. I like the girl in this movie. Yeah, she's a bit dumb. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. This film works for me. It works so well. I feel it's just as good as Raiders. Maybe slightly better. Just because that, I don't know, the tone, everything about this movie. Like, I would show.

this one the most to people, just because I feel it's the most watchable. It's just really fun. There's nothing, like, context-wise, you have to explain. Like, oh, yeah, if you're fine with, like, the child slavery and all that. It's just, like, really fun. Like, yeah, there's some Nazis, but it's not nearly as over-the-top as the first one, I don't think. Yeah, the Hitler joke was kind of funny. The Hitler thing is just, like, hilarious. Like, to be upset about that, like, come on. It's fucking, like, it's so stupid. It's so stupid that scene. I love that moment. It was really funny. Overall, I think this is like the strongest one.

I guess it's interesting we all have a different favorite, right? I guess that says a lot about this trilogy. You know, Adam's Temple of Doom, Alex, yours is Raiders, and then mine's Last Crusade. It shows like which one, like they all have elements that work for certain people. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah. I really like this trilogy a lot. I think it's an incredible piece of filmmaking, like, one of the most iconic pieces of art, like, ever. It's really impactful. I love all three of these movies a lot. Yeah, I adore the trilogy. I mean, they're not deep movies. You said it earlier. They are going for the pulpy fun and the action is what is important.

I feel like for what they are, it's as good as you can do. Like, these are really great, really exciting. High production value, lots of practical stunts and sets and really inspired settings. Like you said, it feels like they really feel like they really. think out the action sequence is almost a way a comedian would think out like his comedy bit or like a skit like a comedy skit yeah it's like really there's moments that are really funny within the action scenes because they're so like clever like the music would cut off dun dun dun dun and he'd like fall off and hang off the side of the tank and you know like oh shit it feels like a lot of

action scenes now like don't have that it just feels like a bunch of shooting or it's just too like dull. Spielberg really nails like the peaks and valleys of the action where there's a moment that's funny and then there's a moment that's really intense and then there's like a great like character moment like someone says a line to someone else that's funny and it feels organic in that moment. I don't know how he does it. It's really well done. I love these movies. Sorry to keep saying it. Yeah, no, I just like the just going off the balancing act the movie goes through. I do like the the balance of the action scenes and then sneaking in the like the trials where he's trying to use he's using his brain to solve problems he's not just about punching he does a lot of punching

but he's a dog at the end of the day I love that he is he's like a historian at heart and he's he gets giddy at the idea of history yeah like unlike james bond where it's like a spy and everyone's like wants to be him and it's like glorifying something not that relatable whereas indy's so pure in what he's going for, I think. That's what a lot of people connect to. He's a teacher. He likes history. Yeah.

It belongs in a museum. We could all like history. Yeah, Last Crusade. If I was going to rate it, I don't know about you guys. I'd give it a nine out of ten. I'm just a smidge under. I'd give this the same as Temple of Doom, I think. Four star for me.

Yeah, they both have kind of what the other one doesn't for me, whereas the comedy and the tone's really consistent in the third movie. But the action isn't quite what I get from the second movie, so I feel they're about on par. Yeah. Love the set pieces, except the ones with really shitty green screen of which there are quite a few. Plot-wise, take it or leave it. It was like the first movie, but different also at the same time. All right.

Five out of ten. Sorry, everybody. I like the way all three of these films wrap up, too, when it comes to the artifact. Like, it's very different. Like, in the first film, they put it in a museum or some kind of Area 51 kind of place. Actually, it is Area 51. Yeah. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull confirms it.

Then the second film, he returns the stone back to the village, and, you know, they live peacefully like, oh, we have our stone back. We're going to grow crops and water. And then in this film, you know, they let the Holy Grill go. They let go of eternal life. And I feel like that was a great character moment, too. Like, Sean Connery is the one actually who says, give it up, even though he's been chasing his whole life, like trying to find this thing. Yeah. I guess more for him was like he got to at least see it and meet the guy, you know, the guy who looks like Monty Python.

the Monty Python character. Yeah. It also provides a good end for the villain. I just like that all three of these films wrap it up differently. And it makes it clear that Indiana Jones is not the kind of guy who just wants the power. He just wants to, he wants the adventure and he'll figure it out after. I don't know. When three has the kind of the huge stakes of the, well, it's the similar stakes of the first movie where the Nazis will like destroy the world if they get hold of the power.

Yeah, that's true as well. The stakes are pretty high. They were going to make their army invincible, right? Yeah. That's pretty messed up. Uh, quite good. Glad we all liked Last Crusade. Uh, you're ready to shit on the fourth film a little?

Ready. Ready spaghetti. So, I guess, like, how many fucking years later, like 20, 30 years later? Yeah. Like, I don't even know. Just about 20. 2008. Oh, my fucking God.

2008 years later. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Cruel, Crystal Skull. So it's Cold War this time. He's dealing with, you know, communists and whatever. He's dealing with like a Vietnam protests or some shit. No, not Vietnam. I'm sorry. There's like protests going on about communism or something. And basically, Indiana Jones has to, he finds a crystal skull in area 51 because Kate Blanchett forced him to. And the crystal skull is some kind of alien that is going to lead them to a UFO that'll give them some kind of

knowledge or power to use telekinesis to manipulate people's thoughts and I don't I'm not sure how they could utilize this to like do anything you know like I'm not sure She says it very ominously

I guess she wants infinite knowledge or something Kate Blanchett and I don't know this film just confuses me Well she was going to like turn her enemies into allies without them realizing it or something. Yeah, this film very, it just confuses me. There's so many elements. And I don't even think this is terrible, but there's just a lot about it that's just like, why did they do that? There's even a moment that I literally don't even understand, no matter how many times I see it,

were like Shilabuff and Harrison Ford are in the car. They're like in a van, like held captive. They beat a guy up, they take his knife and they're trying to cut themselves loose. And then there's like this rip sound effect. And I'm like, so did he like rip his pants or did the knife, like, go in his pants. Like, I still don't understand what the fuck that scene was. Like, I still don't. Like... I think that was the intention was that he, like, cut through his pants.

Yeah, but that wasn't funny. It was like... I'm like, did he cut through his jacket? Like, they didn't even show it. It was just confusing. And there's so many elements of this movie. The fact that they included aliens. I don't know.

Like, I was just like, why did they go this route? I get you want to take some risks. But there's a lot of... There's a lot about this movie that I just didn't enjoy. Is this very, didn't feel like Indiana Jones. This is the worst one for sure. I don't really understand the,

it was aliens criticism. Like, I have issues with how they used it and how much they treated it like, oh, yeah, we're just going to blue ball you until it's a reveal and this is what the reveal is. Like, that's stupid. But aliens,

them just being in the movie, I hear that criticism a lot. I don't really understand, because, like, I don't know, didn't we have a fucking dude waiting 700 years in a cave to give people,

immortality in the previous film? Like, I don't know. It doesn't feel like that out there comparatively. It's the implementation. It's like leaning towards science fiction, though, with this. And the actual, I think it's more the way it was executed. Like, if we hadn't actually seen the aliens and if it was just a crystal skull that kind of manipulated people or you could use it to kind of control a population, I'd be like, wow, okay, that's interesting. But, you know, they really go all in with the alien route. There's like UFOs and like all kinds of crazy. I'm like, this doesn't, it just doesn't work. For the last bit. Yeah. Yeah. It's just silly.

Like, I don't know. It's not silly in a way that I liked. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like that was this generation's version of like attempted spectacle. Whereas, like, in 2008 or whatever, it was just the wide shot of the boulders crumbling and it's all CG. And it's like, whoa, this is such a big spaceship. And it's stupid.

But, like, I don't know. I feel like that was their intent was just like, how can we make something that's like so epic? Right? Yeah. Which is, I mean, like, that's what. Those are things that the first three films had in mind. A lot of it was just pure spectacle. It's just there was a different acceptance of like what would be mainstream spectacle, I guess.

And Steven Spielberg very much changed how he made movies, not for the better. And I mean, you could see that transition when he was just how terribly he was using green screen shit in the third movie, I guess. There's a lot of really bad CGI in this movie. It's not a good movie for sure. Did you like the action sequences, Alex? Did you find them exciting and realistic looking? That's the thing. The action scenes are Indiana Jones.

And when you're not... What have we talked about this last nearly two hours? Just the commitment and the dedication to the action and the practical nature of it. And then you get to Crystal Skull. It's just a bunch of like really forgettable, poorly executed action sequences. The one that jumps into my head in particular.

is the whole kind of jungle sequence with that machine that's cutting down trees and there's this kind of car chase scene where mutt winds up sword fighting on a on a car. They're trying to create a scene that's got the same elements at play that the plane scene from Raiders has. But in the execution of it, in the way the just the awful like green screen stuff, the visual effects work. It looks terrible. It looks so, so

bad and it is just flexing the visual effects of the time, but this is such a early 2000s, like flexing CG thing where all these big movies from that time we're trying to push the boundaries of CG and yeah, it would have been good in 2008, but the problem is,

unlike those original movies, it gets worse with time because the technology improves so quickly. Yeah, it's not like a couple of shots of green screen. Yeah, like the other films. This is like, whole sequences with tons of CGI, Shilobuf swinging with monkeys.

No restraint. I just thought it looked terrible. Yeah. I just couldn't get into it at all. It reminded me more of King Kong 2005 than it did of Indiana Jones movies. Yeah. Yeah. No, I kept thinking about that too.

King Kong had a character in that film, at least, you know. This film, yeah, I couldn't get into the action. And I was really trying. Like, that jungle scene you're talking about it. I guess at first I liked it once they were, like, just driving the car. And I guess they shoot a rocket at, like, the, There's like this ridiculous contraption that's cutting down the forest. Like, I've never fucking seen anything like that before my life.

And it's like going and then they shoot it. And then like the blade comes out and like smashes the car. I'm like, oh, that was cool. But then like you said, how they explore every different way the action see can go. They go too far with it. They try to use CGI. Like Shilobuffs, you have flip in between like cars and fencing and he's like, his nuts are getting hit by CGI like twigs.

And it's just so fucking dumb. It's so overdone. this is too much going on. You can't even like comprehend what the hell is even supposed to be happening. And that's like toward the second or third act of the film. For me, that's when it really falls apart. I guess let's like try to stick to like the beginning. They go to Area 51 where, you know, the arc of the covenant is.

And Kate Blanchett like kidnaps Indiana Jones and his friend that's played by the sexy beast guy, Ray Winstone. And yeah. And then they like find the alien carcass. They immediately set up the aliens and I was like, oh, really? And then from there, it just becomes dumb action. And, you know, Harrison Ford, he's fucking old. I'm sorry, like, he's old.

In the first three films, he's a dashing, handsome guy. I'm like, wow, I really want to be this guy when I grow up. He's fucking cool, he's having sex with all these women. It's like, now he's like with this old woman and they get married. I'm like, this is fucking lame. I'm sorry, this is lame. I don't want to see this in an Indiana Jones film. I want to be, like,

So much of the appeal of Indiana Jones, like Alex said, is you want to be him. You want to impose yourself. You want to place yourself on top of him. Like, look at this handsome guy. Very James Bondy. Going all over the, yeah, like James Bond. Like going all over the world. Meeting all these women, like doing all this crazy shit.

Getting them to kiss your boo-boos. What's the appeal? Even that's like better than this movie. Like what are they doing in this movie? They're just fucking hanging out talking about their son. Talking about Oxley. Like, what the hell was all that? They're going to college.

Like maybe that character of Oxley would have meant something if I had known him before, but the second we're introduced to him, he's like a loon. He's like totally out. Like this crystal skull is like totally destroyed his brain. It has the clumsiness plot in terms of the way they get the story in motion because the plot is basically another adventurer has already done all these things, but now Indy has to do it. But the guy who did it first has amnesia, so he can't remember how he did it. Yeah. And then Ray Winstone's character, oh my God, the constant turn coat. Like he actually works for the, he actually works for the rush.

I know he actually works for the CIA Oh no he actually works for you know You don't even know A triple agent That was an element that was supposed to be good I'm like this sucks Like I don't know what's going on this character It's great casting

I like the idea for the character But they do nothing with it That triple cross thing I guess they thought that was a Like a clever reveal But it just seems so clumsy In a film that's already got this weird The plot doesn't flow nearly as nicely

It seems like overly convoluted In the way they jump around And the way Mutt gets It's introduced into the story at a certain point where he's like, Indy's on a train and he comes up on his motorbike and gets him into the story. This is the thing about this movie. It's not hopeless. There are plenty of things I actually quite like about it. I like the opening of the movie with the kind of homage to George Lucas's street racing thing that he loves.

I like the idea of the opening being set in Area 51 with the warehouse. I think that's a cool place to jump back into the story. I even like the setting an action sequence in there is also a good idea to me with the you don't know in thing and the car's crashing. I think that's a cool way to reintroduce the character. Yeah, well, it was a callback to Raiders the Lost Ark, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, where they put the cover. Yeah, so I did think it was good in that way. We haven't talked about the fridge thing. And I mean, it's been heart-thed on. Again, another idea that I don't mind in premise, indie stumbling across like a one of those

nuke sites that's about to go off. but it's fun imagery. It's a, it's a, and it fits in with the kind of Roswell. Yeah, the, you know, the Cold War stuff, the nuke stuff. I like all that. But it's the resolution to it. It's a good idea, but it's where they go with it. The fridge thing and him flying miles in the air and going to the extra effort

of showing the fridge bouncing, like, down, like, the hill and then showing the car. It looks bad, CG-wise. It does look bad. I think that was my issue with it. I don't know. But, like, didn't. they fucking like fall out of a fucking airplane with a dingy and like in the other movie like yeah i don't know kind of stupid as well yeah that's the movie you like that's temple of doom i i i criticize

that movie for it too i thought that was silly as hell yeah i don't like that in that movie i do there's silliness i don't it was more the it was definitely the visual effects that bothered me i would never criticize these movies too much for being silly i mean they're definitely supposed to be silly yeah that moment should have killed him that moment was like ridiculous yeah yeah yeah maybe it's an execution thing maybe if maybe if it just It didn't show the fridge like flying miles from there. Yeah, I know. It was like these loud bangs.

It's just pushing it a bit too far. There is such a delicate balance with these kind of pulpy movies where like it's, it's razor thin, the edge of your belief in what's going on. And that fridge thing just destroys it for me. Yeah. That's so weird for me. A lot of people say it though. Yeah. I'm watching it.

I'm kind of enjoying it. There's something about that fridge thing, right? because it doesn't even feel like that necessary and they seem so proud of it after the moment they keep saying, Indy keeps quipping about how he survived the fridge, yeah, I survived the nuclear blasts. Well, yeah, it's like a gag, really.

Yeah, it's not supposed to be taken seriously, that that's clear, but... Yeah, this is a very silly moment. I will say, though, although we're criticizing the opening and like all this stuff at the beginning, I do think the first act, like, the first hour of this film, mostly,

was solid. Like, I thought it was, That's definitely the best part of the film. Like, I was into the mystery. I was like, okay, there's some kind of alien thing. We didn't quite see the UFOs yet. It wasn't getting too silly. We still, like, somewhat practical stuff.

Like, I like the opening of the opening action scene where, like, Indiana Jones is using his whip, and then he falls onto the car. He's like, damn, I thought that was closer. It's kind of showing he lost his edge a bit. Like, I'm like, okay, so they're acknowledging he's a little old. Like, he's a little, you know, not as into it as he used to be. There's some good choreography. Like, I really like the shot where he jumps, he's fighting the Russian guy, and he jumps off and he, like, grabs a chain and kicks him through a window. I'm like, oh, that was a really cool shot.

Lots of good stunt work. Then it gets into, like, him teaching again, and he meets Mutt. And there's, like, the great, I think it's a great action scene where he's on, like, the bike. Yeah, that was fun. They're going through the library. Yeah, that was really fun. It's a lot of practical stuff. And it was very simple.

It was very simple. Like, wow, it's going back to the library. the, like the trademark of this series, like, just practical action, like, really well done. You get a good sense of the period in that scene as well. Like, that's why I mentioned the protests and all that stuff. Like, it felt like they utilized every, like, route they could go with that scene in a really clever way. And then, like, once they get into the jungle and all that shit, it becomes really CGI heavy. It really gets into the alien stuff. There's too many characters. Like, I like Kate Blanchett in the film, but it's just so unclear what she's trying to do. Like, she's, like,

She has this skull. She wants to, she wants some kind of mind control over people. I get it's, I get it's some kind of like red scare allegory, like wanting to control people's minds or like making people paranoid or something. I guess that's what they're going for. But it's just so, it's so weird. It's so confusing how it's presented. Yeah.

And it's not clear. Like, these are stupid adventure movies. I feel like the first three are very clear in how they're presenting these things. And this one's just goofy. I don't know. The first three films, I didn't give a single fuck about, like, the overarching goals. I really, like, fucking cup or whatever. Okay, this is like a single, not giving a single fuck, but, like, those felt organic.

Like, the Ark of the Covenant, the stone and Temple of Doom. They were just irrelevant to me. I was just there for, like, the action set pieces. The Holy Grail. Like, I don't know. Those didn't distract me. I'm like, these things have history. These things are real.

Like, they had just, like, paintings. They've been written about for decades. they have real religious significance. And this is like a stupid alien skull. Okay, that's fair. Yeah, this is like a dumb, like, there's no history of this fucking thing. It's stupid.

It's just stupid. Like, they just pulled this out of their ass. It's an area 51. Like, okay, like, it's just so, I don't know. I really wasn't digging it. Yeah, I think it is the lack of mystery. I think they were probably trying to think about, like, what kind of set pieces and what kind of, like,

plot devices they could have given the time period, right? Because like this is set, you know, decades after the first film. So they're, you know, they have greasers and all that shit. Yeah. And so that I think that's, that was like their priority in terms of like, okay, we're going to do indie. But like, we're going to really capture the time period. And so you have the nuclear test sites and, you know, Area 51. I think that's where it came from.

And I'm not trying to say it worked well. But I feel, you know, I feel like that can at least be rationalized in terms of like, what they were trying to do. It's not just like random nonsense at least. And you know, Roswell, like, the fake, like, conspiracy that the UFO crashed, that was in, like, the 40s. That's like the late 40s that happened, which is around the time Indiana Jones is set, like the first three.

So I don't know why they just didn't go back to that setting or, you know, if you're going to go 60s, do something else. Don't do the alien thing. They were stuck with the age. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It is the... Well, no, the first indie film was like the 30s.

Oh, yeah? Well, Nazis were like the 40s, right? 30s, 40s. I thought I read on the wiki, unless that was just... Eh, whatever, fuck it. I'm not even going to bother to fact check. Yeah, fuck it. But I mean, I think it's very illuminating that even Stephen Spielberg himself admitted that he never liked the MacGuffin of the movie.

And that's the director of the movie in Empire Magazine in October 2011. He said it was George Lucas's idea and Spielberg only put it in the movie because of his friendship with Lucas. as he said in the interview, I'm loyal to my best friend. When he writes a story he believes in, even if I don't believe in it, I'm going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it.

And I mean, clearly your heart's not going to be in it if you don't agree with the story and the angle that it's coming from. I just find that so strange. It's just loyal to your friend. Like, that's all that's keeping him going. Another illuminating point is this one.

Harrison Ford was adamant that he got to wield Indiana's famous whip Paramount executives wanted the weapon to be computer generated because of the new movie safety rules, but Ford branded the rule ridiculous. And this kind of goes back to this idea where the 80s movies, they are like time capsules. We're not going to get action movies quite like that again. So getting this 2008 Indiana Jones movie, it feels torn between worlds. It doesn't feel like it should exist, like it needed to exist.

We said earlier, the story was over. You know, bringing back Marion's. an okay idea for it but we already had the ending we like it doesn't having him getting married at the end and teasing mut as if he's going to be the next indie there's something not very satisfying about that sake yeah because that's another thing too even shy le buff publicly shit taught the movie that's funny which like personally upset stephen spielberg and harrison for called him a fucking idiot for publicly lambasting the movie well he was just plagiarizing somebody else shit talking the movie so whatever.

Yeah. What do you say? Do you know exactly? No, he's just a known plagiarist. He's a fucking jerk. Yeah, he's a dunny. He sucks in this movie. He's fucking terrible.

What's funny, like, there are some movies that I think he's like pretty good. Like, he was good in pieces of a woman. But there's still like every single movie, even the ones that I think he's good in, there's still like some scene or some moment where it's like, you almost had a consistent accent and then you didn't. Every single movie I ever. watch him in. To me, he seems like a guy who's passionate about his craft. He seems like he's a guy who's passionate about being a dipshit. Sorry. Like, he wants to be a good actor. And there's

like moments in this where he's like fine. Like I like, I actually like the scene a lot where they'll get that greaser scene. Like when he's in the bar with Harris Ford. Like that's a really good scene. I actually like that a lot. Most part he's overacting. He's like playing it up too March too much. He doesn't have the charisma of Harrison Ford. Like, there's no way you can even capture that level of, like, even Harrison Ford as an older man, he still has his moments in this that are really funny. I don't know. I don't know who else you could get Indiana Jones. I don't know who else you can get to play that character. There's such a bad scene in this movie that bothers me so much every time. One scene. Yeah, just one in particular. And it's the,

it's the sand scene where they're sinking in a sand. Yeah, so they am. It looks like a, like a really bad soundstage. And you don't say it's like a, based around this gag, where like a python thing comes in and, Indy's got to grab the python and the gag. It's the only rope. Yeah. And then this like fake-ass snake Indy's holding onto and it's like stretching and pulling.

It's, it doesn't work. It looks so fake. And then they just throw it into like the forest. Like, oh fuck that thing. That was terrible. And that sound design in that scene, like the bubble. and yeah you're right it looks so fake it's felt so fake and that scene is pointless like once they get out they get captured by the commies again and that's the end of it

like they just get and it moves on to the next scene like that scene is just a yeah it was just to introduce that mutt was his son that's that was the point of the scene yeah yeah that was the only point of the scene part time yeah I'm glad we mentioned that as well that's like in the trailer they use a better take of it and that's like it mean the shit out of it the The Red Letter Media Review mentions it, but literally when he said that, I was thinking the exact same thing. I'm like, I remember that line in the trailer and it was really cool. And then in the movie, they used like this part time. Like, it's terrible.

I'm like, why did they use that take? It sounds so bad. There's so many confusing choices. It makes that moment funny at least. Yeah. I can't even watch this movie seriously, you know, because there's so many parts that are like, it just takes me out of it. Like that, the fridge. Like CG ants, CG scorpions.

It looks like you just brought a knife to a gunfight. Yeah, all the CGI animals really took me out of it. They use, you know, those rats in Last Crusade. I was like, that got a genuine disgust out of me. I was like, oh, rats. And now, like, movies now, they wouldn't even do that, of course. Like, it's very cruel. I guess you shouldn't do that to rats.

I mean, whatever. But they should use CGI rats now. But, you know, it removes kind of the impact. I guess if the CGI rats look real, I wouldn't mind. But they look face. You know the not there's no rats in this movie the monkeys look fake The gophers the ants or whatever monkeys the gophers the movie starts with a CGI gopher I'm like what the fuck is this Compare that to the opening of the other film yeah I was getting like real a

G-force vibes I was really it looked like G-force Why was there such a commitment to that gopher thing? Because it's a funny gag apparently and then again establishing the setting in a way that wasn't really organic to the story It was just like these teenagers right along these like commies driving the car to the army base and it's like okay so what does this have to do with anything i get it setting up the setting i get the credit sequence but it's just not you know like i'm not learning anything this is such fluff if i looked away from the tv for two minutes

and look back i wouldn't get any less i wouldn't get any less or more out of the story it's the same shit it's i don't know there's so much about this film that feels like it's just a waste I feel like his heart wasn't really in this Spilberg or Harrison Ford The first like 10 15 minutes of the movie Like Harrison Ford looked like he was like falling asleep Like he kind of got into it at a certain point But like it was so jarring watching like the first part of the film

Was like holy shit like you You're not even there like emotionally There's a quote here saying Spielberg did not shoot the movie in digital format Which is friends like George Lucas were doing at the time and in his words like it was shot it looks like it was shot three years after

Indiana Jones and the last crusade you'd never know there were 20 years between shooting lol it's just not true is it curbier enthusiasm theme I think the film looks really bad even when it's not CGI heavy like the glowing and the

it just doesn't look good to me I think it's the worst looking film yeah it does the glowing does look really annoying the color palette it's just not necessary just distracting thing, which is weird because like you can artificially create something in a computer, right? Why would you not want to match the color palettes of the original films? Like with how the green of the environment, it's like such a different green like than the other films, right? And that weird yellow glow shit. Like, why would you color it that way? Like you have to be consciously aware that you're doing it in a way that's not like the other films, right? I don't know. I feel the real statement this film should have made is having practical action, utilizing as much practical effects as possible because that's what made the first three work and that's what they were paying

homage to, the original, you know, the Flash Gording kind of things, that kind of stuff. To have it so CGI heavy, I think that really took me out of it. Yeah. And if they make another Indiana Jones film, I believe they're planning one. I hope they go more the route of, you know, get a younger actor and use practical action. Like, have him do his own stunts. I like the stunt work and I like the shooting. I feel like it's not that high of a bar, really.

Like you have the characters, you have the. the setting. Like, it, just have some good action sequences that are really planned out and are practical. Apparently they are doing

Indiana Jones 5 and Spielberg is not directing. Probably not. James Mangold, maybe. James Mangold is, yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I feel like Adam Driver would be a good choice as Indiana Jones. Instead of getting Harrison Fordback because he's so old. I'd rather be Adam Driver. Like,

he seems like a cool guy. I feel as though Kate Blanchett's character should have been played by Tilda Swinton. I guess you could swap him out. Yeah. That would have been better. I wasn't buying her the whole time, especially the accent,

until the Swinton does really good, like, Russian accent. I watched Dr. Strange recently. I'm like, oh, she's really good in that movie. She's great in everything. She's good in everything. Yeah, I love her. Yeah, she's, like, one of the strongest parts of that film. Kate Blanchett, I like her as an actor,

but I thought her accent was like, you will help us find it. It was too much. Her character was kind of annoying throughout the movie. There was nothing. thing at no intrigue really there's no fun dynamic it's just musterge twirling villain

I guess Fem fatal there's too many characters you know like Harrison Ford doesn't have many moments with just like one character like he's with Mutt for a little while and I'm like oh their dynamic could work but then it's hijacked by Oxley

and then Marion comes in and Kate Blanchett and Ray Winstone it's like all these fucking guys like and they all have their own scene it's like okay I'm not you know there's no There's nothing, I don't know. It's just nothing grabbing me about this film. How did you feel about Marion coming back and the way she's implemented?

I mean, she's an old lady now. She was hot in the first one. But now she is devalued because she's not hot to Ralph anymore. When you live in the vicarious entertainment, you know, whatever, you want to be a hot, vicarious entertainment? young guy with a hot young woman. What's the point? What's the point of any of these?

It's just a reminder that you're going to get old and you're going to get married. Oh, wow, exciting. That's what I want to see in my adventure film. Settle down. Fuck you. I want to watch him have fun. Like, that's not fun. It's just not fun.

I'm sorry. You didn't like Uncharted for? That was actually a story that was about a man. like coming to terms with like the golden days are gone and maybe kind of having a midlife crisis, you know, that's like a real thing that guys go through. And this film, he wasn't going through any kind of midlife crisis. It was a fucking stupid movie about finding a crystal skull. And he just happened to be 60 years old because that's the only way they could sell the movie

because no one would see it without Harrison Ford. So it's like, it doesn't matter if he's 90 years old. We'll fucking throw him in if he's like a skeleton. Like it doesn't matter. Yeah. It's just marketing. It's so cynical. you know.

I actually would have preferred a younger actor if he was really good. You know, not Shaila Buff. He fucking sucks. Like they shouldn't, you know, someone good. Like Adam Driver. Yeah. Yeah. No, he would have been much better.

Think of how they recast James Bond, you know. Once they get too old, like Roger Moore's old, got rid of him, Timothy Oliphon or. True. Timothy Dalton, sorry. I'm not sure if anyone else can play Indiana Jones. Honestly, the ideal would have been just never make another one after the trilogy. That would have been the ideal.

but obviously that can't be done. But, you know, money. They should make Indiana Jones 5, and this time he's actually in space with the aliens. I think that would work. So I'm actually a little confused about maybe because I wasn't, like, super glued to the third movie, I guess. But, like, is Indiana Jones immortal because he drank the cup?

Or, like, how does the logic with that work? No. No, they explain it in the third movie. Yeah, I must have not paid attention to that part. The night guy explains it that there's, like, a restrictive. that you have to stay there within the realms of the tomb if you want to be immortal. That's the catch-22 of it. Okay.

I really wanted to mention this as well. We were talking about insensitivity and all that. I feel like this film is the most insensitive of all of them. The portrayal of like the natives who were guarding the crystal skull or like there's like some other scene earlier where he blows a blow dart into his thing. It is like Peter Jackson's King Kong. Poisoned dart. Yeah, it was like Peter Jackson's King Kong. no development.

They're just like savages. It comes out. They come out of the walls. They've been sitting here for a thousand years guarding the skull. It's so undeveloped. I'm like, who are these people? Like, what's going on here? And it's taken more seriously.

Like, there's supposed to be more of like an unironic fear element to it instead of like something camping. And there's nothing going on with them. They just come out. Like, and they don't serve any purpose. There is, there is inconsequential to the plot. It's like the ants in the scene where the ants are eating them. Like, it's so.

dumb. It's so unnecessary. It doesn't add anything. That's just a throwaway idea they had for one of the previous indie movies. It's like, oh, we have CG. We can just do anything we want now. Let's make it happen, guys, without thinking about how this really affects. No more restrictions. That makes good movies. It kills stories like this.

That final was not the final shot. One of the ending moments where indie is kind of standing with the wide shot of the UFO coming. out of the Mayan temple. It seemed to me like that was what they'd built the whole story around was that one image. It's like, yep, that's going to be our movie. And we've just got to clumsily get to this point. And that will somehow be the payoff that Indiana Jones sees a UFO. And to me, it's just, yeah, it's just going back to the jumping, the shark thing.

It's been colloquially kind of changed the jump the shark thing to nuke the fridge. So many people are so disappointed by it. I've actually heard that a few times. People say, nuke the fridge. That's hilarious. Yeah. So it's great. Yeah, you're totally right.

And it's just an easy thing to point to, to just boil down. That's just the moment the movie dies for me in terms of any serious investment. For me, it really falls apart once they get to the jungle. The quicksand scene, actually, I think that's a great point because the quick sand scene and then right after that's the car chase. Yeah. And if the quicksand scene wasn't there, it literally wouldn't matter. it would be the exact same movie.

That's real bad, that stuff, real bad. They just needed to throw in a line where, like, oh, yeah, Muts, your son. Like, the whole movie was, like, kind of bad, but I wasn't, like, super bored throughout until it started, like, trying to wrap itself up at the end and somehow also decided it would take forever to do it. Whereas, like, this is where you're supposed to be getting to, like, the reveal, but it's treating it as though, like, there's more exposition still. Like, the action scenes are done, pretty much.

and it's like at the end of the movie and it's taken fucking forever I'm like just fucking show the aliens I was getting kind of impatient at the end of it and what was with the throwaway line John Hurt has where it's like oh they're not really aliens they're interdimensional beings

and it's like what does that matter who gives this shit yeah there's like barely any dialogue about the other artifacts like the holy grow like yeah it makes you life eternal. That's it. Yeah, it's like they felt the need to over-explain it.

Yeah. There aren't whole scenes where like, yeah, look at the Holy Grail. They're over-complicated it. Look what it, yeah, they do. The Crystal Skull, I guess that's the controversial element, right? That that is the McGuffin of this movie. See, I've got no problem with the Crystal Skull, but it's like, when at the end of the movie, you've got like all these crystal skeletons zooming and

it's exploding into each other, and then the CG alien like, tilts forward into the camera, and he's like, look in. The Cape Blanchet, like, blows. up into sparkles. It's like, come on. Did they release it in 3D? I don't know. I think they genuinely might have.

Yeah. Because it seems like one of those shots. It was before Avatar 2009. You know, that's when that took off. Like, once Avatar made money. They were really trying to push 3D at that point. Yeah, that might have been the start of it. You know, it's just, yeah.

There's a lot of really confusing elements. And you can just completely disregard it. You don't even, when you recommended it last episode, you were like, yep, the Indiana Jones trilogy, you can just completely ignore the fourth one. Yeah, even now. Like, the trilogy and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was curious.

Yeah, I mean, I'm glad you watched it. I had to see it. It's definitely worth a watch. I don't regret watching it. It's just... It's not the worst thing I've ever seen or anything. No, it's definitely not the worst thing I've ever seen. There are redeemable moments.

I like watching Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones again. I mean, I'm little like... I'm criticizing the wanting to implant yourself on Indiana Jones kind of thing. I feel that's a real criticism to have. Like, why are you casting in a... old man. That's what makes the first three good. The reason you didn't cast Harrison Ford as an old man the first three is

because you wanted a young guy who looks fucking cool and he's handsome and he's dashing and he's intelligent and he fucking picks up all these young women and he shoots Nazis. That's the fucking appeal. I'm not crazy for saying this. I agree with you. That's the appeal. It's not to me. That is

that's the general appeal. That's the appeal. That's what the audience likes for these kind of things. It was too long. They left it too long. They'd all moved on different creative endeavors going back to something like this they had to, they were just in the wrong mindset it was the wrong time

the technology was they were going down a path after like the prequels and just that side of Hollywood it was just too late it was gone Harrison Ford can't do the stunts he can't do them I mean he's too old just felt like they weren't fully committed to it like they were only working on it

part time part time part time yeah Spielberg was probably making another movie part time part time he's like yeah, I'll make this piece of shit so I can get the money to make a real movie I want to make, like Lincoln or Bridge of Spies. Did you guys like the cinematography

at certain points in the film where like any shots that stood out to you that you liked? I actually like the shot of like Indiana Jones on the Mushroom Cloud. That's why I wanted to mention. I feel like there's some good Spielberg moments in there. I just wanted to get your thoughts. I mean, it wasn't horrendous throughout except for the fucking monkey scene,

I guess, but... Yeah, I like the first action scene. I like the motorcycle chase. I like the shot where like the Russian guy comes into the base and then he like goes to tie his shoes and the other Russian shoot like the army in front of him. I thought that was like a clever like reveal. There's like good visual storytelling. I don't know. It's just

it should have been more. I was distracted in that scene from the lighting because it felt so fake being outdoors where it was like holy shit like I don't remember what those um they're called like diffusers or something like it felt like why are you like why you got so much

light on him outside right now. Like, it seems so unnatural. It's so weird. Yeah. But I mean, like, the actual way, like, just the scene was blocked. Like, that he, you didn't see the guys behind him and then they came out. I'm like, oh, that was really well done. I don't know. Yeah. The blocking in general is really good. Uh-huh. I really have an issue with the lighting. Yeah, Adam. Like, just the glowing was really, it was bothering me. It looked so weird and artificial. It looked like, they put some filter on the camera that's just kind of like shit. Yeah. There was like one J.J. Abramsie shot, too. Oh, with the lens flare? Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know how they're going to continue this. They're adamant. They're going to do it. I mean, 2022 is supposed to be coming out. They should go back to history. There's a lot of cool artifacts in history, like Christian religion or the Catholic. The Chintamani Stone.

Yeah, they should do something like that. I mean, I get what they were doing with the aliens, but there's no religious or cultural significance to these things. Like, it's in Roswell. Like, that's fucking dumb. It's not real. It's like a total conspiracy theory from 50 years. years ago. Like, who cares? The Holy Grail is cool. That has much more culture and, like, history

to it than the crystal skull. And the thing is, like, they had to make up what it did, too, because there is no crystal skull. So they're like, oh, yeah, it kind of mind controls you. Depends on how long you look at it. If you look at it for too long, it wipes your memory. Yeah, and if you cover it with a piece of cloth, then it can't do it anymore. And it's sometimes magnetic, too. Yeah, a piece of cloth, right. It's like totally, it doesn't It doesn't even matter. It was kind of silly. Yeah, the Holy Grail has so much, like, before you even see that movie, you're like,

the Holy Grail? Wow. On the arc, too. You're like, what the fuck's a Crystal Skull? It's like a vodka brand, actually. Crystal Skull is a vodka brand? Oh, yeah, isn't that the Darren Akroyd? Dan Aykroyd, isn't it?

Yeah, maybe that was like an ad. I've had that. Don Aquit paid for it. When did that get fed? Let's see. Hold on, was it pre-2008? My granddad got me that for Christmas. He got me like the Crystal.

still had vodka. I'm like, oh, wow, thank you so much. It was actually pretty good. Let me look this up on Wikipedia. Oh, my God. It was introduced in 2008. This is a big conspiracy now. Hmm, suspicious. Introduced in Southern California in 2007. It was founded and conceived in 2007. I mean, if it was conceived in 2007 and they were talking with it, they could, it could just, it could have been an ad. That's funny. Could have been a secret ad. They're not, they're not, they're not required to like disclose things in the same way. What if Dan Aykroyd saw a trailer for Crystal Skull and had the idea? Oh, maybe.

Yeah, maybe he hopped on. Dan Aykroyd thinks the reason aliens haven't communicated with us is because of 9-11. Because of what? Because of 9-11. Or, you know, like, aliens, like, want to communicate with us, but they see, like, how horrible humanity is. Like, we have all these wars and we kill each other. Oh, right.

They're like, they're having a time. Let's not bug him. It's like, oh my God, he's a fucking crazy man, but his vodka is pretty good. I've had it. You know, maybe those crazy people make really good vodka. His vodka is average and the bottle looks cool. He makes good Ghostbusters movies. I'll say that.

I think he's got like a restaurant in Toronto that I went to. Yeah. Is it good? Dan Aykroyd. Yeah, I'm pretty sure, unless I'm confusing him with somebody else. He's an interesting fellow, Dan Aykroyd. He's probably got a crystal skull somewhere in his house. more than one

yeah he's a total I mean I'd love to talk with him you'd be a great guest on this podcast we can talk about this movie with him yeah yeah there is a restaurant that he owns in Toronto that I went to I'd also want to mention for this film

the score while it does use the Indiana Jones theme and all that I like that stuff there aren't a lot of original compositions in this movie that I thought stood out to me and even Temple of Doom like there's like that theme that Moloram has or the score choir in it that's like different yeah

temple of doom music is awesome yeah short round's got a theme i love the score in that film and there's like these new themes introduced in every single film except this one it doesn't really you know nothing really stood out to me yeah bland i think they tried with like like i think the skull does have like a theme but i couldn't hum it to you like my country yeah it's just forgettable mm-hmm hmm hmm i don't think this is i think it was kind of like that oh yeah that's how it went this film doesn't work for me and i really wish it did like i really wanted to work for me. I saw this as a kid as well. When I saw it as a kid, I was like, yeah, that was fun. I liked it. I liked

the chase scenes. But, you know, growing up, seeing it now, I see like the CGI. I see the horrible writing, like the references to the other movies that just don't make sense. And I don't know, this film doesn't work for me at all. I would still recommend you watch it at least to like, you know, complete the series. But it's not nearly as good as the other three. I don't think anyone could even argue that to me. Raiders is. a better film than this is. It's so much more consistent. It's funnier.

The action's better. It's so much more intense and the stakes feel real. This one's just dumb. There's no significance to anything. The Crystal Skull is stupid. Childobuff is terrible. Like, there's just so many things I could list off the top of my head that are fucking awful about this movie.

It was the most boringest. It's really boring. It really falls apart. The pacings, yeah. Yeah. There's no good action in that. that second half of the movie. Like, think about the other movies.

Like, you had the mind cart, and then you had the, you had the cart chase, I mean, and then you had the bridge. And then in Last Crusade, there was the excellent tank chase, and then you got to the Holy Grail and it fell apart. This one's like, okay, you had a stupid CGI jungle fight with this machine that made no sense that doesn't exist in real life, followed by monkeys, followed by stupid Anhill. That waterfall scene was so fucking dumb.

There's like four of them. Should it dries off the cliff and then the twig catches them. And then that's the end of the action. There's no action for the rest of the film. It's just exposition, stupid alien CGI, a UFO. And then that's the end of the movie. It's fucking terrible. And then they get married.

That's what you want to see, a wedding in your adventure film. Yeah, these two old guys get married. How fucking exciting. Fuck this movie. Yeah. Yeah, fuck this film. That's what I wanted to see. I wanted Indiana Jones to die a bachelor.

That's what I wanted. You could just like invite some girl back to the never die place and then live there for hundreds of years. Yeah. You could open a bar down there, yeah. Yeah, club obi one. Crystal Scarvela all day long. Yeah. Yeah.

You guys already said it. It's easily the worst Indiana Jones movie. Wrong story. They just, the heart wasn't in it. Yeah, it's still a Spielberg movie. So at the end of the day, so it's watchable. It's really boring towards the end, especially. after all that action's over

and you're just so exhausted and checked out I just yeah it's got some okay things to it so I'd give it two stars out of five but it's definitely not what I wanted yeah I'm sorry I really love these movies I really wanted to like this movie

I just don't want to get old I don't want to die this movie it sucks it's Indiana Jones came up crystal skull just to remind it you're going to die yeah two and a half I'm sorry it's fucking bad it's just like it's not even bad rating, I don't think. That's me being generous.

You have a two out of half out of five? Yeah. It's average at best. At best, it's average. I'm with Alex. I give it a four out of ten. It's kind of bad, kind of boring. Not the worst thing I've ever seen. If it was more funny bad, then maybe I'd bump it down to a three, but it's kind of like non-existent, like barely pay attention too bad sort of thing, you know? It's just like, oh, whatever. Yeah. It's good if you have it on in the background. Yeah, it's not the worst thing ever There's some things about it that are fine But not great overall

It doesn't even seem like a film that wants to excel in any way Like there's nothing about it that was even trying to be It's like in spite of itself from the word go Mm-hmm Are you suggesting that there was some sort of financial motive Towards creating that film If Spielberg really didn't want to do it He should have just not directed it

He should have brought in a new director Who had some passion for it Well, let's see how James Mangold does later, I guess. Yeah, I like James Mangold. New Blood is what it means. Yeah. Sorry, Indy. I wish I liked all the movies.

First three is solid, though. I'm glad you watched them at least. I'm glad you found things to appreciate. I mean, we clearly talked a long time about them, so there's a lot to say. There's a lot to say. They're very meaty, yeah. Thank you for watching them. I genuinely love the second one.

I'll watch it again for sure. Good. They're a great part of film history, all three of them. So it's good to watch. Okay. Let's do some questions from the Sardonicast community. If you want to leave your own questions, head over to the subreddit. There'll be a suggestion throw it, but you can ask.

Whatever you like. Let's do this one from the filmize himself Real Botaram. Adam said in the last episode that he doesn't like the idea that people will only watch something different when it has a superhero label on it. Is it really a bad thing that this seems to be the case? Considering people won't watch something alternative at all when it doesn't have a superhero or franchise. related to it. I saw a tweet recently from Todd in the Shadows. They got some flack on our subreddit,

and it said, like, the reason Marvel did well, it's almost a response to the other kinds of action movies or superhero movies that were coming out at the time. Like, it's just more family-friendly, it's more fun. And I actually agree with them. I think the Marvel films are a great reaction to the kind of things people actually want to see from like a mainstream audience. Like empowering, you know, characters that you want to be, really exciting action sequences, great special effects, and like solid messages, nothing offensive. And I feel like that's where these superhero films, like the Marvel films really excel. I like that stuff. I like how empowering they are and that most people can like them. It's a shame that the superhero

genre has been seen as like this, it's like so cynical, you know, I guess because a lot of bad films come out like X-Men, Apocalypse or Dark Phoenix. But I feel like there's a lot of, um, there's a reason people like them, you know, I don't think that should be discounted. They're really well made, some of them, like the Marvel films or Logan. There's specific examples where I really understand why people, like, gravitate toward this genre and why they feel kind of safe in it, you know? Yeah. They don't want to venture out outside of this stuff because there's so many other films that just have,

they're like pointlessly offensive or they're pointlessly like pretentious or dower. And even films I like or filmmakers I like, I feel full victim of this. Even Christopher Nolan with his film Tenet, like that film's very confusing. over complicated, lots of weird characters, like you said, underdeveloped. I don't know if people want that necessarily. People might just want something fun and dumb. Not called Marvel films dumb, but I really understand the appeal of them. I like them a lot.

You know, I feel like that's more. Like superhero, the superhero genre is almost like the perfect story to tell. It's like the perfect story to tell in a film format, you know? It's like the rise of a character going from something that is worth nothing to, you know, overcoming their challenges like Spider-Man or something like that. I guess what I should have made more clear when I was going through the editing for the previous episode, I realized I didn't communicate this exactly properly. But like the criticism for Wanda Vision wasn't like, oh yeah, superhero properties shouldn't

do different things. It was more like a criticism of like the greater issue of audiences and what projects, studios and companies are willing to fund, right? So like when I'm complaining about that It's not like oh you should watch what I want to watch and it's not like you should stay in your lane Superhero movies that's not really the criticism I was making it's more just like an An observation of the current trends and knowing full well that like if this wasn't a thing It's not like people would just stop watching movies so like the way that that question is framed

If that's the implication I kind of disagree with that if you look at like the top grossing films of anything before I think 2009 like it's populated with films that are like original ideas they're not attached to like previous properties they're not sequels people still watched movies before like 2009 right but then like after that point you see it's just like oh like this is what studios are willing to invest their money in and this is what audiences are willing to watch whereas like I don't know like it's you have to blame the audience as much as you blame the studios funding it because both are symbiotic and both are responding to each other right you know what is the audience. The audience is only human. Like, they like what they like. Yeah, I feel people gravitate toward those superhero movies or that non-offensive content. Yeah. Because they're like, these are really the kinds of movies I want to watch, you know. Like, we constantly see these pushes on especially social media for things like, oh yeah,

we need more representation in movies, which is a fair criticism and a fair thing to want. But the way you do that is you support independent films, right? Like, that's how you do it. And it seems like nobody got the fucking memo. It's like, yeah, Scarlett Johansson's going to get cast as the Asian character in this movie, because name one female Asian American actor that will sell a script like Scarlett Johansson would. You go up to a studio executive, you say, we got Scarlett, J. Hansen. That's going to get it greenlit, and that's going to get people to watch it. Like, unless you're willing to put your attention into smaller films and independent creators

and help get them, you know, the, the attention. tension that would otherwise go to larger, you know, Disney, own everything, Marvel, blah, blah, blah, unless you're willing to do that, then you're not really, I don't know, like, how much you can complain about it. Because, like, you need to prove to them that these are the things you're interested in seeing. If you want to see more trans people playing trans characters, go watch movies like a beautiful woman, you know, like go, go watch shows like Euphoria where that's, like, actually happening, right? You have to, like, you have to actually vote with your wallet and prove that this is

something that you want. You can't just like watch Marvel all day and then be like, why does Marvel do Marvel things? Right? Yeah. That's like, see I vote with my wallet. I see dumb action movies like Indiana Jones and Marvel and they keep making them. I'm voicing my frustrations with like a greater issue that I have with the film making industry as a whole. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, you guys are both right. I mean, super hero movies I kind of see as the they've kind of taken the place as you're Indiana Jones is your Star Wars is they are the self-insert kind of hero stories that everyone can relate to. The superhero story is just a great story, no matter who it is, you know, Spider-Man, Superman. And I mean, it's so broad and vague in terms of what can be included in it. Yeah, it is more the

business side of it, which is definitely, I think, what most people are criticizing with it, just the, you know, just the filtering of it, how, yeah, of course. course the effect of someone who business-mindedly plans out a set of movies in the same way that like a TV show would. The first person to do that is going to be huge and then cause a, you know, just a wave of copycats. And that's what just happens on repeat. So yeah. Yeah, it doesn't really bug me particularly, but it is tiring, you know, after a while, which is Marvel movie after Marvel movie. Yeah. It's just like a part of my philosophy and like I'm trying to be the change that I want to see in the world, which is why, you know, I wrote people in

with funny ha ha meme shit and then I talk about like film festival movies and it's like, okay, you're set up to the channel. I'm going to, you know, you might have come here for the laps, but you're going to hopefully, you know, be exposed to some films that you otherwise wouldn't have. And, you know, with my top of the year list or whatever, I hope to include things that will get people a bit outside their comfort zone. And hopefully, you know, there will be a chunk of people that realize like, oh, wait, like if I actually do some digging, if I actually do look a bit beyond like what's being heavily marketed at me, there's actually some really great stuff there that I like. And the more people that do that and the more people that support

those, they have more power in the industry and the more things can be made like that, the less restrictions that they would have sort of thing, right? Yeah. If the artist that I loved has had as much power as Christopher Nolan, we'd be seeing some fucking masterpieces. Not saying masterpieces don't exist right now, but like, holy shit, man, if, like, if Charlie Kaufman or, you know, any one of my favorite writers or directors had, like, as much power in the industry as Christopher Nolan's like, fuck, we're missing out so hard. Yeah. Damn it. I have hoped for that for films, like the new Doctor Strange movie, which is directed by Sam Ramey. Like, I have hope for that one. Like, maybe that. Spider-Man, I don't know. Who fuck knows? Alternate title.

Who knows? People want to see, like, kind of how the film medium has grown, Over time, I feel like they like seeing special effects, like visual effects. And the only people who can afford to make, you know, groundbreaking special effects are the people who make superhero movies. Because that's like, you know, that's what most people want to see. That's what makes the most money. It's genuinely impressive to see these effects in the Avengers movies or something like that. I always praise these movies for the visual effects because they are impressive and they're groundbreaking, especially compared to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

It just looks like shit. Yeah, it's what you see them for. they are a big spectacle. Yeah, like, Thanos is a pretty interesting effect. Like, I'd put them on the level of anti-circus' uh, golem, you know? I think it is impressive. You know what I also kind of realized about myself

while thinking about the, um, my apprehension towards starting something like Wanda Vision is I think that emotionally, I had compartmentalize Marvel and Star Wars into these ideas that, like, where it's like, okay, I'm done, you know? Like, I watched these things to be a part of the greater cultural conversation. And then we got endgame and the fucking trilogy ended. And I was like, yes, I'm out.

And then it just kept going and I'm mad. Yeah, that's the thing. It's going to keep going for a long time. It's not going away. It'll never stop. You know, it's like, it's that everybody expects me to weigh in on these things. And I'm like, ah, fuck. Like, I thought I escaped.

Yeah. It's because these things are really culturally significant for film. Yeah. That's why I still talk about them. And I do like them. I think Marvel's got decades left in it, man. I really think it's going to stick around. It's really its own thing.

I mean, it has to. It's still profitable. It's almost like its own film. It's a genre. Yeah, it's its own institution. White Sox 141 has a interesting one. My impression from listening to the podcast is that you guys all think movies. Sorry, this is written weirdly.

My impression from listening to the podcast that you, you all think of movies of an art. Oh my God. My impression from listening to this podcast is that you all think the movies as an art form that you enjoy. Oh my God. You got a proofread this shit sometimes, guys. Did you understand what it was trying to say? Yeah.

Oh, my God. My impression from listening to the podcast is that you guys all think of movies as a form of art that you enjoy. There you go. I had to fix it. What are some mediums of art that you don't enjoy yet, but you don't. like to enjoy in the future. That's interesting. Poems?

I could never get into poems. They don't make me feel anything. That's a medium of art. Do you like lyrics and songs? Because that's just poetry. I guess. Yeah. It's just poetry with a rhythm.

That's true. Yeah. I want to go to more galleries. A few years back, I had like an epiphany moment where just this portrait in the National Portrait Gallery in London really resonated with me

and I'd never really experienced that with just like chilling in a gallery before. I'd been, a bit of those in the past, but I don't know. It takes the right moment to really connect with you. And that is, I don't know,

it's quite a unique experience to go through something like that. I've been to an art gallery before. You know, I don't think there is a medium that I don't like the expression, you know. I've seen old portraits like that, like in a museum. I feel like,

wow, that's really cool, just to see an artifact of history. Like watching the Indiana Jones movies where there's Nazis or whatever. I'm like, wow, that's an interesting part of history. Or like marble statues.

Those things are so cool. To answer the question, I actually don't think there's anything that doesn't resonate with me somewhat. Even poems, like you said, basically just a song, right? There are certainly things that don't resonate with me, but the question was asking if there was something that didn't that I would want to in the future. I don't believe there is such a thing because anything that doesn't resonate with me is one that's because I don't like it.

So an example would be fashion. I don't give a shit about fashion. I don't give a shit. I really don't give a shit. So I don't want to give a shit. To start giving a shit about fashion would be to impose a level of increased self-consciousness on the way I appear, you know, how I dress, you know, how my body looks like, which is like that sounds like a negative thing to me. Why would I want to be more self-conscious about that? Yeah, you've got to pick your battles up to a certain point.

Yeah. I would like to be able to draw in the future. That would be cool. It's not like I don't get value out of it. I would like to develop that skill at some point in the future if I ever had the time for it, which I might never. I used to love to draw as a kid. Like, I just draw on my own, you know, every night. Just draw shit, even if it didn't make sense. Yeah. You know, it's just a bunch of squiggles.

Yeah, I love all art. You should express yourself how you want. Absolutely. Picasso. He just drew a bunch of shit. Yeah, I went to a Picasso gallery, actually. Cool. But I was too young.

It was before it really. connected with me so should we end on this one then from yeah skelly dude 11 after listening to your episode about pirating movies I'd like to ask you what your thoughts are on emulating video games do you frequently

download and emulate games or does it feel too immoral for you does the argument of failing to provide a product to people apply when they have no literal way to play a game like Mother 3 or games released outside of region you got to get a game you got to get the game that's sorry I'm sorry if you don't do that

then you're a pirate and you're stealing. But it's not available on GameCube even. I'm sorry, you've got to get the copy. That's it. That's the only way to do it. I have a GameCube. I got the Hulk video game or whatever the fuck it is, you know, whatever game.

The SpongeBob Battle for Kinney Bottom. What is this called a video game? Yeah, and you've got to get the disc, and that's the only way to do it. And if you don't, you're a criminal. Sorry. What's crazy about this is like... You're going to go to jail.

There's so many fucking companies, especially Nintendo, that would make a killing if they just embraced it. And we're like, fuck yeah, we're releasing this on PC. You can mod it. 100%. Whatever. Or fuck yeah. They kind of dipped their toe in it with the SNS classic or whatever, where it's like we've preloaded like 20 games onto this thing and it has HDMI out now. But it's like, then you just go on eBay and you see cheaper versions that are just literally from China where it's like we've loaded 600 games on.

into it and it's the same thing. And it's just like, fuck, we will, which one? Why don't you care? Why don't you want to take my money? Like, why has it Nintendo? Like, me buying a Nintendo Switch, part of the reason behind doing that, that was the first Nintendo console I've ever bought, I've ever owned. Part of the reason I did that, it was like, I was hoping at some point that, like,

I would be able to play N64 games on it. Like, I would be able to download it from the Nintendo store. I don't think I can. Why not? I don't know. I mean, if I got an emulated or james or james or. jailbroken version of the switch than I could. It turns out the pirates are providing a better fucking service.

Why don't you want my fucking money? I hate it. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. And there's kind of an issue with game preservation too. 100%. They're constantly tinkering with like the code and re-releasing versions and patching things.

Yeah. If you care about history. It is pretty different from a movie, right? Like remastering a movie. I guess you could buy a movie on Blu-ray or 4K. Like, that's kind of an upgrade, but... I agree with the preservation aspect. Like, it's important.

It's super important. I'm kind of opposed to, like, remastered. Even those are, like, better than... Like, at least you can get the game in a new version, you know? When I get games on Steam, you know, I don't have to get a remastered version because it just kind of... Once you have the hardware for it, you can upgrade the game yourself, like, play with high graphics or in 4K.

Like, that's what I do with, like, Bioshock now. You know, at the time, I couldn't do it, but now it's different. I don't know. Yeah, you hear all these stories of like how these devs from a few decades ago just, they just got like no backups of anything they made. So all the source codes just lost. Yeah. Wow.

I don't find it immoral particularly. Of course not. Especially if it is for something like that. If it's something you can't, if you literally cannot get to anywhere like Mother Three, I mean, what other choice do you have? Yeah, I don't care if the law is written that way. It's literally censorship. You're trying to prevent people from accessing information.

So go fuck yourself, Nintendo. No, you're all thieves. Or sub-reddit things. It's so seriously. You guys are pirates. You're stealing from Nintendo, a company that has millions of dollars. Fuck you. I still got a GameCube.

I'll only play my shit on my GameCube. Never. Do you see how, like, Nintendo was such assholes about it. Like, the latest Mario game has, like, a date they're going to stop selling it. Yeah, fuck that noise. Nintendo is awful. Nintendo was terrible I hate those

What are you talking about Remember when they were like Copyright striking people on YouTube For like including their footage Like what a bunch of fucking asses Oh yeah And then they had to learn To like get into this century

Don't you realize that's the reason Why these games are so successful Like remember when PewDiePie stream That stupid like amnesia game Like everyone bought that game Just because of him It was a good game They so they like underappreciate the value

Of like people just discussing these things In an open forum Yeah it turns out people are promoting my product for free. Yeah. Like, who gives this shit what people are saying? Turns out that watching somebody play a video game isn't the same experience as playing it yourself and that it's literally just a

fucking advertisement. Because they would just like block everything and then eventually they're like, no, we have a Nintendo partner program now where they take 60% of the revenue that is already cut by like YouTube and your network. So it's like 60% of what you remaining have. Exactly. And yeah, and then eventually

they were like, I guess we won't copy or strike anymore. And you know, they just want to control what you say. They don't want you to say anything bad. Oh yeah, that too. I forgot about that. You weren't allowed to say negative things about their games. That's awful. Oh, fuck then, Tito. Imagine seeing a guy was like, yeah, this game is amazing. There's nothing about it that's wrong. It's incredible. It's the best thing ever. It's because that doesn't exist. There's grayness to all these things. Like, to be that, like, blind to this. It's just stupid. It's just like corporate trying to control. And the irony is they have some of the most, like, polished cleanest games.

And often, like, companies don't like it when you're shit-talking like a broken game or a product that they're not proud of. But they're so, like, detail-oriented and, like, the products they release, like, everyone loves. They're really missing a beat with that. It's just criticism. That's it. They're detached. Yeah. Oh, totally detached.

Why don't you want my money? Assholes. I hate it. Well, so many companies, we say it all the time in the movie industry, too. There's so many movies I want to buy that I just can't. Mm-hmm. Hbo Max, not everywhere. Yeah.

The region-free Blu-ray player I have to have to play, like, climax or any of those kinds of movies. I mean, they stopped with 4K Blurays. Those are all region-free. Oh, yeah? That's good. It's funny that each generation from DVD to Blu-ray to 4K, DVD had like eight regions, and then Blu-ray's like, that's kind of stupid.

Let's do three. And then 4-K is like, nah, it's kind of stupid. Let's do no regions. So, yeah, it's like they've literally, all the arguments that they've been using, these like corporate bullshit arguments about piracy, they're like, we were wrong the whole time, but we're not going to admit it.

Like, yeah, fuck yeah. It was just preventing people from purchasing your products. DRM, like every, almost every single anti-piracy measure that a company takes only hurts consumers. It doesn't hurt the pirates

because they always find a way around it. It hurts the people that are legally purchasing something where it's like, oh, fuck, I have to go buy like a fucking, you know, region free player for this now and like this and blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, you're not offering me subtitles for this movie because I bought this version, or I'm only allowed to play it at this certain time. It's like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

like released in different periods in different countries. Like, fuck off. It's so basic and simple to understand from like even like an economic perspective, which apparently these, you know, if you're a large corporation, you're supposed to be familiar with at least that side of it. But somehow they don't get it. And they just don't like making as much money as they could for some reason, which is like, oh, what the fuck? Old business just can't, they can't adapt. They're so stupid. They're ancient, which is why company is like Netflix were able to swoop in and entirely change a business model without them even noticing.

Blockbuster fucking died. Now everybody else is trying to catch up with like HBO Max and Peacock and shit. They're like, oh, we want a piece of the pie too, but they're so fucking brain dead and ancient dinosaurs that they didn't even realize that this was happening for the past fucking 15 years. They're so detached. They're so out of touch. Like everyone copying Marvel movies. It's all the same shit. I'll say, support the things you like. If you like something, support it anyway, you can't.

True. Financially, word of mouth, saying like, oh, yeah, it's really good. I've recommended to other people. That's all. I agree. Mm-hmm. Me too. What did that have to do with piracy?

Piracy. Well, sometimes you can't access something or, I don't know. You have to pirate it. I'm not morally opposed to it. Just support what you like. You know. Yeah. That's what I mean.

True. Sometimes you have to pirate. but if you support Nintendo, you love them. True. You say good things about them. I mean, how much damage could you be doing? Right. I feel like there's a, there's a, I always say gray.

No, there's a more than beauty. Yeah. Piracy is illegal. You're going to go to jail. You're going to get a fine. All right. Aside from that. Yeah, you shouldn't steal content from someone that is making content for you that you should

pay for. Like, let's use Nintendo as an example. They're a multi-million dollar company. There's definitely a grayness. You know, if you support them, if you financially back them. And I feel like people are smart enough to know what the line is, you know? I really have a lot of faith in people in that way. Even just with our content, you know, like, I understand people use ad block.

We got patrons and shit. I'm not going to be like Lankara where I'm upset about it. Go ahead and use ad block. But, you know, there's other ways people support me, like leaving a comment to me. People can support us if they want to. They shouldn't be forced to. Yeah. They send me a message.

Like, Ralph, your content. really cool. You're a really cool guy. I'm like, wow, okay. That's all I need. Or like a dollar on Patreon or something like that. Yeah. Send me messages later saying, Ralph, you're a really cool guy. And I'll forward with them. All right. I guess that's it for questions.

And I guess it's time for a film recommendation from Alex. It's back to me. Back again. So I'm recommending one, a movie I've wanted to see for a long time and I don't think any of us have seen it actually. It's a sequel, which is interesting, that being Paddington 2. Have any of you guys seen? Oh boy! I haven't seen the first one either, but I was looking forward to it. I have seen the first one. I liked Paddington. I haven't seen the first one, so I wasn't sure whether to recommend a double bill if you guys were right with that.

I'll watch both and talk about it. I'll watch Paddington again. Paddington was a very solid movie. I enjoyed that film a lot. It seems like the second one, though, is what, like, people are talking about. It's not, like, the top 200 films. British people love Paddington, too. The way they talk about it, you swear it's, like, I don't know, like, The Silence of the Lambs, like, one of the greatest films of all the time. It's part of the royal family.

Paddington is right up there. Cool. Yeah, we love those guys. All right, if you don't want to be spoiled for Paddington one and two, listen to them before the next episode. These episodes come out every two weeks publicly. You might get to see them earlier, I guess, in the same time frame, but earlier than the public release as they're edited. If you go to sardonicast.com, sign up for premium or patreon.com slash sardonicast. Also, we got merch. Buy some merch. Also, if you want to send fan art, post it on the subreddit, Sardonicast subreddit. Or on Twitter, you could go hashtag Sardonicast fan art. And yeah, I'll see it eventually. Thank you so much for listening. Belongs in a museum.

It belongs in a museum. Thanks, everybody. Bye-bye. We all get old and die. Bye. Bye. Finnecda-key, bye.