The least of the trilogy, but still crowd-pleasing, old-fashioned escapism

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2016)

Third time lucky for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who followed 1984's INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM with this engaging comedy/adventure yarn which doesn't equal the dizzy heights of the previous adventures - it's a little too samey to do that - but still proves to be a better-than-average film of its type. My only complaint is the reliance on back projection, something not seen so much in the previous two films, which actually dates this more than RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK despite the fact that RAIDERS was made eight years later (the poor effects are highlighted in the plane fight sequence). The film expertly blends comedy and adventure to make a fun, action-packed romp.
Once again, the formula is familiar and offers up a ton of cliffhanging set-pieces. There's the opening train chase involving River Phoenix's young Indy; a thrilling fight on a boat which is being torn to shreds by a huge propeller; boat and motorbike chases; an excellent bit of action on a tank; and of course the finale which turns the deadly traps - a staple of the series - into an art form. The film is nicely violent in parts, with bloody shootings and a surprise decapitation, and bad guy Julian Glover gets a superbly gruesome demise after drinking from the wrong chalice and disintegrating into a skeleton at the film's conclusion - a scene which had me cowering behind my seat in tears when I saw it first as a kid.
Harrison Ford effortlessly adopts the Indiana Jones mantle again after a five-year break, and despite looking slightly older he carries off the action and wisecracks with aplomb. Sean Connery - an actor I really didn't used to like very much - also acquits himself well with what is essentially the bumbling sidekick role (after the success of LETHAL WEAPON at the cinema, buddy-buddy movies were everywhere). Thanks to the presence of Connery's sidekick, there isn't an annoyingly ditzy female lead for a change, although Alison Doody gives her money's worth as a smouldering Nazi spy. Julian Glover excels as the smooth villain and it's nice to see Brits John Rhys-Davies and Denholm Elliott in major parts of the story. A thoroughly exciting - and funny with it - slice of old fashioned escapism, the kind they just didn't make in the 1990s.