Indiana Jones and the lost sense of fun!

Rating: Null/10 (25 January 2002)

Indiana Jones is recruited by Walter Donovan to take up the search for the holy grail and find his father - lost on the same quest. What he finds is a trail leading to the grail hotly contested by Nazi's seeking the cup that brings eternal life. Joneses Junior and Senior race against time to find the Grail before the Nazi's.
After the disappointment of the second of the series this was a chance to redeem the series. Temple of Doom was too nasty and gorey to be totally fun. Raiders of the Lost Ark was huge fun with very little reality and this is what is brought back here. The plot is similar in theme to Raiders, with many of the characters brought back. The fact that some of the story is just ridiculous is easily overlooked by the fun and the fact that it's tongue is firmly in it's cheek the whole time. Speilberg knows it's a bit silly and OTT at times, but rather than let it be a downer he lets it add to the fun of the whole thing.
As with the others in the series this is packed with great set pieces - some with comedy mixed in (such as the Joneses trapped in a burning room) others with great action (the chase across the desert) and others with gore (the conclusion). It's all good old fashioned fun to watch and tremendous fun all the way.
Ford is as good as ever and seems a lot more at home than when he did Temple of Doom. Connery is a great choice for his dad (despite him only being 12 years older than Ford), his easy going attitude contrast well with Ford's action hero. It's also good to see Dermot Elliott back again (and very well used) as well as John Rhys-Davis. British comedian Alexis Sayle makes a surreal appearance and the bad guys are very much carbon copies of the Nazi charicatures used in Raiders.
Overall this is tremendous fun and more than makes up for the disappointment that was Temple of Doom.