Classic

Rating: Null/10 (16 June 2008)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
*** (out of 4)
The world famous archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is hired by the U.S. Government to locate the Ark of the Covenant but unfortunately the search will be a tad bit harder since Hitler also wants the Ark. This was my first time watching this in God knows how many years and while I didn't enjoy it as much as I remembered I still had a good time with it, although I still think Spielberg has made much better films. What I loved most (and this might be cliché) is the amazing throwback to the early serials of the 30's and 40's. It's clear that the screenplay is going for that type of adventure and Spielberg's direction really hits all the right marks as we go on an adventurous ride that takes us from various countries and throws the hero into all sorts of obstacles. There are countless classic scenes here from the running from the huge rock to the gun/sword scene and the wonderful pit of snakes. The screenplay certainly throws just about everything into the mix and having Hitler be the bad guy just adds a lot of pulp fun. I'm really not sure why I didn't love this movie like many others do but I'm going to take a guess and say that the over the top adventure was just a little too much to me. Outside the classic scenes in the film, whenever the movie pauses to do something not involving a stunt, I just found it somewhat boring. I certainly don't mean boring in a bad way but I just kept waiting for the next big stunt. Ford certainly has this character down pat and Karen Allen does a terrific job as his sidekick.