Raiders moves with the whip-cracking smartness of all too few films in the current Hollywood lexicon. It never pauses to rest on its laurels. It has a restless energy and an urge to entertain that has become quite unfamiliar to the contemporary moviegoer. It loves to fake youout. Its climax is a tour de force of surrealism, an impressive cinematic way of talking and describing.
Raiders is an assured, relaxed, impressive work.
It's almost impossible to resist. It's no more substantial than cotton candy - but it's easily the best piece of entertainment Hollywood has produced in 1981.