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Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, River Phoenix
Speilberg, Lucas and Ford return to the scene of the dime to make a mountain of cash in the third installment of the adventures of the ultimate adventuring archeologist. This film redeems the series for the woeful Temple of Doom dud and is a pretty good motion picture on its own, though it loses alot of its sheen when compared to the incomparable original. The Last Crusade is more action and humor-oriented than Raiders and is hurt by a breakneck pace that overwhelms the story at times with long action sequences. Phoenix is great as a young Indiana and Connery is wonderful as his dad, but Karen Allen’s Marion, from the original film, is still the series’ only well-drawn female character.
The Last Crusade starts off fast with an entertaining sequence of a young Indiana Jones played by River Phoenix, whose scout trip is interrupted when he stops a mysterious stranger from stealing an artifact. It is great fun and plays kind of like a super-hero origin. Soon we are back in the present (which is of course still the past for us), and Indy is soon setting out for Europe to look for his father who went missing while chasing his lifelong obsession, the Holy Grail. He finds an beautiful ally (Alison Doody) and, soon, his father as well. Together, they scurry off spending equal time searching for the Grail and dodging Nazis.
The Last Crusade is a good wind-up to the Indy story, as it tells us about his past and his family. The action is ramped up considerably and the humor is a bit more silly, but the movie is light years ahead of Temple of Doom, not that that should be hard. Those who enjoy the Pirates of The Caribbean series will like this one, as well.
