12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
New Temple of Doom Special Collector's Edition due out May 13th, 2008!, March 8, 2008
The details of new DVD editions of the three classic classic Indiana Jones movies with all-new special features have been announced. They'll be available separately for the first time on DVD, or as a set. They were previously only available on DVD as a set.
The new releases will coincide with the new movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which comes out on May 22nd. They'll have new special features designed to introduce new Indy fans to the old movies, and to introduce old fans to the new movie.
The Indiana Jones movies are George Lucas's recreation/update of the serialized adventures of the 1930s and '40s. The original three movies were made in the '80s and set in the '30s. They feature Harrison Ford as a mild-mannered archeology professor who moonlights as an adventurous seeker of priceless antiquities. This takes him to exotic locations across the world, and gets him in some very tight spots of the kind that only a movie hero could get into, or out of. He invariably finds himself opposed by dangerous men with evil plans for the powerful objects only he has the skills to recover. There are elaborate set pieces with creepy critters, ancient traps, fights with weapons from bare hands to airplanes and tanks, and sometimes supernatural forces. Along the way Jones manages to have some romance too. Humor is a big part of the fun.
This is the second in the series but is set one year earlier than the first Indy movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 1935. After barely surviving an attempt to acquire an antiquity in China, Indy finds himself in India with a woman friend and male sidekick (a trio as in all three films). They're enlisted to recover a village's sacred Sankara stone and kidnapped children, both held by an evil man with designs to find and unite all five Sankara stones to rule the world. This project involves ritual human sacrifice and an underground mine, each of which provide close calls for the heroes.
This film, while incorporating light humor as before, is somewhat darker in overall tone than Raiders (reportedly by design, as Lucas and Speilberg were each in a dark mood after romance/marriage failures). Not especially violent by current standards (PG, though it played a part in leading to the creation of the PG-13 rating), I think most kids and parents will be fine with it. It's still all for fun.
The creepy crawlies featured in this installment are lots and lots of exotic insects.
If you don't want the whole set and don't want to wait until May, you could get a used copy of the old Temple of Doom DVD (people sell them out of the sets). The difference is in the extra features. The bonuses from the old set are on their own disc, so what you get when you buy just the old Temple of Doom DVD is pretty bare. The new release, on the other hand, has the following, all new:
-- "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: An Introduction" by director Steven Spielberg and creator/producer George Lucas
-- "Creepy Crawlies," in which Spielberg, Lucas and co-producer Frank Marshall reminisce about snakes, bugs and rats
-- "Locations," on where the films were set and where they were actually shot
-- storyboard sequence: "The Mine Cart Chase"
-- DVD galleries of illustrations, props, production stills and portraits, FX/Industrial Light and Magic stuff, and promotion/marketing materials
-- "Lego Indiana Jones," a demo and trailer for a game based on the trilogy
If you like a few extras, you'll probably prefer this new DVD, though maybe not enough to upgrade from the old one, or to wait until May. I like audio commentaries, myself, and since they're easy to produce and tend to bring out points not covered in other features, I subtract one star for a special edition without any, but I look forward to the rest. If you don't care about commentaries, this may be a five-star DVD for you.
There have been rumors of deleted scenes, but none are included.
Some will want to wait for a high-def release, which makes sense if you have the equipment or plan to get it. Many speculate that a Blu-ray release will come out for Christmas, but that's sheer guesswork.
There's also some speculation that an even better edition with all four movies will soon supersede this new DVD. The four movies may get bundled, but I doubt that there will be a better edition of this movie soon, if ever, on standard DVD. Keep in mind that the previous set came out over four years ago, and if not for the new movie, it would probably still be the only release in the over ten years of the DVD era. The next upgrade may be high-def only, and may not happen for a while.
If you do want the whole trilogy (highly recommended), the new release is
here, the old set is
here. If you want to pick up one of the others from the new set, the new edition of Raiders of the Lost Ark is
here, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
here.
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22 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, October 24, 2000
The second installment in the Indiana Jones, set 2 years before Raiders, finds Indy going after the Shonkara stones and trying to rescue children enslaved by the Thagee Cult. He is joined by young Short Round (Key He Quan) and nighclub vocalist Willie Scott, played very well by Kate Capshaw, the current Mrs.Spielberg. While Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood was a two-fisted hellraiser, Scott is a pampered indoor brat, and in turn is brilliant, plus her character is quite funny also, as is Short Round. Amrish Puri is a chilling as the villainous cult leader.
Though Temple of Doom lacks Sallah, Marcus Brody, and the Nazis, it is an improvement over Raiders in more than a few ways. To start, Ford is even better as Indy for his character is tested more. Douglas Slocombe's photography is more effective, and John Williams' music score is even more diverse and genius. Temple of Doom is also more creative, emotionally effective, and imaginative. However, it lacks the spectacle of the first film and is far more controversial and violent.This is the movie that created the PG-13 rating.
Dennis Muren's stunning Oscar-winning visual effects match Richard Edlund's effects in Raiders, yet they are not as awe-inspiring or important to the story. Elliot Scott's production design is terrific, and the cult sequences are very intense. The stunts top the ones in Raiders and are really good. The most memorable sequences have to be the mine car chase, the creature feature dinner, the Shanghai nightclub opening, the duel at the cult platform, and the rope bridge finale, incredible. Though Temple of Doom isn't as good as Raiders or Last Crusade it is highly recommended and is one of the best adventure films ever made.
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