Ranking the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Movies #5

#5 on the list is

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989).

Only saw this once in the theater, but wow, what an amazing experience! Packed with so much first-rate action and humor!

First of all, Sean Connery as Dr. Henry Jones is without a doubt the best supporting character in an IJ film.

His hilarious interaction with Indy and comic timing is outstanding!

HENRY: Son, I have something to tell you…

INDY: Don’t get sentimental, Dad.

HENRY: The floor’s on fire. And the chair. (In print, this may not seem like the funniest line in the world, but Connery’s facial and vocal expressions totally sell it.)

Being more concerned about a smashed vase than his son’s head.

Lines such as “I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers.”

Sean Connery absolutely kills it all the way through.

And let’s not forget about Indiana Jones, himself.

Harrison Ford is at the top of his game here as well, both with the action and the comedy.

Little moments like pausing to give a ridiculous smile in the middle of a life threatening fight because he gets his hands back on the cross of Coronado add so much fun throughout the movie.

Seeing this in the theater, I remember everyone cracking up at all the gags.

ELSA: What’s that?

INDY: The Ark of the Covenant.

ELSA: Are you sure?

INDY: Pretty sure.

The first 50 minutes or so are actually kind of light on action for an IJ movie. We have the Indy-as-a-kid-train flashback and the boat chase, and both of those are just okay.

Despite the action not running on all cylinders in the beginning, the story itself is quite good with Indy trying to find his dad and finding the secret passage under the library, etc.

But as soon as Indy crashes through the window of his dad’s room in the castle, the fun meter is off the charts, pretty much for the rest of the movie.

We have the escape from the tied chair and fire, the motorcycle chase, the airplane chase, and the tank sequence.

(I’m thinking those are stunt doubles on the cycle picture above. I paused the movie in the wrong place – hahaha)

And that tank sequence, though. Arguably the greatest Indy action-fest of them all!

Colonel Vogel is a great villain and it’s good to have Sallah back.

Petra!

That camouflaged bridge is pretty cool.

So why do I rank CRUSADE lower than RAIDERS and the original SW trilogy?

As much as I absolutely love this movie, here’s my (minor) gripes.

Donovan and Elsa are a bit bland, which is a problem since they’re the two leading villains. Marcus Brody sometimes comes off as more annoying than funny in the comedic attempts with that character.

As a kid, I loved the opening train chase and thought it was fun to see a young version of Indy, but watching it now, I wish the time could have been spent on Harrison Ford Indy instead.

I also feel like the ending is too similar to RAIDERS. It turns out that the bad-guys were never going to get the Grail whether Indy and friends had tried to stop them or not, just like the Ark.

I think it would have been nice for the ending to play out a bit more differently than RAIDERS. The screenwriters, in this regard…

Well…

They…

-ahem-

chose poorly.

Complaints aside, LAST CRUSADE is a first-rate, undeniable crowd-pleaser.

Grade: A

Have a great weekend everyone!

Toydust.com will return on Monday.

 

#5 The Last Crusade

#6 The Force Awakens

#7 The Temple of Doom

#8 Revenge of the Sith

#9 Rogue One

#10 Solo

#11 The Phantom Menace

#12 The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

#13 The Last Jedi

#14 Attack of the Clones