Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – S. Spielberg

By request from Amon (nearly 10 years old). I feel as though I must have watched this once or twice since its release in 1989 but I didn’t really remember much at all.  For example, there is a prelude where River Phoenix stars as the young Indiana Jones with a few nods toward the origin of various trademarks (whip, hat, fear of snakes)! Then, when Harrison Ford shows up, we are quickly into the adventure story which involves rescuing his father (Sean Connery), a professor of medieval literature, and finding the holy grail (yes, the real one).  I never read/saw the Da Vinci Code but, in my imagination, that book probably reads like this movie: the heroes have to solve a bunch of mysteries related to old texts, hidden tombs, ancient curses and booby traps and the like.  The Nazis are once again (as in the first film) the main antagonists, threatening to get to the grail first.  Director Steven Spielberg is clearly having fun here (Indy comes face-to-face with Hitler in one scene, played for laughs) and the action-adventure scenes are enjoyable/thrilling/comic. Sure, there are a lot of echoes of the first film (we haven’t watched the second because it is supposed to be too gory for young kids) but this didn’t interfere with our viewing pleasure. Harrison Ford is still in peak form and Connery plays against type with good effect.  It can’t top the original (Amon says it is his fave of all-time) but #3 is better than what came later (I don’t have high hopes for Indy 5 but Amon can’t wait).

 

Batman (1989)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

Batman (1989) – T. Burton

When Amon (almost 9 years) pulled this off of the shelf at the library, I thought “uh-oh” -- but then it didn’t turn out to be that bad.  Michael Keaton is a very subdued hero underneath all that moulded rubber and when he appeared as Bruce Wayne, Amon thought he just didn’t look right (and I agree – we both prefer Adam West).  This first film set itself the challenge of telling Batman’s origin story (in flashback) as well as The Joker’s -- and fortunately, they are intertwined, at least here (I’m not familiar enough with the original texts).  Jack Nicholson plays the villain as a kind of daggy dad, embarrassing you by his bad dance moves – but of course, unlike your average dad, The Joker is evil (and there is some mean-spirited but cartoonish violence here).  Without Nicholson’s goofing, the film would likely be deathly dull, marked only by its cool (but dated) set design and art direction. Should we have known already that director Tim Burton was all style with no sense of pacing? Kim Basinger (as photog/love interest Vicki Vale) and Robert Wuhl (remember him? as a reporter) are not the right calibre of actor for their parts to be interesting.  That said, Amon truly enjoyed it and I ultimately didn’t mind this return to the 80s. However, I’m afraid that Amon is the only one who can get me to watch superheroes these days…I’m not otherwise inclined.

 

The Woman in Black (1989)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Woman in Black (1989) – H. Wise

This British TV movie (not the more recent Daniel Radcliffe big screen release) was highlighted by The Guardian as containing one of the top 10 scariest ghosts of all time.  And, true enough, it is one of those low-key spooky affairs (not unlike the BBC’s M. R. James adaptations) that takes place in the early 20^th century where the old fashioned customs and surrounds add to the creepy ambience. Adrian Rawlins plays Arthur Kidd, a young lawyer who is ordered to attend to the affairs of a recently deceased widow who lived in an isolated old house on the marshes near the (fictional) seaside town of Crythin Gifford. No one in the village is keen to go anywhere near the house and no one shows up for the funeral of the widow, although the Kidd sees a mysterious woman in black that no one else acknowledges.  Of course, she is a ghost and, as it turns out, not a very friendly one (among the scariest of all time – maybe if you saw this as a child)!  Kidd eventually has to spend the night uncovering the facts in the haunted house and indeed it does send chills down your spine.  The screenplay is by Nigel Kneale (of Quatermass fame) from Susan Hill’s story. Although you might expect that this is the sort of TV movie where a happy ending awaits with the mystery of the ghost’s unhappy demise tied up with a bow – but you could be wrong!  Worth a look if you like eerie rather than gory, implicit rather than explicit horrors. 

 

The Killer (1989)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Killer (1989) – J. Woo

Back in the day, I really enjoyed the movies of John Woo – so much so that I think I went and saw Hard Target (1993; with JCVD) in the theatre.  But years have passed and Woo’s profile has dropped; originally, he was touted as a grand stylist of action; in Hollywood he was reduced to making a Lost in Space TV movie; now he is back in China making grand epics.  He seems to have lost his personal style which paid homage to Melville and the honour among men (thieves or cops or both).  The Killer was the centrepiece of his oeuvre up to that point, starring Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee as hitman and cop, respectively, who form a bond over a blinded nightclub singer.  Woo brought all of his stylistic trademarks to bear, with slow-motion flying doves in a church, syrupy Cantonese music, Mexican stand-offs galore, and some very sensitive tough guys trying to follow their feelings while also unleashing lovingly choreographed ultraviolence on anyone in their way.  Possibly due to the fact that I watched a version of the film with dubious discontinuous subtitles, it just didn’t resonate with me the same way this time.  However, my recent rewatches of Hard Boiled (1992) – 4 stars, and A Better Tomorrow (1986) – 4 ½ stars, suggest that Woo did have the goods.  Perhaps I’ve been too hard on The Killer this time? Melville’s Le Samourai (a key inspiration) is a personal favourite (not sure how that might influence my verdict).