Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Film Review

Here’s another of the films I watched over and over as a teenager. The humour, the action, and of course, the sticking it to the Nazis – it’s got it all.

Indiana (Harrison Ford) finds out that his father, Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery) has gone missing whilst tracking down the Holy Grail for collector Walter Donovan(Julian Glover). The Holy Grail has been Henry’s life’s passion, and luckily his research helps Indiana track him down, but of course the Nazis are about and that doesn’t make anything easy.

Watching it again, I think it is Sean Connery that makes this film; he and Harrison Ford together. I can’t recall another film where he gets to be so funny; I think of him as suave and collected and sometimes angry, but not funny. This film truly got Indiana Jones back on track after the disaster that was Temple of Doom. Even the opening sequence, with River Phoenix as the young Indiana gets his morals back on track – it’s all about getting things in museums, not making a profit. Onya, Indy.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade won an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing and was nominated for Best Sound and Best Music, Original Score.

Thunderball (1965) Film Review

 

A US Airforce jet carrying two nuclear weapons disappears on a training exercise. After much investigation, including sleeping with two women, travelling to various countries and much diving with beautiful women in bikinis, James Bond (Sean Connery) discovers the plane in shark infested waters. After diving amongst the sharks, he discovers the weapons have been moved. What amazes me with all the sharks in this film is how much they will immediately attack everyone who is anywhere near the water (often in really, really terrible, sped up footage), yet they just languidly swim past Bond without even seeing him. Plus, they manage to not at all attack the dead bodies in the plane. Of course, Bond finds the secret hideout by pretending to be one of the henchmen, although when they realise he is not one of them, a very long, slow underwater fight takes place between the baddies in black wetsuits and the goodies in bright orange wetsuits.

It’s ace. This is all that Bond should be and more. Connery is at his handsome best, there is all of the charming misogyny that we have come to expect from Bond. And lots and lots of sharks.

Goldfinger (1964) Film Review

I’m not sure how I’ve managed to get this far in my life without seeing Goldfinger. For that matter, I’ve only seen one of the ‘old’ Bond movies – and by old, I mean pre-Pierce Brosnan.

For the two other people on the planet who have not seen Goldfinger, it’s like most Bond films. There’s a bad guy, Goldfinger, who is obsessed with gold. He’s nasty and has women killed by covering them with gold paint so they asphyxiate. Goldfinger has a particularly nasty henchman, Oddjob, who is a mute Korean guy who throws his bowler hat to kill people. And does some mean Karate chopping. So, Goldfinger has a plan to break into Fort Knox and James Bond must thwart it. He does by *SPOILER ALERT* sleeping with a woman, Pussy Galore. Then, she takes care of the rest. Not totally proactive, James, but whatever gets the job done.

Goldfinger is what Bond should be.  A bit camp, quite ridiculous at times (I mean, Pussy Galore as the name of the Bond girl? Really?)with lots of action and great outfits. Very dated, I can’t see any way that they could make new Bonds like this, but luckily there are about four hundred others that I can make my way through. And as long as Sean Connery has the twinkle in his eye that Daniel Craig was sorely missing in Skyfall, he’ll be my choice for Bond.