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Hook (1991)
Not bad but could have been better
From what I remember I really liked this movie when I was a kid however now after viewing it as an adult while I still really like it I have started to notice that some aspects either don't make a whole lot of sense or are just too over the top corny. Let me start by saying what I did and like the casting is pretty spot on, I love Robin Williams as Pan, Dustin Hoffman is amazing as Hook, Maggie Smith was a perfect choice for Wendy (and wow that makeup job was great), and Bob Hoskins was also great as Smee. The buildup for the first appearance of Hook was suspenseful and when we finally see Hook it is a pretty epic moment (Spielberg really loves to build up the first appearance of something in his films). Also when the movie tries to be funny it's pretty funny, the secondary pirates ("save me daddy", "he's stealing second", "woops"), when Peter first meets Tinkerbell, and the food fight were all pretty hilarious. As well when the movie tries to be dramatic it does work for the most part (Ruffio's death, Moria crying with joy when the kids make it back, the final scene, etc.). Finally John Williams score as always is amazing.
The child acting is hit and miss, I thought the two actors who played Peter's kids were good as was Rufio but some of the other Lost Boys bordered on annoyance.
However towards the end of the movie it goes a little overboard with it's whimsical tone, a perfect example is Hook and Peter's final sword fight, on several occasions it is interrupted for either some non-needed comic relief or some incredibly cheesy dialogue ("I believe in you Peter"). Peter has 3 chances to kill Hook and never does it and I felt that really interrupted the pacing. The sword fight could have been great but instead was meh. I also never really understood Pan's origin subplot, how is a baby afraid of growing up? Why does Peter continue to grow up when he goes to Neverland to not grow up? How does Peter just forget that he was in Neverland and battled Pirates? A lot of this could have been explained, especially when you have a 2.5 hour runtime but the movie just never went into it. And finally I did not like Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell.
So overall it is a good family film, it does for the most part respect the source material but there are some parts where it goes too over the top campy. I feel that if they cut maybe 20 minutes out it probably would have fixed many of the films problems. I would definitely recommend Hook however it does have some problems.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
One of the worst movies I've ever seen
OK, let me start by saying that I loved the Indiana Jones franchise up until this point. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my all time favorite films, I really enjoyed Temple of Doom (not as good as Raiders but still amazing), so I had very high hopes when I saw Last Crusade for the first time as many of my friends said it was the best in the series and I was very excited to see it for the first time and I assumed it was going to be one of the greatest films ever made. Well I was wrong, Last Crusade let me down more than any film I have ever watched. The opening prologue with River Phoenix was a horrible, contrived mess. Indy somehow gets his fear of snakes, his whip, his hat and his scar all in a matter of 10 minutes, River Phoenix while I have not seen any of his other work gave a god awful performance the "this should be in a museum" line makes me cringe every single time. Unfortunately after the opening "1912" sequence it doesn't get any better, Harrison Ford seems bored out of his mind and gives an incredibly dull performance, I didn't care much for him in Return of the Jedi and I don't care for him in this either. The supporting cast doesn't do any better, Alison Doody is a laughably atrocious and bland actress , Denholm Elliot is back however he is so different from how he was in Raiders that he might as well be a completely different character, and oh my god he is a complete moron who has been reduced to comic relief and to me is the "Jar Jar Binks" of the Indiana Jones franchise (yes I realize this came first). Julian Glover was an amazing Bond villain, I loved him in For Your Eyes Only and in his brief appearance in Empire Strikes Back, I don't know what happened here, again he gave an incredibly boring performance, he wasn't the least bit threatening and gave another terrible performance and then there is Sean Connery, one of the greatest actors ever who has basically been reduced to a bumbling idiot.
John Williams score is a complete letdown, one thing that made Temple of Doom so exciting was the music, especially the scene where Indy freed the kids, which gets me pumped up every time. The score of Last Crusade is pretty boring.
The plot is simply a rehash of Raiders, while Temple of Doom was not as good as Raiders I do respect it for trying to do something different. I felt the plot of Return of the Jedi was way too similar to A New Hope and I can't give this one a pass either. However what really disappoints me the most about this film is the tone, yeah it is not dark or gritty anymore like the first two were, it is very campy, childish and silly. There is nothing suspenseful about Last Crusade it is pretty much a comedy, a really bad comedy while I'm at it. Yes the first two had funny moments, but they both had dark, witty humor which worked very well. The comedy in Last Crusade is pre-school humor, my evidence: There is a Mickey Mouse joke in an Indiana Jones film!!! After watching the opening of the Ark and the sacrifice scene in the previous two films I never thought we would have jokes about Mickey Mouse but here we are.
The film is also riddled with plot holes, there is a moment where Indy and his father are stranded in the middle of Nazi Germany and in the very next scene they are in Hatay (present day Turkey) which is at least 1000 miles away with no explanation!
This film disappointed me on every level, the only redeeming quality this film has is yes Walter Donavan's death is kind of cool but it lasts a total of maybe 15 seconds and out of a 2 hour movie that is simply not going to cut it. I cannot watch this film in one sitting, the last time I watched it it took me at least a week to finish because I had to keep turning it off because it was so incredibly cringe worthy. This movie is Batman and Robin level of bad except a film like Batman and Robin is at least the kind of movie you can laugh at and have a good time with, Last Crusade doesn't even rise to that level.
OK obviously I don't recommend this movie, go watch Raiders or Temple of Doom, or even Crystal Skulls (yes I said it). Last Crusade just depresses me as it shows a once great franchise with a lot of potential hit rock bottom. I'd give this a zero out of 10 if I could.