Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 61
Fresh: 52 | Rotten: 9
It may be too "dark" for some, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom remains an ingenious adventure spectacle that showcases one of Hollywood's finest filmmaking teams in vintage form.
Average Rating: 6/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 4
It may be too "dark" for some, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom remains an ingenious adventure spectacle that showcases one of Hollywood's finest filmmaking teams in vintage form.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 640,197
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Movie Info
The second of the George Lucas/Steven Spielberg Indiana Jones epics is set a year or so before the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1984). After a brief brouhaha involving a precious vial and a wild ride down a raging Himalyan river, Indy (Harrison Ford) gets down to the problem at hand: retrieving a precious gem and several kidnapped young boys on behalf of a remote East Indian village. His companions this time around include a dimbulbed, easily frightened nightclub chanteuse (Kate Capshaw),
Cast
-
Harrison Ford
Indiana Jones -
Kate Capshaw
Willie Scott -
Amrish Puri
Mola Ram -
Roshan Seth
Chattar Lal -
Philip Stone
Capt. Blumburtt -
Roy Chiao
Lao Che -
David Yip
Wu Han -
Ric Young
Kao Kan -
Chua Kah Joo
Chen -
Rex Ngui
Maitre d' -
Philip Tann
Chief Henchman -
Dan Aykroyd
Weber -
Pat Roach
Chief guard -
Stany de Silva
Sanju -
Lorraine Doyle
Dancer -
D.R. Nanayakkara
Shaman -
Frank Olegario
Merchant -
Jonathan Ke Quan
Short Round -
Michael Yama
Chinese Copilot -
Moti Makan
Guard -
Akio Mitamura
Chinese Pilot -
Mellan Mitchell
Temple Guard -
Bhasker Patel
Temple Guard
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All Critics (61) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (10) | DVD (37)
Again you will savor the Indiana Jones schizophrenia: by day a bow-tied, bespectacled archaeologist; by night a resourceful swaggerer, whom Ford brings to life as a modern blend of Bogie and the Duke, with just a glint of misfit psychopathy in his eyes.
Top CriticIt's not the darker turn that makes The Temple of Doom uncomfortable at times; it's its mean-spiritedness.
Pic comes on like a sledgehammer, and there's even a taste of vulgarity and senseless excess not apparent in Raiders.
The film betrays no human impulse higher than that of a ten-year-old boy trying to gross out his baby sister by dangling a dead worm in her face.
Set years before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is sillier, darkly violent and a bit dumbed down, but still great fun.
Part of the trouble is that anything clearly does go, including the slender hold on credibility that Raiders managed to maintain.
an unbelievably crass, unpleasant, horrific picture
A necessary package for any fan of the franchise, at least until the folks at Lucasfilm dust off another forgotten making-of feature or, God forbid, green light another Indiana Jones adventure.
More gore, gross-outs than the other Indy blockbusters.
...an obvious step down from its stellar predecessor...
[T]he best of the Indiana Jones movies...it's insanely wonderful, in every sense of those words.
It lacks the sense of detail that made Raiders such a treat. It isn't very clever, very funny or very compelling.
Just like the Thuggees took the magic rocks from a humble Indian village, the producers of this Temple of Doom DVD reissue made off with all the good extras.
The reality is that this is the film that comes closest to reflecting the racism, sexism and jingoism that fuelled most of the serials that originally sparked Spielberg and George Lucas's impressionable young imaginations.
Where the brilliant "Raiders" was an adventure film aimed at the child at heart, "Temple of Doom" is really designed for the kiddie market itself.
If it was a sign of the times for Indiana Jones to take on more of a comic-book aspect, the film's accomodation of darker themes and explicit imagery came as something of a shock to many.
...makes you wonder if Spielberg and series producer George Lucas might have been going through some sort of drug phase.
...they generated most of the excitement this time from a sequence of gross-out gags and several exhilarating stunts. (Blu-ray edition)
While 'The Temple of Doom' is a bit gloomy, puts children in danger, and confines its action primarily to one spot, it's still quite entertaining. (Blu-ray edition)
A breakneck adventure that moves at twice the pace of the original but has only half the creative strength.
Fantastically choreographed action sequences and another comely companion for Indy (Capshaw) and gloriously overdone visual devices make up for the shameless lack of plot.
Though not as thrilling as Raiders of the Lost Ark, the second chapter still has merits, particularly its fast pacing, spectacular opening scene, and visual effects, which won the Oscars in 1984.
Audience Reviews for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Super Reviewer
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- Indiana Jones: (On the bridge) Shorty! (speaks Chinese while Short Round wraps a loop around his wrist)
- Short Round: Hang on, lady. We going for a ride.
- Willie Scott: Oh my god! Oh my god. Oh my god, is he nuts?
- Short Round: He no nuts. He's crazy.
- Indiana Jones: Mola Ram! Prepare to meet Kali, in hell!
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- Willie Scott: There are two dead people out here!
- Indiana Jones: [in the collapsing chamber with Short Round] There's gonna be two dead people in here! Hurry!
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- Willie Scott: Why, you conceited ape.I'm not that easy.
- Indiana Jones: I'm not that easy either.
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- Indiana Jones: Short Round, step on it!
- Short Round: Okey dokey, Dr. Jones. Hold on to your potatoes!
- Willie Scott: For crying out loud, there's a kid driving the car!
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- Mola Ram: Kali Ma...Kali Ma.
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- Indiana Jones: Molo Ram! Prepare to meet Kali...in hell!
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Foreign Titles
- Indiana Jones und der Tempel des Todes (DE)
- Indiana Jones et le temple maudit (FR)
This time around, Indy finds himself narrowly escaping a botched attempt in China to retrieve a precious diamond. He ends up in India, where he is employed by a small town to find a stolen gem as well as a multitude of kidnapped boys. This endeavour is quite unsettling as the truth that Indy uncovers is not only mean-spirited but downright terrifying. Accompanied with a cast of popular Indian actors that add to this film's universal appeal, Temple of Doom is a fun adventure that will disturb and enthrall in equal doses.