Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom remains an ingenious adventure spectacle that showcases one of Hollywood's finest filmmaking teams in vintage form." /> Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - Rotten Tomatoes
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Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

tomatometer

85

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 60
Fresh: 51 | 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.

57

Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 3

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.

audience

80

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 640,197

My Rating

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),

PG, 1 hr. 58 min.

Action & Adventure

Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz

Oct 21, 2003

Paramount Pictures

Cast

All Critics (60) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (56) | Rotten (10) | DVD (36)

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.

January 13, 2010 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's not the darker turn that makes The Temple of Doom uncomfortable at times; it's its mean-spiritedness.

June 10, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comments (4)
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Pic comes on like a sledgehammer, and there's even a taste of vulgarity and senseless excess not apparent in Raiders.

May 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment (1)
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

December 28, 2006 Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The kind of movie where your date is always grabbing your forearm in a viselike grip, as unbearable excitement unfolds on the screen. After the movie is over, you've had a great time but your arm is black-and-blue for a week.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

More gore than the other Indy blockbusters.

January 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

...an obvious step down from its stellar predecessor...

May 26, 2008 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews

[T]he best of the Indiana Jones movies...it's insanely wonderful, in every sense of those words.

May 25, 2008 Full Review Source: LYTRules.com | Comment (1)

It lacks the sense of detail that made Raiders such a treat. It isn't very clever, very funny or very compelling.

May 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | Comments (4)
Kansas City Star

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.

May 21, 2008 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

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.

May 21, 2008 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

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.

May 21, 2008 Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | Comment
CinemaBlend.com

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.

May 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

...makes you wonder if Spielberg and series producer George Lucas might have been going through some sort of drug phase.

May 7, 2008 Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm | Comments (6)
LarsenOnFilm

...they generated most of the excitement this time from a sequence of gross-out gags and several exhilarating stunts. (2008 reissued edition)

May 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

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.

May 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

A breakneck adventure that moves at twice the pace of the original but has only half the creative strength.

May 5, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Fantastically choreographed action sequences and another comely companion for Indy (Capshaw) and gloriously overdone visual devices make up for the shameless lack of plot.

May 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

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.

April 29, 2008 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

See website for more details.

March 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Screen It! | Comment (1)
Screen It!

darker indiana, still grand

February 15, 2008 Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

I've gone round and round in my mind about whether the sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark was good, if not better than the original. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is certainly a very well-crafted movie, but it doesn't have as much repeatability as the other films in the series do. I don't think it's because it's

January 12, 2007
FilmFanatik
Tim Salmons

Super Reviewer

A little off the pace from the first, but still awesome. I liked the cinematography just as much, maybe more, compared to the first. What I didn't like was the amount of time spent on Willie. It seemed a bit excessive, and her screams/voice got annoying REAL fast.

September 15, 2011
Eric Alvarez

Super Reviewer

    1. Willie Scott: Indy, let's get outta here.
    2. Indiana Jones: Yeah, all of us. [refers to all of the enslaved children]
    – Submitted by Garner M (38 days ago)
    1. Short Round: He no nuts, he's crazy!
    – Submitted by Rocky F (3 months ago)
    1. Indiana Jones: You don't believe me, Dr. Jones? You will, Dr. Jones. You will become a true believer. [Indiana and Mola Ram laugh]
    – Submitted by Durgesh S (8 months ago)
    1. Indiana Jones: That wasn't so bad... was it?
    – Submitted by robb m (9 months ago)
    1. Short Round: Hey, lady! You call him Dr. Jones!
    – Submitted by Javis C (9 months ago)

Latest News for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

September 7, 2011:
Watch Barbra Streisand's Lost Temple of Doom Cameo
No, really.

May 19, 2011:
Five Favorite Films with Stuntman Vic Armstrong
His name may not be instantly familiar, but his work most certainly is: over a prolific career, Vic...

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Foreign Titles

  • Indiana Jones und der Tempel des Todes (DE)
  • Indiana Jones et le temple maudit (FR)
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