All Critics (52)
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Top Critics (7)
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Fresh (55)
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Rotten (3)
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DVD (38)
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Raiders of the Lost Ark has it all -- or, anyway, more than enough to transport moviegoers back to the dazzling, thrill-sated matinee idyls of old.
The thrills are fully consumed while you're seeing this movie, and it's totally over when it's over. It's a workout. You feel as if you'd been to the desert digs: at the end your mind is blank, yet you're parched, you're puffing hard -- you want relief.
...a crackerjack fantasy-adventure that shapes its pulp sensibilities and cliff-hanging serial origins into an exhilarating escapist entertainment that will have broad-cased summer audiences in the palm of its hand.
One would think that a collaboration between Steven Spielberg and George Lucas would produce something better than this giggly pastiche of a Republic serial...
This is the kind of movie that, even today, audiences immediately fall in love with. It has all the right ingredients: a smart script, a likable hero, a dash of romance, more than a touch of comedy, and a lot of fast-paced action.
To get to the point immediately, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most deliriously funny, ingenious and stylish American adventure movies ever made.
Breathtakingly efficient, immaculately constructed... This is the ne plus ultra of blockbuster filmmaking.
It is the classic film [by] Lucas, Spielberg...back before they were replaced by automatons put here by aliens.
A thrill ride and a half.
Justifiably one of the most indelible adventure films in cinematic history...
It's the perfect vacation-time movie: not a serious moment in its whole two hours but so crammed with laughter, thrills and cinematic sleight of hand that audiences will be sorry when it's over.
Raiders of the Lost Ark holds up as a spectacle film, spooky funhouse ride and rollicking adventure yarn. Steven Spielberg was, then and now, the finest director of grand-scale Hollywood blockbusters.
Lost Ark holds up for many reasons, not least of which is because of Spielberg's consummate skill as a visual storyteller and his ability to draw charged performances from his actors.
The postmodern heir to North By Northwest...Like any deathless classic, Raiders is a perfect marriage of star and material.
...among that rare breed that have their tongue planted firmly in their cheek but never ridicule the action-adventure style. (2008 reissued edition)
...despite the fast pace, the movie is never frenetic or tiring, just pure, unadulterated fun throughout.
The most purely fun movie ever made.
...lets us indulge in childish thrills without feeling silly about it.
Vastly entertaining, Spielberg's adventure herladed a new breed of Hollywood blockbuster (and event film), a tale that combines classic Hollywood story-telling, playful postmodern sensibility and spectacular stunts presented in rapid-fire pacing.
perhaps the greatest adventure movie of all time
What follows is one breathtaking action sequence after another, each one surpassing the next in thrills.
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