Forget Star Wars, forget Hulkamania and the Ninja Turtles—for me, growing up in the early ’90s, it was always Indiana Jones. More specifically, Raiders and The Last Crusade on fuzzy VHS, plus a few tattered old comic books. I was truly enthused for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I didn't care TOO much for Crystal Skull, but I am a bit befuddled by the widespread hate for it.
Still, it was so far down the scale from the original trilogy that I'll take a pass on this one unless and until I can stream it for free. Of course, without even making a conscious decision, I guess I have been boycotting the theaters since about 2015 or so. Hollywood, and particularly Disney, had gratuitously put a burr under my saddle too often with their preachiness. Seems only to have magnified since then.
Harrison Ford was appealing as always in Crystal Skull, and I actually thought the infamous fridge nuke scene did a good job of situating the character in a whole new era, but felt pretty much every other aspect of the film was gratingly bad. So much of the texture of the series had been the practical effects making things seem tangible, so the prevalence of unconvincing AI made it look as artificial as the script. Shia LeBeouf was obviously being positioned for some sort of potential spinoff, and simply not cutting it, while Cate Blanchett felt like a contrived and obligatory PC stock villain. The original idea of Indiana Jones and the Saucermen from Mars might have been workable in the early '90s, but not by the Hollywood of 2008. They really should have left their last crusade back in 1989!
Jul 27, 2023·edited Jul 27, 2023Liked by The Ivy Exile
And now Chase is debanking people, and Bank of America is giving the FBI is transaction data without a warrant.
Sam Bankman Fried is getting off, and Hunter Biden has a good shot at it too, and would have totally gotten off already had there not been hearings and whistle blowers.
I have no idea what is going on.
All I know is that I don't buy Bud Light. I haven't been to Disney and am going to Universal now (Yeah J.K. Rowling! She who dares speak names.), cancelled Disney Plus, and am looking for an unwoke credit card. Any suggestions?
I would think maybe with debit cards there might be some tied to regional banks that stay away from politics, but Mastercard/Visa/AmEx are unfortunately prime examples of woke capital, and very hard to avoid.
Careful. You don't have the same $50 liability limits with Debit Cards that you do with the Credit Cards. Maybe get a debit card not linked to anything and only put in $100 or $200, so you know how much liability you have in your debit card.
[Quote] Regardless of the droves of talented people on its payroll, Disney has long since become an evil megacorporation with contempt, or at best indifference, for its customers.[/QUOTE]
I'm so old I can remember the term: "Planned Obsolescence." If memory serves, it referred to a late '50s and '6os business plan adopted by US auto makers.
The idea was that to keep demand high, US cars would be built to last only 5 years, after which the dumb, contemptible, rich consumer would happily buy another US car.
Alas for the automakers, Then There Was Toyota. And Honda. And US car sales suffered deeply. Or so I remember.
Well, I'm happy you liked it - at the matinee price. I never watched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, possibly franchise exhaustion. I did watch the newest edition - how could I not, it was so heavily promoted and I am a fan of the Harrison Ford. But I found it disappointing and full of replay of old themes. Saw it with most of my family, at full price 😱. Only to depart the theater into a howling thunderstorm. Fortunately, my two sons made the dash to retrieve the car and pick the rest of us up.
Much better for Ford was the streaming series, "Shrinking". He is really great in it. Yes, it has its share of modern filmmaking virtue signals. But Ford is really great in it. So is the rest of the cast. I recommend it.
Thank you! I had been really holding out thinking there was no way I was going to watch an out-dated, un-needed, yet another sequel, even though Indy was my childhood crush. 😅 But now, I might go ahead and watch it when I have the time.
Also, 💯% agree with your comments at the end. Some lessons certainly do need to be learned. 🙄
oh thank you for letting me know! I was insanely into Raiders - I think I watched that poor tape every day after school for a month or something. glad it didn't fully suck!
Went to see it as the least bad option locally when the rest of the fam wanted to go to the movies. I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, Indy is old. No, he can't do everything he did before, but he sure did well for an old man! Sure the woman was an attempt at gurl power; didn't really detract much from the movie, IMNSHO. It was a pretty engaging and rollicking ride, with a very touching ending.
I was primed to hate the Mary Sue but found her largely inoffensive, there was only the one especially heroic feat that made me roll my eyes a bit at the "gurl power." For me the ending was a little too nostalgic fan service, but perfectly adequate--I didn't walk out disgusted like the last time.
I wonder if bad PR made them change the ending. I remember seeing plenty of Hollywood rumors that there were frantic reshoots after test screenings bombed.
Or maybe they just got Andored. I.e. Disney actually made something good but their reputation has been so trashed, people assume it’s trash before seeing it
I wouldn't be surprised if there were a bunch of reshoots, $300 million was a lot to spend, but suspect the ending was pretty much as originally conceived because it fit the thematic arc about time. Crystal Skull was just so bad, and then people were so underwhelmed by the new Star Wars, Ghostbusters, etc., that it was a reasonable assumption that Indy 5 would be total trash.
They should definitely have called it a day after The Last Crusade, if you read about the long development and preproduction it's a miracle that turned out as well as it did. The new one isn't a must-see by any means but it did get most of the bad taste out of my mouth from Crystal Skull.
I didn't care TOO much for Crystal Skull, but I am a bit befuddled by the widespread hate for it.
Still, it was so far down the scale from the original trilogy that I'll take a pass on this one unless and until I can stream it for free. Of course, without even making a conscious decision, I guess I have been boycotting the theaters since about 2015 or so. Hollywood, and particularly Disney, had gratuitously put a burr under my saddle too often with their preachiness. Seems only to have magnified since then.
Harrison Ford was appealing as always in Crystal Skull, and I actually thought the infamous fridge nuke scene did a good job of situating the character in a whole new era, but felt pretty much every other aspect of the film was gratingly bad. So much of the texture of the series had been the practical effects making things seem tangible, so the prevalence of unconvincing AI made it look as artificial as the script. Shia LeBeouf was obviously being positioned for some sort of potential spinoff, and simply not cutting it, while Cate Blanchett felt like a contrived and obligatory PC stock villain. The original idea of Indiana Jones and the Saucermen from Mars might have been workable in the early '90s, but not by the Hollywood of 2008. They really should have left their last crusade back in 1989!
And now Chase is debanking people, and Bank of America is giving the FBI is transaction data without a warrant.
Sam Bankman Fried is getting off, and Hunter Biden has a good shot at it too, and would have totally gotten off already had there not been hearings and whistle blowers.
I have no idea what is going on.
All I know is that I don't buy Bud Light. I haven't been to Disney and am going to Universal now (Yeah J.K. Rowling! She who dares speak names.), cancelled Disney Plus, and am looking for an unwoke credit card. Any suggestions?
I would think maybe with debit cards there might be some tied to regional banks that stay away from politics, but Mastercard/Visa/AmEx are unfortunately prime examples of woke capital, and very hard to avoid.
Careful. You don't have the same $50 liability limits with Debit Cards that you do with the Credit Cards. Maybe get a debit card not linked to anything and only put in $100 or $200, so you know how much liability you have in your debit card.
[Quote] Regardless of the droves of talented people on its payroll, Disney has long since become an evil megacorporation with contempt, or at best indifference, for its customers.[/QUOTE]
I'm so old I can remember the term: "Planned Obsolescence." If memory serves, it referred to a late '50s and '6os business plan adopted by US auto makers.
The idea was that to keep demand high, US cars would be built to last only 5 years, after which the dumb, contemptible, rich consumer would happily buy another US car.
Alas for the automakers, Then There Was Toyota. And Honda. And US car sales suffered deeply. Or so I remember.
Well, I'm happy you liked it - at the matinee price. I never watched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, possibly franchise exhaustion. I did watch the newest edition - how could I not, it was so heavily promoted and I am a fan of the Harrison Ford. But I found it disappointing and full of replay of old themes. Saw it with most of my family, at full price 😱. Only to depart the theater into a howling thunderstorm. Fortunately, my two sons made the dash to retrieve the car and pick the rest of us up.
Much better for Ford was the streaming series, "Shrinking". He is really great in it. Yes, it has its share of modern filmmaking virtue signals. But Ford is really great in it. So is the rest of the cast. I recommend it.
Thank you! I had been really holding out thinking there was no way I was going to watch an out-dated, un-needed, yet another sequel, even though Indy was my childhood crush. 😅 But now, I might go ahead and watch it when I have the time.
Also, 💯% agree with your comments at the end. Some lessons certainly do need to be learned. 🙄
oh thank you for letting me know! I was insanely into Raiders - I think I watched that poor tape every day after school for a month or something. glad it didn't fully suck!
Went to see it as the least bad option locally when the rest of the fam wanted to go to the movies. I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, Indy is old. No, he can't do everything he did before, but he sure did well for an old man! Sure the woman was an attempt at gurl power; didn't really detract much from the movie, IMNSHO. It was a pretty engaging and rollicking ride, with a very touching ending.
I was primed to hate the Mary Sue but found her largely inoffensive, there was only the one especially heroic feat that made me roll my eyes a bit at the "gurl power." For me the ending was a little too nostalgic fan service, but perfectly adequate--I didn't walk out disgusted like the last time.
I wonder if bad PR made them change the ending. I remember seeing plenty of Hollywood rumors that there were frantic reshoots after test screenings bombed.
Or maybe they just got Andored. I.e. Disney actually made something good but their reputation has been so trashed, people assume it’s trash before seeing it
I wouldn't be surprised if there were a bunch of reshoots, $300 million was a lot to spend, but suspect the ending was pretty much as originally conceived because it fit the thematic arc about time. Crystal Skull was just so bad, and then people were so underwhelmed by the new Star Wars, Ghostbusters, etc., that it was a reasonable assumption that Indy 5 would be total trash.
They should definitely have called it a day after The Last Crusade, if you read about the long development and preproduction it's a miracle that turned out as well as it did. The new one isn't a must-see by any means but it did get most of the bad taste out of my mouth from Crystal Skull.