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The Adventures of Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark/The Temple of Doom/The Last Crusade) - Widescreen Customer Reviews (127 - 129 of 140 Reviews)

Surprisingly Incredible
Anyone checking out this box set knows how great these movies are. And everyone has an opinion on which is the best and which is the least of the three. I won't bore anyone with my opinions and just share my thoughts on this new DVD release.

First, there's no way Indiana Jones has looked this great before now! Colors are incredible and vibrant. Shadows and blacks are rich and deep. Props to Lucasfilm for the extensive restoration given to these amazing films.

The sound is equally incredible. The 5.1 digital mix is submersive and dynamic. Well done again, Lucasfilm!

When this box set was first announced, fans were shocked and disappointed at what seemed like a tiny amount of extras. No audio commentaries? No deleted scenes? What was going on? We waited so long for this release! Well, Lucasfilm fooled us all. Unlike other DVD releases that boast so many extras they could be published as a separate book, Indiana Jones lists just a handful of documentaries and featurettes. But what a documentary! This two-hour-plus look inside the movies is SO good you don't really need much else. The featurettes on sound, stunts, and more are great (stuntmen are simply INSANE).

A lot of DVD's give you quantity and ignore quality. Major kudos go to Lucasfilm for giving us some of the best extras I've seen in a long time. Sure, I'd have liked audio commentaries and deleted scenes. (Word on the street is George Lucas asked Spielberg to do commentaries but he repeatedly declined.) But just about all you need to know about these movies are found on the extras included in this set.

Adventure has a name, and it is indeed Indiana Jones. If you haven't picked up this set yet, what could you possibly be waiting for?

Desperately Seeking Indy
Based on Movie and TV serials from the 1930s-50s these films are made with love and imagination. Anytime you put Steven Spielberg and George Lucas together on a project you can expect great things. Add the music of John Williams and the wonderful cast including Harrison Ford and you have three magical movies. To me these and the original Star Wars became instant family classics.

This DVD set is INCREDIBLE. The making of documentaries are fascintating. Little tidbits of additional information like the R2D2 and C3PO hieroglyphs, the glass separating the cobras from the actors, and Harrison Ford hurting himself being ran over by the plane in Raiders makes it very special. The stars, directors, and others that help make the movies tell about how it all came together in a fascinating story. Thats just the making of extras, I can't begin to list everything else. And by the way the picture and sound quality of the DVDs is incredibly sharp and clear.

When I first viewed the first Indiana Jones movie I was captivated. I couldn't wait to see the live cast Indiana Jones show at DisneyWorld. It was incredible with all the stunts and even a plane and the fight scene with the German as the plane rotates with propellers threatening just like the movie.

The Adventures of Indiana Jones set will gather little dust on anyones shelf. The whole family and visiting friends will get hours of entertainment out of them. With all the additional features this set offers it will take either some intense non-stop marathon viewing for a day or several partial days of fun.

Raiders of the Lost Ark broke the mold of adventure movies as Star Wars did for SciFi movies. There had not been anything like the scope it offered and there has not been since. We all have other movies we enjoy in the same genre, but most would agree that this Trilogy offers the best of all others.

It is like taking a dash of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, a sprinkle of Steve McQueen in Great Escape, and a couple of cups of all the wonderful adventure movies of the past and baking the best apple pie movie you have ever tasted with your eyes and ears.

I pre-ordered my set as soon as they were advertised and my wife and I are practically drooling in anticipation. Look around at prices of sets of movies and you will see this is by far the best set for the money even without all the wonderful extras they are including. Not sure what a family member, friend, or even your boss might like for Christmas? Buy this set for them and you will be remembered warmly forever.

Genre Perfection
Saturday-morning serials were, on the whole, awful. Cheaply made, with numbingly unimaginative and repetitive plots, they were filler that encouraged weekly movie attendance. A 15-part "thriller" could be cranked out for $100K to $250K (the total running time was rarely more than 90 minutes), so it easily returned its investment.

The worst thing about them was that, as "cliffhangers," very little actually hung over the cliff. The near-fatal situation the hero found himself in at the end of each episode was revealed at the beginning of the next to be not particularly threatening, as he (or she -- think of Pearl White) had gotten out of the way _before_ the explosion, gun shot, rock fall, car crash, etc, etc.

In one Buster Crabbe serial there's no way he can _possibly_ escape death -- and, indeed, the opening of the next episode is a complete reshoot that allows him an escape! Yet the kids never seemed to learn, and came back week after week. The two Superman serials -- why hasn't Warners reissued them on DVD? -- are well-above-average in this respect, as Supes could save the victim from just about any danger. Not to mention getting into a few tight spots himself.

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" was the Saturday-morning cliffhanger serial millions of kids deserved, but never got. It's the epitome of this genre, and is unlikely ever to be exceeded, let alone equalled. It delivers the real thrills those cheap serials didn't, and remains a hoot, especially when the Nazis get what they so richly deserve at the end.

Opinions on the sequels vary. "Temple of Doom" is a terrific adventure film, but many viewers objected to its dark tone (which was Spielberg's and Lucas's intent -- they didn't want to repeat the first film). Its real problem isn't the violence (it's no more violent than "Raiders," which initially received an R rating for Belloc's head explosion), but its lack of any dramatic substance. It's 95% action -- there's little personal interaction or conflict. (Classic-serial fans will note that most of the "gags" are taken from a Republic serial, "Manhunt of Mystery Island." Which is one of the serials trashed in Firesign Theater's "Hot Shorts." It, too, deserves a DVD issue.)

Anyone who doesn't enjoy "The Last Crusade" is nuts, because we have the great fun of seeing Sean Connery as Indy's father. Connery is that rare combination of a really good actor _and_ a legitimate "movie star," who steals every scene he's in. "Crusade" lacks the startling novelty of "Raiders," but it's the best-plotted of the three films, tightly connecting the Grail search with Indy's and his father's lives.

The transfers are wonderful, especially "Raiders," which has never looked so vivid and rich. Spielberg and Lucas haven't altered the films, not even changing the title card of the first (which now "officially" has the "Indiana Jones and the..." prefix). Nor, alas, have the special effects been redone. You can still see the matte/Rotoscope lines, which are especially noticeable in the "supernatural" effects at the end of "Raiders." Considering the extensive (and sometimes unwelcome) changes Spielberg made to "E. T.", this is surprising.

The Indiana Jones movies are three wonderful excuses for fattening yourself on popcorn. The real stuff, not microwave.

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