And you all know what that means…the premiere of the new Indiana Jones movie. It’s opening here in Morris at 12:01 am, and Skatje and I will be there…and since it is Morris, the line will be negligible, and we’ll get the best seats in the house, and we’ll have a grand time.
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. It’s so reassuring to know that even an old geezer can be an action hero.
Who else is mobbing the theater tonight?
Let’s hope they don’t expel you from the movie. :)
I’m assisting a grad student this summer with his fieldwork, inplant ecology…the sun gets to you out there, and earlier today, it, my natural dorkiness and the site all came together in a fit of laughing at what is admittedly stupid, but still makes me chuckle. Indiana Jones and the Indiana Dunes
I’m sure it’ll be great. Have fun.
Whaddaya mean? It’s been the 22nd for… looks at watch… 12 hours already. Hello from the future.
Dang, looks like the premiere of Indy 4 was yesterday here in Sydney too. Might wait for the weekend now I think.
So, are the other Indiana Jones movies worth seeing also?
PZ tell us how it was in a blog post when you get home. Do it. I know you want to.
Do it! Seriously. I mean it.
It’s nice to know you actually go to real movies. Hopefully you only get kicked out of the ersatz genre only monkeys can make.
I’m seeing it tomorrow with friends, not worth a midnight showing for me.
As for the other movies, Temple of Doom is the weakest, but all are worth watching.
I live in a five-million-plus metropolitan area. I think I’ll wait a week or so to see the movie…
Mrs. BigDumbChimp is out of town so I’ll be hitting the show solo after work tomorrow afternoon.
I have 8 tickets to Indy for the midnight showing in Plymouth, as I type this.
I’m going on Monday night. It’s on at just about every cinema in Adelaide, including the Chelsea, which is a cool old cinema (with a huge screen) that’s not far from my house.
What are the chances there’ll be a Nazi scientist character holding a copy of a Darwin book?
I do wish a conversation would start up at a science blog about a movie that was actually really good, rather than an expensive comic book*.
* I LOVE comics, and I LOVE good, entertaining movies. IJ2-3-4, much less the Marvel money-burners, do not qualify as either except in the thinnest sense of “good” or “entertaining.”
Still, you are better than Ed Brayton, who has never seen a decent movie, nor would recognise one if it bit him on his large, failed-comedian ass.
I saw it this afternoon at my old theatre I used to work at. Here’s my review:
Intro, with the exception of a couple shots, is utter crap. Middle is pretty entertaining and a good throw back to the old Indy movies. It tricked me because after that it’s all down hill. In fact, three times that. Essentially, 1/4 of the movie is of quality.
I laughed out loud at at least 7 parts for either sheer stupidity or story turns that were downright horrible. It was pathetic.
The crowds will love it. And it will prove one of two things (or both)
1) Nostalgia trumps quality.
2) Cinema has exited from the mainstream.
Well “good” can mean a lot of things. I don’t expect Taxi Driver when i go see IJ, but I’m betting I’ll be entertained, and that is definitely a form of “good”.
I am officially off going to movies pretty much for good. Was heading in that direction anyway for several reasons, but digital projection was the final nail in the coffin.
Looks absolutely horrible.
Dang it, PZ. I planned to stay home tonight and just get some office cleaning and organizing done. Now that I’ve read this, I checked the movie times at the “local” theater, and I find out there’s a midnight showing.
Lessee … 30 mile round trip, gas $4 a gallon, truck gets 28 miles per gallon. So: $9 ticket, $4 gas, 3 hours office time I usually try to bill at $35 an hour …
I can go see that movie for the equivalent of about $118.
Um … Sold!
I’ll come back and give you a True Blue Movie-Lover’s review. (Just so you know what a True Blue Movie-Lover is, I LIKED Catwoman. And Xanadu. Really.)
Hey, this is Harrison Ford. You ever see him in a BAD movie?
@Hank Fox:
I believe Harrison has been in a bad movie. That movie was called Firewall.
12:01, Valley River Center, here in scenic Eugene, Oregon. I have my tickets.
Lucky dog, the earliest showing I have at the only theater with a decent sound system is at 1pm.
Fun! But, alas, I must wait until Saturday so my son and I can go.
Ah, a movie you’ll actually be admitted to… ;)
Or you might have to set up http://www.indianajonesexposed.com/
~Dan
Hank, You’re my best friend, but Harrison Ford as an actor isn’t worth the price of popcorn or a DVD rental, much less your $118 an hour. I’ll wait and then not see the video.
I hope they let you in and you don’t have to blog from the apple store again…
There’s a Ben Stein version of the Indiana Jones movie coming out. Ben Stein travels to Africa where he has to do battle with Dr. Leakey who was hired by the evolutionist Nazis to find the Holy Grail of creationism, undeniable evidence that disproves evolution and proves creationism.
I might as well give away the ending. Stein eventually secures the evidence for creationism and brings it home to America. However, he finds out the museums, universities and government are run by godless evolutionist Nazis as well and take his discovery and hides it in a huge underground vault. There is no way the secular extremists were going to let that piece of evidence get out.
I think I’ll watch the Harrison Ford version where a magical crystal skull is more believable than evidence for creationism.
My sister-in-law had the nerve to go and have her wedding this weekend and I’ll be driving down to participate in all the insan…er…joyousness late tonight.
Looks like my wife and I will be going to the movies next week!
Probably won’t be seeing it tomorrow, but definitely this weekend. The first three affirmed that life is worth living in my youth, so I hope the fourth doesn’t taint my memories.
Let’s hope it does really well, and they can make a fifth:
Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Broken Hip.
Hey, this is Harrison Ford. You ever see him in a BAD movie?
Three words and one number: Force 10 from Navarone.
Bad Harrison Ford movie? “Random Hearts”.
*shudder* Movie Ambien, I’ve heard it described. So apt.
Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Broken Hip.
Is that the one where they’re looking for Indie’s lost Life Alert pendant?
I just came back from the midnight showing here in Halifax (at least one time zone east from anything in the US). It was not a bad movie, as these things go: silly, from the standpoint of any grounding in reality, but vastly entertaining if one ceases thinking about it too hard.
No, you’re thinking of Indiana Jones and the Nursing Home of Doom.
Excellent! I don’t intend to think at all until long after I get home.
OK, that’s it. It’s bad enough that you’re almost out for the semester, and I still have to keep on grinding, but now you’re crowing about midnight shows on a weeknight of a must-see film. Dammit it all, man, have you no sense of decency? I hope they make a sequel and call it ‘Minnesota Myers and the Squid of Creation’, cast you as the star, and right before the film opens it gets stopped with an injunction because the producers forgot to pay for the rights to use an Amy Grant tune.
Enviously…..SH
Who else is mobbing the theater tonight?
Nah, sadly I have a *real* job. I’m kidding!
I have a severe sense of “Meh…” about this movie, and I loved the original trilogy. I even recall liking the Young Indiana Jones series if I ignored the horrible “Old Indy” bookend segments for each episode.
Bad Harrison Ford movie? “Random Hearts”.
Six Days, Seven Nights. It also has David Schwimmer and Ann Heche as the romantic interest.
I hear they use it at Gitmo. Effectively.
Is that the one where they’re looking for Indie’s lost Life Alert pendant?
“I’ve fallen on the asps, and I can’t get up!”
… which is the prequel to Indiana Jones and the Incontinental Divide.
… which is the prequel to Indiana Jones and the Incontinental Divide.
…the marketing for which will include branding packages of Depends with a picture of Harrison Ford.
Eye candy! Adrenal candy! Testicle candy!
Okay, those last two sound like something you might find on a Tierra del Fuegan street vendor’s cart after the latest shipwreck of European missionaries.
But I thought the whole thing was pretty darned good.
There will be those who will say it has little in the way of plotting. They will complain that the ending is a shameless contrivance. They will mutter about the in-jokes, and the lack of character development. They will sneer at the two-dimensional villainess, and the inclusion of the young buck. Brighter ones will notice the foreshadowing cast upon said buck in the final scene, and groan about future movies.
But on the whole, it was great fun, and fairly true to the original rip-romping Saturday-matinee-type action movies. (And besides, movie critics are mostly self-important jackasses.)
I loved it.
Plus, there’s a cool explosion, and a delightful cameo performance by a Frigidaire refrigerator.
Nah, we don’t do the movie theater thing. Why spend $50 on tickets, plus drinks, popcorn, etc. to spend 2 hours crowded in like sardines with obnoxious, smelly, loud people who like to talk on cell phones and kick the back of your seat? I can wait 3 months, buy the DVD and watch it in the comfort of my home in 5.1 Dolby Digital Stereo as many times as I want, I can pause and go to the bathroom without missing anything, and I don’t have to get gouged for popcorn.
Screw theaters. I’m patient.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I could care less. Maybe if they’d done this movie ten years ago, it’d’ve been worth seeing, but today? C’mon… Some ideas die for a reason.
I’d have to drive ±2 hours to Berlin to see the movie in English. I’m considering it…
I work at a big 20 screen theater in Michigan. 5 of our biggest screens were almost sold out. I don’t know why but every time there’s a midnight show, people bring beach balls and smack them around the theater before the movie stars. It’s a lot of fun but being that I’m getting paid, I have to snatch them up before some on looking kid gets beamed in the face. So for about a half hour before show time I’m trying to catch about 30 beach balls, inflatable alligators, lobsters, bananas etc. Does anyone else experience this? Did you bring any beach balls to your Indy show, PZ?
Me and like 20 people from work went and saw it…. and we all agreed that it SUCKS.
I think I realized it at first when whatshisface started swinging from the trees with the monkeys. Then the “transdimentional aliens” flying off in a space ship sealed the deal.
I don’t know if the movie is any different from the others or that we as an audience have just moved on.
#44 – Dude, nice spoiler…
But I agree with you. I just got back from it and I expected some craziness in an Indiana Jones movie, but I couldn’t even really enjoy this one…
Just got back from a midnight showing –
I loved it, but then again, I love anything Indy. I think a lot of people are going to give it the Episode I treatment, since in some regards it did get Lucased up a bit. But that being said, this is far superior to Episode I.
I think people have to understand this film has many roles – to reintroduce the brand, to tie up loose ends with some of the characters, and to set the stage for possible future movies, which Spielberg has already alluded to in interviews.
It’s a popcorn flick, and a good one.
@Hank Fox
I’m with you. Those who are looking for a truly deep story may not remember the first 3 very well. I think when judging a movie the genre and what the filmmakers where aiming at makes a difference. As a tribute to action/adventure serials it succeeded. (Not that genre criticism is an excuse for flabby filmmaking. If the movie was poor placed and badly acted, I wouldn’t have liked it.) It was funny and I was engrossed the whole time. I wasn’t happy with every story choice and I could have used a little more character development. But Speilberg is still the best at telling the moment to moment story as economically as possible.
Not as good as Holy Grail (but what is) and a damn sight better than Temple of Doom. I ate all my popcorn.
@Cephus
Midnight releases are the reason to still go to the movie theater. Everyone in the audience really wants to be there and a few hundred people all paying attention and reacting to the same thing makes the impact more powerful. And because no one has seen it yet the show is more of an event.
Just got back from a midnight showing –
I loved it, but then again, I love anything Indy. I think a lot of people are going to give it the Episode I treatment, since in some regards it did get Lucased up a bit. But that being said, this is far superior to Episode I.
I think people have to understand this film has many roles – to reintroduce the brand, to tie up loose ends with some of the characters, and to set the stage for possible future movies, which Spielberg has already alluded to in interviews.
It’s a popcorn flick, and a good one.
Argh, duplicate post, sorry.
#44, Andrew. Damn. Give it away, why don’t you?
I’ll bet you fart in elevators.
I didn’t ruin it… the aliens did.
I’ve got three small children. The last movie I saw in a cinema was Titanic. And the ending was spoilt by some bastard who told me it sank.
Saw it in Munich last night. A good rollicking, rumbustious mixture of all the catch-word notions going around at the moment. We all enjoyed it…and it meant I could avoid watching the final of the Champions League in Moscow!
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:
It was awesome.
extra awesome.
So awesome that I could no longer control my bowels when Indy was all like “Gimme my hat!”
I’m going to go change my pants now.
Well Rotten TOmatoes certify it fresh… I’m relieved. I guess I’ll try to go see it in a couple weeks when there’ll be less people.
#46: Exactly. I had the privilege of going to a big-screen showing of the first Indiana Jones movie about a year ago — the first time that I had seen it in a long time — and I was struck by how silly it was. Not funny silly, just playing fast and loose with the way that reality functions. These movies are not meant to be taken seriously; they can only be enjoyed with a liberal suspension of disbelief. Once one does that, they are tremendously fun — but not before.
Its Narnia at the drive in this weekend.
Should I wait til Indy is at the drive in or see it in the theater?
it really looks like a good drive in movie…..
Drive-in? Man, that takes me back. One of the best nights of my life was a sci-fi double feature: Flash Gordon followed by The Empire Strikes Back.
Doesn’t get much better than that.
So, are the other Indiana Jones movies worth seeing also?
Yes. If this new one is your first Indy movie, you’ll most likely hate it.
Then Menden Twin, Britomart?
Good grief. I can’t even type “the” at this hour. The Menden Twin?
The snack bar at the Menden Twin is cool. The snacks are much more reasonably priced than at the typical cineplex. It’s got lots of memorabilia inside, such as one of those really old five-cent-coke-in-the-glass-bottle coke machines, and an ancient jukebox full of 45 rpm records. The jukebox takes coins, and works like a charm. :-)
I haven’t seen the new movie, but yeah yeah yeah, you must see Raiders of the Lost Ark first. As for Temple of Doom and Last Crusade, I’m not sure if those are essential (pre-)viewing or not. But Raiders? Ohyeah.
I can not wait to see the new Indy film. I hate NAZIs!
“It’s so reassuring to know that even an old geezer can be an action hero.”
Of course an old geezer can still be an action hero! You’re thinking of old women, whose lumpy bits have all migrated to the wrong places, thus denying them of that youthful tata-magnetism which is a prerequisite for any woman to accomplish anything vaguely action-related. Instead you’ll find them in the mother/grandmother roles, raising young hawt women to be paired up with the old geezer action heroes. /sarcasm
But seriously, I’m excited for the film. ;)
I haven’t seen Raiders of the Lost Ark for years – they’ve been showing them all on tv as a build-up to the film coming out but i didn’t catch it. Saw a bit of Last Crusade though – I love the bit at the end when Jones Sr. explains the name:
Genius.
@#64: I’m pretty sure his lumpy bits migrated too. But fortunately that’s what pants are for: hiding low testicles. :P
Michelle @66:
Touche. ;)
I’m still waiting to see Helen Mirren playing an experienced and knowledgeable professor of biology by day, field biologist extraordinaire/discoverer of ancient mysteries/active saver of people in distress in her off time. Jetting off to foreign lands, dodging bullets, all with a well-timed wisecrack to ease the mood. Know what I mean? ;) ;) ;)
Just me, personally, I think it would be TOTALLY TEH AWESOME.
As for when Kathy Bates could play that role…well, I’ll take the view from the Simpsons:
Lisa: “A gay president for 2084?”
Gay man: “We’re realistic.”
We go to Wellfleet drive in.
I lived on the Cape for many years, and Mother is still there.
The more I read the reviews this looks like a drive in movie. Bring your own popcorn with real butter and beer for the passengers. Better seats and a better sound system than the cineplex and no screaming kids and people getting up and down in the middle of the movie.
Speaking of the Cape, today is the last day for that dunderhead to file an appeal, fingers crossed please everyone. WHOI has spent enough defending themselves.
You know the one I mean, the tigerfish specialist who signed on to do an evolutionarary analyisis and then decided to announce he didnt believe in evolution.
Ah, Wellfleet. I know the upper Cape pretty well (my grandparents lived in East Sandwich for years) and I’ve been down to the elbow and forearm, but did not know there was a drive-in down there. Cool. It’s a shame that I don’t have family down there anymore, now that I’m a college grad and summer’s on its way.
I like it! How about as a double feature along with Sigourney Weaver in Guerillas In The Mist?
Right there with you, Kseniya. ;)
*goes off with blood-shot eyes to stare at more mosquitoes*
Sigh…only an hour and a half….
I remember I saw the first movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, at the old art deco Palms Theater in Sugar Land, Texas, long since razed to the ground. I was in Middle School and it was a blast. I continued to watch it repeatedly on VHS cassette in the years afterward. I think I had the entire script memorized at one point.
Temple of Doom was ok–good, campy fun. Last Crusade was good thanks to the Connery/Ford chemistry, especially surrounding the film’s femme fatale.
I guess the finally had to move on and make the Commies the bad guys, though I’m kind of interested to find out how Indy spent the WW2 years…
I’ll probably see it. I absolutely HATED Temple of Dumb. I liked to Zeppelin in Crusade. (Airship lore is a hobby of mine)
And I really HATE the deliberate use of ‘teh.’