One of Lao Che’s trigger-happy sons seizes upon this opportunity to surreptitiously blast Wu Han into the next world. Unfortunately, the entire nightclub is distracted by the sound of popping champagne corks, because apparently nobody in the building has ever heard that particular noise before. Luckily, Wu Han is on the scene disguised as a waiter, and he swoops in with a revolver to back Indy up. Because he is a gangster, Lao Che tries to double-cross Indy. During the sequence, Indy trades a priceless urn containing the remains of Emperor Nurhaci to a Shanghai gangster named Lao Che ( Roy Chiao) for an extremely large diamond. And in 25 years it will still be far superior to almost everything.In case you don’t remember, Wu Han was introduced in the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark released three years later in May 1984. Even 25 years after it first came out it still has the power to captivate the audience and provoke sheer excitement every time. I am giving Raiders 9/10 because I just have a soft spot for Temple of Doom (which is obviously a 10/10 movie). Even if you are hungry for more Indy then there are loads of books and video games out there and then there's the Young Indiana Jones TV show (where are the DVDs?), which are official Indy canon and even starred Ford once (they bounced around in time). It's perfect existing as a trilogy and a sequel that comes traipsing in 18 years after the last is just not going to feel right. There's talk of a fourth movie at the moment, but I personally don't think it will happen and I don't want it to. Better than Star Wars! I'm not sure if Spielberg planned on Raiders starting the Indy franchise but there's already enough in here to establish a whole universe of potential stories and character arcs. And obviously, John William's classic score is one of those themes that just everybody in the world knows (though I prefer his score to Temple of Doom), truly one of the best movie themes ever. The gunfire and punching seem to have a sort of 'Indy' signature sound to them, that I've not heard in any other films. You might think that it's rather geeky to hype up the editing and sound design, but they do stand out from recent action movies. So very far from the ubiquitous PC heroes of todays movies. One little idiosyncrasy I like about Indy is that even though he's a College Professor and Doctor, he has no beef killing people. My fave scene has to be the massive truck chase through Egypt, which is made up of many of its own smaller sequences. Raiders introduced this as a standard that the sequels had to live up to. I do enjoy films that have to increasingly better themselves in every scene. The action comes in a succession of set-pieces. Movies like this are quickly forgotten and one of the reasons Raiders holds up so well is because it works the Covenant story so well into the plot. So many movies these days seem to come up with action first and string them together with some lame plot. The hunt for the Ark of the Covenant is more than just an excuse for action. If you can find some of these then you'll surely notice the similarities. The globe-trotting adventures of Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Duey, Luey and Donald in Carl Bank's Disney comic-books from the 50s came first. Did you know that some of the more iconic, memorable sequences from Raiders owe quite a lot to Duck Tales? What? Surely it's the other way around? Well, no. I will however not go the way of the cliché and mention 1930's serials, Tom Selleck or the sword/gun fight. The only trouble with that is there are zillions of reviews, critiques and dissections of this movie already out there, so what I have to offer will probably not be anything new. There's just something about Indy movies(iconic hero, affection, epic spectacle) that brings you back again and again. Luckily for me and my pal, we got the last 2 tickets available! I can't think of many films that still sell-out 25 years after their original release. My local theatre had a special showing last night and the 400-seat screen completely sold out (as Indy films always do). I've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark numerous times on TV, DVD and big screen.
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