Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Welcome to part two of my trek covering the four Indiana Jones movies! If you missed out my first entry, then please click here to check out my take on Raiders of the Lost Ark. Today I am covering the second film, 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Rope-Bridge Temple of Doom (trailer). Like Raiders, I only had a couple brief memories of the Temple of Doom’s most iconic scenes from my childhood (those being the rope-bridge and gross dinner scenes) and had no idea how it would hold up. I only knew going into this that it was a prequel taking place one year before Raiders in 1935 and that it was darker in tone which resulted in the creation of the PG-13 rating.

I thought there would be some key scenes here with this being a prequel that there would be some foreshadowing to the upcoming events in Raiders, but that is not the case because minus a couple subtle references, Temple completely stands on its own. I was optimistic going into the start of this film because the opening scene is executed wonderfully with a diamond exchange at a club in Shanghai going terribly wrong and Indy (Harrison Ford) going on a swashbuckling chase to procure the diamond and get the hell out of dodge. Indy eventually finds himself in India where the locals send him on a quest to retrieve their beloved Sankara Stones that were taken from them.

I should have known better to get my hopes up because said opening scene also introduces the love interest Willie (Kate Capshaw) and Indy’s sidekick boy wonder, Shorty (Jonathan Ke Quan). This duo accompanies Indy throughout the film, and provides nonstop cringe-worthy comic relief throughout. Maybe their zingers were passable for 1984, but most of their lines are the bad type of cheesy that made Temple ultimately a chore to get through. Willie has several ‘broken nail’ and ‘damsel in distress’ moments and is a polar 180 from the charismatic tomboy Marion of Raiders while Shorty relies on eyebrow-raising high-pitch shouts of ‘Indyyyy’ and countless other low-brow cheap laughs (the dinner scene is absolutely littered with them) throughout.

Director, Steven Spielberg relied on Willie and Shorty’s jokes too much in the opening hour and change because when the film does take a darker tone with some intense torture scenes, it proved difficult to wrap my head around the sudden tone shift because I was conditioned into expecting more ha-ha humor from Shorty & Willie. Things finally pick up in the final 20-ish minutes with a gripping mine-cart chase and the epic dangling rope-bridge of DOOM!!! That scene was likely the catalyst for me being petrified of heights and it taking longer than I care to admit to overcome. The final scenes helped saved Temple of Doom from being a total flop; as a whole it still proves to be a far weaker film when compared to Raiders.

While Raiders had three near hour-long making of features on the BluRay box set bonus disc, Temple only has one Making of special clocking in at 41 minutes. Definitely check it out though because there is a ton of worthwhile factoids to consume in new interviews from the cast and crew. Some key nuggets that stood out were George Lucas & Spielberg stating the main reason for the existence of Temple was because they had to so many stunt scenes out of Raiders that they had enough stunts for the sequel. As much as I disliked Kate Capshaw’s character, her interviews did provide some entertaining stories on learning how to properly scream and how she came to terms filming with snakes on the film. They do explain how they asked the MPAA for creation of a different rating in-between PG & R but that it took the MPAA a few months after Temple hit theaters for it to go into effect with Red Dawn being the first PG-13 film. I want to give props to Harrison Ford for roughing out the filming of this after I discovered in the doc he suffered a herniated disc that lead to him being off the shoot for six weeks!

After watching this I asked a couple friends I recall that are big Indiana Jones fans where they would rank Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and their sentiments echoed mine with it being the weak link of the original trilogy. It is not a total wash because the first 10 minutes and final 20 minutes provide quality entertainment, but the rest in-between is not worth your time whatsoever….at least we got a killer rope-bridge scene.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-5
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Fast & Furious

I did not mean for nearly a year and a half to pass since my last entry covering the Fast and Furious franchise. I apologize for keeping everyone waiting for today’s much anticipated blog covering the fourth film in the franchise, 2009’s Fast & Furious (trailer). I recalled seeing the initial previews for this and remembered being excited about Universal reuniting the four core original cast members, but also thought that it might have been too late because it seemed like at this point both Paul Walker and Vin Diesel’s careers were well into their decline and this was their last gasp for success. As we all know by now, F&F revitalized the franchise and transitioned the films from the underground street racing/car culture series into the blockbuster action/heist movies we embrace them as today.

As I alluded to in my Tokyo Drift review, F&F is where the timeline for the series goes sideways. Director Justin Lin stated in the commentary that even though Han was killed off in Tokyo Drift, he wanted to bring him back since he was a fun character so Lin has F&F take place before Tokyo Drift. Sure enough, Han is here, but only in the opening scene riding with Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew on their latest rig heist which involves a semi with five(!) gas tanker attachments on a stretch of highway that is well over the one kilometer they proclaim (though later films will greatly outdo this exaggeration). The tanker heist goes sideways and leads to Dom abandoning Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and retreating to Panama. After some time passes Dom finds out Letty was murdered, and he comes back to Cali and reunites with his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and FBI agent Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) to track down the Braga gang responsible for Letty’s murder.

I remember the scene introducing O’Conner chasing down a thug for information on his latest target in a high adrenaline foot chase that seemed ripped right out of a Bourne film. Apparently O’Conner has lethal Parkour abilities now that would multiply exponentially in his 2014 film, Brick Mansions. After eight years it was fun seeing O’Conner, Dom and Mia all reunite and within no time their chemistry was clicking with a plethora of callbacks to the first film. Yes, Dom still loves ‘family’ and crosses and O’Conner still loves NOS.

I mentioned in the intro F&F transitions the series from its underground street racing roots into the action/heist genre because the film is about half and half of each. There is a big street race in the middle of the film Dom & O’Conner participate in order to win an open slot in Braga. Lin stated in the commentary GPS tech was a couple years into ubiquity and wanted to different this race by implementing plenty of snazzy GPS CG effects throughout the race. Lin unapologetically went all in with the GPS effects here and while over-the-top, they enhance this race and make it stand out as one of the marquee races in the whole Fast and Furious franchise.

I recall Gal Gadot’s character, Gisele being more prominent in the later films, and completely forgot about her being a support character in F&F. She is working for the head of Braga, Campos (John Ortiz) and the film teases a relationship between Dom and her that I also completely neglected from my initial viewing. I could not help but chuckle at Lin’s comments in the commentary predicting big things coming for the future Wonder Woman.

Two big things I took away from my first viewing of this film nine years ago was that it made GPS seem like the coolest tech out there, and the intense tunnel chase scenes. There are two tunnel chase scenes in F&F, and they both paid off with memorable thrills. If you have the time make sure to check out the extra features that break down how the crew constructed their own makeshift tunnel which enabled them to pull off the insane stunts entirely with practical effects. F&F closes with O’Conner trying to get Dom’s name cleared for helping takedown Braga, only to see Dom still get carted into a bus for lockup…that is until O’Conner goes rogue and pulls up with his own crew to bust Dom off the prison transport bus in one of the best endings of the entire series. I was in disbelief on Lin’s commentary track thoughts on the ending: ‘Yeah, we left it open-ended, we’ll see what happens if folks want to revisit this.’ As box office records and many sequels would later indicate, people went on to revisit the films with aplomb.

I referenced Lin’s commentary track a few times already, and even though it is a solo commentary I highly recommend giving it a listen since it is full on nonstop factoids and anecdotes from the filming. Aside from the commentary there is another hour and a half of extra features. There is a 20-minute short film, Los Bandolerors, that sets the stage for the beginning of F&F, and while it features most of the cast and has a couple little moments referenced in the film, I would not say it is requisite viewing. There are eight extra features with most of them showcasing the cars and stunt work. The two extras I would recommend the most are Getting the Gang Back Together and Races & Chases. The former has the cast reflecting on the past films and how it felt to reunite for this film and the latter is the aforementioned extra that breaks down how the crew made the awesome GPS race and tunnel chases possible. The Pitbull music video for ‘Blanco’ is skip-worthy, but do not skip through the gag reel because it has a killer spoof at the end that left me rolling!

I should mention like the prior films, on this F&F re-watch, I experienced it with the Giant Bomb commentary track where their staff does another commendable job highlighted with Alex’s vast knowledge of the series shepherding Dan’s earnest negligence of it. I enjoyed Fast & Furious much more than I remembered. The latter films upped the ante so much more with their casting and stunts that it made me forget how this film got the movies going in that direction. If you have somehow not seen this installment in the films yet, go out of your way now to correct that wrong!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs
3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-5
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Eric Bischoff: Wrestling's Most Controversial Figure

Eric Bishoff has made the rounds over the years since leaving WWE in 2005 to tell his tales of the business. He wrote a pretty good biography under the ‘WWE Books’ banner in 2006 called Controversy Creates Cash that ranks high up on the wrestler autobiography curve. He has done countless DVD ‘shoot’ and podcast interviews over the years, and he is currently a co-host of the 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff podcast alongside acclaimed wrestling podcaster Conrad Thompson. Needless to say, there are a lot of ways to find out about Eric’s life in wrestling. In 2016, WWE released their official BluRay/DVD with a documentary of Eric’s life and career with the standard array of full-length bonus matches and promos. It is called Eric Bischoff: Wrestling’s Most Controversial Figure (trailer).

First off, shame on WWE for that awful home video cover art. When this video was first announced it showed a serious looking Eric on the cover, but I imagine Vince McMahon must have had one last grudge he was fuming over and went out of his way to find the most smug, arrogant looking headshot of Eric and slapped it on the cover. Worst off is the disc cover art where it is modern-day Eric duct taped and hands tied. I would not put it beneath Vince to be of the mindset of ‘Dammit, if I am going to make money off of Eric we are going to at least make him the most pathetic looking person all over the box and disc artwork!’

Bizarre artwork aside, this is actually a surprisingly respectful and serious documentary about Eric Bischoff. The feature interviews Eric on his ranch in Wyoming which provides a serene backdrop throughout and it is apparent the production crew went out of their way to interview Eric in several different spots on the ranch, including a great closing scene with Eric reflecting on his legacy around a campfire. The 95 minute feature is the perfect length for covering his career. The prerequisite ‘before-wrestling’ part of the doc is handled well with Eric detailing how he bounced between Detroit and the Twin Cities and his early business endeavors in landscaping, modeling and aspiring entrepreneur. I forgot about him making a commercial deal with the AWA to promote his Ninja Star Wars game which was the catalyst to him forming a relationship with Verne & Greg Gagne that eventually lead him to receiving a job in the AWA which paved the way for him landing in WCW.

There are a lot of interviews with family, friends and peers of Eric throughout. Most prominent are Kevin Nash, Diamond Dallas Page, Sonny Onoo, WCW boss Harvey Schiller, business partner and Wonder Years alumnus Jason Hervey and Eric’s wife Loree. Nash and DDP have a lot of insight on Eric’s rise up the ranks in WCW and how he revolutionized Monday nights with WCW Monday Nitro. They and Schiller also have a lot to say about Eric lost control of WCW first with Time Warner/Turner acquisition and eventually all together with the AOL/Time Warner merger. There are also archived past clips of Eric’s detractors stating their side. I have seen countless takes and read just as many perspectives on the rise and fall of WCW, but to see Eric’s side-of-view is still worth seeing as how he ultimately blames backstage politics with the mergers and acquisitions for the fall of WCW and his eventual ousting from the company in 1999.

I dug Eric looking back on his three and a half years as the first RAW General Manager, and there is a nice montage of moments Eric was part of along with interview snippets from Steve Austin and Chris Jericho sharing their memories of Eric being their boss. I was not surprised to see them omit and not even mention Eric’s four years in TNA/Impact. I was thinking there would be a passing reference like in the Dudleyz or Sting’s WWE documentaries, but it was probably for the best that his time there trying to reignite the ‘Monday Night Wars’ with the Hulkster be best forgotten.

One part in the documentary I got a ton out of I always wanted to know more of was Eric’s friendship and business partnership with Jason Hervey. I know the two have been longtime friends and formed a business together, but not much beyond that. Here they have a candid interview with the two breaking down their history and entrepreneurial ambitions and projects they have worked on over the years. Really good stuff here and it shows how Eric is keeping himself busy. It is apparent that Eric is not dwelling on the past and has obviously moved on from his tumultuous days in WCW, especially with that pivotal closing scene with him being introspective around the campfire as a great way to close the documentary.

As with most WWE Home Video releases, the BluRay is packed with bonus content. There is 37 minutes of bonus ‘stories’ aka deleted scenes that were not deemed worthy of the main feature. Highlights include Bishoff’s hunting tales, reflecting on the Turner/Warner merger and Jericho’s memories of going 17 months in WCW without a contract. A couple years ago WWE Network ran a two part Eric Bischoff interview special with JBL that ran for just over 90 minutes combined. It hits a lot of the same bullet points as the documentary, but in a different ‘shoot’ style format with JBL pressing Eric on some of his most controversial decisions. It is highly recommended supplementary material. To finish off the first disc there is another Eric Bischoff feature from WWE Network where Eric counts down and analyzes his top ten most controversial moments.

On the second disc there is nearly four and a half hours of full-length past interviews, promos and matches from Eric’s career across AWA/WCW/WWE. About an hour and a half of those are BluRay exclusives. Some of these extras are followed up with brief, modern-day reflections on that moment/match from Eric. There is a lot of gold in here from when Eric was a junior C-list announcer for the AWA and his early WCW years with him interviewing Sid, Larry Zybysko, Vinnie Vegas, DDP, Vader and attempting to get an interview out of Missy Hyatt in the shower. There is a lot of great content here from his days leading the nWo from 97 and 98. I completely forgot how awesome the sketches with Bischoff firing referee Randy Anderson were and Eric went on in the extras to share how WCW got complaints how some fans thought it was legit. Bishoff’s calling out Vince McMahon to a match at Slamboree ’98 and Vince no-showing the match are both standout moments of the Monday Night War that I was delighted to see make the cut for this compilation.

There is a wide array of his top moments as RAW GM in their entirety, and there quite a few standout spots here I completely forgot about. Eric donning the disguise that fooled everyone as the pastor who ruined Billy & Chuck’s wedding is priceless and must-see. Austin messing with Bischoff at Judgment Day 2003 from their time as co-GMs of RAW is also amazing material. The best moment/match on this second disc is easily ‘The Trial of Eric Bischoff.’ It is 35 minutes of gold where WWE’s style of comedy rarely worked where Vince McMahon presided as the judge to determine if Eric could build a compelling argument to keep his job as RAW GM. After nearly a half hour of off and on witnesses throughout RAW, the episode culminated in one of the best sendoffs of an authoritative figure in WWE history! Amazing work that holds up tremendously today! There are a handful of matches included that Eric participated in such as his much anticipated bout with Larry Zybysko at Starrcade ’97, squaring off against Vince on a 2004 RAW and putting his hair on the line against his nephew Eugene from Taboo Tuesday ’04! Sadly, the times Eric did the honors for Ric Flair at Starrcade '98 along with celebrities Jay Leno and David Arquette in tag matches are not included.

High marks for this collection! Just keep in mind this is Eric’s take on his side of history, so expect a little bit of spin from him on justifying his actions. The documentary covers all the pivotal points of his life and career (sans-TNA/Impact) and there is a treasure trove of extra features to get lost in and relive a ton of great moments from the ‘Monday Night War’ and Eric’s run as RAW-GM. Eric Bischoff: Wrestling’s Most Controversial Figure is a worthy addition to any fan’s video library!

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017