Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Reviews

We're over it. The third and mercifully, final installment in Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's INDIANA JONES series sends the intrepid adventurer out with more bucks than bang. This time Indy (Harrison Ford) has a sidekick in his archaeologist father, Dr. Henry Jones (Sean Connery), a relationship involving not a little Oedipal tension. Together, the Joneses embark on a quest to find the Holy Grail, hoping to keep it from the evil Nazis (who want it because it gives eternal life), and falling afoul of a beautiful spy (Alison Doody) along the way. Proceeding with considerably less blood, energy or danger than either RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK or INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, THE LAST CRUSADE hearkens more purely back to the series's sources--the fairly innocuous weekly cliffhangers of days gone by. The film offers some thrills and chills, but does so with such sanitized filmcraft that it's difficult to get excited about them. Despite strong acting (the slapstick energy between Ford and Connery is wasted), obligatory chases and stunts and splendid art direction, the virtuoso technique evident in every frame remains formulaic--unaccompanied by revelation, epiphany or surprise.