After two successful big-budget starring vehicles, we finally get an origin story for Indiana Jones. Of course, that's largely to facilitate the addition of a new supporting character (Sean Connery in a wonderful casting as Indy's long lost father, who we'll get to in just a moment) but that extra layer of nostalgia, wrapped around a property that's deeply nostalgic in the first place, manages to avoid numerous pitfalls and serve as an effective prologue. River Phoenix performs especially well as the young Jones, expertly wearing Harrison Ford's mannerisms throughout the long callback, and somewhere along the way we get a worthwhile genesis for the grown-up version's affinity for leather jackets and fedoras.

Once the story jumps ahead to a more familiar era (if not precisely the present), it's full speed ahead on the hunt for the mythical holy grail, a lifelong obsession for the father and recent fixation of the third reich. Soon reunited, both Jones boys dance through precarious situations and near-misses in the history books, a full battalion of Nazi soldiers nipping at their heels, before drawing close to the prize. Ford and Connery are dynamic together, boiling down a complicated father-son relationship to a series of glares, grins and grunts. They alternate between bickering testily and slapping each other on the back in camaraderie, and I honestly can't say which makes for a more entertaining watch. There's depth, too, a stinging blend of long-simmering resentment and earnest care for one another, which often bubbles up just in time to enhance the plot's heaviest moments.

Naturally, it simply wouldn't be an Indiana Jones movie without big action sets (in which the series somehow manages to one-up itself yet again) or boatloads of witty retorts and punchy one-liners, and those two essential elements combine to give the film a loose, fun-loving quality without compromising any of the more serious moments. All this without going too far over the top, as we saw more than once in the mildly underwhelming Temple of Doom and borderline-disastrous Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's well-written and purposeful, successfully intense and humorous, an in-the-wheelhouse serial-styled adventure that spans several continents before confronting superstition and cracking several dusty, life-threatening riddles on the path to a biblical treasure. Indy probably should've left well-enough alone, because this chapter is essentially impossible to top.

Good watch, could watch again, and can recommend.

While Harrison Ford does a great job as Indiana Jones, it is always good to see Sean Connery get involved, even if he is very passive in the action.

Then there is an unfortunate amount of flashback, but it is better than doing an "Indian Jones: Origin" movie to explain how he attained his stylish attire and phobia of snakes.

This has a quality female companion, an entertaining side character, but we're back to Nazi's again for villains. It almost is just a highlight of the ridiculous lengths that Nazi's went to look for weird resources: the occult ("Hellboy"), artifacts, and investigations into alien contact.

This is a return to quality though, it takes up the more serious atmosphere of the first movie and with that concentrates on a dramatically good action adventure movie.

This is my favorite of the franchise.

Raiders Of The Last Crusade.

Indiana Jones teams up with his father to try and locate the Holy Grail. Something that the Nazis are again particularly interested in themselves.

We didn't know it at the time, but every Indiana Jones fan on the planet presumed that The Last Crusade was to be the final film to feature the intrepid archaeologist. As it turned out, another film would surface in 2008, but casting that aside (as many would like to do), Last Crusade should, and is, judged as the trilogy closer it was meant to be.

In 1988 Steven Spielberg was deep into bringing Rain Man to fruition, all thoughts of Indiana Jones had gone by the wayside with the harshly judged part two, Temple Of Doom. In stepped George Lucas to politely remind Spielberg that they had an agreement to make another Indiana Jones picture, Spielberg no doubt obliged and humble, passed on his Rain Man work to Barry Levinson who promptly bagged himself an Oscar for the film. It can be guessed that Spielberg was probably grouchy around this period, but he needn't have worried, because The Last Crusade provided a much needed hit for not only himself (post Empire Of The Sun), but also Lucas (Willow) and Harrison Ford (Frantic).

I mention the run up to this picture because it explains a lot on why the film is pretty much a retread of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, something that some detractors find unforgivable. Yet Last Crusade is still an immensely enjoyable adventure picture, with Spielberg proving that he was still capable of a popcorn bonanza. Using the Raiders formula and moving away from the dark flourishes of Temple Of Doom, Last Crusade is actually the simplest film of the three, but still it manages, courtesy of a sparkling casting decision, to become the most entertaining of the original trilogy. Is it better than Raiders? Of course not, but it positively rips along with sparky dialogue and an agenda of cliffhanging suspense like the adventure films of yore.

In comes Sean Connery as Dr Jones Senior, and its the picture's trump card, because the magnificent interplay and obvious rapport with Ford (cool as a cucumber) is there for all to see. It's this what drives the film on thru it's more mundane and picture filler sequences, showcasing two top wily professionals with care and consideration to their craft. The casting of Alison Doody as the main female is a poor one, and one only has to look at her subsequent career post Crusade to see she wasn't up to the task here. Bonus comes in the form of the River Phoenix prologue, Phoenix as the young Indiana paves the way for the jaunty path that Crusade takes, whilst simultaneously giving us a nice little back story from which to launch the adventure.

Made for $48 million, the film went on to gross $474,171,806 Worldwide, now that's a lot of people who evidently were happy with Raiders Of The Lost Ark 2! And I gleefully count myself amongst that number. 9/10

It feels very much a retread of _Raiders_. But, that was a great movie, so it's not exactly as if that's a bad plan.

_Final rating:★★★½ - I really liked it. Would strongly recommend you give it your time._