"It tells me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them."
-Dr. Henry Jones Sr.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has joined ranks with Return of the Jedi, The Godfather Part 3, Terminator 3, LOTRs and even Matrix Revolutions to be the finale of a much loved trilogy, but for whatever the reasons they never quite surpass their original creations. They have plenty to offer on their own; in some cases are fine fucking movies! Hell, part three may even be our favorite (I'm talking to you, Jedi! & T3) but are mainly there to remind us why we love the respective franchise in the first place. Indiana Jones is back, but this time he's bring his dad or so those lame promotional taglines of the day hyped. Sean Connery joins the teams as Henry Jones Sr. gets in trouble with his diary on the whereabouts of the Holy Grail, the cup Jesus Christ used at the last supper. To drink from it brings eternal life. Of course this means more Nazi stooges crawl out of the woodwork to satisfy their obsessed Fuhrer who is still searching for long lost religious artifacts in his obsession to gain the ultimate power. There are others chopping at the proverbial bit to find the Grail first. Walter Donovan enlists the help of Indiana Jones, who at first says no and suggests they find the real Grail expert, his father. It is here that Indy discovers his pops is missing and with the Nazis snooping around, the quest for the Grail now becomes personal. To find his father, Indiana Jones must find the Holy Grail. For some, familiarity breeds contempt, but not this time. Although not near as good as its predecessors, TLC touches on something we all can relate to-family. The Connery/Ford stuff is interesting as the two men try to understand each other. Their banter is not laced with bitterness, but with sadness and touches of regret as they not only fight off the Nazis, but deal with their estrangement. For most of the movie their sparring is comical, but by films end it becomes touching and slightly moving. After years of battling they finally understand each other. They finally realize they are exactly alike and both could use some improvement. The films last act is steeped in Indy's need to for once, take a leap of faith and believe. A nice sense of tension is added since he's at heart, a scientist and presumably always has the answers. Filling in the female sidekick role is Alison Doody as Elsa. She's attractive, but is never as interesting as Marion or as funny as Willie, although her character has a nice, if slightly predictable pay-off. Connery adds some nice touches and plenty of panache even though he's only seven years older than Ford, but we believe they are related. Ford is comfortable in his most favorite of roles and plays the part as good as ever. Denholm Elliot returns as Marcus Brody and contributes to some of the films biggest laughs. John-Ryes Davies is excellent as the always sweet-natured Sallah still humming tunes by Gilbert & Sullivan. Julian Glover, makes for a perfectly slimy villain along side Raiders' Toht as another dirty Nazi. Walter Donovan is slightly more realized than the henchmen-cum-stooge Toht, although not nearly as comical. Glover has made a mark previously playing a baddie in another masterpiece with Ford, "The Empire Strikes Back" as Vader's bootlicker, General Veers and Bond's nemesis in "For Your Eyes Only." Here, he is just as effective; a turncoat bastard that makes you cheer out loud when he dies. While the film has a lot of deja vu moments, (searching for a Christian artifact, Nazi bad guys) it offers up plenty of its own excitement. You can never have enough Nazis so they work fine and dandy for me as the main baddies. An appearance by the Fuhrer himself only adds to the fun when he autographs Mien Kampf for Indy. That action of course is perfectly shoot and edited; the tank chase is one of the best moments of the quadrilogy. Alistair MacLean would enjoy the storming of the Nazi castle done by Junior to save his pops and a ride on a Hindenburg is a real hoot. Standing in for the nasty creature role we have rats. Not as threatening as snakes or as creepy as the bugs, but they'll do just fine. The film’s biggest flaw is that some of the optical effects are downright awful. The shots of the Hindenburg look too obvious and the airplane/tank shots are way too slapdash. The reasons for the obvious rush job is that ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) was booked to the gills at the time of production allowing only a few weeks dedicated to optical effects. My other quibble is with the opening starring the late River Phoenix playing a teenage Indy. There's nothing really terrible about the sequence, except Phoenix's stupid haircut takes me out of the film. A late 1980's style did NOT need to be in a period piece! What was wrong with a simple crew cut? With that, I dig the sequence. We learn why Indy has no use for snakes. We get a quick look at his damaged relationship with his pops and where that scar on his chin came from. Not to forget, we see the origins of the whip and hat. All of this topped off with a fun chase on a circus train. John Williams offers up more goodness, but nothing of note really stands out. Some call this a vast improvement over TOD, with its much lighter tone and levity. I say HELL NO, but it's a fine installment just the same. What was for the longest time the end of a fantastic trilogy showed that you can’t keep Indy down which is why I can hardly wait for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”