God of War Review

 

 

 

 

Well, its time for another review and this one is NEW (for a change lol!) and is of the acclaimed action game, God of War, which I've not played before up until quite recently and I got it for the PS5. 

So, is this acclaimed game one of the greatest games of all time and lives up to its hype? Well, let's take a look and find out!

And the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!! (BUT HARDLY ANY!!)

STORY

So, a bit about the story which is about an immortal God, Kratos, who at the start of the game lives with his son Atreus in the land of Midgard, long after Krator defeated the Olympian Gods. And Kratos cremates the body of his human wife, Faye and Kratos has an uneasy relationship with Atreus as he is often abrasive with him. 

However not long after, Kratos encounters a stranger, who has godly powers and the two of them fight each other in a protracted battle which ends with Kratos seemingly killing the stranger by snapping his neck. Afterward Kratos tells Atreus (who was hiding at the time under Kratos's orders) that they must leave home and honor his wife's request to scatter her ashes at the highest peak in the nine realms. 

And its from here Kratos and Atreus make a dangerous journey toward the peak and encounter many enemies in their way before they can reach their goal...

THOUGHTS

Well, I have to say that God of War certainly deserves its reputation as one of the greatest video games of all time although I wouldn't quite go that far myself, it is undoubtedly an excellent action game with plenty of great combat, colourful characters and stunning visuals to keep you entertained. The game itself is of course a reboot of the franchise, which started all the way back in the PS2 days, so its great to see its reworking done in such an impressive way.

GAMEPLAY 

As for the gameplay, I will as usual break it down into sections as per usual with my game reviews.

COMBAT

Starting with the combat, the game takes on a 3rd person perspective for the action as we see Kratos and Atreus fight together throughout. In fact quite often you will instruct Atreus to fire his bow at enemies and he can also use magic or lightning arrows but the only problem is Atreus needs time to recharge and use them again. 

Kratos himself will use combos while fighting and his trusty axe (which belonged to his late wife Freya) but he can also use his fists and his shield in tandem when fighting enemies also. Kratos also can use what's known as Spartan rage, which is basically like the beserk mode in Doom where he goes into a rage and powerfully smash his enemies to bits and his health will regenerate while he is in that mode. Kratos's axe can also be infused with magic to give it ice effects that can freeze doors and gates to keep them open. Kratos's axe can also be used like a boomerang to throw at either enemies or at objects in order to move an obstacle or open a door and it will return to him afterward. The axe can also have both light and strong attacks.

XP & UPGRADES

Another key feature of the gameplay are the XP points (or experience points) which will allow Kratos to gain new abilities for his weapons and to learn new skills and combos during combat. XP is usually rewarded by killing enemies, bosses or for completing missions set out by NPC's Kratos will meet throughout the game.You can also do the same for Atreus's bow, which you can upgrade the bow's power as well as the damage of the arrows, not to mention Atreus's abilities to help out a bit in physical combat while Kratos fights enemies.

You can also upgrade Kratos's stats via different ways but one main way of doing it is by purchasing armour, which will have different abilities and upgrades relating to stats such as strength, vitality, defense and luck. The armour when upgraded will offer additional slots to allow for more upgrades to be added also. Kratos can also find items called Idunn apples, which will permanently upgrade Kratos's HP but you need to find three at a time to upgrade it by one level. 

STATS

The game as mentioned above also has key stats that you need to upgrade to improve Kratos's abilities in combat and his chances of survival in general! The stats of the game are Strength, which of course improves the power of Kratos's attacks, Runic, which increases elemental damage of attack. Defense is another which simply reduces the damage taken from attacks. Vitality, which increases the amount of HP that Kratos has and again this can be done via armour sets or the special apples mentioned above. Luck, which increases perk activation as well as gaining XP and hacksilver, which is the currency for the game. And last of all is Cooldown, which reduces the recharge time of runic attacks, summons and talismans. 

PUZZLES 

Throughout the game, you will also encounter a number of puzzles that need to be solved at different stages which needs to be done in order to progress the game. These puzzles can range from straight forward to being deeply frustrating and annoying to try and figure out! And if you are crap at puzzles like me, then I'd suggest looking up how to solve them on Youtube lol! Some of the puzzles are optional of course depending on what you are doing e.g. a side mission for one of the NPC's.

SIDE MISSIONS 

You can also perform a number of side missions as mentioned above for some of the NPC's in the game, who want you to collect something for them or find out information and for which you will receive a reward from them. Again the side missions are a useful way of gaining new items as well being able to upgrade your stats and gain extra XP and hacksilver. In fact I'd recommend doing the side missions for just that as it will help boost your stats and give you valuable skills and XP that can help with your combat as you progress in the game.

FAST TRAVEL

And lastly there is the fast travel system where Kratos and Atreus can travel between the different realms in the game via the use of magic doors, which are discovered throughout the game. And you can revisit these areas to do optional missions and gather items and it makes the fast travel very useful if you want to return to an area.  

GRAPHICS 

As for the graphics, the game looks simply superb as the environments are filled with rich detail and the game is also wonderfully colourful and vivid looking, which is a welcome contrast to the colour palette of some of the games we might see today. The character models are also impressive with Kratos cutting an imposing figure and Atreus a more diminutive one and the other NPC's are also impressively brought to life. The attention to details also e.g. in the character's costumes is also great and worth of note as they are often quite intricate and on the PS5 they look mighty impressive. So, overall visually God of War is a real treat on the PS5 and even more so on the PC, which has a greater host of options for gamers to tweak.

VOICE ACTING (Warning: this section might contain spoilers!)

As for the voice acting, the cast are all excellent and provide fine performances and the game is filled with interesting and amusing characters too.

Christopher Judge first of all is excellent as Kratos, the stern and cold God who chooses to live as a normal man (or as normal as can be given the size and strength of him!) who has an uneasy relationship with his son, Atreus at first but they eventually bond more as the story progresses. And Judge has some amusing moments of dialogue here and there even if Kratos is very serious as a character, he continually refers to Atreus as "boy" and how he requires for him to "be silent" a lot lol! Mind you Atreus does do a lot of yakking, so I can see why it might annoy Kratos! 

WARNING: SPOILER IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!!!

Sunny Suljic is also very good in his role as Atreus, Kratos's son, who is unaware of who he really is as Kratos keeps from him that he too is a God and not a normal human. Sonny has his share of dialogue as Atreus talks an awful lot throughout the game and there are times where he can be a bit annoying as a character as he yaks on so much but he is ultimately still likeable and a great help to Kratos in combat as well solving puzzles. 

Jeremy Davies also does very well as the Stranger, who threatens and fights Kratos early on in the game and of course he later reappears where we find out his real name is Baldur. Baldur's character however despite being villainous also manages later on to be sympathetic as he lives a cursed life of sorts and looks for a way to change it and I won't say more than that for now on it.

Danielle Bisutti is excellent too as Freya, the witch who helps Kratos and Atreus throughout the game with different missions and she later reveals a few secrets of her own that have a dramatic impact on the story (again won't say what they are!). 

Alastair Duncan is great too in his role as Mimir and he often steals the show with some of the best dialogue in the game. Mimir himself in the game is an all-knowing type of character, who is trapped in a tree and wishes for Kratos to cut his head off, which Kratos duly does and they take it to Freya, so they can bring him back to life (much to Freya's disdain as we find out she doesn't like him!) and from Mirmir helps Kratos and Atreus on their journey.

And last of all are Robert Craighead and Adam J Harrington as Brok and Sindri respectively, two blacksmiths, who regularly help out Kratos and Atreus by upgrading their weapons as well as carrying out side missions for them. And both actors provide some amusing dialogue for their characters as Brok is arrogant and brash and Sindri is more of a wimp and very squeamish at the sight of blood or even dirt! 

MUSIC 

As for the music score Bear McReary provides an excellent score, which is emotional and also engaging to listen to and fits the game perfectly well. And the standouts moments of the score include the opening scene where we see Kratos sadly chop down a tree in preparing for his wife's cremation. McReary would later go on to score the follow up game, God of War: Ragnarock, which also won best score at the Game of the Year awards. 

FLAWS

As for flaws...yes God of War does have some.

For starters I think one of the issues of the game is to do with its reliance on puzzles at key moments and they can be a real pain in the ass to solve in order to progress. One such example is of course where Kratos is trapped and rising water gradually drowns him unless you tell Atreus how to move a series of levers to release him in time and of course it took me quite a few goes to get it right! So, the puzzles can definitely be quite frustrating in the game. 

I also felt that some of the side missions could be a bit annoying or rather trying to find key items such as Iduun apples that will allow Kratos's HP to grow permanently to be a real pain also. This is especially annoying as I was often disatisfieid with the amount of HP Kratos had until later on in the game, which I upgraded via the runic slots on his armour pieces. 

Another issue is to do with the difficulty level of the game, as on the balanced mode it is actually very hard to get through and I found myself frequently dying on a level that matches the Dark Souls games. Thankfully though you can lower the difficulty to an easy level that makes getting through the game more manageable. However, it does have to be said the game does pose quite a challenge to get through if you want to do it on normal mode never hard mode! 

I also found the shaky camerawork of the game a bit distracting at times during the cut scenes as it felt like they overdid it a bit too much and I was in an episode of 24 or NYPD Blue instead of a video game at these moments! However, you can scale back or even turn off the camera shake in the options menu, which is a relief to anyone who might feel the effects of it.  

And last of all is to do with the inclusion of the profanity in the game, especially from the character Brok, who says the f word quite a few times throughout the game. And for me this just felt unnecessary and excessive for what I felt is more like a family orientated game than an adult one but Brok's swearing did spoil it a little bit for me as his swearing really wasn't needed and doesn't add anything to the game. Plus this is a game set in Norse mythology, so I can't really imagine having characters saying "Right, assholes let's kick some f***ing ass!" to be appropriate to the setting and this is something that would continue in the sequel, GOW: Ragnarok.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, God of War is an excellent action adventure game, which features some great combat, boss fights, engaging characters and a fine music score. The game also has some superb visuals that are filled with great levels of detail from the environments down to the details of the character's outfits. There are some issues of course such as the puzzles being annoying to deal with and the game's uneven difficulty as well as the inclusion of some pointless profanity (i.e. Brok's f bombs!). However that all aside, this is an excellent game and well worth checking out  if you haven't yet and I will certainly check out God of War Ragnarock (once the prices come down for it!).

So, I will rate God of War:

9 out of 10

So, that's it for now and I will be back next month with more reviews.

Until then bye for now!

Boyz n the Hood Review "We all gotta go sometime!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, its time for another review and this one is a revisit of sorts but is more a rework of one of my oldest posts from this blog and its of the drama film, Boyz n the Hood starring Cuba Gooding Jr and was released back in 1991 to much acclaim. 

So, after 32 years let's see how the film fairs...

And the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So, the film begins in 1984 in South Central LA, where the main character Tre Styles (as a child played by Desi Arnez Hines II) a 10 year old boy who gets into a fight in school, and he is sent home by his teacher.  The teacher calls Tre's mother, Reva (Angela Bassett) who tells her that he is an intelligent boy, but lacks respect towards his classmates and has a bad temper.  Reva tells the teacher that she plans on taking Tre to live with his father, Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne) to learn lessons on life and responsibility.  The day Tre arrives at Furious's house, a burglar breaks in at night, but Furious scares him off by shooting a 357. Magnum he owns. The cops show up and one of them, Coffey (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson) shows disdain for the black criminal element and says its a shame Furious didn't kill him as it would be "one less nigga on the streets to worry about" much to Furious's disgust.

The next day Tre meets up with his neighbourhood friends, Darrin "Doughboy" Baker and his half brother, Ricky.  The three of them go with their friend, Little Chris for a walk, where they soon find a dead body in the grass.  On finding the body a nearby gang approaches them, and one young aggressive gang member, Rock, asks for Ricky's baseball (which was given to him by his father (now divorced from his mother) who reluctantly gives him the ball.  

Angry at his brother's gullible and naive nature, Doughboy demands Rock give Ricky's ball back, but the young gangbanger slaps and kicks him to the ground.  Eventually one of the other gang members throws the ball back to Ricky, when he sees his sadness when the ball taken away.  After returning home from a fishing trip with Furious, Tre sees Doughboy and Little Chris being lead away by police officers, as they were arrested for stealing from a local store.  

Seven years later in 1991,  a "welcome home" party is being held for Doughboy (Ice Cube) by the Baker family.  By this time, Doughboy has just being released from prison, and has lost a lot of weight from when we see him as a child, and he plays dominos with his friends, Chris (Redge Green), now in a wheelchair, and Dookie (Dedrick D. Gorbet) and Monster.  Ricky now 17 years old, plays baseball for his high school and does really well in his team, and he also has a girlfriend Shanice (Alysia Rodgers) as well as a young baby son.  Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr) also 17 years old at this time, has a girlfriend, Brandi (Tyra Ferrell) whom he has a rather tense relationship with.  After the party, Tre takes home some food from the party for Tre, and on the way he is nearly accosted by a gang of Bloods, who point a shotgun at him, but they laugh at him as he stands his ground and drive off.  After this life carries on in the neighbourhood.

One night Ricky is paid a visit by a man from USC (University of Southern California) as he hopes to gain a scholarship to get into the University, but he must take an SAT test and score 700 or over in order to be eligible.  On the day of the SAT test, Tre and Ricky pay a visit to Furious at his work, where he takes them on a drive out to Compton and gives them a talk on "gentrification" and how outside companies want to bring the property value of the area down, and in the hope of the poor residents will be forced to leave their property, where after the property value will go up and companies can make a profit.  Furious also talks of why there is a liquor store and a gunstore on every corner in their communities, and its because they want us to kill ourselves, and of the young locals that gather around Furious asks them "to think about their future". 

After this Tre and Ricky catch up with Doughboy and the others at a street race gathering on Crenshaw, where Ricky is provoked by the Blood gang leader, Ferris (Raymond Turner).  Doughboy steps in and defends Ricky, showing him his gun, the Blood gang back down, but soon Ferris scares them off by firing his uzi, as people flee.  Tre and Ricky are soon pulled over by two police officers and one of them, is the cop earlier in the film, Coffey, who pulls a gun on Tre to scare him, but let's him go.  Tre goes back to Brandi's house and breaks down in tears, frustrated at his situation, but Brandi comforts him and they have sex for the first time.  

The next day however things take place in the hood for Tre, Doughboy, Furious and Ricky that will have a drastic change on their lives.....  

THOUGHTS 

Boyz n the hood was similar in tone to Spike Lee's Do the right thing, although that was more about racial tension between ethnic races in New York City, this film was far more an examination on how peoples lives were affected by the crime and gang life in South Central LA.  And John Singleton perfectly captures that dramatic tone of what life must have been like in LA at that time in those neighbourhoods where danger lurked anywhere nearby, and any person could end up being shot by a gang member for no reason or even as simple a one as a single insult.  

Clearly this was a very personal film for Singleton and growing up in those neighbourhoods his emotions and feelings are made quite clear, particularly in the scene where you see Tre break down in tears in sheer anger and frustration at all the crime, the gangs and shit in the neighbourhood, and how he was so desperate to escape it all.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains strong language and spoilers!) 

Performance wise the film is top notch with a very solid cast all giving their best.

Starting with Cuba Gooding Jr who gives an excellent performance as Tre Styles, who through his father, becomes a responsible and good-natured young guy, despite the somewhat petty games he plays with his girlfriend Brandi.  

And Cuba has his share of great scenes in the film that include the one where Tre picks up a wandering baby off the streets just before a car hits it and he goes over to the mother's house, who is a crack addict. And Tre hands her the baby and says "Hey keep your baby off the streets" and the mother says "You got any blow? I'll suck your dick!" and "Just keep her off the streets! And change her diapiers, she smells almost as bad as you!". 

Another good scene is when Tre tells Furious a story about him having sex with a good looking girl he met on the streets (which later turns out to be a lie). And in the scene Tre asks Furious to shave his hair a bit and as he sits down, Furious asks him "Something wrong?" and Tre says "Nope". Furious starts to shave Tre's fade again but Tre looks up at him and Furious turns off the shaver and says "What's the problem?" and Tre says "You gettin old pop" and Furious says "I'm getting old?! No, I'm getting brother! YOU gettin old! I'm but 17 years older than you. I mean there are guys my age, who just slobs, man! Bellies out to here!". Tre laughs and says "And that's what you gonna be! A big old guy with a great jellybelly! And you gonna be looking at my kids, your grandkids and saying "Where's daddy?!" and Furious laughs. However Furious then looks worried and says "Wait a minute what's all this talk about grandkids! You're using the rubbers I gave you right?! I'm not ready to be a grand daddy yet! I'm just not ready for all that yet!". 

Furious then asks Tre "You got some pussy yet?" and he sniffs Tre and asks "You got some pussy yet?" and he tells Tre to sit down. So, Tre tells his story about the hot girl he met and how they had sex at her house but the girl's grandmother overhears them and goes after Tre with a kitchen knife and he jumps out her window and runs off. So, Tre says "Well that's the last I ever saw of her. I mean call her once in a while and they keep saying "No, she can't come to the phone right now". Furious then asks "What did you use?" and Tre says "What do you mean? I used the number she gave me" and Furious gives him a look and Tre realises what he meant "Don't be sweatin, I didn't use nothing, she said she was on the pill".

Tre picks up Ricky in his car and Ricky slams the door shut much to Tre's annoyance. So, Tre berates him "Yo, man what the fuck is wrong with you?!" and Ricky asks "What?" and Tre says "You're slammin my door like some gorilla on a football field!"  and Ricky asks "Damn, nigger! What's wrong with you?!" and Tre says "Nothing!" and they drive off. 

And in the scene Tre tells Ricky that he still a virgin as he lied to his dad about it and Ricky asks him "Well you ain't a virgin are you?! Is you?" and Tre awkwardly "Well, technically speaking I haven't...I mean I've fingered some honies and sucked on some titties but I ain't ever stuck it in anybody". And Ricky asks "How come?" and Tre says "You really wanna know?" and Ricky says "Yeah, I asked you didn't I?" and Tre says "I was afraid" and Ricky bursts out laughing. Ricky then settles down and asks Tre "What are you afraid of, man?" and Tre tells him "Of being a daddy" and Ricky says "Oh!" and nods in understanding.

Another good scene from Cuba is his powerful moment where he breaks down in tears infront of Brandi after he was held at gunpoint by the racist police officer, Coffey. So, in the scene Tre walks into Brandi's house and she asks him "What's wrong?" and Tre says flatly "Nothing" and he walks around and becomes emotional. And Tre angrily says "I'm tired of this shit!" and he berates the two cops that stopped him "Those two motherfuckers! I'm tired of shit! I'm just so fucking tired of shit!" and he starts raging and punching the air with fury "Fucking fuck you! COME ON AT ME YOU, MOTHERFUCKERS! I'LL KILL ALL YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" and he finally breaks down crying and Bradi comforts him. And after Tre calms down, he laughs and Brandi says "What's so funny?" and Tre says "I never thought I'd be crying in front of a female" and Brandi tells him "You can cry in front of me". 

Another good scene is where Tre and Ricky walk to a store to get milk and Ricky tells Tre that he wants to go into the army and Tre tries to talk him out of it. So, Tre says "Once you put that uniform on you belong to THEM! My dad said a black man has NO place in a white man's army!". Ricky however says "Look, man I got a kid. I wanna do something with my life. I wanna be somebody!". 

And last of all is the final scene where Tre talks to Doughboy about getting revenge over Ferris for killing Ricky. And Tree asks Doughboy "Ya'll get them?" and Doughboy gives him a look and Tre says to himself "Yeah". Doughboy then laments over Ricky's death and tells him he might be next and then says "I ain't got no brother" and then "Gotta go, cos". And before Doughboy goes, Tre says to him "Hey Dough" and Doughboy turns and says "What's up?" and Tre says "You've still got one brother left, man" and Doughboy hugs him and says "Thanks man, later G".

Ice Cube is also great as Doughboy, and he get's pretty much all the best lines in the film where he spouts out his own crude and profane philosophies on life.

And Ice Cube's notable scenes include his first one where a homecoming party is held for Doughboy and he plays a game of dominoes with his friends and he slams down a piece and says "Domino, motherfucker! How about that?!". And Tre says hello to him and asks Doughboy "Damn, man! How did you get so big?!" and Doughboy grins and says "Been working out, man, pumping iron, three hots and a cot. Not much else to do in the motherfuckin pen except read and write to my girl" and Dookie asks him "You were reading?" and Doughboy says to him "Yeah, I can read motherfucker! I ain't no criminal".  

Another good scene is where Doughboy and his friends all put in their tuppence on where to find good looking girls and Little Chris states his theory on it. So, Dookie suggests "Crenshaw" and Doughboy says "Street races on Florence" and Little Chris say "Naw nigga, you all way off! I'll give you a hint, everybody been there" and Doughboy asks "Where, nigga? Spit it out!" and Little Chris says "Church". And the group all mock him and Doughboy says "Nigga please! No way anyone goin to church to meet no bitches. I oughta roll your ass off this porch for sayin that shit!".

Then there is the funny scene where Doughboy and his friends ride up to Crenshaw to hang out where loads of other young ones are (I am old!). And in the scene as Doughboy parks, he looks around and says "Goddamn there are alot of motherfuckers here tonight!" and Little Chris "Nigga don't be saying the lord's name in vein" and Doughboy says annoyed "What? Shut up man!". Little Chris then asks Dookie "Yo man, you believe in God?" and Dookie says "I dunno, I guess. I mean why else would we have the moon and the stars and shit?". And as Doughboy butts in, Little Chris says "Hey, this is A and B conversation and you can C your way out of it" and Doughboy says to him "Well then you can C your way outta my ride and C your crippled ass walk all the way home!". 

Doughboy throws in his thoughts on God being female when he girlfriend says "You tell me this nigga, what if God was a she?". Doughboy tells her "I read about this shit in the pen. I read this book right that talks about God and respect and it said if God was a bitch, there would be no bombs, no guns, no war, because these things ain't in a bitch's nature!".  Doughboy's girlfriend then asks him "Why when you refer to a female you always have to say bitch, hootchie or ho?" and Doughboy grabs her and says "Cos that's what you are" and she pushes him away and says "Nigga, fuck you!".

And then there is the scene where Doughboy pushes Ricky around and goads him into fighting him after asking him if he will go to the store and Doughboy refuses. So, as Ricky says to Doughboy "Fuck you man" Doughboy says to him "Fuck me?! Don't fuck me, fuck her, that's why you got a baby in there" and Ricky says "Get outta my face, man". And Doughboy then pushes Ricky off the porch and says "You know you a punk man! Little momma's boy!" and Ricky pushes him back and Doughboy punches him and they start wrestling with each on the ground and their mother comes out and stops it and hits Doughboy who says to her "What you hit me for?! Why hit me?!". 

And last of all is the final scene where Doughboy joins Tre who sits outside his home eating some snacks in the morning. So, Doughboy says to Tre "I know why you got out the car last night. You shouldn't have been in it in the first place. You don't want that shit to come back to haunt you". And he continues sadly and says "I watching TV this morning. I haven't been up this early in a long time. I was watching all this foreign shit about living in a violent world. And they either don't show, don't know or don't care about what's goin on in the hood". Tre then asks "Did ya'll get em?" and Doughboy gives him a look and says nothing and then he says "Don't know how I feel about either, man. Shit goes on all the time you know Next thing you know somebody might gonna smoke me. Don't matter though, we all gotta go sometime".   

Laurence Fishburne is terrific also as Furious, Tre's dad who is well educated and does his best to take Tre under his wing and teach him how to be responsible and be a man.

And Fishburne has plenty of good scenes that include the one where the younger Tre is lifting weights along with Furious who benches weights. So, Tre asks him "Say dad, can I ask you something? What have you gotta do round here?" and Furious says "I don't have to do anything except pay the bills, put food on the table and put clothes on your back, you hear?". Furious then says "You know you might think I'm being hard on you right now but I'm not, what I'm trying to do is to teach you how to be responsible. And you're little friends, they don't have anybody to tell them how to do that, they don't. And you're gonna see how they end up too" and Furious then says "You're a prince, you know that Tre? You're the prince and I am the king. But right now, the king's tellin the prince to go to bed, so get yourself together". 

Then there is the scene where after Furious scares off a burglar by firing his gun at him (leaving two big holes in his door!) he waits for the police. Furious then later sits out on the front porch with Tre and says to him "Someone must have been praying for that fool because I swear I was aiming at his head" and Tre says "Should have blown it off" and Furious says "Come on don't say that. Would just been contributing to killing another brother". And as the cops show up, the racist self hating cop Coffey asks "Did you get him?" and Furious says "Well if I got he'd be right out here" and Coffey says "Too bad you didn't get him, that would be one less nigger we have to worry about". Furious then tells Tre to go back inside and Furious shakes his head in disgust at Coffey who asks "Something wrong?" and Furious says "Something wrong? Yeah there's something wrong. Its just too bad you don't know what it is...brother!" and he walks off.   

Then there there is the great scene where Furious is visited by Tre and Ricky at his office and Furious says to them "I'm real surprised to see you" and Tre says "Well we thought we'd drop by and see how business is doing?" and Furious says "Well, there's always business just not always here". Ricky then asks "So what do you, Furious. You try and help get people money for their homes or what?" and Furious says to him "There is no "or what" that's what I do, Rick. You boys wanna see something?" and Tre asks "Do we have a choice?" and Furious takes off his glasses and says "No". 

And in the next scene they drive into Compton and get out and Furious takes them over to a billboard sign and they both nervously approach him as they are scared of being in Compton. So, Furious says to them "You all know what that is?" and they both says "Billboard" and Furious annoyed asks "What you Amos and Andy?! You Step and him Fetchit?! I'm talking about he message. What it stands for. It's called gentrification. It's what happens when the property value of a certain area is brought down. You listening? You bring the property value down. They can buy the land at a lower price, then they move all the people out, raise the property value and sell it at a profit. Now, what we need to do is keep everything in our neighborhood, everything - black. Black owned with black money. Just like the Jews, the Italians, the Mexicans and the Koreans do". 

Furious as he speaks, gains the attention of the local gangs and an older man who listen intently on what he has to say. Furious then asks "Why do you think there is a gun store on almost every corner in this community?" and the Old Man asks "Why?" and Furious says "I'll tell you why? For the same reason there is a liquor store in every corner in the black community. Why? Because they want us to kill ourselves. The best way you can hurt people is by taking away their ability to reproduce ourselves. Who's dying on these streets every night?" and the Old man points to the gang members and Furious says "Ya'll. Young brothers like yourselves". And a gang member says "What am I supposed to do? Some guy tryin to smoke me? I'll shoot the motherfucker before he shoots me first" and Tre warns him "You're doing exactly what they want you to do. You have to think about your future young brother".

And last of all is the great scene where after Ricky is murdered by Ferris's gang, Tre storms back into his home and loads Furious's gun and makes to go out with Doughboy but Furious stops him. So, Furious says "Oh, you bad, now, huh? You bad. You gotta shoot somebody now, huh? Well, here I am. Come on, shoot me. You bad, right? Look, I'm sorry about your friend. My heart goes out to his family, but that's their problem. You my son. You my problem. I want you to give me the gun". Tre doesn't move and says nothing so Furious then says "I see. You want to end up like little Chris in a wheelchair? Right? No, no, you want to end up like Doughboy, huh? No? Give me the motherfucking gun, Tre!". Tre finally hands over the gun and breaks down in tears as Furious hugs him and Furious says "You're my only son and I'm not gonna lose you to no bullshit, you hear?". 

Morris Chestnut also gives a fine performance as the young, naive and trusting Ricky, who is a promising young baseball high school star on the rise, with a bright future ahead of him with only tragic consequences ahead of him. 

And Chestnut has some good scenes that include the one where Ricky meets with a counselor from UCLA about going to college. So, the counselor says to Ricky "Have you thought about what you might do if you don't make it into the NFL? Its just a fact, it does happen" and Ricky says "Yeah I heard that. Well, I was thinking maybe doing business, helping out with my friend Tre. Plus, I like computers. Maybe I could do something with that. What do you think?" and counselor smiles warmly and tells him "Young brother, you can do whatever you put your mind to" and Ricky smiles back. Then we see Ricky's baby boy run naked infront of them and Ricky's girlfriend grabs him and smiles and says "Sorry, I'm just giving him a bath" and she picks him up. And the Counselor asks Ricky "Is that your little brother?" and Ricky says "No, he's my son" and the Counselor looks on surprised. 

Another good scene is after Ricky and Tre go to meet with Furious who takes them out to Compton and tells them about the property scams and gentrification and the two of them drive enroute to meet up with Doughboy. And Ricky says to Tre "Man, Furious is deep! Was he a preacher?" and Tre says "No, he was no preacher, he just reads a lot" and Ricky "I wish my brother heard that, man. Would have done that nigga some good". Tre then asks "Where is he?" and Ricky says "Where else man? Up on Crenshaw with all the rest of them fools!" and Tre says "Let's go" and Ricky says "Cool!".

And then there is the scene after that where at Crenshaw, Tre and Ricky meet up with Doughboy who tells them what they've been talking about. However at this point, Ferris, the leader of the Bloods gang, knocks into Ricky without looking as he walks past and Ricky shouts "Hey man! What's wrong with you?!" and Ferris turns around and stares at him and angrily says "Fuck you lookin at, nigga?!" and Ricky shouts back "I'm still trying to find out, nigga!".

And last of all is the scene where Ricky having watched an ad for joining the army tells Tre that he wants to join up. So, Ricky says to Tre "Look fuck all that shit, right? I'm going in the fuckin army?" and Tre surprised asks "You're gonna do what?! Man, you're a damn fool!". Ricky then says "Plus working with computers and stuff, they can give me money for college". Tre warns Ricky "Listen, you, you sound like the damn commercial. Man, they don't tell, is that you don't belong to you no more. You belong to them! The Government! Like a slave or something". Ricky however insists "Look, I've got my son to think about. I wanna do something with my life, I wanna be somebody". 

Angela Bassett also gives an excellent performance as Reva, Tre's mother, and she has a funny scene with him Tre when she calls him up, and Tre is on the lines to his girlfriend Brandi, but he thinks he is still talking to Brandi and says "So, you gonna let me give you the skins or what???" and Reva says sharply "Tre, this is your mother!" and Tre embarrassed leaps up and says "Oh, I'm sorry momma!". And Reva says to Tre "Who dis? What kind of way is that to answer the phone. I want to speak to your father" and Tre says to Brandi on the other land "Brandi, I'm gonna call you back".   

And lastly there is the scene where Reva meets with her ex-husband Furious in a restaurant where they discuss Tre's future and living with her. So, in the scene Furious tells Reva "Look, I think its Tre's decision, I mean he's a man now. Look I'm gonna go and get cigarettes" but Reva stops him and says "Sit down" and Furious says "What?" and Reva says "I said sit your ass down before I raise my voice and make a fool out of both of us!". Reva then goes on to give Furious some credit for bringing up their son and she says "What you've done is no different to what mothers have done from the beginning of time its just a shame more brothers don't do the same, but don't think that makes you special you maybe cute but not special!".

Tyra Ferrell also is pretty good in her role as Brandi, Tre's girlfriend, who has a rather tense relationship with him as Tre is itching to have sex with her but she isn't ready as it goes against her upbringing. 

And I will mention a couple of her scenes that include the one where they argue and Brandi says "Why the silent treatment?! You haven't talked to me in five days! You tell your father you're not at home then you take the phone off the hook!" and Tre says "Well, I've been busy!". Brandi the angrily asks "What did I do that was so bad that you had to stop talking to me?!" and Tre says "You know what you did, see you gotta get with the program" and Brandi says "I told you about that, it goes against my morals! I'm Catholic!" and Tre frustrated says "Yeah but catholics girls are meant to be one of the biggest hootchies!". 

Tre then tries to reason with Brandi about having sex and tells her "Look, you want to wait until you get married and I say I am the one that wants to marry you. So it don't make any difference when we do it, because we still gonna get married, right?". Brandi however tells Tre "Yeah but I'm goin to college before I marry and there's no guarantee I'm gonna marry you!".    

And last of all is the scene where Tre comes over to Brandi's house after the cop holds a gun to his head and Brandi let's him and says "Hi, I thought something happened to you. I'm tired of hearing all this shooting all the time" and she looks at Tre and asks "What's wrong?" and Tre says "Nothing". However he then rants about being tired of the violence and punches the air and breaks down in tears and Brandi comforts him. And Tre calms down and smiles and Brandi asks him "What's so funny?" and Tre says "I never thought I'd be crying infront of a female" and Brandi says "You can cry infront of me". 

Regina King, who went on to do quite well for herself in movies after this (notably in Jerry Maguire, Enemy of the States to name a couple) makes a notable impression here as well, and she provides some funny moments, as Shalika, Doughboy's girlfriend.  

And King's notable scenes include the one where at Doughboy's homecoming party, the barbacue food is served and the guys all barge to the front past the girls and Shalika says "Sorry ass niggas!". So, Tre notices this and says "Why do you all act like gentlemen and let the ladies eat first?!". And Doughboy says "Yeah, ya'll act like you've never been to a barbecue before, let the ladies eat. Hos gotta eat too" and Shalika says "Wait a minute, nigga, I ain't no ho" and he says "oh, I'm sorry bitch!".  

And lastly there is the scene where Doughboy and the others at Crenshaw and they talk about religion and God being a man. However, Shalika then says "You tell me this, nigga. How do you know that God was a "he". He could be a she!". Doughboy then says he read about religion in the pen and that God isn't a bitch because if they were then there would no wars or violence as they aren't in a bitch's nature. And Shalika annoyed asks "Why is it every time you talk about a female you say bitch, a ho or a hootchie?" and Doughboy says "Cos that's what your are" and she hits him and says "Nigga, fuck you!". 

Dedrick D Gobert as Dookie, despite the fact he wasn't an actor, also gives an amusing performance, one of Doughboy's doped up gang members.  Gobert in real life was later killed in 1994 as a result of an argument during a drag race where he defended his girlfriend and he was shot dead.  

Gobert also provides some of the film's amusing moments especially during the homecoming party scene where he is duped into thinking that he can get AIDS from having oral sex with junkies. So, Dookie says "I  let them suck my dick. But I don't fuck them". And Doughboy's other gang member says "Stupid motherfucker, you know you can get AIDS from letting them suck your dick too?" and Doughboy proving a point says "Thank you". Dookie then says "Look but I ain't sick and skinny and shit" and after a beat he says "No, but can you really catch that shit from letting them suck on your dick???" and Doughboy replies "Mark!" (meaning he is basically a sucker, or an easy target for being wound up).

And then there is the scene where at Crenshaw, Little Chris asks Dookie "Do you believe in God?" and Doughboy asks "Why the fuck y'all get so religi-fied lately?" and Little Chris tells him "This is A and B conversation and you see you're way outta of it". And Dookie says "Look, man, do I believe in God? Yeah, I guess I do. How else can you have the sun, moon and stars and shit?!".

And last of all is Raymond Turner who does a good job as Ferris, the leader of the Bloods gang who guns for Doughboy's crew. 

And Turner's main scene is where Ferris and his gang hang out at a burger joint and eat some good outside later that night after they shot Ricky. 

So, Ferris jokes with his gang as one of them asks him about his long hair "Hey man, when are you gonna cut your hair? You look like 1983" and Ferris says "I ain't gonna cut my hair. I'm like Samson, my strength is in the my head!". One of the gang asks Ferris "We going home to see your girl?" and Ferris says "No, I'm goin to see MY girl, you going home with this punk". However Doughboy having finally caught up with Ferris at this point parks his car nearby the joint and Ferris spots them and says "Hey check that motherfucker out!". 

And at this point, Doughboy's revs his car up and Ferris shouts "Shit!" and they make a run for it, only for one of D's gang, Monster to gun them down as they do a drive-by on Ferris and his gang who all fall down hit. So after, Doughboy gets out the car to finish them off as he shoots one of the gang members still crawling in the back and then moves onto Ferris who is badly wounded and crawls away. Doughboy however then kicks him in the ass and Ferris shouts "FUCK YOU MAN! FUCK YOU!" and Doughboy points his gun at him and says "Turn your punk ass over!!". So, Ferris turns over and we see he has been hit bad in his side and he says "I didn't do it, man! I didn't pull the fuckin trigger!" and he pleads with D and says "Come on,  man!" but then sees there is no point and defiantly shouts "WELL FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" and Doughboy finishes him off with two shots.

DIRECTOR 

Moving on the direction, John Singleton does a great job here with the film, which he also wrote the script for and its clearly a very personal film and its a film where he had an all black film crew working with him. Singleton also paces the film perfectly and get's some great performances from his cast overall as well having written a great script with some powerful dialogue and very well drawn characters. Singleton himself later sadly died from a stroke in 2019 only aged 51.  

MUSIC 

As for the film's music score it was written by Stanley Clarke and its a pretty good overall and is quite atmospheric at times with its use of saxophone but also has its moments of trendy early 90's sounding music but does have a strong jazz influence to it also. Clark himself is a bassist in a jazz band and a member of one of the first jazz fusion bands, Return to Forever.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may have some spoilers!) 

So, does Boyz n the Hood have any flaws? Well, yeah it does have some minor ones.

And for starers one of thing that kind of niggled me a little bit were some of the cheesy early 90s pop songs and synth tracks they use in the background in some shots, particularly when Ricky puts on the video of his baseball game. These songs really do date the film rather badly in that respect as do I guess the fashions of the film with e.g. Tre's bright yellow shirt with the big black spot on it!

Howeve for me maybe the biggest flaw, if you want to call it that is in Furious's age, as he says he went to fight in the Vietnam war, however if you look at how old he is in the film, in 1984 he is 27, and of course he's 34 in 1991.  Now given his age from that, he would have been born in 1957, and the Vietnam war ended in 1975, which would have meant he would have probably been or was about to turn 18 when it ended.  

But apparently the age a person could join the military at to go to Vietnam at that point was generally 18 years of age.  So for me I think that Furious wouldn't have been old enough to have been in the Vietnam war, and that Singleton might have gotten the timeline wrong for Furious's age.  But then again what do I know????  But its just a thought I've always had about the film.  

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP   

So in summing up, Boyz n the Hood still remains a great film and one with a very powerful message and tells an all too real story about life in South Central L.A. where gangland murders are so common it makes life even difficult to step outside without getting killed. The cast also give powerful performances and there are quite a few standouts particularly in Cuba Gooding Je, Laurence Fishburne and Ice Cube, former NWA rap star. John Singleton's direction and writing are also both superb and he goes a great job here on his directorial debut. And if you haven't this film yet, I'd definitely check it out.

So, I will rate Boyz n the Hood:

9 out of 10 

So, that's it for this one and I will see you soon for another post hopefully before the end of the month.

Until then its bye for now! 

Uncharted - The Lost Legacy Review (Revisited)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, my second post of the year will cover a game I previously reviewed and have just finished replaying on the PS5 which is Uncharted - The Lost Legacy featuring the character of Chloe Frazer who was previously a supporting character in the previous games, who teams with Nadine Ross, who also featured previously in Uncharted 4.

And I just got finished playing the remastered version for the PS5, so figured I would give the game another update and see how it fairs 6 years on...

And a bit of the story is coming up so...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD (BUT NOT MANY!) 

STORY

So, instead of Nathan Drake, the story instead follows two women, a treasure hunter, Chloe Frazer (voiced by Claudia Black) who also enlists the help of ex-mercenary, Nadine Ross (voiced by Laura Bailey) to find the legendary tusk of Ganesh.  Chloe with the help of a young girl, Meenu, who's father is in the Indian army, get past an insurgent group and she meets up with Nadine.  The two of them together then sneak into the office of the insurgent leader, Asav (Usman Ally) who is also after the tusk in an effort to rally India into a civil war.  Chloe and Nadine also manage to steal a map and a disk that is a key of sorts before they finally manage evade Asav's men.

The map leads the two women into the Western Ghats in India where they start their hunt for the tusk and encounter plenty of dangers along the way....

THOUGHTS

As a follow-up to the highly acclaimed, Uncharted - The Lost Legacy is a very enjoyable game and even with the absence of Nathan Drake here, the game works very well thanks in part to the two lead characters of Chloe and Nadine, as the two of them work well together and have a nice chemistry.  And the fact that there are two female leads for a change adds a refreshing dynamic to the Uncharted series and a welcome change in itself.

GAMEPLAY

As for the gameplay, its pretty much the same as the previous Uncharted games with a third person perspective with the usual moves and Chloe being your main playable character.  And Chloe pretty much has the same level of ability that Nathan Drake has as she is a great climber and her moves are more or less identical as she can run, jump, swim, climb aswell as perform other actions such as driving vehicles.  Chloe can also use a rope to swing from trees to reach platforms and other areas (again similar to Nate in Uncharted 4).

COMBAT 

Combat wise, the game is also very much the same as the other games in the series, where Chloe can use both weapons and melee attacks when fighting against enemies.  There are also a large number of different weapons available in the game, which Chloe can pick up as she goes along as she kills her enemies.  The different weapons include handguns (pistols and revolvers), shotguns, rifles, rocket launchers as well as grenades.  Chloe can also perform stealth attacks, as she sneaks up on her enemies and breaks their necks (yeah she even manages to do that with the bigger guys!).

AI CO-OP 

As for the game's AI starting with Nadine, she will be able to help out Chloe as the go on through the adventure by also taking down enemies aswell as helping with certain sections of the game that might involve opening sealed doors (Nadine at some point will use Chloe's jeep to break open sealed doors).  As for the enemy AI, they will react to certain situations, especially as Chloe and Nadine sneak around, there will be a detection meter that goes from white, yellow to eventually red when they are detected.

LOCK PICKING 

Another new feature of the game is lock picking where Chloe can use a lock pick to open various crates that can be found around the world or even to open doors. This is especially useful for gaining new weapons and explosives from crates but also plays its part in the story of the game at times too and the process itself isn't too difficult. 

INVENTORY 

And last of all is the inventory system, where Chloe can access her mobile phone to take pictures of the scenery at certain points, which she can also scroll through.  Chloe from the inventory can also access her map, which she will use at certain points to scribble down entries for new destinations as she gathers information from different places. 

GRAPHICS, VOICE ACTING AND MUSIC

As for the game's graphics....well similar to Uncharted 4, they are simply stunning as the environments in the game are just gorgeous to look at and richly detailed from the temples, to the trees, to the rocks, to the mud ridden terrain not to mention the weather.  The character models are also all excellent as both Chloe and Nadine look great (particularly Chloe!) although they are not quite lifelike, they aren't entirely far off either!  And the graphics look even better in the remastered PS5 version with improved detail, lighting and shadow effects. 

As for the voice acting, again the performances are excellent as Claudia Black and Laura Bailey are both great in their respective roles as Chloe and Nadine and they work well together as a team and they share a natural chemistry also.  Claudia Black as Chloe, has the more flamboyant of the two characters as Chloe is quite witty and enjoys bantering with her co-workers (a bit like Nate does!) whereas Nadine is a bit more serious but she too has some good lines (especially when she refers to looking up a certain type of catapult on Wikipedia!). Nadine can be a bit of a pain and whiny in the game it does have to be said but she does at least lighten up a bit as the story progresses.   

Troy Baker also later appears in the game as Sam Drake (Nate's brother, who appeared in Uncharted 4) and he is once again great in the role and the game actually even gets better when Sam appears as the banter between the three characters at from this point on is great.  And its clear from this point on that there is no love lost between Nadine and Sam (which you would understand if you played Uncharted 4) and you really need to in order understand a bit of the game). Baker also gets plenty of funny lines especially the one where Sam mocks one of the shoreline leaders for his "mullet" which even Nadine laughs at.   

Usman Ally last of all does a fine job as the main villain, Asav, who is desperately after the Tusk and tries to have Chloe and Nadine killed at every turn and his real intentions for the Tusk are revealed near the end of the game.  

And last of all the music score by Henry Jackman is also very good and is quite similar to the score that features in Uncharted 4 and it is more than suitable for the tone of the game and it has plenty of good sections.  The score is also both adventurous and atmospheric and even though it is a bit samey at times to Uncharted 4, its a still a good one.

FLAWS

As for flaws...well yes OK, The Lost Legacy isn't quite perfect.

And to kick off, the first thing I would have to say about the game's flaws is basically that it really doesn't offer much new over the previous games, particularly Uncharted 4, as the gameplay is practically identical.  The only real new inclusion here is the ability for Chloe to take pictures of the vistas and that's probably about it (well that and the two female leads in the game).  But that aside it is pretty formulaic as a game but with a formula as good as the one in the Uncharted series, there isn't too much to complain about here.

Another issue is to do with the gameplay physics as there are certain scenes where Chloe should basically be dead from certain injuries or falls (although she is more likely die from falling than get shot!). As an example, Chloe in certain action sequences, can appear to take on a fair bit of gunfire without actually dying and this is quite remarkable in itself!  Then there is another sequence in the game where Chloe has to evade a series of traps where giant mechanical guards take swipes at Chloe with giant axes.  And if Chloe gets hit, she takes damage but she still manages to survive it but in reality she would have been dead with one strike and most likely to be sliced in half!

I also find it a bit incredible that Chloe can posses the same level of strength (or appear to at any rate!) as Nate does in the series, as she can appear to break men's necks with great ease (even if they are a big guy!) which is something I don't quite buy!  However when you look at Nadine's physique, she is certainly a bit more muscly than Chole, so I can buy her taking down a guy with a neck break but not so much Chloe.

And further to that, I have to say from what I've read the instant neck snap thing in games and movies really is a myth and there is no way someone can have their neck broken that easily. In fact I had read an online post on a forum where a medical student suggested it would be very difficult to break someone's neck and also you are more likely to just give them whiplash (and piss them off!). 

I also found it a bit strange how Chloe keeps having her hair in her face and getting into her eyes and not at any moment does the game have her push her hair back from her eyes, which would have been a good detail but they just left it alone. This is a minor gripe of course but its still something they could have added in even in the cut scenes. 

The game also has a lack of helpful visual cues or hints for when you might be lost and the only marker you do get is for the chapters where Chloe and Nadine look for their jeep. The game does have the option to switch on hints but they don't appear until after a few minutes, which is not much use! The game also could have done with showing the outline of enemies in a similar way to how the Tomb Raider reboot games does making it a bit easier to see your enemies around you.

And lasty I found some of the game's puzzles also a bit annoying and tedious at times particularly the ones in the later chapters as there is one in chapter 5 that will have you tearing your hair out trying to suss it!  But puzzles and Uncharted have always gone hand in hand but I myself have never been a fan of puzzles (and little patience for them either!) so for me it was always the part of any adventure I like least.   

Anyway that's it for the flaws!

SUM UP

So, in summing up, Uncharted - The Lost Legacy is a very enjoyable spin-off game in the Uncharted series, which features plenty of great action and platforming as well as two great female characters in Chloe and Nadine, who work well together in the game and features a welcome return of Sam Drake.  

It could be argued of course that the game doesn't really offer anything new over Uncharted 4 but its still a very worthy and entertaining follow-up which is worth playing and if you are a fan of the Uncharted series then you won't be a disappointed.

So, I will rate The Lost Legacy:

8 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post at some point or other.

Until then bye the now! 

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Review (revisited) "You call this archaeology???!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I'd like to start this first post of 2023 to wish you all a Happy New Year and this post will be yet another revisitation (again I know!) of a previous one (which was a revisitation too!) and the subject of it will be the third film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So, it will be the usual expanding on bits of the previous review here and there and I will also add in my rating (which wasn't there before). 

So, with that said let's take a look at this action thriller 34 years on from its release...

And the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

STORY

So, the film begins in 1912 when Indy was just a teenager (played by the late River Phoenix).  Indy is on a boy scout trip with his class in Utah, where they break off into pairs look around the mountains.  Indy goes into one of the caves and finds some robbers who are digging for artifacts and they find a cross that belonged to Coronado, a historic Spanish explorer.  Indy, believing its an important artifact that belongs in a museum, nabs the cross while the robbers aren't looking, and he flees as the robbers chase him.

Indy during the chase, makes his way onto a circus train, and after a close quarters fight with the robbers, he manages to escape with the cross (courtesy of a magic trap door) and runs home.  Once Indy get's back home, the robbers call the local sheriff who comes around and forces him to give the cross back.  The leader of the robbers, who dresses similar to how Indy dresses in the future, is impressed with his grit, and gives him his fedora.

The film the cuts to 1938 where Indy is on a ship fighting to get back the Coronado cross from its acquired owner (the man whom it was given to back in 1912 credited only as "Panama Hat" in the film and played by Paul Maxwell).  In amid a fight, the ship is blown up and Indy escapes with the cross.  Indy makes it back to his college in America and gives Marcus (Denholm Elliot) the cross to place in his museum.

As Indy leaves the college he is approached by some men who take him to meet an antiques collector, Walter Donovan, who tells him that he is on a quest to find the holy grail, and that Indy's father, Henry Jones Sr (Sean Connery) who was helping them with their research, has gone missing.  Indy checks out his dad's home, but doesn't find him, but he remembers that he was sent a parcel, delivered to his office, which he opens and finds his dad's diary on the Holy Grail.

Indy then agrees to go to Venice with Marcus to meet up with Henry's Austrian colleague, Dr Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody).  They go to a library where Henry was last seen, and Indy discovers from the clues in his father's diary that the tomb of one of the knights of the holy crusade is buried underneath the library.

Indy and Elsa go underneath the library into the catacombs and eventually find the tomb that Indy spoke of, and inside there is the skeleton remains of the knight, who has a shield, which Indy uses his crayon paper rubbing of the shield (which is only half complete) to complete the shield image.  However as he does this, some men come down into the catacombs and set fire to the water (which is laced with petroleum).

Indy and Elsa managed to escape the catacombs to the surface and are given chase by the men on a speedboat, Indy eventually manages to fight one of them and forces him to answer why they are trying to kill him.  The man, Kazim, tells Indy that he is a member of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, who are determined to keep the secret of the holy grail safe, Indy also asks if he knows where his father is being held, which the man eventually obliges, telling him that Henry is being held in a castle on the Austrian border.

Indy travels to the castle with Elsa, he manages to get inside and finds Henry (by crashing into his room using his whip to swing in through the windows!) who tells him that he sent his diary back to him so that it wouldn't fall into the Nazis hands, but he is appalled when he realises that Indy brought it with him.  However Indy is taken in by a ruse set by Elsa who appears to be held hostage by a German colonel, Ernst Vogel (Michael Byrne), but its revealed she is working with the Nazis as is Donovan, who are basically there to get the grail diary.

Indy and Henry are soon tied up and left in the castle, while Donovan and Elsa leave.  In an effort to escape the castle, Henry tries to use Indy's lighter to burn through the ropes, but he accidentally drops it, and it sets fire to the floor and soon the whole room.  Indy and Henry eventually escape the castle and are given chase by the Nazis on a motorbike, but they evade them, afterward Henry explains to Indy that they need to get the diary back as it has vital information to help them find the Grail.  Marcus meanwhile, who is hopelessly lost in Turkey, meets up with Sallah (John Ryhs Davies), and he has the grail map, which gives instructions to its location, but the Nazis soon capture Marcus.

Indy and Henry then go to Berlin to get the diary back, which Indy (dressed as a Nazi officer) takes them Elsa.  As they try to leave Germany in a zeppelin, but they are soon intercepted by the Nazis again, and  Indy and Henry escape in a small plane attached underneath the Zeppelin.  After a dogfight with Nazi planes, Indy and Henry managed to land the plane and thwart the other plane, by Henry shooing a lot of birds with his umbrella, who fly right into the path of plane, causing the pilot to crash it into a mountain.

Soon after Indy and Henry travel to Hatay and rejoin with Sallah, as they go after Marcus, who is being held captive by the Nazis.  Indy again soon gets involved in a fight in the desert with a Nazi convoy, as he takes on the Nazis in a tank (where Marcus is being held), and he rescues Marcus and Henry, and dives off the tank just before it goes over a cliff, killing Vogel.

The men eventually make their final journey to the canyon of the crescent moon, the location of the grail.  Indy, Henry, Marcus and Sallah enter the temple and find Donovan is using volunteers to try and get pass the traps set to reach the grail, but they are all killed.  Indy and the others are soon captured by Donovan's men, and Donovan forces Indy to get the grail, by shooting Henry in the chest.  Indy now must use his father's grail diary in order to traverse the traps ahead of him in order to reach the grail and try and save his dad's life....

THOUGHTS

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for me is easily the second best film in the Indiana Jones adventures (after Raiders) and after the breakneck pace and the gruesomeness of the Temple of Doom, the Last Crusade thankfully gets back to the tone of Raiders.  Its also great that we are reunited with Marcus and Sallah from Raiders as well, who both help to keep the tone from the original as well.

Last Crusade is also very funny and witty in various scenes, as the screenplay was written by Jeffrey Boam (who wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2 that same year) there plenty of amusing lines of dialogue throughout.  Its also a nice touch that we also get to see a bit of Indy's past, when we see him in the past as a young teenager, who makes the gutsy decision to steal the Coronado cross and try and escape from the group of robbers who dug it up in the caves. Boam a popular screenwriter himself sadly later died in 2000 from heart failure.

However one of the things that also helps make Last Crusade work so well is the relationship between Indy and his father, Henry, as Indy grew up, Henry was so embroiled his work over the Holy Grail, that he had little or no time for his son at all.  And there is a bitter tone from Indy, who clearly is not happy with the memories he had of his father in the past, and always refers to him in a negative light when he talks about him to Marcus, Elsa or anyone else in the film.  But at the same time when he meets up with his dad again, he does still stand to the attention of his dad, when Henry says something, Indy says "Yes, sir!".

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section will contain spoilers!)

Performance wise, the Last Crusade definitely has alot to offer and the cast are all on great form.

Starting with Harrison Ford, who is great once more as Indiana Jones and by this time he had grown so comfortably into the part, and he has share of highlights and good scenes in the film.

And to start off there is the scene where Indy along with Marcus, meets with Elsa in Venice and they go off to a library to find clues that would lead to the tomb of a knight from the Holy crusades in the quest to find the holy grail.  So, in the scene Indy works out that the tomb is actually somewhere within the library itself.

So, Indy says to Elsa "Dad wasn't looking for a book about the knight's tomb, he was looking for the tomb itself. Don't you get it? The tomb is somewhere in the library. You said yourself it used to be a church!".  So, Indy points out the Roman numerals on the glass windows "Three. Three. Seven. Seven. Ten. And ten...!" however Indy can't see the numeral for ten, so he says to Elsa and Marcus "Look around for the ten".  So, Indy looking around decides to go upstairs and he suddenly sees the Roman numeral for ten "X" and he says to Elsa and Marcus "Ten!  X marks the spot!" contradicting what he said to his students earlier about "X never marks the spot!". 

Another good scene is when Indy and Elsa start their romantic fling as Indy finds his room ransacked as well as Elsa's.  So, Elsa, looks shocked at her room and asks "What were they looking for?" and Indy produces the grail diary and says "This" and Elsa says "You had it?  You didn't trust me" and Indy says to her "I didn't know you".  Indy then says to Elsa "At least I let you tag along" and Elsa suddenly cross, says "Oh, yes!  Give them a flower and they'll follow you anywhere!" and Indy annoyed says "Knock it off!  You're not mad!" and Elsa spitefully says "No?!" and Indy says "No. You like the way I do things".  Elsa then angrily says "It's lucky I don't do things the same way.You'd still be standing at the Venice pier!".

Elsa then starts to walk out the room but Indy grabs her and says "Look, what do you think is going on here?! Since I met you, I've nearly been incinerated, drowned, shot at, and chopped into fish bait! We're caught in the middle of something sinister here. My guess is Dad found out more than he was looking for. And until I'm sure, I'm going to continue to do things the way I think they should be done!".  So, Indy then pulls Elsa roughly toward him and kisses her on the lips and Elsa, shocked says "How dare you kiss me!" and she kisses him back passionately.  Indy then says "Leave me alone.  I don't like fast women!" and then start kissing again and Elsa kisses Indy's ear and says "And I hate arrogant men!".  And as they lie down on a couch and begin making out, Indy looks, smiles and says "I love Venice!" and Elsa grabs his head, pulling him down and they start kissing again.

Then there is the silly but funny scene where Indy and Elsa arrive at the castle where his dad is being held and he pretends to be a Scottish Lord and Harrison Ford puts on the worst Scottish accent ever!  And in the scene, Indy bangs on the front door and a butler let's them in and Indy says to him in a Scottish accent "And not before time! Did you intend to leave us standing on the doorstep all day? We're drenched!" and he feigns a sneeze over the butler and he says "Now look, I've gone and caught a sniffle!".

The butler then asks Indy "Are you expected?" and Indy says "Do not take that tone with me, my good man. Now buttle off and tell Baron Brunwald that Lord Clarence MacDonald and his lovely assistant...are here to view the tapestries!".  Indy then turns to Elsa and says "Dear me, the man is dense. This is a castle, isn't it? There are tapestries?!". The butler then says to Indy "This is a castle, and we have many tapestries. But if you are a Scottish lord, then I am Mickey Mouse!". Indy turns to Elsa and says in an almost Russian sounding accent(!) "How dare he?!" and he suddenly spins round and knocks out the butler with one punch. 

Another good scene from Harrison is when Indy and his dad, Henry escape from the Nazis at the castle in a motorbike side-car and Henry tells Indy that they should go after the diary which is now in the possession of the Nazis.

So, as they are about to head off to get Marcus, Henry objects and says "No, you're going the wrong way. We have to get to Berlin!" but Indy points to the other direction and says "Broady's this way!" but Henry tells him "My diary's in Berlin!". Indy insists "We don't need the diary, Dad.  Marcus has the map!" but Henry then says "There is more in the diary than just the map" and Indy then switches off the bike and says "Alright, Dad. Tell me".

So, Henry tells Indy about his diary containing clues to dealing with the final challenge in locating the grail and they must face three deadly traps, however he can't remember what they are and he says he wrote them in his diary, so he didn't need to remember.  So, Indy angrily says to Henry "Half the German army's on our tail, and you want me to go to Berlin?! Into the lion's den?!" and Henry says "Yes!  The only thing that matters is the grail!".  Indy then asks "What about Marcus?" and Henry tells him "Marcus would agree with me!" and Indy says to himself "Two selfless martyrs!  Jesus Christ!" and this prompt Henry to suddenly slap Indy in the face and he warns his son "That's for blasphemy!". 
 
Another funny scene is when Indy and Henry board a zeppelin to escape the Nazis, however its not long before the SS officer, Colonel Vogel (Michael Byrne) and his men show up searching for Henry. And Vogel moving around the zeppelin keeps showing passengers a picture of Henry asking if they have seen him and he soon moves up toward Henry, who is hiding himself behind a large newspaper. So, Vogel uses his baton to pull down the paper and he grins and says to him "Guten tag...Herr Jones!" but Indy (who disguises himself as a ticket inspector) comes up behind Vogel and says "Tickets please!".  So, as Vogel turns around, he looks at Indy in surprise, who punches Vogel and throws him out the zeppelin and Vogel lands in a pile of luggage below and Indy afterward turns to the alarmed passenger and says "No ticket!" and they all suddenly panic and produce their tickets!

Another good scene is when the Nazis order the zeppelin to be turned back to Germany, prompting Indy and Henry to flee the zeppelin in a small biplane attached to the zeppelin and they take on two German fighters.  So as they take to the skies in the plane, Henry says to Indy "I didn't know you could fly a plane!" and Indy tells him "Fly, yes!  Land, no!".  And after they fly off, Indy spots the fighters and he shouts to Henry "Dad, you're gonna have to use the machine gun!  Get it ready!" and Indy notices the fighters and he yells to Henry "ELEVEN O'CLOCK!  DAD, ELEVEN O'CLOCK!!" and Henry looks at his watch and asks "What happens at Eleven O'Clock!" but Indy explains by yelling "DAD!  TWELVE, ELEVEN, TEN!! ELEVEN O'CLOCK!!! FIRE!!".

So, after Henry ineptly uses the machine gun and unwittingly shoots the biplane's tail, Indy is forced to make an emergency landing, so they crash land and get out and the German fighter planes continue to open fire at them and they take cover.  Henry then says "Those people are trying to kill us!" and Indy yells back "I KNOW DAD!!" but Henry surprised says "Its a new experience for me!" and then Indy says to him "It happens to me all the time!".

Sean Connery, as unlikely a choice as he could be for the part of Indy's father, Henry Jones, works brilliantly well in the role, despite the fact in reality Connery is only 12 years older than Harrison Ford!  But Connery plays Henry just right, with an almost dismissive sense of authority over Indy, and as a man who is so obssessed with his work, but despite all that they still share some nice moments together.

And Sean has his share of good scenes in the film also that include his first one, where Indy breaks into Henry's room where he is being help captive by the Nazis and Henry smashes a vase over Indy's head and suddenly moves into view for the first time and looks on at his son and says "Junior?!".  And Indy looks a little dazed after being hit and he says obediently "Yes, sir!" and Henry grins at him and says "It IS you, Junior!" and Indy says to him "Don't call me that please!".

Henry then picks up a piece of the broken vase and he goes over to a table light and examines it and says "Late 14th century. Ming dynasty.  Oh, it breaks the heart!" and Indy says to him "And the head! You hit me dad!".  Henry looks pained and says "I'll never forgive myself!" but Indy, who believes that Henry is talking about him, says reassuringly "Don't worry, I'm fine".  Henry looks at the vase again and then he smiles and says to Indy "Thank God!" and he crosses to him and they both smile together, as Indy is pleased that his dad appears to be concerned for him.  However, Henry then indicates the vase "Its a fake! See, you can tell by the cross-section!" and he throws the piece of the vase down.  

And this is followed by the funny moment where Henry reveals he posted his grail diary to Indy back home to get it as far away from the Nazis as he could only for them to be interrupted by Nazi officers. So, one of the officers asks "Dr Jones?" and both Indy and Henry says "Yes?" and the officer says "I will take the book now!" and they both ask at the same time "What book?" and the officer says "You have zee the diary in your pocket".  Henry however laughs and says "You dolt!  You think my son would be that stupid to bring my diary back here!" and Indy smiles nervously as Henry looks at him and he asks "You didn't did you?  You didn't bring it, did you?" but it quickly dawns on him "YOU did!".

So, Henry angrily says "I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers!" and Indy angrily says to him "Will you take it easy?!" and Henry spits back "Take it easy?! Why do you think I sent it home in the first place?! So, it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands!!". Indy then angrily says to Henry "I came here to save you!" and Henry shouts back "Oh yeah?!  And who's gonna come to save you, Junior?!!!".  Indy then shouts "I TOLD YOU...." and he suddenly grabs a machine gun from one of the officers and shoots the Nazis dad and he turns to his stunned father and says to him "...DON'T call me Junior!".  

WARNING: THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH REFERS TO A BIG SPOILER!!!

Another good scene is when after Indy has just discovered that Elsa is working with the Nazis, Indy and Henry are tied up with their hands behind their backs and taken into a room within the castle.  So, Indy says quietly to Henry re: Elsa "How did you know she was a Nazi?" and Henry asks "What?" and Indy leans in and quietly repeats "How did you know she was a Nazi?" and Henry tells him "She talks in her sleep" and Indy looks stunned and Henry gives an awkward smile.  Henry then says to Indy "I didn't trust her.  Why did you?" and we suddenly hear a voice say "Because he didn't take my advice..." and we suddenly see Walter Donovan get up from a chair as he is also in cahoots with the Nazis to find the grail.  And Henry says to Donovan "I misjudged you, Walter. I knew you would sell your mother for an Etruscan vase, but I didn't know you would sell your country and your soul to the slime of humanity!".

Then there is the scene where Indy and Henry finally share a quiet moment together on the zeppelin as they talk about how they have never seen each other and that Henry was never really there for Indy growing up.  And Indy tells Henry that they had a lonely time growing up together without his mother (as she passed away) to which Henry replies "Actually, I was a wonderful father".  Indy laughs and asks "When?" and Henry, taken aback says to him "Did I ever tell you to eat up? Go to bed? Wash your ears? Do your homework? No. I respected your privacy, and I taught you self-reliance!". Indy however becomes angry and tells Henry how he felt he was less important to him then people who were dead for hundreds of years and how they have barely spoken in 20 years. So, Henry puts his diary aside and says "Oh well, I'm here now!  What do you want to talk about?" and Indy looks at him for a moment, speechless and he laughs and says "I can't think of anything!" and Henry says "Then what are you complaining about???!".  

Then we have the scene where Henry attempts to rescue Marcus from the Nazis, who is being held captive inside a German tank. So, Henry tells Marcus "Its a rescue, old boy.  Come one!" and before they can leave, Vogel appears with his men.  And Vogel takes off his clothes and slaps Henry with them as he asks him "What does the diary tell you that it doesn't tell us?!" and Henry suddenly grabs hold of Vogel's hand firmly and he angrily tells him "It tells me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of BURNING THEM!!". 

WARNING: SPOILERS ARE IN THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH!

And last of all is Sean's final scene where Indy, Henry, Marcus and Sallah are set to head off on horses into the sunset. And after they leave the temple where the Holy Grail resides and having lost it when the temple collapses (and Elsa and Donovan have both been killed) Indy sadly looks toward the temple remains.  And Henry says to him "Elsa never really believed in the Grail. She thought she found a prize" and Indy turns to him and asks "What did you find, dad?" and Henry smiles and says "Me?  Illumination".  And as they mount their horses, Henry asks Indy "What did you find, Junior?" and Indy looks annoyed but Sallah asks "What does this mean?  This junior?!" and Henry tells him "That's his name" he points to himself "Henry Jones..." and points to Indy "Junior!".  Indy however, annoyed says "I like Indiana!" and Henry tells him "We named the dog Indiana!" and Sallah laughs out saying "You were named after the dog?! Ha ha ha!!".  Henry then finally says to Indy "After you, Junior" and Indy says "Yes, sir!" and he gallops off on his horse.

Up next is Julian Glover who puts in a fine performance as the devious collector, Walter Donovan, who is driven by his greed to find the Grail and he uses Indy and Henry in the process.

And Glover his some good moments too such as the one where after (SPOILER!!!!) Donovan has revealed his true colours as he is in cahoots with the Nazis just after Indy and Henry have both been captured.  So, in the scene, Henry says to Indy re: Elsa "I didn't trust her.  Why did you?" and then we hear a voice say "Because he didn't take my advice!" and then we see Donovan rise from a chair and Indy looks on angrily and says "Donovan!" and Donovan says to him "Didn't I warn you not to trust anyone, Dr Jones?".  

Another good scene from Glover is when just after Indy and Henry have been left in the castle tied up together, Donovan gets into a car outside and he is handed a couple of telegram from a Nazi officer.  So, Donovan reads the first one and says to Vogel "Well we have Marcus Broady and more importantly we have the map!".  The officer then comes back with another telegram, which Donovan reads ""By the personal command of the Fuhrer. "Secrecy essential to success. Eliminate the American conspirators.".  Donovan then turns to Vogel, who stands grinning by the car door, he says to him "Germany has declared war on the Jones boys!" and Vogel laughs and closes Donovan's door just before his car is driven away.

And last of all is the scene where Donovan and Elsa finally reach the temple where the Holy Grail is located but they are forcing to use Arab guards as volunteers to try and navigate past the deadly traps that lie in the way of the grail itself.

So, when Indy and the others are captured and taken to Donovan, Elsa surprised to see Indy still alive says "I never expected to see you again" and Indy grins and says "I'm like bad penny. I always turn up!".  And Donovan says to Elsa "Back up, Dr Schneider.  Give Dr Jones some room.  He's going to recover the grail for us" and he says to Indy "What do you say, Jones?  Ready to go down in history?" and Indy says "As what? A Nazi stooge like you?!".  Donovan however has other ideas and says "
Is that the limit of your vision? The Nazis want to write themselves into the Grail legend... take on the world. Well, they're welcome. But I want the Grail itself. The cup that gives everlasting life. Hitler can have the world, but he can't take it with him. I'm going to be drinking my own health when he's gone the way of the dodo".

Donovan then pulls a gun on Indy and he says to him "The grail is mine and you're going to get it for me" and Indy trying to contain his anger says "Shooting me won't get you anywhere" and Donovan says "You know, Dr Jones?  You're absolutely right!" and he instead turns and shoots Henry in the chest, who falls back on the ground.  Elsa, distressed moves forward saying "No!" but Donovan shouts at her "GET BACK!" and Indy tends to Henry for a moment before he get's up and makes to move on Donovan.  Donovan however keeps Indy at gunpoint and shouts to him "You can't save him when you're dead! The healing power of the Grail is the only thing that can save your father now. It's time to ask yourself what you believe!".

Alison Doody is very good in her role as femme fatale character, Elsa Schneider, who at first appears to be on Indy's side but its not long before we find out where her real loyalties lie.  Alison Doody herself was actually only 21 years old at the time of filming, which is surprising when you look at her as she does look that bit more mature (and pretty hot!). 

And Alison has some good moments here aswell such as her first scene where Indy and Marcus just arrive in Venice and come off a pier. And as they do, Marcus asks Indy "How will we recognise this Dr Schneider?" and Indy says "I don't know. Maybe he'll recognise us" and we suddenly hear a female voice "Dr Jones?" and Indy turns around to see a beautiful woman with blonde hair, which turns out to be Elsa.  So, Elsa says to Indy with a smile "I knew it was you. You have your father's eyes" and Indy moves forward to her and turns on his charm and says "And my mother's ears but the rest belongs to you".  Elsa then smiles and says "It looks like the best parts have already been spoken for" and Indy smiles and Elsa looks to Marcus and asks "Marcus Brody?" and Marcus replies "Yes" and she introduces herself "Dr Elsa Schneider". 

There is also the scene where Indy and Elsa have their one-night stand together but I have already mentioned that in Harrison Ford's section of the performances, so I won't mention it again here just to save time!  However it is a very nicely played scene by both of them. 

Another good scene is when Indy turns up to rescue Henry and after killing a few Nazi guards and taking a machine gun he enters another room to find Elsa being held at gunpoint by Vogel, who threatens to kill her.  However, Henry tells Indy that Elsa is really a Nazi and they are bluffing him but Indy gives in and puts down his gun and Vogel let's go of Elsa, pushing her into Indy.  Elsa looks at him and says softly "I'm sorry" and Indy says "No, don't be" but then she takes the grail diary from his pocket and steps back and with a wry smile says "But...you should have listened to your father!".

Then there is the scene where Indy and Henry have been tied up together, sitting on chairs with their backs away from each other and Elsa looks to Indy, who glares at her angrily. So, Elsa says to him "Don't look at me like that. We both wanted the Grail. I would have done anything to get it. You would have done the same" but Indy says to her "I'm sorry you think so" leaving Elsa a little stung.  However, Elsa brushes it off and moves in close to Indy and says to him softly "I can't forget how wonderful it was" and Henry says "Thank you, it was rather wonderful!" and Indy turns his head to look at Henry in disbelief but Elsa grabs his face and gives him one last kiss and she says to Indy "That's how Austrians say goodbye!" and she leaves.

And last of all is the scene where Indy and Henry head to Berlin to retrieve the diary from Elsa and Indy disguises himself as a Nazi officer at a book burning rally, Elsa however looks on, quite upset as she witnesses many German members of the public, throw piles of books onto fires. And as Elsa walks off sadly, Indy suddenly comes up from behind and says "Fraulien, Doctor?!" and Elsa looks stunned and asks "How did you get here?!".  Indy then roughly starts to search her pockets and says "Where is it?!  I want it!" and he takes out the diary from her jacket pocket and Elsa asks "You came back for the book?! Why???" and Indy walks away and says "My father didn't want it incinerated!".  Elsa taken aback, says "Is that what you think of me? I believe in the Grail, not the swastika!".  Indy angrily then says "But you stood up to be counted with the enemy of everything that the Grail stands for! Who gives a DAMN what you think?!!!" and Elsa shouts back "You do!!".  Indy then grabs Elsa by the throat and threatens her "All I have to do is squeeze..." and she says tearfully "All I have to do is scream..." and Indy after a second, let's her go. 

Denholm Elliott is also really good once again as he returns to his role as Marcus Brody, except this time rather than coming across as an intelligent capable scholar, he is more made out to be a bumbling fool.  Or rather its more just that Marcus is simply out of his depth in the situation as he is not a field man like Indy is, and Indy also recalls how Marcus one time got lost in his own museum!

And Elliott has some good moments too in the film that include the scene where Indy and Marcus head over to Henry's house and find it ransacked. And Marcus says to Indy as they enter "Dear God! The old fool! What has he gotten himself into now?" and Indy suddenly realises the package he received in the post is Henry's grail diary, which he opens up.  Indy then looks around and at a picture of on the wall of a knight and he asks Marcus "Do you believe, Marcus?  Do you believe the grail actually exists?".  Marcus then replies "The search for the Cup of Christ is the search for the divine in all of us. But if you want facts, Indy, I've none to give you. At my age, I'm prepared to take a few things on faith".  Indy then looks grave and says quietly to Marcus "Call Donovan, Marcus and tell him I'll take that ticket to Venice now" and he walks off and Marcus says to himself "I'll tell we'll take two". 

Then there is the scene where after Indy narrowly avoids death at the hands of the brothers of the crucible sword, regroups with Marcus back at Marcus' hotel room and they look at the rubbing of the inscription from the knight's shield in the catacombs of the library.  So, as Indy tries to piece together where exactly the grail would be located, Marcus says "Your father would know. Your father did know!" and he takes the grail diary and opens it "Look. He made a map. He must have pieced it together from clues scattered through the whole history of the Grail quest. A map with no names. Now, he knew there was a city with an oasis due east, here. He knew the course turned south through the desert to a river, and the river led into the mountains, here. Straight to the canyon".  Marcus then shuts the book and says excitedly "He knew everything except where to begin! The name of the city!" and Indy says "And now we know".

And lastly there is the funny scene where we find out that Elsa and Donovan are working with the Nazis to find the grail and they capture Indy and Henry together and they intend to find the missing pages of the diary, which Indy gave to Marcus.  So, Donovan says re: Marcus "He sticks out like a sore thumb!  We'll find him" and Indy says "The hell you will!" and that Marcus has friends in every town and knows all the local customs and languages and can blend in and disappear and with any luck "he's got the grail already".  However we then cut to a bewildered looking Marcus, who is in Iskanderun and he shouts to the locals that surround him "Does anyone here speak English? Or even ancient Greek?" and people keep offering him things.  Marcus is then offered food by a local and he says "No, thank you, madam. I'm a vegetarian" and he says to himself "Does anyone understand a word I'm saying here?!".

John Ryhs-Davies also makes a welcome return in his role as Sallah, who appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark alongside Denholm Elliott and here he slips effortlessly back into the part as if he had not been away.

And I will mention for time only one of his scenes and its the one where Sallah turns up at Iskenderun to meet a bewildered and lost Marcus.  So, Sallah greets him warmly and says "Mr Brody!" and Marcus says "Oh, Sallah!  What a relief!" and Sallah says "Marcus Brody, sir! But where is Indy?" and Marcus tells him "Oh, he's in Austria on a slight detour.  But don't panic, everything's under control".  However they are then met by two German officials (really Nazi officers in disguise) and one of them warmly greets Marcus and says "The director of the Museum of Antiquities has sent a car for you" and Marcus smiles and says "You're servant, sir" and Sallah says "And I'm his". And as they start to follow the two Germans, Marcus pleased says to Sallah "My reputation proceeds me" but Sallah warns him "There is no museum in Iskenderun". 

A then one of the Germans spins round and asks them for their papers suddenly.  So, Sallah nervously bluffs them and he says "Papers?  Of course" and he says quietly to Marcus "Run" but Marcus doesn't catch on.  So, Sallah produces a newspaper and says "Papers. Got it here. Just finished reading it myself" and again he says to Marcus "Run" but Marcus still doesn't quite understand Sallah and says "Yes?".  Sallah then shows the Germans the paper ""Egyptian Mail," morning edition!" and he once says to Marcus "Run(!)".  Marcus finally catches on and says "Did you say...." and Sallah suddenly puts his paper up to one of the Germans' faces and punches him and shouts "RUN!" and he pushes the Germans over a stall and he desperately tries to lead Marcus away from them.  Sallah the sees a truck nearby, which has a ramp down and he grabs Marcus and shouts "Quick!  Find the back door!  Find the back door!".  So, Marcus goes up inside the back of the truck only for some locals to then close up the ramp and shut the truck's door and the truck drives off, leaving Sallah despondent. 

And last of all is Michael Byrne, who is very good in his role as the ruthless SS Officer, Colonel Vogel, who leads the Nazi quest to find the Grail. Byrne most likely because of his looks often has played German/Nazi soldier roles in the past and he even appeared in another film with Harrison Ford, "Force 10 from Navarone" back in 1978. 

And I will quickly mention two of Byrne's scenes with the first one being where Indy and Henry are left tied up in the castle and Elsa says her goodbye to Indy by giving him a passionate kiss and she says to Indy "That's how Austrians say goodbye" and she leaves.  However, Vogel then walks to Indy and says to him "And this is how we say goodbye in Germany, Dr Jones!" and he hits Indy on the head with his baton, which causes Indy's head to hit Henry's head aswell and Vogel walks out, leaving the Jones's reeling.

And lastly there is the scene where Henry tries to rescue Marcus from the Nazis as he is being held captive in a German tank, however they are both caught by Vogel's officer. So, Vogel orders his men to search Henry and he says to him as he takes off his gloves "Search him. What is in this book? That miserable little diary of yours. We have the map. The book is useless. And yet you come all the way back to Berlin to get it!".  Vogel then slaps Henry with his gloves "Why?!" What are you hiding? he slaps him again and then he asks "What does the diary tell you that it doesn't tell us?!" and Henry tells him that Nazis should read books instead of burning them.

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

As for the direction, well its another sterling effort by Steven Spielberg, who does an excellent job here and he keeps the pace of the film moving along nicely and he does a great job at producing fine performances from the cast and does well at building the relationship between Indy and Henry.  At times perhaps the tone of the film is a bit overtly comical, but I think Spielberg helps keep it just about right enough to keep the overall tone in tune with the original film. 

As for the music score, John Williams once again provides an excellent one, which features the familiar and memorable Indy theme but also it adds plenty of new tracks that have plenty of atmosphere, excitement and even a bit of emotion here and there.  Its not quite in the same league as Williams magnificent score for Raiders but its still a very fine effort and let's face it, John Williams lesser scores often tend to be better than some composers very best works (no offense to other composers!). 

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

As for the flaws...well yeah OK, The Last Crusade has a few worth mentioning.

For starters I think one of the problems I had with the film was to do with the idea of Henry sending his Grail diary to Indy and its not so much that he sent it in the first place but its more a case of why didn't he include a written note with it to warn him what has happened to him?!  I mean that would have made a lot more sense!  But of course it is done this way to build up the mystery and suspense of Henry's disappearance but even so I can't help but think, Henry could have written a quick note saying "I sent this book back so the Nazis don't get it. I've been captured so watch out!".  Would that have been so difficult?!

Further to this point, given that Henry was captured by the Nazis, how did he manage to even send the diary back in the first place?!  I can only imagine that he did it before he was captured and he sussed out what was going on but if that was the case again why didn't he include a written note to warn Indy what happened?!  Achh anyway, it all worked itself out in the end I guess!  

Another thing that bugged me is the scene where Indy completes the inscription on the shield by using a penciled rubbing that Indy's dad had kept from Sir Richard's tomb. However in the next scene, the brotherhood that chase Indy, set fire to the oil in the underground area, forcing Indy and Elsa to dive underwater for cover from the flames. However, by doing that surely the rubbing would be ruined and totally soaked through since Indy is underwater but in the next scene after Indy escapes back to his hotel room, we see the rubbing is completely dry! So, yeah that is one scene that never really sat right with me unless the rubbing itself is totally waterproof but I doubt it!  

I also felt that the section where Indy tries to save Marcus from Vogel and the other Nazis in the tank, was also a bit long and drawn out as it takes a bit too much time for Indy to eventually get him out of there.  It also leads into the really daft bit where Indy has his fight with Vogel ontop of the tank, Henry is knocked off his feet and nearly ends up being crushed under the tank's rails but Indy uses his whip to grab hold of him, so he doesn't but meanwhile he does this, Vogel is beating up Indy and Sallah soon arrives in the nick of time to save Henry!  I mean convenient or what?! 

Another strange moment in the film is when Indy and Henry are on the zeppelin, it suddenly turns around to take them back to Germany on order of the Nazis.  However as Indy and Henry make their escape, Indy says "I thought it would have taken them a lot longer to figure out the radio was dead". Right, what does he mean by that? Does that mean Indy somehow managed to get to the radio on the zeppelin and sabotage it?!  And even if he did, that means there would be no way for the pilots of the zeppelin to contact the Nazis to alert them about the Jones being onboard!  So, I don't quite get the reference and how the zeppelin would receive orders to be turned about unless the radio WAS working!  Not unless of course they repaired it, which yeah OK, is a possibility. 

And lastly I found it a bit daft how in that scene near the end where Elsa makes the mistake of trying to take the grail out of the temple, only for it to cause the temple to being collapsing around them and Elsa ends up falling to her death as her greed to reach for the grail overtakes her and Indy loses his grip on her.  And as Indy nearly befalls the same fate, dangling over a chasm, he tries to reach for the grail, which lies on a bit of rock nearby him and Henry holds onto him.  However as the violent quaking carries on, it suddenly softens and stops when Henry calls Indy "Indiana" for the first time in the film and he says to him re: the grail "Let it go" and Indy let's himself be pulled up by Henry and they escape the temple.  

Again its a rather strangely convenient moment that was worked into the film as if the temple is allowing for Henry to reach to his son and convince him to let go of his desire for the grail, just long enough for Henry to pull him up!  Yeah OK, that sounds a bit daft in itself maybe but if you watch the scene, you might get what I mean.

Anyway, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a very enjoyable and solid entry in the franchise and it was a pity that it would be followed up by the mediocre "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" almost 20 years later.  The casting of Sean Connery is a great choice and he and Harrison Ford share a great father/son chemistry onscreen together even though there are only 12 years between them in real life! 

The film is also ably backed up by a solid cast with Julian Glover and Alison Doody both being standouts here and its also great to see the return of Denholm Elliot and John Rhys-Davies in their roles as Marcus and Sallah.  And Spielberg's direction is once again great and he confidently handles the film's action aswell as the humour and John Williams again provides an excellent score here.

And despite any of its niggling issues to do with its plot, they are still don't detract from what is a  highly entertaining movie, which easily remains the second best in the Indy quadrilogy. And after the major letdown of the fourth film, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, let's hope the upcoming sequel (and most likely the final film!) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny puts things right even though Harrison Ford stars in it, he is now 80 years old, so not sure how well he'll hold up in it physically! ;-)

And with that I will rate The Last Crusade:

9 out of 10 

So, that's it for this one and I will return sometime soon with another post.

Until then bye for now!