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David McK (3773 KP) rated Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) in Movies

Dec 31, 2019 (Updated Apr 28, 2020)  
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
1981 | Action, Adventure
9
8.9 (95 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
The first Indiana Jones film, with Harrison Ford in the role for which he would become iconic.

It's fair to say that this has permeated popular culture: the bullwhip, the hat, the fear of snakes are all intrinsic to the character and heavily copied over the years (Tomb Raider, anyone? The Uncharted series?), with even TVs The Simpsons doing a parody of the opening tomb robbing scene with Homer chasing Bart and ending up rolling down the stairs.

There's almost too many iconic scenes (and quotes) to count: that tomb robber bit at the start, the fed-up Indy shooting the sword-wielder in Cairo (initially storyboarded as a full on sword fight, except the actors all got sick), the Well of Souls sequence, the escape, "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage", the opening of the Ark by the Nazis and the final warehouse scene, to name but a few!
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Starship Troopers (1997) in Movies

Feb 22, 2018  
Starship Troopers (1997)
Starship Troopers (1997)
1997 | Action, Sci-Fi
9
7.7 (54 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Not so much an adaptation of Heinlein's novel as a parody of it, Verhoeven's SF spectacular works equally well as storming action movie and outrageous black satire. Johnny Rico (Van Dien) joins the army for the wrong reasons, finds himself rising through the ranks as Earth provokes a war with the invertebrate Arachnids and finds itself facing a much more dangerous opponent than expected.

Verhoeven displays his usual uncanny ability to turn a movie on a dime - one second this is a deliberately cheesy deadpan comedy about growing up in a fascist utopia, the next it's delivering a genuinely thrilling action sequence that pushes the boundaries of CGI. Much, much smarter than it initially appears - even the decision to cast good-looking but essentially wooden young people (e.g. Denise Richards) in the lead roles seems calculated to make a point. Michael Ironside is genuinely good as the grizzled old soldier; another belting score from Basil Poledouris. Also weirdly prescient of the way the US and its media reacted after 9/11. Thoroughly enjoyable on many levels.