Indiana Jones Adventure Collection (1981-1989)

Total Film
"...How do the fedora-sporting archaeologist's adventures hold up?....Better than ever..." 11/01/2003 p.120

USA Today
"...Splendid-looking and sounding..." 10/24/2003 p.8E

Rolling Stone
"...All three are here, spruced up and looking in their prime..." 11/27/2003 p.86

Movieline's Hollywood Life
"...Who doesn't pine for the days when archaeologists were cliff-leaping adventurers..." 12/01/2003 p.116

Sight and Sound
"Spielberg's trilogy has hardly aged: RAIDERS still thrills and amuses by turns?" 12/31/2003 p.66

The Washington Post 8 of 10
[Last] You want Adventure? Thrills? How about Rats?...In "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," director Steven Spielberg capitalizes on these and other basic human needs. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" this ain't, but "Crusade" towers like a knight over "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"...If you go to "Crusade," though, you're not looking for surprises. You can safely expect Jones' trademark twisted grin, hat, wisecracks and whip cracks, the pantomime villains, the ingeniously rigged catastrophes (including a plane that loses its wings in a tunnel but lands and keeps speeding down the road) and the tributes by cine-kid Spielberg to everything from "The Birds" to "She." Story coauthors George Lucas and Menno Meyjes and scriptwriter Jeffrey Boam make this one eternal chase-crusade -- by circus train (featuring River Phoenix as young Indiana), motorboat, motorbike, zeppelin, warplane, horse, camel and tank. They also slip in a naughty close encounter with ice queen Alison Doody, who, it turns out, has a thing for fathers and fatherlands...But rest assured: In Spielberg-Lucas lore, every good boy deserves favor and every bad girl gets her comeuppance. In the end, the father-son team undertakes a triumphant final test, including a Peter Pannish leap of faith and a Christlike ascension -- you know, Spielberg Heaven. - Desson Howe
 
ReelViews 10 of 10
[Raiders] Although there are plenty of special effects in the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark was made in an era when stunt work was more critical than anything added in post production. Ford did many of his own stunts, and ended up with the cuts and bruises to show for them (not to mention a torn ACL)...For composer John Williams, who has long been favored by both Spielberg and Lucas, the chance to work on Raiders of the Lost Ark offered him an opportunity to collaborate with them both, and to add another memorable theme song to his list of credits. In the five-year period from 1977 to 1982, Williams created five of movie-dom's most popular title tracks: Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T....The deserved popularity of Raiders of the Lost Ark resulted in a huge box office bonanza for Paramount Pictures. This is the kind of movie that, even today, audiences immediately fall in love with. It has all the right ingredients: a smart script, a likable hero, a dash of romance, more than a touch of comedy, and a lot of fast-paced action. In 2003, it's a formula, but Spielberg and Lucas were the ones who established the recipe by using ingredients both old and new...Raiders of the Lost Ark is a movie to be savored by viewers of all ages and all persuasions. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
[Temple] Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is one of the greatest Bruised Forearm Movies ever made. You know what a Bruised Forearm Movie is. That's the kind of movie where your date is always grabbing your forearm in a viselike grip, as unbearable excitement unfolds on the screen. After the movie is over, you've had a great time but your arm is black-and-blue for a week...This movie is one of the most relentlessly nonstop action pictures ever made, with a virtuoso series of climactic sequences that must last an hour and never stop for a second. It's a roller-coaster ride, a visual extravaganza, a technical triumph, and a whole lot of fun. And it's not simply a retread of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", the first Indiana Jones movie. It works in a different way, and borrows from different traditions...The set design, art direction, special effects, and sound effects inside this underground Hades are among the most impressive achievements in the whole history of Raiders and Bond-style thrillers...No apologies are necessary. This is the most cheerfully exciting, bizarre, goofy, romantic adventure movie since "Raiders", and it is high praise to say that it's not so much a sequel as an equal. It's quite an experience. You stagger out with a silly grin -- and a bruised forearm, of course. - Roger Ebert