INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) **1/2 Add a little bit of Sean Connery to a proven formula and this looks and feels like exactly what it is: a worthy instalment (in fact better than its predecessors) in a wildly successful series. Like the first two films this one strikes a fine balance of action and humour, offers spectacular sets, snappy comments from Harrison Ford, bad guys and architectural legend. Connery never appears to be too close to taking things seriously, which gives Ford the opportunity not to bother asking him for acting pointers. River Phoenix just nails Harrison's intonations and facials in several difficult spots as young Indiana...Alison Doody is the most intriguing of the “Indy Girls” ever-she's absurdly awkward (no that's not how all Austrians are, and no that's not how she's supposed to be) except for the truly difficult scenes in which she's ignited by the wild abandon of desire and greed, and she's absolutely brilliant in those so long as she doesn't have to say anything. The key to the entire film is, of course, that they somehow go on for two hours about the Holy Grail, through sets chock full o' eight pointed crosses and chivalrous knights and totems without even saying “Templar” once. This leaves about 80% of the audience (98% of those who are there to see Connery) with a sense that they are the cognoscenti when the real question is whether or not anyone is. I tried to tell my wife that the last knight guarding the chalice was really Spielberg but she wasn't listening to any more of it, more intrigued by a chocolate bar.
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