Raiders
The other day I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time in a few years.
About ten years ago I was working at a video store where I ended up being the top renter for the store without ever paying for a single movie. I would take out a couple movies every time I went in and sometimes watched a couple of movies in the store during the day. The store didn't do very good business because we were a shitty chain store and the local video store down the street had far superior selection. The first time I walked into the store to pick up a job application I thought to myself "I won't rent from here," because of the heavy marketing for candy and package deals. I worked there just under a year but at one point I took out the first three Indiana Jones movies to watch in succession.
I didn't quite make it through all them because I got a little Indy'd out from Temple of Doom. Indiana Jones was a favorite character while growing up, I had a cousin who even gave himself a fake name while playing of Peter Jones as though he was related to Indy. In hindsight, it's a bit of an overly normal name to dream about having. Years after my video store tenure I found great enjoyment in the Uncharted games that play with the jungle/archaeology adventure genre. After watching Stranger Things in the last couple weeks, i longed for a nostalgic series of this style of adventure genre that harkens back to the imagery of the '30's of the original movies while playing with special effects that remind the viewer of the 1980's special effects.
It's still a very entertaining movie with dark and playful touches that have been very successful themes in recent movies like Guardians of the Galaxy or the new Ghostbusters movie, both of which have strong influences from the 1980's. I think after the disasters of Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad, more studios will try to make sure their movies have at least a little touch of playfulness to go along with the societal movement in the US of adults embracing the things they enjoyed as children.
