Home Sick

Yeah, I'm still sick. I'm home from work today, which ends my Cal Ripken-like streak of not missing work or school for illness. The last time was in the fall of 2000, when I missed a week of my co-op at Honeywell because I had mono. I think of this as "the lost month of August." When you sleep 20 hours a day, time really flies. So all in all, I was sick for my week off between semesters, one week of work, then I worked half-days for a week before everything was back to normal. The annoying part was that people would say "Wow, it must have been nice to have a month off." These people have never had mono.
Anyway, prior to that the last time I missed a day was in 7th grade, when I missed like 8 days of school for various reasons. From 8th grade on I was the proud recipient of the perfect attendance award. I think they're up in the attice with other school-type awards.
Actually, I was on my deathbed once during my freshman year at Purdue. I still went to class, and actually marched with the band during the game against Illinois, a sporting event I have absolutely no recollection of. The only thing I remember was almost passing out during inspection. My vision didn't just fade out to white or black like on TV, it actually went white and purple. I guess I just don't have that kind of dedication anymore. Plus, I have tons of sick time.

So far two days on the couch have given me plenty of time to watch movies- I feel that my TV has really earned it's money. Most notably I was able to watch the entire Indiana Jones trilogy for the first time in my adult life. I probably haven't seen the first 2 in at last 15 years, but I've seen the Last Crusade about 20 times, with a few viewings a in the last couple years. Kate, on the other hand, claims to have seen them all but remembered nothing while we watched them. So, as an adult, I've made a few observations that I didn't notice as a kid.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: You have to respect the original. I was pretty young at the time, but as I understand this movie sort of set a new standard in movie pacing, as well as the whole "searching for ancient treasure" genre. Like so many great films, it doesn't stand out so much when compared to modern movies, but at the time a lot of these ideas were new. Plus, now Kate knows the origin of like 10 Family Guy references.

The Temple of Doom: By contrast, this movie was worse than I remembered. Why? Two words: Kate Capshaw. It's hard to tell where the awfulness lies- was she that bad an actor, or was the Willie character supposed to be that useless and annoying? She really serves no purpose in the movie, other than being the worst attempt at comic relief until Jar Jar Binks came along. A bad movie character is the worst when it affects other great characters. When Indy is now in love with Willie, I'm thinking "Indy, what is your problem? This girl's annoying!" The whole Capshaw thing makes more sense when you know that she's married to Spielberg, but apparently they weren't married until well after the film.
Willie aside, I think the main problem with the movie is that they broke the formula. Instead of Indiana Jones doing a little research, following clues and finding treasure, we just have a random "Indy is now in India where a village asks for help then he finds an evil cult running a child labor mine." I mean come on, he's not even fighting the Nazis! Also, Kate put it very well by saying "They don't explain anything in this one" meaning that in the first one, they tell you that the Ark is powerful because of X, Y, and Z. In the third movie, the grail does this, because of X, Y, and Z. In this installment, it's just "Oh look, the guy is still alive after having his heart ripped out. Hmm." and "Drinking the blood makes you a zombie. But getting burned with a torch fixes it. Okay." Apparently I will accept one and only supernatural event per movie. More than that and it just seems too fake.
Still a good movie, but it was definitely the sophomore slump.

The Last Crusade: Ah, the Last Crusade. One of my all-time favorites. This shows what happens with so many trilogies: There's a first one, and it does very well. They make a second, but they misunderstand what was great about the first one. Then with the third one, they get the balance right again.
I won't go too far into this movie, because I could talk all day. It's not flawless, but it brings back great characters (Sallah and Marcus) that weren't even mentioned in the 2nd movie, and adds Sean Connery as a great compliment to Indy. Plus, I think this one has arguably the best action sequences, and the best humor. Even the intro with young Indiana Jones was great. So, yeah. My favorite.

Indiana Jones 4: No, no, no, please God, no. Do not let this movie happen. The Last Crusade was so great, do not sully it with a crappy sequel. Without even mentioning that Harrison Ford is way too old, there's just no reason for this movie. I have a bad feeling that it will be like Terminator 3. Terminator 2 was such a great movie, and everything was wrapped up so well. Why mess with that? Damn Hollywood and their money-grubbing. Indiana Jones 4 is destined to join the list of sequels I refuse to acknowledge, along with T3, Alien 3, Matrix Revolutions, Jurassic Park 2/3 (the movie, not the book, which was great) and others I can't think of right now. Actually, I really agree with this guy, whose page I just found.

I have many more thoughts on sequels, but it's high time I got back to the couch.