Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

The second installment in the Indiana Jones series and prequel to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has as many pros as it does cons. The action sequences are much more explosive and thrilling, but this outing doesn't seem to have a heart (no pun intended). It was thrilling for the sake of being thrilling, with very little relevance to the story. Annoyingly no other reprising characters aside from Ford, who is still the awesome archaeologist, on an adventure to return a sacred precious stone that was stolen from a village that believes evil spirits have taken their children away from them. You can see where this story tries to prevent itself from falling after slipping on a banana peel, right? And its self-awareness of the dreadfully annoying love interest (Capshaw) and sidekick (Ke Quan) doesn't pay off in any way. From the start, the film is doomed (again, no pun intended) during the opening credits playing over a corny Capshaw performing Cole Porter's 1934 classic "Anything Goes", its presence in this film unnecessary in every single form. But this film is saved by the beautiful setting of Indian, and a ritual scene about an hour into the film which caused so much controversy that the MPAA created PG-13!