Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 22

ovies Daily Press Tim1 Unii. foturday, My t7, 19 1 222- 3rd 'Indy' movie harks back to 1st "The Last Crusade" unites Sean Connery (left) and Harrison Ford as father and son. By BOB STRAUSS Los Angeles Daily News LOS ANGELES Nearly a decade after first cracking his whip, Indiana Jones is about to hang up his fedora. "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is the third and, by all accounts, the last entry in the most successful series of the 1980s. Rather than going out with a bang, the man whose name became synonymous with adventure is leaving with a warm glow.

It's not that "Last Crusade" is dull or anything. It has motorcycle, boat and horseback chases, aerial dogfights, stunts all over moving tanks and trains, and lots and lots of rats, for starters. But compared to the can-you-top-this spectacle of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Last Crusade" is an almost intimate affair. Opening with Indy's first boyhood adventure (the hero-in-training is played by River Phoenix), and closing with the grown man's rapprochement with his estranged father (Sean Connery), "Last Crusade" has something of the feel of a family reunion. A hyperactive family's reunion, that is.

Set in 1938, two years after the events of the first film, "Crusade" again has Indy racing a bunch of Nazis to discover a mystical Christian relic the Holy Grail this time, as opposed to the Ark of the Covenant. A boat-chopping ship's propeller recalls "Raiders' fight beneath the flying wing, and this time, Indy jumps all over a runaway tank instead of a truck convoy. Part of the reason for the similarities is, as "Last Crusade" co-producer Frank Marshall confessed, that the series is at the end of its imaginative rope. "We've thought up almost everything you can possibly think up to put in the movies," Marshall said. "We're running out of ideas." The second justification for all the "Raiders" deja vu is that the second film in the series, although the eighth-largest box-office hit in history is seventh), is generally perceived as a big mistake.

Many criticized "Temple's" horrific brutality and near-non-stop sensory assault. Critics included some of the movie's makers: Director Steven Spielberg has all but disowned it, and he recently told Premiere magazine that "there's not an ounce of my own personal feeling in 'Temple of Harrison Ford echoes the party line. "I had problems (with 'Temple of Doom')," Ford said. "Not sufficient to disown it, but I did argue against some of the concepts. It was unnecessarily graphic." Everything new and different about "Last Crusade" can be traced to one factor: Dr.

Henry Jones. Indiana's detached, demanding, archaeologist father is a thorn in his son's psyche and a marvelously droll balance to the film's often preposterous, high-adventure high jinks. Henry took on even greater significance when, shortly before production started, Sean Connery agreed to play the role. The very idea of the man who originated James Bond the most popular movie hero of the 1960s acting as dad to the most popular movie hero of the 1980s was a marketing dream come true. Fresh from his win, Connery was well-aware of how much clout he brought to the project.

One of the few people in the industry who would dare tell the likes of Lucas, the executive producer, and Spielberg how to do things, Connery insisted on interpreting the Grail-obsessed Henry Jones in his own manner. "There were initial meetings when we discussed how he should be" Connery recalled. "I rather liked the idea of a Sir Richard Burton type of explorer, a man with Victorian values, probably more European in orientation than American. "That gives an extra level of conflict to the father-son relationship and also lends itself to humor from the word go. "I wanted to make the father really eccentric, self-centered, quite selfish.

He has an appetite for things that go way beyond the normal, mundane, Saturday Evening Post mental-- ity." All this talk about relationships might give an inaccurate impression of "Last Crusade" as some kind of big-budget "thirtysomething." In truth, the production ranged the American Southwest to England, Spain, Italy and Jordan. All kinds of special sets and vehicles had to be built from scratch, including a German tank, the booby-trapped cave where the Grail resides, the interior of a massive zeppelin and flooded catacombs beneath Venice. "Last Crusade" relies much more on actual, mechanical effects than it does, on post-production opticals, which were more prevalent in the first two pictures. For example, a scene in which Indy slugs it out with an assassin on a wooden speedboat while the craft is Jjeing chopped to kindling by a gigantic freighter's propeller was filmed full-size in London harbor. Time-released explosive charges on the speedboat were set off to simulate the chopping effect.

While it naturally looks more convincing, this approach to movie magic is often tough to pull off. Co-producer Marshall and Michael Moore split action-sequence directing duties on "Last Crusade." The producer side of Marshall couldn't be happier with the idea of practical effects; the side that had to make them work in the field has a different opinion. "We had to rethink a lot of stuff on the tank chase once we got there and saw what the tank could do. It's real easy to draw and write things, but once you get a 10-ton tank out there in the desert, it doesn't always go as fast or turn as well as you'd hoped. We had to rethink quite a few of the tank gags." If a built-to-order tank was unpredictable, imagine what could have happened during another Marshall-directed scene: Indy and Austrian researcher Elsa Schneider's (newcomer Allison Doody) search for clues to the Grail's whereabouts in the rat-infested catacombs of Venice.

"Last Crusade's" requisite "ick factor" scene (it was snakes in the first movie, bugs in "Temple of it-involved 6,000 specially bred rodents. 4 Almost as good' is plenty in this case 4 i REVIEW: "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is rated PG-13. Coliseum 4, Hampton; Beech- mont Twin, Newport News; Martin Twin, Williamsburg; -Tower Mall, Portsmouth; Circle 4, Terrace, Norfolk; Lynnhaven Mall Upper Level, Lynnhaven Mall Lower Level, Pembroke Mall, Virginia Beach By PHILIP WUNTCH Dallas Morning News Just how good, you immediately want to know, is "Indiana Jones and the Last It is infinitely better than "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and almost as good as "Raiders of the Lost Ark." All right then, just how big a stretch is covered by the phrase "almost as good as 'Raiders of the Lost Suffice to say that the new film is a grand and glorious adventure performed with panache, directed with style and written with considerable humor. It would be impossible for executive producer George Lucas, director Steven Spielberg and company to duplicate the unexpected magic of the first adventure. After all, the key word was "unexpected." At the time, no one knew what to expect from an Indiana Jones movie.

The magic of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is that it follows the diagram of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" while adding new dimensions and twists. The panded; evidently Indy's female enrollment has enlarged from 1936 (when "Raiders" took place) to 1938 (when the current film occurs). Once Indy undertakes his new mission, which is nothing less than a search for the Holy Grail, the film develops its own pace. It has a somewhat gentler cadence than "Raiders," with the emphasis on verbal wit. On this escapade, Indy is accompanied by his father, a disapproving pedant whose specialty is medieval history.

Father and son never have resolved their personal conflicts, but it's to the credit of the writing, directing and acting that "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" explores the generational conflict without seeming like a macho reprise of "On Golden Pond." Indy's father never will treat him with the respect he deserves, and one imagines that Indy eventually will get used to it Sean Connery turns the irascible Dr. Henry Jones into a lovable curmudgeon. The film's success hinges on the rapport between the two actors. Connery and Ford seem to enjoy playing off one another, and their barbed banter has the right mixture of competitiveness and warmth. Some viewers may even insist that Connery steals the show, which would not be entirely fair to Ford.

River Phoenix makes an impressive appearance in the prologue, an episode that will be of prime importance to those who take their Indiana Jones mythology seriously. Alison Doody, as the extremely slick Dr. Elsa Schneider, performs with the right polish. Julian Glover, playing a sneaky American industrialist, is the perfect villain for the occasion. And Harrison Ford, equipped with a sly half-smile and the screen's most intriguing monotone, continues to make Indiana Jones an endearingly human hero.

He shows fright when attacked, he pursues women with befuddlement as well as bravado and, as his father consistently points out, he makes mistakes. More than any other superhero in movie folklore. Indy seems like just plain good company. -J first 20 minutes have the same rhythm as the earlier film: A hair-raising, beautifully constructed opening scene is followed by an amusing sequence showing Indy at the university, speaking before throngs of adoring, distracted co-eds. The classroom sequence, incidentally, demonstrates director Spielberg's clever know-how.

He makes the episode just similar enough to the "Raiders" scene to be funny, and just different enough to be unique. For example, the rows of co-eds have ex Harrison Ford opted to do most of his stunts, including the tank sequence. 'How I Got Into College' goes from funny to flat By JOHN II. RICHARDSON Los Angeles Dail News w. LOS ANGELLS "How I Got Into College" is CT a ildly uneven movie.

REVIEW: -How I Cot Into College" is rated PG-13. W.nrnsbtrg Theatre: Nerrar-Ket South, Patrick Henry 7. Newport News, lymhaven Ma3 Loer Levei. Perrfcrce Mil. Virg ra Beach, Orce 4.

NorfoX Pa a. ter, in her film debut) pulls for a hard-working girl from a ghetto and the other, a hateful yuppie administrator, just wants to admit rich overa-chievers. Into this debate comes Marlon (Corey Parker), a good, somewhat doofy kid who Just wants to follow his dream girt. Jessica (Lara Flynn Boyle) to whatever college she applies. This happens to be the ceiiepe currently trying to decide whether people like him even deserve hither education.

But Marlon's SAT scores are lower than a jup-t te's So he unsi up for an SAT prp class. Abrml 25 perter.t of the movie consists ot his fan-tavs dinre Finally. Iiarj5a jts his stales fVarg lata college on making a video instead of writing an essay. Will the administrators appreciate his "creativity" or will they be narrow-minded? Will the good administrator (played, mysteriously, by the talented Anthony wards) decide to grow up and take the dean of admissions position, or will he leave it to the hateful yuppie? And. most important of all.

will Marion get the girl? Clearly, the filmmakers were tryirut for a pllr "RaiMOf Amor.a" quality, and soraetises they pull it off. Jt Hw I Ge Into Cofr" is scattershot. (tmllj too pottles. If ea 1 1 12. avot i it xmeumes is tunny, wnen director sieve Holland (who for some reason likes to rail himself Savage Steve Holland) overheats his uneven scrip to the point of absurdity.

At other times, it's so flat it seems ta hare just one side and again it's hen Holia.vl overheats his uneTeti script to the point of absurd.ty. I ottarsd just d-sesnl seem ta be able ta pull off his own sty le cofiHrteTitly. Beyond that the film is or of t.Ne Booties that Use pac in a woriJ cermet hr ms-e from r.tk.;rf resmttirg ear m. It centers, for eta.Tfle. on whether a txAf9 hoili admit kids etr en the tas rf test scores, or whether they shoulj tike thr personalities ir.ia account or avfajniSratar ttlie ttaraisf Firai Car-.