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The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Vol. 2

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  • Title: The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Vol. 2
  • tv.com: link

young-indiana-jones-vol-twoVolume Two takes young Indiana Jones (Sean Patrick Flanery) into the ranks of the Belgium Army.  He enlists under the name Henri Defense (because he is underage at the time of his enlistment), and joins the war effort to do his part.

The adventures this time around begin with Indy’s role on the front lines in the trenches with his friend Remy (Ronny Coutteure).  Over the course of this volume he will fight on the front lines both on the Western Front and in Africa, work as a runner for the French, escape from a German P.O.W. camp with the help of Charles De Gaulle (Herve Pauchon), be drafted into a suicide mission by a company of old soldiers, and spend a stint as a photographer with the famous flyboys of the Lafayette Escadrille which will bring him face-to-face with the Red Baron (Marc Warren).

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Raiders of the Lost Ark

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  • Title: Raiders of the Lost Ark
  • IMDB: link

“Snakes.  Why does it always have to be snakes?”

raiders-of-the-lost-ark

We meet Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in the jungles of South America.  He survives the traps of the temple only to loose his prize (a golden Aztec idol) to a rival archaeologist, Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman).

The first sequence, involving traps, spikes, a very larger boulder, poison darts, and a tribe of natives, tells us everything we need to know about the character.  His intelligence, his knowledge, his adventurous spirit, and humor are all on display, as is the fact that this is a hero who doesn’t always win.  Only the later scene involving a swordsman on the streets of Cairo is more memorable.

On returning to the States Dr. Jones is hired by the US Government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazi’s can unearth it.  His adventure will include being reunited with an old flame (Karen Allen), racing against time for the prize, surviving being trapped in a pit full of snakes, and stowing away on a Nazi submarine.  And that’s just a few of the adventures packed into the film’s two-hour running time.

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The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Vol. 1

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  • Title: The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Vol. 1
  • tv.com: link

young-indiana-jones-vol-oneVolume One, as well as the second and third volumes of the series, chronologically collects the series in sets of television movies (rather than in the order the original hour-long episodes aired).

The first five chapters of the series involve the adventures of young Henry Jones Jr. (Corey Carrier) traveling around the country with his father Professor Henry Jones (Lloyd Owen, doing an acceptable Sean Connery impression), his mother Anna (Ruth de Sosa), and his tutor Miss Seymour (Margaret Tyzack).

Most of the adventures fall into the same basic story structure, which (somewhat unbelievably) doesn’t get old.  The family arrives in a new location where Prof. Jones has been asked to lecture and Indy finds a way to get out of studying and ultimately, whether meaning to or not, finds himself involved in mischief, often with historical characters.  An over the course of the episode young Indy learns an important lesson.

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Tokyo Godfathers

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  • Title: Tokyo Godfathers
  • IMDB: link

It’s funny how a child can bring people closer together, and pull them from the depths of desperation.  In the movie Tokyo Godfathers, by the same person of Paprika and Millennium Actress, three homeless friends happen to be in the right place at the right time.

One Christmas eve, the three friends were digging through some trash for presents for one another when they discovered an abandoned infant.  The child was crying, cold and hungry, so the three did the right thing and took it in for the night.

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Guilty Pleasure – Stroker Ace

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  • Title: Stroker Ace
  • IMDB: link

“Who gives a cluck?”

stroker-ace

Burt Reynolds stars as hot-shot race car driver Stroker Ace whose talent for winning is only surpassed by his inability to get along with his sponsors.

After burning bridges with every other race team Stroker finds himself forced to sign with fried chicken franchise mogul Clyde Torkle (Ned Beatty) who gets the most out of his new star attraction by parading him around like a prized bird (sometimes literally).

Unable to get out of the binding contract Stroker is forced to put up with his new situation.  However, things aren’t all bad.  He’s still got his mechanic buddy (Jim Nabors) and his new position did introduce him to Torkle’s secretary Pembrook Feeney (Loni Anderson), a woman with an unlikely secret.

Aside from many Nascar drivers who show up in cameos during the film there are a couple of small performances worth mentioning including Bubba Smith as Torkle’s chauffeur Arnold and Parker Stevenson as the new hot-shot driver gunning for Stroker’s spot as Nascar’s #1 driver whose name Stroker can never quite remember.

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