Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Bigger, busier, louder, and far less satisfying than Raiders of the Lost Ark, this first sequel (or, chronologically speaking, prequel) starts with a bang but then indulges in some serious miscalculations. After saddling Harrison Ford with a whiny love interest (Kate Capshaw) and a cloying young sidekick, the film then plunges them all into a grim, subterranean adventure with few of the globe-trotting thrills of the original. The movie, somewhat understandably, stirred controversy at the time of its release for its violence, gross-out gags, and general darkness. While the furor was exaggerated, all those grim deaths and enslaved children do kind of put a damper on the fun. Even so, a Spielberg-directed adventure can only plunge so far, and the director delivers the goods in numerous set pieces, though the series itself did not recover until 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide