Phubbs
Posts: 660
Joined: 3/4/2012
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Jewel of the Nile (1985)
Again we have the Indy comparison with this sequel. 'Temple of Doom' came out in 84 then along comes the sequel to the original Indy rip off in 85 and again its another poor mans version in my opinion. On top of that we're back to the most common terrain for all adventure flicks...sand dunes in the desert.
Now the original film was slightly adult in nature, swearing, soft sex scenes, drugs and slightly more mature action. This time the film has gone completely down the comedy route by amping up the action set pieces ten fold but making them more slapstick than before.
The first half of this film feels like a complete 'Temple of Doom' spin, yes I know its set in Egypt but the whole look and feel and the way Turner's character is treated is very similar to 'Doom' at the start. As the film progresses it does manage to shake the Indy vibe and instead could possibly be seen as an early influence for certain Brendan Fraser adventure flicks...well that's just my view.
Unfortunately the film just can't escape the need to follow in 'Dr Jones' footsteps so we have an entire action sequence involving a jet plane that is pretty similar to the Nazi plane fight sequence in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.
Well Indy comparisons aside (hard to do) the film is still pretty poor. Its chock full of plot holes and inconsistencies which are just silly. Yes I know you can't take the film seriously as at the end of the day its just a fun adventure film but come on!. For a start the trio (Turner, Douglas and Eisenberg) seem to walk and jog across half of Egypt (or somewhere in North Africa) for most of the film. One minute they are being chased by soldiers across a flat desert, the next minute after a brisk jog they are in a mountainous region and manage to climb up a huge cliff face without need for pause or water at any point!.
Plus I must add I was never sure where exactly they are suppose to be in North Africa. One minute they're in the fictional nation of 'Kadir', then they stray into Nubian land, then back into Arabic land, they cover a lot of ground it seems. Its all in the same region but its a big region.
I guess the continuity is good from the last film, same cast, I don't like the cast but they gel well. Devito has an even bigger comedy role this time and is still completely not funny, almost turning his character into a kind of 'Wil E. Coyote' farce this time, shameful. Speaking of shameful, the less said about the cheap sets the better methinks, whoa!.
Its admittedly cult 80's action fluff but I just can't give a thumbs up for this or the original. This is worse than the first as its been dumbed down badly, at least the first was more mature. You can certainly see where many other adventure flicks in recent years may have gotten inspiration as this has all the ingredients you would expect. Again the films poster is really good but this time gives a good impression of the action to be seen.
< Message edited by Phubbs -- 28/8/2012 4:03:18 AM >
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Jewel of The Nile, The - 
and music video to match.
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