Indiana Jones Week: The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Spring Break Adventure

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Day 5 of Indiana Jones Week and yes we still are NOT reviewing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. YAY!!!!   For reasons following that, how about another Young Indy adventure?  This time around I thought I would bring us stateside with Indy surviving the horrors of High School, being a soda jerk and dating Nancy Stratemeyer (daughter of Edward Stratemeyer, creator of the Bobsy Twins, Tom Swift and Nancy Drew).  Not too interesting, you say?  How about a Spring Break that ends with a Mexican Revolution?   This is The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Spring Break Adventure.

Father drones on after a few sherries. 

Pancho Villa:  I thought I was riding with men, not killers.  Soldiers and heroes not looking for more spoilers to be spilled.




In February 1916 with Spring Break on the rise, Indy (Sean Patrick Flanery of The Storyteller, Into the Fire, Masters of Horror, The Insatiable, Stephen King's Dead Zone and Dexter) is itching to take his gal Nancy (Robin Lively of Wildcats, Teen Witch, The Karate Kid, Part III, A Deadly Obsession and The Wrong Woman) to the prom.  But Mr. Stratemeyer is busy with the latest Tom Swift and hasn't the time to have the car repaired before the dance.  Thomas Edison's assistant Professor Thompson (Mark L. Taylor of Innerspace, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Arachnophobia) assures Indy he can fix the generator to the car when thugs steals Edison's new battery design plus the prototype.  With the break-in, the theft of both plans and battery swiped and word of German spies; Nancy and Indy try to unravel the mystery.

Gee whiz, bicycles don't get you girls!

The adventure doesn't end there when Indy travels with his father to visit family in Albuquerque New Mexico where Indy goes "camping" with his cousin Frank (Stephen Graf of No Job for a Lady, Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal and 6:41) to Columbus New Mexico for a taste of a good ole brothel.  Unbeknownst to the boys, Pancho Villa (Mike Moroff of La Bamba, Robocop, Cage, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn) and his revolutionaries had raided the town for goods and supplies.  Indy chases the bandito Francois (Francesco Quinn of Platoon, Casablanca Express, Murder Blues, Top Dog, Nowhere Land and The Young and the Restless) jumps the guy and the two start grappling.  Indy is taken at gun point thinking this is the end when Villa is less than pleased with this petty behavior, chastises the men and they fall in line.
Stirred by the General's passion and words, Indy joins the revolution and carries on the fight to free Mexico as the US forces seethe their way into Mexico waging war against the revolutionaries at the request of the Mexican government.

A few comments to make about the film now.   During the riding sequence, Flanery got to ride Tornado, the horse Harrison Ford rode in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  This episode is later referenced in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as Indy talks with Mutt.

 Mike Moroff's grandfather actually rode alongside the actual Pancho Villa and his aunt received love letters from the revolutionary himself which Moroff inherited.  A true piece of history in Moroff's eyes.

One more Frito Bandito joke and you are off the picture!

Burt Reynolds Week: 100 Rifles

Back again for more of Burt Reynolds week and I apologize for the delay.  I was busily assisting my folks in getting my mom back to more comfortable surroundings and last night’s thunderstorm said stay away from the computer.   

I thought this time around we would journey back to 1969. A western based on the 1966 novel The Californio by Robert MacLeond was getting a screenplay treatment by writer/director Tom Gries (Hell’s Horizon, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman and The Rat Patrol) and writer Clair Huffaker (Lawman, Colt .45, The Comacheros, Posse from Hell and The Second Time Around) cooked up the wild western tale of a revolution in Mexico and our boy Burt is smack dab in the middle of it all.  So saddle them horses, ride till dark and don’t shoot unless shot upon.  This is 100 Rifles.

 

Well clearly I will blend into this town.

You big headed spoiler! You are such a dummy!

The year is 1912, the place Mexico as the tyrannical General Verdugo (Fernando Lamas of The Merry Widow, The Lost World, Magic Fountain, The Violent Ones, The Lonely Profession and The Cheap Detective) puts a virtual stranglehold over the land, exploiting the Yaqui Indians into slave labor and has anyone and everyone shot who disagrees with his policy.  Think G.W. only with bigger cojones.   Joe Herrera (Burt Reynolds of Sharkey’s Machine, Stick, Heat, Malone, Switching Channels and Evening Shade) a half-breed Indian (Sheesh am I in Gunsmoke again?) of the Yaqui tribe sneaks off to Arizona and steals 6,000 buckaroos to buy rifles for his people.   Their plan is a bloody siege and storm against Verdugo’s men and defenses. 

I'm sorry but you are too big for marachi. 

Lawman Lyedecker (NFL fullback of the Cleveland Browns Jim Brown of The Dirty Dozen, Riot, Black Gunn, The Slams, Three the Hard Way, Take a Hard Ride and Mars Attacks) hops a train down to Mexico to find this bank robbing little blaggard and toss his hairy hinder in a cage for the rest of his natural days.    The two men get damn near pinched by Verdugo’s men and they flee for the hills when they are found by gorgeous revolutionary Sarita (Raquel Welch of Fantastic Voyage, One Million Years B.C., Fathom, Bandolero!, The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeer: Milady’s Revenge and Right to Die) led into the hills for safety.  The fellas trade snotty comments, ethnic slurs and fists as well until Lyedecker agrees to take command of the Yaqui tribe for an assault on the general.

Now I have a few bones about this movie, and seeing Raquel’s shower scene was NOT one of them. This is in all intents purpose an action movie and yet I get the feeling Tom Gries had little experience in such matters.  Apparently his idea of zooming up on Raquel or Jim firing then cut scene to staggering soldier was the end all.  Half of the time these actors avoided physics in that they fell forward when they should have dropped to the side or on their back.  Also there were so many dynamics with rough and tough thief, iron clad lawman and then sexy revolutionary I was trying to figure out whose story I should be following. 

Alright Palmer, where's my alimony??!!

The whole love story between Lyedecker and Sarita felt a bit sudden but hey I am not writing the bloody thing.  It was a bit confusing but this is very common when trying to translate a 500 page book into a script not even half that long. 

It felt like the film wanted to tell the entire lands their tale but they ran out of time.  Still all in all a fairly enjoyable flick and quite a crack up to see Reynolds sock it out with Jim Brown.