Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: May 23, 1984

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

57	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Roger Ebert

This movie is one of the most relentlessly nonstop action pictures ever made, with a virtuoso series of climactic sequences that must last an hour and never stop for a second. It's a roller-coaster ride, a visual extravaganza, a technical triumph, and a whole lot of fun. Read full review

EmpireIan Nathan

The sustained furore of humour, visual panache and headlong momentum makes for dazzling cinema. Read full review

Kathleen Carroll

All in all, Spielberg has come up with another rousing piece of entertainment. Read full review

Eric Henderson

Temple of Doom doesn't so much pay tribute to the serial adventures of yore as it does embody them. Here, frivolity and evil blithely coexist—and women are a lot more likely to scream than win drinking contests. Read full review

Richard Corliss

The new film is more an embellishment than an improvement on the snazzy Raiders. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Indy's companions are weak; we don't identify with them the way we did with Marion and Sallah. There's less action and more overt comedy, and neither change works to the benefit of the story. Read full review

Bill Cosford

What Spielberg does is use the Lucas tricks to propel an old-fashioned fantasy, played broadly enough so that the laughs come as easily as the thrills. [23 May 1984, p.B1]

Vincent Canby

Watching it is like spending a day at an amusement park, which is probably what Mr. Spielberg and his associates intended. It moves tirelessly from one ride or attraction to the next, only occasionally taking a minute out for a hot dog, and then going right on to the next unspeakable experience. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

The nonstop pace may eventually numb viewers to the thrills, although Spielberg must be congratulated for adding some shades of character to his archetypal action hero this time around. Read full review

Jack Kroll

Spielberg has gone to such lengths to avoid boredom that he has leaped squarely into the opposite trap: this movie has such unrelenting action that it jackhammers you into a punch-drunk stupor. This may be the first movie whose audience O.D.'s on action. [4 June 1984, p.78]

Rita Kempley

It has more complex stunts, more technical perfection, and more than a touch of genius. It's fun at both ends. But it's also mean-spirited and corrupt at its core. Read full review

David Sterritt

Moviegoers deserve more than the racism, sexism, and all-purpose mayhem on view here - failings that offset the razor-sharp action and technical brilliance also visible. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

Spielberg is such a talented director it’s a shame to see him lose all sense of subtlety and nuance. Read full review

Matthew Fraser

The heroic irony that was hilarious in Raiders is merely ridiculous here, and the half-tribute/half-parody of the adventure genre is toyed with to threadbare extremes. [23 May 1984]