Sherlock Holmes and the Temple of Doom (1985)

[Catman]

Has anyone here seen Young Sherlock Holmes? It's produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Chris Columbus, and directed by Barry Levison. Now, is it just me or does this film seem very similar to Temple of Doom? I mean, seriously, what the hell:

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

This is by far the laziest thing Steven Spielberg has done in his entire career. Also, people like to claim that Spielberg was the real director on 1982's Poltergiest, but this movie is WAY more Spielberg-esque. It's almost a joke that Levison is credited. I'm surprised that the DGA didn't do an investigation.

[AllyBabble]

I only saw this for the first time last year, i thought it would be absolute crap, but I enjoyed it a lot, it does become too much like ToD(i was thinking that too, how could you not, even that scene where the three of them are spying on the cultists in their temple from an above vantage point is exactly the same as the one in ToD), but I love all the stuff in the boarding school before that.

edit: So yeah, the first half of the movie is great, but when it goes ToD it becomes less interesting, but not at all terrible, you just end up feeling you have seen the same story done better, so can easily switch off during it.
I did like it all the way to the end on first watch, despite the similarities, but when i re-watched it i was only interested in the 'origins' part at the boarding school(in a Batman Begins/Smallville way), it had some decent scenes after though, when the guy is attacked in the shop by that wee demon, and the hallucinations in the graveyard scene was interesting, i was surprised they went that dark for a kid's film like that back then.

edit: and yeah, it seemed when SS was producing his flavour came into the flick, Donner's Goonies has the same kind of Spielberg vibe too.

when i was a kid the Saturday morning kid's show i watched advertised for kids of a certain age to send in photos and a resume of themselves to audition for the part of Holmes in the movie, man, i was gutted that i was too young to send in my pic, lol, always remember that.

[Catman]

Originally Posted by AllyBabble

i thought it would be absolute crap, but I enjoyed it a lot

Oh, I agree. It's a very entertaining flick. And it definitely grows on you as you continue to watch. After a while I just stopped nitpicking and went along for the ride. My favorite thing about this movie is the score. Although even that seems a bit rip-offish. The composer was clearly trying to imitate John Williams:

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

[AllyBabble]

Yeah, those flutes at the start are very JW.

i edited a bit more into my post, but will say here in regards to the SS influence, that seemed to go on in movies he produced(Goonies, Batteries not Included, Gremlins), as well as folk like Chris Columbus making films in his style(Home Alone, Harry Potter), he was just a big influence due to his impact, and lesser talents latched onto that. It's like bands in the 60s aping the Beatles, only sometimes can they match the original(like Dante with Gremlins, although he of course had his own style in there too, making it a bit more darker and crazier than Spielberg would have).

[Catman]

Young Sherlock Holmes is much more Spielberg-esque than the other movies he produced in the `80s. Poltergiest still had some Tobe Hooper elements like the parents smoking pot and the mom practically getting raped when the ghosts attacked at the end. Gremlins is 99.9% Joe Dante. His quirky humor is throughout that entire film. Spielberg's only real influence was Gizmo. The Goonies had Spielberg-influence in the action scenes, there's even reports that he directed those, but everything else was Richard Donner. Back to the Future had almost nothing to do with Spielberg. I think he was just producer-in-name-only on that franchise. But, Young Sherlock Holmes doesn't seem like it was directed by Levison. Watch his other movies and then compare it to this. They're complete opposites. And, yet, it has every single Spielberg trademark - including a William-esque score. Like I said, I'm surprised the DGA didn't do an investigation.

[AllyBabble]

Originally Posted by Catman

Young Sherlock Holmes is much more Spielberg-esque than the other movies he produced in the `80s. Poltergiest still had some Tobe Hooper elements like the parents smoking pot and the mom practically getting raped when the ghosts attacked at the end. Gremlins is 99.9% Joe Dante. His quirky humor is throughout that entire film. Spielberg's only real influence was Gizmo. The Goonies had Spielberg-influence in the action scenes, there's even reports that he directed those, but everything else was Richard Donner. Back to the Future had almost nothing to do with Spielberg. I think he was just producer-in-name-only on that franchise. But, Young Sherlock Holmes doesn't seem like it was directed by Levison. Watch his other movies and then compare it to this. They're complete opposites. And, yet, it has every single Spielberg trademark - including a William-esque score. Like I said, I'm surprised the DGA didn't do an investigation.

I always thought there was a bit of Spielbergian flavour in Gremlins, but only maybe on a surface level, the way it opens with the big Christmas song, that always struck me as Spielbergian, or maybe that is just because his name comes up at that point in the movie 'SS presents...' and i am hallucinating, lol.
Maybe it is just because it concerns families and a small town, and has the supernatural, and Spielberg has a lot like that, I shouldn't attribute those characteristics to him all the time though.

perhaps the constant in the two, Gremlins and YSH, is screenwriter Chris Columbus, his original take on Gremlins was supposed to be much more cuddley and quirky , rather than what Dante eventually did with it.
Also, I would say that Gremlins 2 was 100% Dante, and actually, in that light, come to think of it, i do think there is a Spielberg influence on the first one, Dante in fact demanded complete control of the second one or else he would not do it, so it ended up a self-referencing, post-modern wotsit of a satire. so that suggets Spielberg was in there with some decisions with the first one, making it retain commercial trappings, that the mayhem was contained within.

The Goonies i have not seen in about 20yrs so can't comment, but it did strike me as having some Spielberg in there, and again, like Gremlins, i think he probably did have some creative input at the meetings, shortround is in there, and it does have that 'kids on an Indiana Jones treasure hunt' vibe to it.

Poltergeist, we all know, defo has that SS flavour to it, it's like an 'R'/18 ET, and reports were that both had a hand in directing it.

I have not seen the second Transformers movie, but SS did not produce that one, and perhaps it suffered because of that, because the first one again has a bit of him in there, the kid discovering the alien etc, does have an ET vibe to it. I doubt he only brings along the doughnuts to the production meetings, the guy will have a say, and good ideas, and some of them in get in there, and i think that would have happened with Gremlins, although i guess there are some things he would not have put in there if it were totally up to him, and Dante had to push for them.

edit: and as for my earlier comments on lesser talents, don't get me wrong, I don't think SS was the best, just that he had the biggest impact of the late 70s/80s of any film director, just as i think there were better bands than the Beatles. His career has been fairly consistent, he still makes good movies(CMIYC, Munich), unlike Dante, whose Small Soldiers was basically an inferior re-heat of Gremlins, except now with a 'PG' tag, and the wildness tamed.
Levinson made Rain Man, which is sublime, but i can't recall what other movies he made, i know he directed the pilot ep of Oz, which was genius, but he defo followed the chords and riffs of SS on YSH, as you say. and he moved into producing afaik, so was not too confident about his directing skills i guess.
Donner is very hit and miss too, a great Superman, Lethal Weapon was good, but then you get stuff like Timeline, which could have been so much better, and conspiracy Theory, whioch was enjoyable, but a bit goofy and sloppy.

[:eek:]

Been a long time since I saw this movie, I kinda enjoyed it when I was a kid, but sure it definitely feels more like Young Indiana Jones rather than Young Sherlock Holmes. It might not be a masterpiece but it has deserved its place in movie history for one reason: it was the first movie to include a fully computer-generated character (the stained glass knight), created by John Lasseter

[ttotheusher]

Great movie. Kind of a mixture of Harry Potter and Indiana Jones. The film was actually titled as "Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear" in England in order to cash in on ToD.

[Catman]

Originally Posted by ttotheusher

Kind of a mixture of Harry Potter and Indiana Jones.

Which is funny because Harry Potter didn't exist in 1985.

[ALP]

Originally Posted by Catman

Which is funny because Harry Potter didn't exist in 1985.

He did one year later.