INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989)

Fun, rousing addition to the Indiana Jones story. Opening with an quick and exciting story about a teenage Indiana Jones (River Phoenix) and a stolen golden cross.  Jump to 1938 and Indy learns that his father has disappeared while searching for the Holy Grail.  Off he goes to locate his father and of course all kinds of exciting adventures happen.  The relationship between Indy and his dad is fun to watch and it adds a lot of depth to his character.  But it's not all sentiment and hugging, oh no, there's tons of action and that tank bit...holy fuck that was exciting!

Boat chase, motorcycle chase, airplane chase, foot chase, tank chase, train chase, horse chase, car chase, rats, Nazis, fire, hot blonde, hidden doors, a Zeppelin, ancient booby traps, ancient messages, Hitler, this movies has all kinds of crazy shit going for it.  If you're into adventure films then IJATLC is mandatory.

Part 1 - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Part 2 (prequel) - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Part 4 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Those books look fake as Hell.

If this movie is set in 1938 then why is that slip of paper talking about the marriage rate in 1943?

THE MEANEST MAN IN THE WORLD (1943)

At only 57 minutes long, this might be one of the shortest "feature length" film ever released into theaters.  From what I've read, there were quite a few troubles with the production, so I guess we're lucky we got anything at all!

Jack Benny is a small town lawyer who can't get any clients because he's honest and has a soft heart.  His lack of money doesn't sit well with his fiancee's (Priscilla Lane) father.  He suggests that Benny move to New York City to try and strike it big.  He does and he's an even bigger failure there than he was back home.  Unfortunately, he's been lying to Priscilla and telling her that's he's struck it rich!  He knows that the biggest hindrance to him being a successful lawyer is him being nice, so in an effort to be mean he steals a lollipop from a little kid and as chance would have it a newspaper guy photographs him during the act.  suddenly he's the biggest lawyer in New York, but how long can he keep this mean act up?

The premise has potential, but it's not very funny.  Most of the jokes are stale and the whole thing (not surprisingly) feels rushed and slapped together.  If you're new to Jack Benny you'd be better off watch the previous year's GEORGE WASHINGTON SLEPT HERE which is much funnier. I'd love to see an extended version of this film, but I doubt it even exists.