Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [use spoiler tags, please]

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by kottke.org

Not so long ago, on May 24th, IMDB message board participant beachedblonde coined a new phrase: nuke the fridge. Here's the definition from the Urban Dictionary...it's roughly equivalent to jumping the shark:

A colloquialism used to delineate the precise moment at which a cinematic franchise has crossed over from remote plausibility to self parodying absurdity, usually indicating a low point in the series from which it is unlikely to recover. A reference to one of the opening scenes of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which the titular hero manages to avoid death by nuclear explosion by hiding inside a kitchen refrigerator.

Sample usage:

Man, when Peter Parker started doing the emo dance in Spider-Man 3, that franchise officially nuked the fridge.

Since then, things have progressed quickly. The original posting seems to have been deleted but the phrase caught on, infected other message boards and web sites, and is now a full-blown meme on the verge of nuking the fridge itself. Google currently returns close to 16,000 results for variations on the phrase. Some participants in the IMDB forums have already grown tired of the phrase's repeated use. A Wikipedia page was created and has already been deleted (reason: "Protologism with no RELIABLE sources evidencing more than extremely limited usage"). A web site dedicated to the meme is available at nukingthefridge.com, not to be confused with the movie review blog at nukedthefridge.com. And of course, no meme these days is complete without the proper new media accoutrements: Facebook page, MySpace page, t-shirt, YouTube page, an auction to sell the domain name, and a post on a large-ish general interest blog way after the whole thing's already played out. I only heard it for the first time an hour ago and I'm already sick of it. Memes seem to be spreading so rapidly now on the web that they burn out before they can properly establish themselves. It'll be interesting to see if nuke the fridge makes it through this ultra-virulent phase and somehow slows down enough to jump to casual mainstream usage.

Their sample useage is pitch-perfect.

[mousepod]

Apparently there's a movie from 1963 called "Ladybug, Ladybug" where a character hides in a fridge to seek protection from a nuclear blast. I haven't seen it (and it's not on video), but I like the other movies I've seen by the director (David and Lisa, Mommie Dearest, Diary of A Mad Housewife). I've read several blogs that talk about all the different obscure films that Crystal Skull refers to. I think Boss Radio was on the right track with his original comments. I'm looking forward to watching it again on home video with this perspective.

[innerSpaceman]

I don't know why, but the fridge nuke thing barely bothered me when I first saw Raiders 4. I just took it as a silly joke, and went on from there.


Seriously, after the hijinks of Raiders 2 that everyone seemed fine with, I completely accepted anything without batting a Mara's Eyelash.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

I really didn't mind the fridge, either. Plausible? No. Popcorny summer moviey? Absolutely.

(I just loved the reference to Spider-Man 3 in that quote, mostly. The emo bangs/dance took the movie from milquetoast to mess in two seconds flat.)

[LashStoat]

Dear LSpoor...LEyeor...LPyor...awe forget it,

Dear LSPE,

I've seen the movie three times in (almost) as many weeks, and I'd rather be with it than without it.

That said, it'll be a sad day when we go to the movies and walk away without any opinion at all. Unless it has Tom Cruise in it, in which case silence is totally acceptable.

Hugs,

The Stoat.

[Boss Radio]

I forgot exactly what I said, but I stand by Mousepod.

What did I say again?

[Alex]

Stupidity is not improved for being a reference to previous stupidity. At least not in my book. And the stupidity here isn't hiding in a lead lined refrigerator (actually probably the best hiding place given the circumstances) but rather what happened to the refrigerator.

But like I've said (I think) I'd have been fine with the refrigerator if it were relatively isolated. Instead it was just the thin leading edge of a continuous onslaught of poorly conceived and terribly executed garbage.

[mousepod]

I don't disagree with your point, Alex. I was terribly disappointed when I saw the movie, and my first post in this thread reflects that.

However, I've been listening to and reading some comments from people whose opinions I value, such as Boss Radio Glenn Erickson, and I can't help but be reminded of my Gunga Din defense of the Temple of Doom.

I'm certainly not going to reevaluate this movie in hindsight, but I know that when I inevitably see it again, this is the filter through which I'll view it.

[Alex]

But looking at that list I don't necessarily see homages as simply ideas that have been used before (and sometimes a lot). For example:

Sexy Russian super-agent: curvaceous Janet Leigh as a Soviet air ace in JET PILOT (1957)

An individual with telepathic talent can read the minds of others: THE POWER (1968)

Sexy Soviet lady is a Jet Pilot reference? Does that mean that Natasha from Rocky & Bullwinkle was a Jet Pilot reference? Telepathy is a The Power reference? Does this mean that What Women Want is just a big tribute film?

If anything, if that article is accurate I think it further undermines the film. It turns Crystal Skull from being its own things with an eye towards the history of a genre to simply being a "best hits" clip reel of films from the 1950s (though 1980s). A less comedic entry in the Scary Movie franchise.

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, I'm not buying that either. The elements were enjoyable (to me) because they were archetypes. The sexy, mind-reading Soviet schemetress may be from this movie or that, but the point is she's from this movie and that movie, and that other movie, and already spoofed in that cartoon and that movie and that TV show and that other movie.


To say she's a specific homage to Jet Pilot is puny, and misses the boat by a wet mile.



Similarly, I don't find any of the Temple of Doom elements references specific to Gunga Din, when they are hoary old archetypes used, yes, in Gunga Din, and a hundred other films and stories.


Perhaps Gunga Din was the best repository of those elements .... heheh, before Temple of Doom came along.