Splendid.
Comment
03/04/08
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
94
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:47
Fresh:44
Rotten:3
Average Rating:8.8/10
Consensus: Featuring bravura set pieces, sly humor, and white-knuckle action, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most consummately entertaining adventure pictures of all time.
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: Action-packed and adventure-filled, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is director Steven Spielberg's loving homage to the Saturday matinee cliffhanger serials of his childhood. When the Allies discover the... [More]
Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey
Director: Steven Spielberg
Reviews for Raiders of the Lost Ark
Top CriticWhether you swallow it or not, see it for a handful of totally unexpected visual jokes, worth the price of admission alone.
06/24/06
Top CriticThe stunts are incredible and the effects astonishing, but it's Harrison Ford's effortlessly charming performance as the original tomb raider that makes his globetrotting quest for the Ark of the Covenant so appealing.
01/10/02
Top CriticFord, in a career-minting performance, plays what would've been a cardboard cut-out in the 1930s as grubby, coy, impertinent, imperfect, phobic of snakes and agnostic (describing the Ark's magic as "the power of God or something").
01/01/00
Top CriticThe thrills are fully consumed while you’re seeing this movie, and it’s totally over when it’s over. It’s a workout. You feel as if you’d been to the desert digs: at the end your mind is blank, yet you’re parched, you’re puffing hard -- you want relief.
05/27/08
Justifiably one of the most indelible adventure films in cinematic history...
05/26/08
It's the perfect vacation-time movie: not a serious moment in its whole two hours but so crammed with laughter, thrills and cinematic sleight of hand that audiences will be sorry when it's over.
05/22/08
Lost Ark holds up for many reasons, not least of which is because of Spielberg's consummate skill as a visual storyteller and his ability to draw charged performances from his actors.
05/21/08
The postmodern heir to North By Northwest...Like any deathless classic, Raiders is a perfect marriage of star and material.
05/14/08
...despite the fast pace, the movie is never frenetic or tiring, just pure, unadulterated fun throughout.
05/07/08
The most purely fun movie ever made.
05/06/08
...lets us indulge in childish thrills without feeling silly about it.
05/06/08
Vastly entertaining, Spielberg's adventure herladed a new breed of Hollywood blockbuster (and event film), a tale that combines classic Hollywood story-telling, playful postmodern sensibility and spectacular stunts presented in rapid-fire pacing.
03/08/08
perhaps the greatest adventure movie of all time
02/15/08
...a crackerjack fantasy-adventure that shapes its pulp sensibilities and cliff-hanging serial origins into an exhilarating escapist entertainment that will have broad-cased summer audiences in the palm of its hand.
06/28/07
Top CriticOne would think that a collaboration between Steven Spielberg and George Lucas would produce something better than this giggly pastiche of a Republic serial...
06/28/07
New Hollywood moguls Spielberg and Lucas teamed up to create the first -- and best -- of their extremely popular plunderings of old adventure serials ... In retrospect, it also appears as a precise pop-culture inauguration of Reagan-era retro Americanism.
08/07/06
Classic action set pieces, Harrison Ford at his swashbuckling best, Old Testament spirituality, and a satiric jab at Nazi anti-Semitism.
11/07/03
This is the kind of movie that, even today, audiences immediately fall in love with. It has all the right ingredients: a smart script, a likable hero, a dash of romance, more than a touch of comedy, and a lot of fast-paced action.
11/06/03
Throughout the film, Spielberg evokes the kind of armchair-clutching action sequences that remind us why they're called motion pictures.
10/27/03
Latest News for Raiders of the Lost Ark
July 28, 2008:
Lucas Considers a Fifth Indiana Jones 
George Lucas is bringing Clone Wars to a theater near you, getting down to work on the Tuskegee Airmen-inspired Red Tails, and -- oh yeah -- contemplating a fifth Indiana Jones... More...
July 16, 2008:
Exclusive: The World of WALL-E
The artists behind this year's freshest film share their story with RT, with exclusive contributions from Andrew Stanton, Ben Burtt, Jim Morris, Lindsay Collins, Angus MacLane,... More...
May 21, 2008:
Indiana Jonesin': How Does the Latest Chapter Measure Up?
Everyone has their favorite Indiana Jones movie -- and their own thoughts on if Raiders of the Ark is better than Last Crusade. (Sorry, Temple of Doom -- there's no contest). ... More...
May 12, 2008:
RT on DVD: Indiana Jones Box Set, Narnia in Blu-ray, and a Porn Virus Epidemic?
Spaced, the UK cult hit series, is finally headed to the States this summer - but guess what's here now? A 3-disc Indiana Jones DVD collection and Narnia in Blu-ray! (Plus, we... More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
Competitions
Get the Flixster App Now
Download it from iTunes and get Tomatometer scores straight to your iPhone.
RSS Feeds
