The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Treasure of the Peacock's Eye

RELEASED TO TV IN 1995 and directed by Carl Schultz, "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" features 20 Year-old Indiana Jones (Sean Patrick Flanery) and his tubby pal, Remy (Ronny Coutteure), globetrotting from Belgium at the end of WWI to Egypt and, eventually, SE Asia and New Guinea, obsessed with finding a fabled lost diamond that belonged to Alexander the Great. The antagonists they face include a dubious man with an eye-patch, Asian pirates and (maybe) hostile islanders.

This was the second of four such movies with Flanery as the title protagonist, released from 1994-1996; although, chronologically, it was the third movie. Remy only appears in the first two and, for me, Coutteure didn't work in the role. Why? Because he's SO overweight that it's impossible to buy him as a WWI trench soldier or a world-traveling adventurer. The movie scores pretty well on the female front with cutie Jayne Ashbourne as Lily and Alice Lau as an Asian pirate, but neither lasts overly long, which is one of the problems with this movie: Characters come-and-go (usually dying) with Jones & Remy the only two constants.

Aside from the opening in the Belgium trenches, the first act is kind of tedious, but things perk up by midway with Lily and the Asian pirates; then the story bogs down again on an island in the South Pacific, although things get interesting when the real-life anthropologist of that period enters the proceedings, Bronislaw Malinowski (Tom Courtenay). Some people complain about the ending but I found the lesson that Malinowski teaches young Indiana compelling and inspiring.

Being a TV movie, "Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" of course lacks the production quality of the theatrical blockbusters, but it's not bad all things considered. It's the segmented story where I have a problem: The plot is just an excuse to thrust the treasure-hunters from one short-lived adventure to another; all the peripheral characters are thin as notebook paper and quickly discarded. Nevertheless, the movie contains likable heroes and the misadventures & intrigue that go with a treasure quest.

THE FILM RUNS 94 minutes and was shot in Bangkok & Phuket, Thailand (and, presumably, S. Cal., since there aren't any deserts in Thailand). WRITER: Jule Selbo.

GRADE: C+