Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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Post by The Original BJ »

This is an entertaining movie. It's certainly nothing fresh, but it coasts pretty easily on its energy and sense of fun, and thus is mostly satisfying as far as summer entertainments go.

I, for one, didn't mind the obvious CGI. I thought the green-screening and roughness of some of the effects actually helped the film -- it felt pulpy and more old-fashioned, whereas slicker effects would have been less appropriate. And I liked a lot of the throwbacks to the earlier films; this is the type of movie that rides on nostalgia, and I found its irreverant sense of humor fun.

Also, I thought the entire sequence with Indy in the model community was a total kick, and takes one of Spielberg's favorite themes -- the troubles of American suburban living -- to hilariously horrifying levels.

I didn't much understand the final alien sequence. It felt completely anticlimactic to me. And I couldn't keep track of, nor was I interested in, the ever-changing loyalties of Ray Winstone's character. (I certainly didn't understand why the other characters treated his team-switching so nonchalantly.) Others have rightly noted that the jungle sequence borrows heavily from the chase in Raiders, and obviously pales in comparison.

But Cate Blanchett sporting a rapier, a bob haircut, and the only accent that could possibly sell lines like, "I vant...to knowwwwww!"? Perfection.
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Post by Reza »

FilmFan720 wrote:And that has to be the most ridiculous final 20 minutes of any film this year.
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Post by FilmFan720 »

It's good fun, especially the first half. I enjoyed the throwaways to the other films, and for the most part the cast here is having fun. Winstone is wasted, but Hurt brings the most to a lifeless part.

I wasn't a big fan of the jungle chase, mostly because it seemed to go on for so long. That entire second half is one action sequence after another, without any of the light breaks that the earlier films presented. I agree, Koepp's script is the problem here, as is any of the George Lucas touches that stick out like sore thumbs. And that has to be the most ridiculous final 20 minutes of any film this year.
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Post by Eric »

Does it work better than the first or second? No. The third? Yes. In either case, does it contain some of the strongest standalone images in the entire series. Unquestionably yes. It's a disappointment, but I wasn't as crestfallen as I was watching Catch Me If You Can, for instance.
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Post by Sabin »

I can't comment on Darabont's script because his sensibilities and Spielberg's would seem to mesh pretty solidly, but I think David Koepp is a pretty solid screenwriter with a rather astonishing output. Some films are more solid than others but I don't think you can really discount his talent especially considering that Darabont is a pretty hit-and-miss filmmaker.

I didn't care for the jungle action sequence because it is almost the exact same production as 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.
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Post by OscarGuy »

Spoiler Warning

I'm just sick to death of Spielberg and his alien fixation and who ever decided to give David Koepp (a passable screenwriter, but a punk compared to Frank Darabont who wrote the first script that Spielberg loved and Lucas said no to) a chance at writing this is bull shit. Darabont knows Indy better than most, having written several of the Young Indy scripts. Yet, here there's no wit or charm only random action sequence after random action sequence.

The triple agent subplot was not only unnecessary, it wasn't even remotely suspenseful.

I think the jungle action sequence fits perfectly into the great aspects of the Indiana Jones canon. It fits perfectly with the rest of the series. However, this just seems like a third rate National Treasure episode and even then we're force-fed facts early on and the sense of discovery is absent.

And did I mention I'm sick of Spielberg's alien fixation? Holy crap. I thought the whole "psionic warfare" idea was pretty ludicrous, but to suggest it was only an ancient alien invasion? I know that theories abound that ancient cultures had to have alien interference, but there's no actual proof of that and to do something like this flies in the face of archaeology itself, what Indiana Jones used to be about. Color me disappointed with the whole thing (minus the jungle sequence and Shia LaBeouf {who was quite good in a poorly-written role}).
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Post by Penelope »

Harrison Ford's charm in the role and one genuinely exciting action setpiece (the chase through the jungle) are the only good things about the film. Karen Allen was an embarrassment, making me long for Kate Capshaw's Willie Scott from Temple of Doom. I wasn't expecting much--the first two films remain the best--but this was still pretty disappointing.
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Post by Reza »

This film was bearable strictly because of the big screen. Otherwise it was a rehash of all the 3 previous films.

The first film remains the best.
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Post by Sabin »

For the sake of argument, I'm going to cancel out Spielberg's tactile staging mastery with Lucas' penchant for random-ass shit that has nothing to do with anything.

Three reasons why I love 'Indiana Jones'...

1) Indiana Jones is irreverent - Indy harkens back to the hard-boiled 40's tough guys like Bogart and Mitchum who smirked in the face of doom to buy more time. None of that here. He's mostly pissed about life.

2) Indiana Jones is intelligent - Indy knows what he's after. He has a wealth of knowledge that serves him before anything else. In 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull', so much time is wasted on subplots and chases that anybody could succeed as much as he does. As a matter of fact, Indiana Jones himself does perilously little in this film. "But Harrison Ford is so old you have to give a little slack for..." -- then don't make the movie. The one trait I never want to see in Indiana Jones is passivity.

3) Like James Bond, Indiana Jones is not a person - although 'Casino Royale' brought James Bond back to human basics, Indiana Jones belongs to the Pauline Kael ethos of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Or rather Find Find Whip Whip. Not since 'Spider-Man 3' has a film wasted so much time on tying up arbitrary subplots, and yet in 'The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' subplots are invented for the sole purpose of tying up. Although I do not want to see Indiana Jones grow as a person (like, NEVER. He is fine the way he is), if you are going to bring back Marion, she'd better be the sassy firecracker from the first one in lieu of the Mary Sue she is here. If you're going to give Indiana Jones a kid, you'd better let him show the lil' fucker up. And beyond anything else, if you're going to have Indiana Jones travel with four other people that will take time away from him being the awesomeness that is Indiana Jones, I'd better care about them. I care about Marion and she doesn't do anything. She is barely there. Shia LaBeouf is damn fine but who gives a shit?

Is this a bad movie? Not really. It works as nostalgic pop art, but because it takes everything I love about Indiana Jones and decides to distort it into something akin to committee negotiation, I have to say I was resolutely disappointed.
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Post by rain Bard »

I'm probably not the one to ask, as I'm something of a cinema purist: I tend to think ANY film viewing experience in a theatre is going to be significantly superior to a home viewing.

That said, the main benefit to watching this new Spielberg film in a cinema is probably to soak up the crowd response. There's enough scenes played for laughs that, unless you're a real curmudgeon, you'll probably enjoy laughing along with the fans. There might be some cheering and booing too; I'm not sure what cinema audiences are like in your neck of the woods.

Harrison Ford is still convincingly the character, and it's good to see Karen Allen back, even if their relationship has been drained of nearly all of its sexual tension; Indy and Marion relate to each other more like an old married couple than like reunited lovers. This was my first time seeing Shia LeBeouf in a film, and he was fine in the role. John Hurt and Ray Winstone give a performances beneath their talents, not that it's really their fault as their characters are written without any subtlety. Cate Blanchett at least gets to ham it up with a Natasha Fatale accent and a Colleen Moore wig.

The plot itself gets hokier and more ridiculous as it goes along, just like a Saturday serial should. I found one action scene surprisingly effective, and another completely dull. The others are adequately fun. I didn't mind the ramping up of the silliness in the film from the other three films; in fact I'm not sure I agree that the silliness is all that ramped up (opening shot aside), as whenever I return to one of the original trilogy I'm always surprised how much more cartoonish they seem while watching than they are in memory. I'm not sure how that works.

The one major complaint I have with the film is its look. There's something about the unearthly lighting in scenes that don't really benefit from it that grated on me. One theory some friends and I had was that the bright glow in many scenes where it seemed out of place was designed to match the look of the computer-generated imagery (of which there was quite a bit more than advance articles would suggest) and green-screen technology. But it certainly doesn't look like either a) the real world, or b) the rest of the films in the series. I never thought I'd miss Douglas Slocombe this much.
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Post by Reza »

The film will be released here in Pakistan on May 30. Is it worth a visit to the cinema?
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Post by Greg »

'Indiana Jones' unearths $126M in box office gold
By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES - Indiana Jones unearthed box office gold at domestic theaters with a performance that puts it on track to become the second biggest Memorial Day movie opening ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The fourth installment of the whip-cracking professor's exploits, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," grossed an estimated $101 million from Friday to Sunday, plus $25 million from its opening Thursday, distributor Paramount Pictures said. The company expects it to earn another $25 million on Monday.

That would put it behind only "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," which had a Friday-through-Monday total of $139.8 million, in the pantheon of Memorial Day weekend blockbusters.

Including Thursday's receipts, "Indiana Jones" was expected to collect $151 million over five days, slightly behind "Pirates," which took in $153 million with a partial Thursday included.

"'Indiana Jones' did incredibly well for a film that comes 19 years after the previous installment," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of tracking firm Media By Numbers LLC.

The adventure flick received a lackluster reception from critics at the Cannes Film Festival, but audiences thought otherwise.

Box office estimates grew from $25 million on its opening Thursday through $37 million on Saturday, suggesting strong word of mouth, Dergarabedian said.

"This is the definition of a summer movie from two of the architects of the summer movie season — George Lucas and Steven Spielberg," he said. "These guys have it down to a science and audiences want to go along for that ride."

The first three Indy movies took in $1.2 billion worldwide.

Disney's action sequel, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," slipped to second place with $23 million, for a total of $91.1 million over two weeks. The company expected the movie to continue to play well as school lets out.

"Once you start getting the mass number of kids out of school, it turns into some serious money," said Chuck Viane, president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" clinched another $20.1 million, bringing its domestic total to $252.3 million. A sequel is set for release in 2010.

The 20th Century Fox comedy, "What Happens in Vegas," continued to roll with $9 million in its third week, for a total of $54.2 million.

Fox senior vice president Bert Livingstone said high gas prices were encouraging people to see movies rather than take long trips away from home.

"This is the last great bargain," Livingstone said.

But movie receipts were about 16 percent smaller than last year's Memorial Day weekend, and revenue for the year to date is down nearly 4 percent at $3.3 billion, with attendance off nearly 7 percent.

By this time last year, there were seven movies that grossed over $100 million: "Pirates," "Shrek the Third," "Spider-Man 3," "300," "Wild Hogs," "Blades of Glory" and "Ghost Rider," according to Media By Numbers. This year, there are only three: "Iron Man," "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!" and "Indiana Jones."

"It's no wonder that we're down in terms of revenues and attendance," Dergarabedian said. "You don't get out of a deficit like this overnight."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Tuesday.

1. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," $101 million.

2. "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," $23 million.

3. "Iron Man," $20.1 million.

4. "What Happens in Vegas," $9 million.

5. "Speed Racer," $4 million.

6. "Made of Honor," $3.4 million.

7. "Baby Mama," $3.3 million.

8. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," $1.7 million.

9. "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," $900,000.

10. "The Visitor," $800,000.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080525/ap_on_en_mo/box_office
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Post by Aceisgreat »

Beware of spoilers.


Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

A Paramount release of a Lucasfilm Ltd. production. Produced by Frank Marshall. Executive producers, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy. Co-producer, Denis L. Stewart. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay, David Koepp; story, George Lucas, Jeff Nathanson, based on characters created by George Lucas, Philip Kaufman.

Indiana Jones - Harrison Ford
Irina Spalko - Cate Blanchett
Marion Ravenwood - Karen Allen
George "Mac" McHale - Ray Winstone
Professor Oxley - John Hurt
Dean Charles Stanforth - Jim Broadbent
Mutt - Shia LaBeouf
Col. Dovchenko - Igor Jijikine


By TODD MCCARTHY

One of the most eagerly and long-awaited series follow-ups in screen history delivers the goods -- not those of the still first-rate original, 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but those of its uneven two successors. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" begins with an actual big bang, then gradually slides toward a ho-hum midsection before literally taking off for an uplifting finish. Nineteen years after their last adventure, director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford have no trouble getting back in the groove with a story and style very much in keeping with what has made the series so perennially popular. Few films have ever had such a high mass audience must-see factor, spelling giant May 22 openings worldwide and a rambunctious B.O. life all the way into the eventual "Indiana Jones" DVD four-pack.
As has been well chronicled, Spielberg and exec producer George Lucas went through no end of writers and story concepts before plausibly updating the action precisely the same number of years as have elapsed since "Last Crusade," to 1957, smack dab in the middle of the Cold War. U.S. versus USSR dynamic spurs the dynamite opening action sequence, in which a convoy of Russian soldiers camouflaged in American army vehicles rolls into a remote desert nuclear testing base in search of a coveted object. Helping them in this effort will be their prisoner, Indiana Jones.

With an energy and enthusiasm bespeaking years of pent-up desire to get back to this sort of fun filmmaking, Spielberg sets the period spirit with a rock 'n' roll-fueled drag race and, with the characters' entry into the legendary Hangar 51, intimations of an other-worldly presence. As the aging issue is tossed off with a joke or two, the sixtysomething hero quickly proves that the passage of time will not be an inhibiting factor all these years later, as Indy trades smart remarks with the formidable Soviet officer Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) before jumping into action the equal of any of the great setpieces the entire series has previously offered.

In Spalko, the film has a villain worthy not just of Indiana Jones but of a James Bond film, one who's madly intelligent as well as appreciative of an opponent she views as a near-equal. With her trim gray uniform, silver rapier, Louise Brooks haircut and piercing blue eyes, Blanchett provides a major treat whenever she's around.

The 20 nonstop opening minutes include a striking variation on the many cookie-cutter middle-class housing tracts featured in Spielberg films, this one populated exclusively by plastic figurines enacting a cliche of a '50s Yank lifestyle while awaiting the nuclear test to come, one Indy must quickly figure out how to survive. Even that's not the end of the scene, which runs the length of the sort of Saturday matinee adventure serial that inspired the series in the first place.

Like the bravura opening sequence of "Saving Private Ryan," this smashing launch sets a standard the rest of the film has some trouble living up to. When Professor Jones returns to his university, he's informed by his dean (Jim Broadbent, replacing the late Denholm Elliott) that he's being suspended due to FBI doubt over his loyalty. Indiana Jones suspected of commie sympathies? And this after he's already told Spalko that "I like Ike."

Another iconic aspect of the decade rolls in with a kid named Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), a leather-jacketed biker who travels with comb and switchblade. Between a contrived fistfight and extended motorized chase around the leafy college campus, Mutt sets the grand adventure in motion by offering evidence of the possible location of the Crystal Skull of Akator, an object of great archeological and, possibly, psychic and other-dimensional fascination.

In a nostalgia-producing air travel montage like those in previous series entries, Indy and Mutt make their way to Peru, where the action relaxes in some rather rote creepy-crawly cave shenanigans before the guys lay their hands on the crystal skull itself, an oddly shaped clear cranium that all agree is not of human origin. But it's shortly snatched by Spalko, who believes the skull possesses psychic power that would prove decisive in mind warfare, no doubt ending the Cold War then and there.

All this gibberish is merely designed to justify the battle of wits and weapons, which continues apace as the Russians collect two further prisoners, Indy's old cohort and crystal skull expert, the now insane Professor Oxley (John Hurt), and Mutt's mom, none other than Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy's flame from "Raiders" and clearly the woman he was always meant to be with.

Coming at pic's midway point, it's a welcome reunion, although written to escalate too quickly into intense bickering; a few more initial beats of mutual recognition, to permit the resonance of their relationship to seep back into the characterizations, would have give the rematch more heft.

But it's off and running again, with a race through the jungle as the good guys and bad guys jump between vehicles, duel with fists, sabers and machine guns, are assaulted by monkeys and ravenous giant ants and, in an undoubted preview of a forthcoming theme-park ride, plummet down three imposing waterfalls. For pure action thrills, this sequence rates close to the first one, yet there's one more to come, a mixed-bag wrap-up that transports the Indiana Jones series into a realm it's never occupied before but is well familiar to Spielberg and Lucas.

For all the verbiage expended just to keep the story cranking forward, David Koepp's script accomplishes the two essentials: It keeps the structure on the straight and narrow, and is true to the character of Indiana Jones himself. Thanks to this and Ford's full-bodied performance, Indy comes through just as viewers remember him: crafty, capable, impatient, manly and red-blooded American. He looks great for his age, although it's never pretended he's younger than he is, and Mutt pays him the ultimate compliment when he says, "For an old man, you ain't bad in a fight."

Allen also looks real good and radiates the same winning smile and tomboyish enthusiasm that made her "Raiders" characterization so critical to the film's complete success; her Marion is perhaps the greatest Hawksian female performance in anything other than a Howard Hawks film. LaBeouf eventually earns his stripes after a somewhat forced beginning, and Ray Winstone, along with fellow Brits Hurt and Broadbent, fills out the roster of newcomers as a duplicitous mercenary who switches sides with each change of fortune.

Technically, film is every bit as accomplished as one expects from Spielberg and the series. Of the director's key original collaborators, editor Michael Kahn and composer John Williams return in full form. Production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas provides some striking creations, particularly the ancient circular chamber that houses the climax. First three series were lensed by the great British d.p. Douglas Slocombe in bold, clean images, and while Spielberg's now-regular cinematographer Janusz Kaminski has mostly succeeded in reproducing this look, which is very different from his usual style, he still can't prevent himself from letting in some characteristic flared light and hazy backgrounds.

Camera (Technicolor, Deluxe prints; Panavision widescreen), Janusz Kaminski; editor, Michael Kahn; music, John Williams; production designer, Guy Hendrix Dyas; costume designer, Mary Zophres; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), Ronald Judkins; sound designer, Ben Burtt; supervising sound editors, Burtt, Richard Hymns; visual effects supervisor, Pablo Helman; visual effects and animation, Industrial Light & Magic; stunt coordinator, Gary Powell; assistant director, Alan Somner; second unit director, Dan Bradley; second unit camera, Flavio Labiano; casting, Deborah Zane. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (noncompeting), May 18, 2008. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 122 MIN.






The biggest star of this latest Indy film: Steven Spielberg.

By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Movie Critic
May 19, 2008

CANNES, France -- It's the summer's most-anticipated film, the latest in a beloved series that's earned $1.2 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Add in a premiere at the most prestigious of international film festivals, and the wonder of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is that it avoids being an anticlimax and is entertaining in its own right.

Though the film stars a relaxed and capable Harrison Ford as everyone's favorite intrepid archaeologist and boasts supporting players ranging from Cate Blanchett as a superb villainess to Shia LaBeouf as the inevitable youngster, the real heroes of this film are director Steven Spielberg and the veritable army of superb technicians who turn the film's numerous stunts and special effects into trains that insist on running on time.

Trains are in fact not a bad metaphor for the director's motivations for this fourth Indy effort, the first in 19 years. Just like a model-train hobbyist who enjoys getting more and more expensive equipment as his income level rises, Spielberg clearly got enormous pleasure employing a lifetime's worth of skill and turning out wave after wave of smartly done stunts and effects set pieces.

Certainly "Crystal Skull," which hits theaters in the U.S. this Thursday, couldn't have had a more eager, not to say rabid, audience anywhere in the world than the one at the Festival de Cannes for its pair of screenings today. The chaos at the press entrance was remarkable at the first screening, with frantic cinephiles pushing, shoving, attempting to jump over barriers and engaging in fierce shouting matches with the guards. And inside the normally decorous Grand Theatre Lumiere, where the festival's closing ceremony is held, there was unprecedented cheering as the opening credits rolled.

Getting sole screenplay credit (with story credit going to series originator George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson) was the veteran David Koepp, the latest and most successful of the close to a dozen people who took a crack at this project over 15 years, according to an article in the WGA's Written By magazine. The result may not be as iconic as "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but it's a perfectly agreeable outline on which to hang what, with a budget estimated at $185 million, must be the most expensive Saturday matinee film ever made.

Koepp's script also had to get the approval of Harrison Ford, who probably enjoyed getting to play his own age in a story set at the height of the Red Scare in 1957, when Marshall College's Professor Jones, believe it or not, runs afoul of the FBI and has his patriotism questioned. Though perhaps ambivalent at one time about Indy typecasting, Ford has made his peace with one of his most iconic roles and seeing him at his ease here is like meeting an old friend after years away.

If Ford is a known Indy quantity, newcomer Cate Blanchett is a great treat as Colonel Professor Irina Spalko, three-time winner of the Order of Lenin and "Stalin's fair-haired girl" despite a jet-black hairdo à la Louise Brooks.

A believer in paranormal research as "a new frontier in psychic warfare," the Colonel Professor and a crack team of Russians manage to get into a secret U.S. Army base in Nevada and persuade Jones to help them find some mummified remains, which convince the redoubtable Irina to redouble her efforts to find the origin of the skull, which may be a pathway to psychic powers. That turns out to be deep in the South American jungle and, no surprise here, not at all easy to get to.

If the opening Nevada segment, which quite literally ends with a bang, complete with realistic mushroom cloud, is one of the film's strengths, the exposition-heavy middle section is something of a drag. That's partially because Indy's sidekicks, including Ray Winstone as George "Mac" MacHale and John Hurt as Professor "Ox" Oxley (you may detect a pattern here) are no better than serviceable.

That is true as well for Shia LaBeouf as youth interest Mutt Williams. Introduced as a total copy of Marlon Brandon on a motorcycle in "The Wild One," LaBeouf doesn't seem completely comfortable in his disaffected teen role, a part that does not play to the innate likability that is one of his strengths.

And though it is exceptionally pleasant to see Karen Allen returning as Indy flame Marion Ravenwood, the film is too intent on spending the first part of their reunion having them strenuously argue with each other. It's so unpleasant, even one of the atheist Russians is forced to plead, "For love of God, shut the hell up."

The film's final section, however, with everyone hell-bent for the temple and the secret of that eggplant-shaped crystal skull, makes up for lost time. It offers lots of animal action (monkeys and hordes of red ants, primarily) as well as great stunts both CGI ("Look out for those falls!") and physical, as the Colonel Professor and Mutt draw swords and make like Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone in "Captain Blood."

When you think about it, all the pre-release interest the film has generated is not completely rational. Given its cast, crew and pedigree, it was likely to fall within a very narrow range in terms of quality, and be either a worse- or better-than-average Indiana Jones film. It turns out it's one of the good ones, and everyone involved can breathe a sigh of relief.

kenneth.turan@latimes.com

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." MPAA rated: PG-13 for adventure violence and scary images. Running Time: 2 hours and 3 minutes. In wide release.





Indiana Jones: Smart, Sleek, Familiar
Sunday, May. 18, 2008

By RICHARD CORLISS

Early in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — which had its tumultuous world premiere today at the Cannes Film Festival — our hero (Harrison Ford) and his sometime pal Mac (Ray Winstone) come up against a convoy of tough Russians. "This ain't gonna be easy," Mac says, and Indy replies, "Not as easy as it used to be."

The old-guy jokes are as true for director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas as for the star. It's 27 years since Raiders of the Lost Ark started the Jones boy on his adventures, 19 years since the most recent Indy movie, The Last Crusade, and 30 years this month since Lucas and Spielberg sat on a Hawaiian beach and made a handshake deal for an action film that one would produce and the other direct. They'd be stupid to ignore the toll that time takes on moviemakers and movie stars. All were in their 30s when they made Raiders. Now Spielberg, Lucas and Ford are, respectively, 61, 64 and 65. And don't forget two other crucial collaborators, composer John Williams and editor Michael Kahn, who have given all the Indy films their cheerfully martial sound and cut-to-the-bone fury.

There are scenes in the new movie that seem like stretching exercises at a retirement home; there are garrulous stretches, and even the title seems a few words too long. But once it gets going, Crystal Skull delivers smart, robust, familiar entertainment. Ford looks just fine, his chest skin tanned to a rich Corinthian leather; he's still lithe on his feet, and can deliver a wisecrack as sharp as a whipcrack. Karen Allen, 56, who was Indy's saucy love Marion Ravenwood in Raiders, still has that glittering smile and vestiges of her old elfin swagger. They needn't break a sweat keeping up with the (relative) kids: 39-year-old Cate Blanchett, the movie's villainess, and Shia LaBeouf, who plays the young lead Mutt Williams, and who may be tapped to continue the series after Ford's retirement — at least that's what Lucas hinted a few days ago here in Cannes.

Crystal Skull is intended, and works effectively, as instant nostalgia — a class reunion of the old gang who in the '80s reinvigorated the classic action film with such expertise and brio. So don't expect the freshness of the what-one-man-can-do plot in Iron Man, or the oneiric visuals of Speed Racer. Spielberg and Lucas, and screenwriters David Koepp and Jeff Nathanson, are looking not forward but back, to the first three films. They know that moviegoers would be disappointed not to see the talismans of Indys past reappear here. Shall we itemize?

1. The Paramount logo dissolves into some kind of mountain. Every Indy films opens this way, from one monument to another. (As Veronica Geng wrote in a review of the first movie, "Spielberg" is German for "play mountain.") In Raiders the logo became a mountain in South America; in Temple of Doom, a bas-relief on a Chinese gong; in The Last Crusade a big boulder in Utah. This time, suggesting more modest aspirations, or maybe kiddingly deflecting the audience's gargantuan expectations, it's a weeny prairie dog hill, from which a critter emerges just before being nearly run over by speeding cars. We're in Nevada, near Area 51, and it's 1957, a time of rock 'n' roll (Elvis's "Hound Dog" on the soundtrack), fear of the Soviets (and why not? they've just penetrated a U.S. military base), fear of The Bomb (hey, what's that mushroom cloud on the horizon?) and mass sightings of UFOs (coming right up).

2. International conspiracies. Nazis in the first and third Indys, Indian Thugees in the second. But it wouldn't be the '50s without Commies, in the chic person of Irina Spalko (played by Blanchett with the severe demeanor of Cyd Charisse's Ninotchka in the 1957 MGM musical Silk Stockings and the black bob Charisse sports in The Band Wagon). Rather than the simple matter of conquering the West militarily, Irina is part of a Soviet plot to cloud our minds by getting access to some secret technology that is concealed either in an Area 51 warehouse or in the remotest jungle mountains of Peru. "We will change you, Mr. Jones, all of you, from the inside," she proclaims. "We will turn you into us." Ewww, creepy. Glad that didn't happen.

3. The Fedora, the bullwhip... the snakes! We see the hat just before we see Indy; brown headwear is still in style in 1957. As for Indy's bullwhip, it's still faster and deadlier than a bad guy's gun. In the opening Area 51 scene, he uses it to disarm about a quillion Russkies, and to swing in Errol Flynn style from one warehoused beam to another. (Mutt will later show the same swinging derring-do on Peruvian jungle vines.) As for the snakes, there's just one, but indy is readier to die in quicksand than to use it as a lifeline. The nifty new predators are South American red ants, which Spielberg and Lucas may have remembered from the 1954 movie The Naked Jungle, and which can swarm over a man by the millions and drag him into their formicary for a nice fat meal.

4. A cool car chase. A lot of the elements in Crystal Skull may feel like mandatory reprises of the old tropes, but the high-speed two-vehicle fight between Indy's team and Irina's goons is up there with the Raiders jeep sequence, more complex and sophisticated in its engineering of physical action. (In the post-film press conference this afternoon, Spielberg said, "I believe in practical magic, not digital magic," and in "real stunts with real people.") If there's a scene that film students will be poring over, decades from now, this is the one.

5. Family revelations. Spielberg movies are often about the separation and reconstituting of a family, and the last two Indy films are no exception. In Last Crusade we met Indy's father (Sean Connery) and learned that Indy's real name was Henry Jones, Jr. Indeed, "Junior" was Dad's apparently derogatory form of address for his son. That gag is repeated here, since — as everyone who's paid the slightest attention to pre-release scuttlebutt knows — Mutt is Indy's son by Marion. (Why is he called Mutt? Presumably because, as we learned at the end of The Last Crusade, Indiana was the name of the Jones family dog; Mutt's just extending the breed.) He enters on a motorcycle, in the leather-jacket regalia Marlon Brando sported in The Wild One, and soon displays some of the athletic skills he must have inherited from his absent dad. Whether the smooth-visaged LaBeouf can grow into Ford's craggy machismo — or even whether he can top the teen Indys that have been played by River Phoenix (in The Last Crusade) and Sean Patrick Flannery (in the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) — is a question later Indy installments will have to answer.

6. Archaeology! Recall that our hero's day job is as a professor of archaeology. On vacations he goes out, makes trouble and saves the world. Or does he? Indy's job, basically, is plundering indigenous cultures for treasure, in capers that will cost hundreds of lives and add exactly nothing to the lore of civilization. (And, in three of the four movies, he comes home empty-handed.) But heck, it's an adventure movie; leave all ethnic scruples home. Scholars of antiquity will be pleased to know that Crystal Skull — with its runic inscriptions, vanished languages, hidden caves and dreadful secrets — is the archaeolog-iest Indy film yet. In fact, the movie is a little plot-heavy around the middle. It seems more determined to tell a complicated story than to use a story as the excuse for a convulsive. nonstop thrill ride.

7. Start with a big bang, end with terrifying mysticism. The creation of these movies always has this method: start with the opening and climactic sequences — in Raiders' case, the South American cave with the rolling rock and the opening of the Ark with the melting skulls — and work inward. (Or as Spielberg says on the new Last Crusade DVD: "How do we fill in the middle?") Here, the bang couldn't be bigger. The 12 min. opener takes Indy into Area 51, where he escapes into what seems to be an ideal Levittown ... except that the people are mannequins, a nuclear bomb is about to be detonated, and Indy has exactly one minute to find a safe place to hide. (That place is one of the film's smartest inspirations.) As for the ending, well, we're not giving everything away. Let's just say that Indy and Marion could be The X Files' Mulder and Scully on assignment in Peru.

We'll see how David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson cope with middle age in their X Files movie later this summer. They may suffer from the occasional creaking joints of Crystal Skull. (And, truth to tell, there was more applause here at the beginning of the screening than at the end.) But they'd be hard-pressed to inhabit the sleek, satisfying adventure that three septuagenarians and their pals dreamed up here. There's a moment in the film where Mutt sees Indy negotiate some really cool bit of action, and the kid can't help mouth a "Wow." That's the right response to this inevitable summer blockbuster. Lucas, Spielberg and Ford ain't the Over the Hill Gang yet.
"I can't stand a naked light bulb any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action." -- Blanche DuBois
Aceisgreat
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Post by Aceisgreat »

'Indiana Jones' debut survives Cannes critics
By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer

CANNES, France (AP) — Indiana Jones received louder applause going in than he did coming out.

His latest adventure, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," earned a respectful — though far from glowing — reception Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, avoiding the sort of thrashing the event's harsh critics gave to "The Da Vinci Code" two years ago.

Yet Indy's fourth big-screen romp is not likely to go down as one of the most memorable. Some viewers at its first press screening loved it, some called it slick and enjoyable though formulaic, some said it was not worth the 19-year wait since Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford made the last film.

"They should have left well enough alone," said J. Sperling Reich, who writes for FilmStew.com. "It really looked like they were going through the motions. It really looked like no one had their heart in it."

Alain Spira of French magazine Paris Match found "Crystal Skull" a perfectly acceptable "Indiana Jones" tale, a sentiment echoed by the solid applause the movie received as the final credits rolled.

"It's good. It's a product that is polished, industrial, we're not getting ripped off in terms of quality," Spira said. "You know what you're going to see, you see what you get, and when you leave you're happy."

The applause was louder at the outset, though. Fans at the early afternoon showing, which preceded the film's glitzy formal premiere with cast and crew Sunday night, cheered and clapped wildly at an announcement that the screening was about to start. Some even hummed the Indiana Jones fanfare as the lights went down.

The applause at the end was more subdued.

Cast and crew were unconcerned about how critics might dissect the film.

"I'm not afraid at all. I expect to have the whip turned on me," Ford told reporters after the screening. "It's not unusual for something that is popular to be disdained by some people, and I fully expect it.

But, he said: "I work for the people who pay to get in. They are my customers, and my focus is on providing the best experience I can for those people."

The filmmakers kept the movie shrouded in secrecy, skipping the rounds of press screenings often held for big studio movies and going for a big blowout at Cannes.

Spielberg said he and his collaborators decided "that the fair thing to do and the fun thing to do would be to view it where the entire world is come together every year at this wonderful festival, and we thought that was the best place to introduce Indiana Jones to you again after 19 years."

The film received none of the derisive laughter or catcalls that mounted near the end of the first press screening for "Da Vinci Code."

There were a few titters from the "Crystal Skull" crowd early on over co-star Cate Blanchett's thick, Boris-and-Natasha accent as a Soviet operative racing against Indy to find an artifact of immeasurable power. The rather corny romantic ending also drew a chuckle or two.

In between, the film packed a fair amount of action, though some viewers found the middle portion dull. Conchita Casanovas, of Spain's RNE radio, said she was "bored to death."

The new movie hurls archaeologist Jones into the Cold War in 1957. He survives a nuclear blast in the desert in typically creative fashion and is reunited with "Raiders" flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).

As speculated, the film has an alien connection, though far more subdued than the "Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars" story Lucas once envisioned.

There are melancholy nods to Sean Connery, who played Indy's dad in 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" but declined to return for the new movie, and the late Denholm Elliott, Indy's college dean in two of the previous movies.

And the film reveals the relationship between Indy and his new sidekick, an angry young motorcycle rebel played by Shia LaBeouf.

As with "Da Vinci Code," which went on to gross $758 million worldwide, "Crystal Skull" is so hotly anticipated that it will be virtually immune from critics' opinions. The film is expected to put up blockbuster box-office numbers when it opens globally Thursday.

"The movie was absolutely effective enough to score with audiences everywhere," said Anne Thompson, deputy editor of Hollywood trade paper Variety. "This played way better than 'Da Vinci Code.' No one was gunning for it. They were excited going in, hooting for it in a positive way."

Dozens of fans prowled outside the Palais, the Cannes headquarters, holding signs saying they needed tickets for "Crystal Skull."

Amelia Sims, a 19-year-old University of Georgia student studying abroad, held a sign reading "I (heart) Indy." She managed to get a pass to the press screening and loved the movie.

"I guess I've been waiting 19 years for this," Sims said. "You could say I've been waiting my whole life."

But Christian Monggaard, who is reviewing "Crystal Skull" for Danish newspaper Information, said he grew up with the "Indiana Jones" films and came away from this one disappointed, finding the climax an "overblown special-effects extravaganza."

"Talk about a woman scorned," Monggaard said. "A fan scorned is even worse."

___

Associated Press writer Angela Doland in Cannes, France, contributed to this report.
"I can't stand a naked light bulb any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action." -- Blanche DuBois
Zahveed
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Post by Zahveed »

criddic3 wrote:
Zahveed wrote:
criddic3 wrote:
I had the toys, too! We have something in common.

I was soooo disappointed when the movie version bombed. What a horrible movie!

Criddic, it's a very different story if you had the He-Man figurines.

I was just making the point that I grew up in the 1980's, too. Half of my childhood was the 1980s. Come to think of it, just about all of my childhood was that decade. I was a teenager in the 1990s.
It's cool. I was just messing with you. I used to watch the show when I was a toddler in the late 80's / early 90's. I was more into the comedic cartoons of the early 90's though.
"It's the least most of us can do, but less of us will do more."
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