"His whip still cracks as it flies through the air. The punches still sound like a bomb going off aside the bad guy's jaw. The infamous theme music is right on cue. And after 19 years off the screen, the fedora still fits nicely."
His whip still cracks as it flies through the air. The punches still sound like a bomb going off aside the bad guy's jaw. The infamous theme music is right on cue.
And after 19 years off the screen, the fedora still fits nicely.
Our favorite archeologist adventurer returns in "Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Naturally, Harrison Ford dons the duds once again with friends, new and old, in tow.
It's 1957, and Jones (Ford) and his old sidekick George "Mac" McHale (Ray Winstone) has been kidnapped by Russian infiltrators, forced to travel across rural Nevada to an Army base that houses all of our government's secrets (there's a giant '51' on the doors of the particular warehouse they enter, just to give you an idea). The Russians are lead by Colonel Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), who is after a certain artifact that Jones helped recover ten years earlier, a mummified body of unknown origin.
Meanwhile, Jones escapes from Russian bondage and returns to Marshall College to continue teaching only to learn from Dean Charles Stanforth (Jim Broadbent) that the FBI has been questioning and searching about Jones dealing with the Soviet Communists.
While trying to leave the college, Jones decides to stay when a young greaser, Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), was sent by his mother, an old friend of Indy's, to help in the search of Mutt's father figure and mentor, Harold Oxley (John Hurt), who went missing in South America searching for the mystical crystal skull, one of 13 that went missing. Whoever returns the last skull with the rest will be given immense power.
Spalko wants this skull-and the power-to help in the Cold War fight for world dominance. You see, Spalko is the leading Soviet doctor into psychological weaponry, and she believes the skull to be the key to Communist victory.
Jones goes south of the equator to search for Oxley, only to be recaptured by the Russians. Except, this time, the Russians brought along a friend for Dr. Jones: Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy's old flame with a secret of her own.
Yes, it has been just shy of two decades since "Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade," but director Steven Spielberg and Indy creator George Lucas have delivered the goods in "Crystal Skull" after a long wait. With all the jokes about Ford being too old for the fedora, it comforting to see that the film doesn't ignore the fact that not only the actor but the character is getting up there in age, with plenty of tongue-in-cheek references and bits of humor.
Ford seems to be having fun again in the role, relishing one of the most iconic heroes in American cinema. The action and adventure is high, well-choreographed and entertaining, with Ford still doing the majority of his own stunts. Additionally, it is great to see Allen back in familiar territory after a lengthy time away from acting. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is Allen's finest work, "Animal House" notwithstanding. While with not as much screen time as I would've liked, Allen's back to her feisty ld self, bantering with Ford like the good ole days.
Blanchett is in total Boris and Natasha mode, with a scary-good bowl cut this side of Javier Bardem's in "No Country for Old Men." With an accent that sometimes gets iffy, Blanchett chews up some of the scenery, playing an equal counterpart to Indy and seems to be having fun playing the bad guy-eh, girl.
If he hasn't already hit the big time, LaBeouf is about to get there. With a steady climb up the movie star ladder that started with the Disney Channel TV show "Even Stevens" to last summer's blockbuster "Transformers," LaBeouf hit the jackpot when he was cast here. With a look of Marlon Brando in "The Wild One" combined with the greaser light of John Travolta in "Grease," LaBeouf appears destined for stardom, and perhaps a crack at the whip.
Spielberg got the look of the 1950s impeccably perfect in "Catch Me If You Can" and expertly captures the look and attitudes of the time. The film is all about nostalgia, with hints of the previous three flicks and references to other non-Indy films (the movie opens with a couple of teenagers trying to coax an army vehicle to a drag race, reminiscent of the final scene in Lucas' "American Graffiti").
Ford may have been tossed aside by nay Sayers as a relic Indiana Jones would be looking for, but "Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" proves, like a fine wine, old stuff can be grand when it's got all the right stuff and the wait has been great.
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