Film:  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Studio:    Paramount Pictures; Lucasfilm
Director:  Steven Spielberg
Principal Actors:  Harrison Ford; Cate Blanchett; Karen Allen; Shia LeBeouf; John Hurt
Release:  May 22, 2008
Film length: 124 minutes
Rating:  PG-13 for adventure violence and scary images   

Reviewed By:  Deborah Ground Buckner (Kansas City Correspondent - USA) 

It's always nice to see an old friend again, especially a friend who wears a great hat, wields a whip, hates snakes and runs from one adventure to another, always escaping in the nick of time.  Indiana Jones is back and a welcome sight.

True, it is a new-or, make that older-Indy.  The times have changed as well, quickly established by the sounds of Elvis Presley wailing "Hound Dog."  The film opens in Nevada, 1957, when America is caught up in the fear of communism and atomic warfare.  The Soviets have invaded a military weapons testing sight, bringing with them two prisoners, Professor Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford) and Mac (Ray Winstone).  Taking them to a government warehouse, the leader of the Soviets, Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) demands Indiana help them locate a crate in secret storage. Escaping from the enemy is "not as easy as it used to be," Indy admits.  When the crate is located, it is found to contain a mummified body recovered from Roswell in 1947.  Indy then leads the Soviets on an action-packed chase, revealing he still has his old moves with a whip.  Before his escape is complete, Mac is revealed to be a double agent, the classic case of a turncoat sidekick. 

Indy's involvement with the Soviets is enough to make him "of interest to the Bureau," and after a time of interrogation from two agents, his attempt to return to his college teaching is thwarted when the FBI makes its presence felt on campus.  Sent on an extended, though paid, leave of absence from his classroom, Indy has just boarded a train when Mutt (Shia LeBeouf), a young man on a motorcycle, appears, chasing the train and calling for Indy's help to save an old friend, Professor Oxley (John Hurt) from being killed.  Oxley fell into trouble after finding a crystal skull and attempting to return it to its temple.  Mutt's mother, Mary, instructed him to find Indiana Jones and ask for his help.  She, too, has been kidnapped with Oxley.

Indy and Mutt soon are soon caught up in a series of adventures with the Soviets on their tail as they attempt to unravel clues left behind by Oxley.  They discover Oxley and the crystal skull are in the hands of the Soviets, along with Mutt's mother, Marian Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy's love interest from Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The chemistry is still there.  This relationship, and a photograph of Sean Connery on Indy's desk with references to the passing of the senior Jones, make nice bridges between the earlier films and the current adventure.

The film becomes a thrill ride of twists and turns, with bits of archeology and history lessons along the way and plenty of opportunities for Indy to toss out witty one-liners.  It's a fun popcorn adventure that captures the spirit of the early film trilogy. 

Ford and LaBeouf (who I adored as Stanley Yelnats in Holes) have a nice chemistry and make a believable team with LaBeouf getting into the scrapes of a physical level that might not be believable to see Ford handling now.   Blanchett appears to be eating up her role (and a little scenery as well), sporting a vicious dark bobbed hairstyle and an outrageous accent.  It is one more example of the range of her talent and versatility.  John Hurt, as always, is a delight to watch. 

Ford demonstrates he can still wear the battered fedora with pride.  Indy is no longer quite the Indy we knew, but he is the Indy we would have expected him to be and certainly still a man of action.    Taking his new age into consideration mandated placing the story in the 1950s, and the use of Roswell and the communist scare as plot points is genius at work.  It is a time with problems the Indiana Jones of the 1930s would have grown up to face.  Special effects technology has grown up since the last installment, and these add much to the action scenes, enough to make this an entertaining film for anyone.  For those of us who grew up with Indy, though, this is a special reunion, and the "cool guy" is still very cool.