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Indy Whips Up Some Summer Fun

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By KEVIN WALKER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 22, 2008

Having watched all the Indiana Jones movies in recent weeks, and then seeing the new one, it's difficult to escape the conclusion there truly is just one great Indiana Jones movie: "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

After that there is the disappointing "Temple of Doom" (although the opening scene is great), and then "The Last Crusade," which is better but still dangerously close to kitsch.

This doesn't mean that Harrison Ford has lost screen presence. At 66, he's still got the laconic charm that made him a superstar. But "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" suffers from the same problem all the other sequels do - you feel like you've seen the same story before, with the same stunts, the same villains (although this time it's the Communists rather than the Nazis) and the same "ancient" traps unfolding in the same rhythmic manner that the stars escape at the last second (but the side characters don't).

"Crystal Skull" opens in Nevada in 1957. A group of Soviet soldiers, led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), have kidnapped Jones and his partner, Mac McHale (Ray Winstone). They want Jones to show them where he left a crate containing wreckage found at a crash site in 1947, near Roswell, N.M.

Hmm, what could be in THAT crate, eh? Yes, before "Crystal Skull" is finished the plot will cover some of the mainstays of UFO-ology, including Area 51, interdimensional vortexes and the ancient Nazca Lines in Peru. One expects Mulder and Scully to walk up at any moment, shining flashlights and snapping on rubber gloves.

Director Steven Spielberg and George Lucas (who produced and co-wrote the script) also manage to squeeze in the fabled city of gold, El Dorado. And, of course, plenty of chases, fights, scorpions, a snake, ants, natives with blow guns and ancient riddles Jones must solve immediately or die.

After escaping from Area 51 (which, by the way, also contains a certain box we haven't seen since "Raiders of the Lost Ark") and a nuclear explosion, Jones finds himself investigated by the FBI as a possible Communist sympathizer. He is then fired from his job as a college professor, but before leaving town a young man named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) tells him he needs Jones' help to rescue his mother.

So far, so good. The dialogue is fairly snappy, and the action relentless. Jones and Williams fly to Peru to find the boy's mother, using clues left behind by mad Professor Oxley (John Hurt).

But as the movie moves into its second half, those clues get more and more confusing and there's a lot more yapping about mind control, ancient alien visitors and, yes, a crystal skull.

So while it gets increasingly ridiculous, it's a decent popcorn movie if you lower expectations. Ford still shines, and yes, he does a scene without a shirt (or pants, for that matter). The always good Blanchett manages to make a rigid totalitarian sexy in an evil sort of way. Winstone is equally good as the shady partner, and Hurt - well, actually, Hurt mostly babbles incoherently. And Karen Allen returns as Marion Ravenwood, but we don't want to give any of that away. This movie will please old fans and manages to wrap up some of the loose ends.

MOVIE REVIEW

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull **½

MOVIE BOARD RATING: PG-13 (violence and scary images)

STARS: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, John Hurt

DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg

LOCATION: See movie times, Page 8, for local showtimes.

PLOT SUMMARY: The iconic archeologist returns for a fourth adventure, this time involving a mysterious crystal skull and the fabled city of El Dorado.

RUNNING TIME: 124 minutes

ON THE WEB: www.indiana

jones.com

Kevin Walker can be reached at (813) 259-7975 or kwalker@tampatrib.com

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