Genre: Action/Adventure
Released: 2008

What I love about the Indiana Jones series are the over exaggerated sounds of all the punches, the subtle score and just the bad-ass character that Harrison Ford plays. I just love the way he acts towards to everyone. He is an icon in film history and he always will be. I went back this past weekend and re-watched all three of the original films to catch back up on everything since I had not seen them in years. I am not sure if I am in the minority on this statement but I think that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the greatest film in the series. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a VERY close second and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is my least favorite; though it does has my favorite opening scene out of the three films. I was talking some CK from the Junkies about this yesterday and I honestly want to know the answer to this question: is Steven Spielberg the best director of all time? See, I know that question asks for an opinionated answer and there is no way to prove that fact, but honestly, I think that should be made into a FACT. The guy has directed some of the greatest series of all time. The dude only did Jaws, Jurassic Park, E.T., Saving Private Ryan, Indiana Jones, Catch Me if You Can, Schindler's List, etc. It also helps the fact that he teams up with George Lucas on all the Indy films and creates masterpieces. Now, you can call me an idiot, but I think that Indiana Jones just blows away the Star Wars series, but that's a whole different argument.

I think the biggest thing that worried me about the newest Indy flick was the fact that he had Shia LaBeouf joining him. For some reason, I was expecting them to just do one-liners the entire film and I thought it was going to be really cheesy. I think a lot of people were worried about that. See, the thing is that I really do like the guy. Disturbia and Transformers were both great films and he was great in them. I just didn't know how well he would interact with Harrison Ford. Let me say, he did a perfect job in this movie and his role was cast perfectly. Obviously, the film stars Harrison Ford and joining him this time is a very UMA THURMAN/PULP FICTION look alike character played by Cate Blanchette, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winestone (The Departed, BeoWulf) and John Hurt (THE ELEPHANT MAN—DAVID LYNCH MASTERPIECE—ENOUGH SAID!!)

We all know with the INDY FLICKS, the movie starts off with an extravagant action sequence and then Indy hears about some type of hidden treasure that he must uncover to save someone's life. Much like the Bond girls, Indy usually has a girl following him around. I have always liked Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark) the best. She was always the hottest one in my opinion. She actually comes back in the new film with a very surprising twist. This time around, the year is 1957 and Indiana (Ford) is obviously older. He is still teaching at the University and partaking on death defying archeological missions. While on a mission, Indy and his buddy Mack (Winestone) are kidnapped by Soviet soldiers headed by Irina Spalko (Blanchette) who is pretty much this PSYCHIC Colonel for the Soviets who is interested in finding this Crystal Skull which could bring her and the Soviets imaginable powers. I don't want to go into too many details but Jones' gets into some trouble with the military and loses his job as a teacher at the University. A young boy named Mutt Williams (Labeouf) comes to Indiana asking for his help saying that Indiana's old friend Professor Oxley (Hurt) had been kidnapped, while dealing with this magical Crystal Skull to a hidden city of gold. Williams's mom went to look for Professor Oxley as well and she was kidnapped too. Therefore, Indiana and Mutt embark on an adventure to find his mom and Professor Oxley, only to learn that they are now part of the mission to help the Soviet's get their hands on the Crystal Skull. THEY CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN THOUGH. YOU WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS FROM THERE! The movie takes a weird direction and the plot just becomes way too convoluted.

Overall, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull didn't blow me away like I wanted it to, but it still had amazing action scenes and I really did enjoy Ford and LaBeouf on screen together. Crystal Skull is the worst in the series and with some really bad twists and dull moments, but the action scenes alone save the film and a warrant at least seeing it one time. After re-watching the first three films this weekend, I was all amped up to see this new film, hoping it would be the best one of them all. I guess I expected too much, considering Spielberg was behind it and he never lets me down. Now, if you asked me 4 days ago before I re-watched the trilogy, what I thought about this new movie, I would have told you that I thought the trailers were awful and I was worried about Shia being Indy's side kick. Just watching the original films got me really excited though.

I am not going lie, the action scenes will BLOW YOU AWAY. They really outdid themselves with the car chases, the bugs and explosions. Wait till you see this one scene with a NUCLEAR EXPLOSION and a refrigerator. It is amazing to see. I thought Spielberg did an amazing job creating the look of the 1950s and he kind of kept that old style that he used in the 80s when he made the originals. He is such a genius.

Here's my issue with the movie. IT FELT LIKE IT WAS MISSING SOMETHING. I wanted more out of it. There were a lot of DOWN and DULL moments between the action scenes which just weren't that interesting. At least in the older one's, the scenes between the action scenes were all great. My favorite is in Temple of Doom when Indy and the female lead are arguing over having sex with each other and they are both pacing around each other's rooms seeing if the other will come into their room. I just felt like the movie was missing that kind of humor.

I also really did not like the twists in the film. I am not going to give anything but the twists just felt very forced to me and I didn't like the outcome of them whatsoever. Apparently, we are all set for a 5th Indy flick and once you see the newest film you will understand why they are going in that direction. I just don't want to give that away here.

All in all though, the movie is still a hell of a lot of fun, but it just didn't move me the way I wanted it to. It is also kind of awkward seeing Ford at that age. He still does pull it off and the action scenes look great. Shia had some great action scenes as well. They should have called him "TARZAN" in one of the scenes. I am giving the film a 3.5 BDK rating because if you are a die hard INDY fan, check it out as a matinee. I wouldn't waste your money on the full ticket price. If you can wait, check out the rental. You won't be 100% disappointed in the film but you won't be ECSTATIC when you walk out. You leave wanting more because the movie didn't entirely blow you away. It just kept you entertained.