Indiana Jones and...Crystal Skull

Wow! What a treat! I read somewhere that Stephen Spielberg is a huge proponent of reading and he insists that a good movie always starts with a good story. The script for his latest Indiana Jones movie, has been twenty years in the making, so it HAD to be good. Once again Spielberg has collaborated with George Lucas (the "Star Wars" franchise and "American Graffiti") and David Koepp ("Spiderman" and "War of the Worlds") to develop a story and a script that would meet with approval from Harrison Ford ("Indiana Jones" and "Star Wars") who is one of the biggest gorillas in the Hollywood jungle (over two billion dollars in box-office take from his movies!).

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" has everything! Chase scenes, waterfalls, jungle critters, lots of CGI Army ants, KGB agents, betrayals, sword fights, fist fights, Mesoamerican mythology, and a truly impressive snake (Indy HATES snakes!). Twenty years have passed; Nazis are no longer an issue; Indy is older and greyer; his father (Sean Connery) has died, as has Dr. Brody (Denholm Elliott). Indy is still a professor of archeology at an Eastern college and his current superior is Dean Stanforth (Jim Broadbent). The female students are no longer mooning over their handsome professor, in fact, one of the most outstanding things about this script is that everything is age appropriate!

Shia LeBeouf makes a perfectly splendid entrance...on a motorcycle...in a leather jacket...with a ducktail hairdo! "Mutt" is clearly a rebel, has dropped out of school for all the standard reasons, plans to repair motorcycles for a living and only contacts Indiana Jones because his mother asked him to. A mutual friend is missing, and now Mutt's mother has disappeared, too. Indy isn't very interested until he realizes a couple of KGB agents have followed him into the campus malt shop. One thing leads to another and they make their getaway on Mutt's motorcycle. Whenever things quiet down, Mutt drags out his comb and renews his "do." He isn't quite a Greaser, but his language is right from the 50s and we get to see cars, fashions, airplanes, etc., that evoke those Happy Days.

If Shia LeBeouf ("Transformers" and "Holes") will keep his nose clean, he has all the attributes to become a major movie star: He is good looking, he can act, and he has been handed an unprecedented opportunity. I want to see it happen, I happen to be a big fan.

This wonderful script combines lots of humor...character driven, not gags!...lots of outrageous action, lots of visual treats and great technical skills are once again brought to the table. You can relax, because you are in expert hands.

Go! You WILL enjoy it!