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Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf , Ray Winstone, John Hurt

Well, Indy is looking alot older, but Harrison shows that he can still deliver the action goods in the fourth outing of the world’s most determined archeologist. The story is a bit light, and this is covered up by making it unclear, as well. The dialog is awkward at times, but Spielberg’s overblown (and seemingly endless) action scenes and campy humor still make this film fun. Ford has more big name back up, including Blanchett in a deliciously evil role. They shot for stars on this one and missed, but at least it didn’t crash back to Earth.

It’s 1957, and Indiana Jones is back as a war hero and part time professor, who finds himself kidnapped by an evil KGB agent played by Cate Blanchett who wants help figuring out the supernatural powers of an artifact that she’s just stolen. A few fistfights, a couple gunfights, a rocket car ride and a nuclear explosion later, Indy is free and off and running to solve the mystery before the Russians. In tow, he has a Marlon Brando style greaser named Mutt, played by Shia LaBeouf and in pursuit he has some FBI agents who thinks he’s a Russian spy (it is the McCarthy era 50s). There are plenty of mysteries to figure out, traps to duck and baddies to beat, on the way to an ending that needed more originality, but it is loud, fun and rocket-paced, so the action crowd will enjoy the ride.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the second best of the four film Indy series, and comes closest to capturing the flavor of the original, but aging characters, a script that lets down in places and the nagging feeling that we have seen all this before keep it from approaching the lofty heights of its legendary mother film. nice try, though.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, River Phoenix

Speilberg, Lucas and Ford return to the scene of the dime to make a mountain of cash in the third installment of the adventures of the ultimate adventuring archeologist. This film redeems the series for the woeful Temple of Doom dud and is a pretty good motion picture on its own, though it loses alot of its sheen when compared to the incomparable original. The Last Crusade is more action and humor-oriented than Raiders and is hurt by a breakneck pace that overwhelms the story at times with long action sequences. Phoenix is great as a young Indiana and Connery is wonderful as his dad, but Karen Allen’s Marion, from the original film, is still the series’ only well-drawn female character.

The Last Crusade starts off fast with an entertaining sequence of a young Indiana Jones played by River Phoenix, whose scout trip is interrupted when he stops a mysterious stranger from stealing an artifact. It is great fun and plays kind of like a super-hero origin. Soon we are back in the present (which is of course still the past for us), and Indy is soon setting out for Europe to look for his father who went missing while chasing his lifelong obsession, the Holy Grail. He finds an beautiful ally (Alison Doody) and, soon, his father as well. Together, they scurry off spending equal time searching for the Grail and dodging Nazis.

The Last Crusade is a good wind-up to the Indy story, as it tells us about his past and his family. The action is ramped up considerably and the humor is a bit more silly, but the movie is light years ahead of Temple of Doom, not that that should be hard. Those who enjoy the Pirates of The Caribbean series will like this one, as well.