Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the latest installment of the story of Indiana Jones.   Beautiful camera work, old fashioned dialogue, chase scenes and campy goodness make Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a ride to remember.

Archeology professor and bad ass Indiana Jones is accused of treason when his friend Mac (Ray Winstone) betrays the country and helps KGB agents, including psychic Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), into a secure American base to retrieve a priceless artifact.  Indiana learns from a young man, Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), that his friend Professor Oxley (John Hurt) has been kidnapped and may be hurt.  Mutt and Indiana Jones set off to follow clues to find Ox, stop the KGB and retrieve a priceless artifact.

Director Steven Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski had a distinctive intent for the visuals of the film.  The entire movie kind of looks like a soft focused wedding picture.  There is obvious attention to light, framing and everyone is kind in an unnatural perfect formation to let you see all their faces.  There is a glossy sheen over most of the scenes, as if Kaminski went through thousands of gallons of Vaseline in the making of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Even though it evokes feelings of my aunts wedding, it works to create a retro feeling, to put the audience in the fifties with Dr. Jones.

Even the script is 50’s goodness.  David Keopp, George Lucas, Jeff Nathanson, and Philip Kaufman give the characters and moments a poodle-skirted edge.  Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) spends a considerable amount of time maintaining his era appropriate looks.  Occasionally the script wanders from camp to rotten cheese but the offenses are far between and forgettable.

Harrison Ford rocks as Indiana Jones.  For a man of his age, Harrison Ford can still crack the whip, and kick bad guy butt.  I wish I could kick USSR agent butt at my age half as well as Ford does at his. 

The worst character in the movie, by far, is the damned hat.  We get it by the tenth time the hat finds its way mysteriously back on his head that he adores the hat.  The hat is probably his safety blanket, his best friend, his lover and his mother, but it doesn’t talk and it doesn’t do anything except roll around to get dirty like a pig, so we don’t need to dedicate fully 24.44435% of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to the hat.   How much did the hat get paid?  If by screen time, hat must have been the highest paid character. 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a fitting addition to the Indiana Jones collection of movies.  Some strict Indiana Jones puritans may find a few aspects of the movie a little annoying but I found it to be an enjoyable romp.  It’s hard to earn a LaRae smile and IJATKOTCK earned several.

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