Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull DVD

Advantages: A decent first-half with generally fine performances from key players.
Disadvantages: An awful second-half with plot-holes, CGI overkill, and ridiculous last twenty minutes.

Synopsis (from Imdb.com): "Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry 'Indiana' Jones is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls". "INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL" - Review by Jodi Johnson. I want to preface this by saying that there are spoilers here, that it is for those who have seen the film already, that I'm reviewing ...
...force us to), and that I'm not the biggest fan of the franchise, but have always kept my respect for the trilogy up, have followed it on top in parallel through the computer games (most notably the adventure ones by Lucasarts, "The Fate of Atlantis", and "The Last Crusade"), and I made sure to re-watch the first three over the weekend before finally getting around to seeing this fourth outing. I'm coming from a slightly outside angle, but identify ... Read review

Advantages: The return of one of my generations greatest movie heroes
Disadvantages: Ray Winstone YAWN!!

...a 19 year absence comes Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull a movie putting the magic back into the family movie. Acknowledging the age of its star Harrison Ford it's not just real time that has moved on, the story moves on from the Second World War to the cold war, 1957 to be precise. Our intrepid Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and his good friend Mac (Ray Winstone) find themselves in the clutches of a new dimension of military the ...
...compete with an army obediently Indiana searches the store for the coffin. As all the elements click into place it becomes apparent that we are in Roswell, New Mexico and the coffin has something to do with a certain reported vehicle crash in the desert. This unusual event is the starting point for Indiana, after a chance encounter with a young man named Mutt, leads them down the Amazon in search of Crystal Skulls and the supposedly mythical kingdom ... Read review

Advantages: Rip-roaring stuff
Disadvantages: Cate Blanchett is wasted, um, certain things at the film's climax...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - it sounds like a computer game, doesn't it? Which is odd, as the many computer games based on Harrison Ford's iconic archaeologist have tended to have fairly sensible titles not too far removed from the original trilogy of films. When rumours of a fourth Indy film began to bubble (pretty much as soon as The Last Crusade came out on video in the early 90s), there was even an official statement that ...
...the classic Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Which is a shame, as that's still brilliant. But now Indy 4 is upon us, with a greyer, craggier Harrison Ford still swashing his best buckle, and Shia Leboeuf as a James Dean wannabe sidekick (who is still less annoying than Short Round). Leboeuf was presumably cast to take on the action scenes in the event of Ford being too decrepit to throw a punch, but the fact is that Indiana Jones remains ... Read review

Advantages: Harisson Ford has never been - and never will be - better
Disadvantages: Ray Winstone overacting, clumsy script, overelaborate plot.

...that I am a massive Indiana Jones fan. My first memory of going to the cinema was to see Raiders Of The Lost Ark when I was six and I have seen it at least 10 times since. The subsequent two films don't quite measure up to the original masterpiece, but I still love them both, largely because Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is the most compelling action hero of all time (including any of the Bonds as 007 - feel free to comment ;-)). So when a friend ...
...role as ever. He IS Indiana Jones and there will never be another. Like Bond movies, all Indiana Jones films open with a spectacular action sequence. Raiders Of The Last Ark's first scene which culminates in the escape from the forbidden cave while being chased by a massive boulder is the stuff of cinema legend. Crystal Skull opens with Indy and his sidekick Mack (played by Ray Winstone) being held by Russian spies. The escape scene is truly spectacular ... Read review

Advantages: Good CGI, nice action scenes, easily watchable film
Disadvantages: CGI over-used, unspectacular acting, poor ending

...awaited addition to the popular Indiana Jones set of films delivers as much as expected. You're never going to get a top-drawer thriller when the main character is 60 years old, but Spielberg has worked around this quite well, and it's still a nice addition. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is living out a nice life as a teacher, retired from his action-hero days, when his life is suddenly turned upside down by our pesky little friends from the Soviet ...
...made entirely from pure quartz, Indiana and his teenage companion Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) head from Americas universities, to Peru, to the Amazon river, in order to stop the power-hungry scientist Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) , who is right on their tail, from gaining dangerous powers from the skull. We'll start with the negatives - and there are plenty of them. The first big criticism is the over-use of CGI effects. It's great when a film is made ... Read review