Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

After twenty seven years since the Raiders of the Last Ark introduced the archaeologist and adventurer Henry "Indiana" Jones who divides his time between teaching the University students in a quiet auditorium and saving the world in the incredible dangerous and breathtaking adventures, and after nineteen years since his quest for Holy Grail in the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones is back - with his fedora, leather jacket, whip, grin, fear for snakes, and the new big adventure, spectacular, fast-paced, silly, funny, and jaw-dropping at the same time. Believe it or not, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) is the first IJ movie that I've seen at the theater. They were not released in the former USSR (that's probably why, Spielberg and Lucas made their bad guys Russians this time :)) and I saw the trilogy first in the end of the 1980s when the videotapes became available. The new movie is full of adventures, has not one but three fallings down of waterfalls and the huge attacking red ants. As in all Indy movies, there is a long and spectacular signature chase sequence, this time a multi-vehicle chase through the jungle with the heroes jumping on the full speed from one car to another, two characters engaged in the sword fight standing on the parallel moving jeeps, the Crystal Scull of the title falling back and forth from the good guys to the bad ones. The "baddest guy" here is the girl played by Cate Blanchette wearing the uniform not unlike Dr. Evil's and the black wig a-la Louise Brooks of "Pandora's Box" or Uma Thurman of "Pulp Fiction". She plays a Russian villainess, Dr. Irina Spalko, the lead researcher of psychic phenomenon and the supernatural. Blanchette is as good as ever proving that she can play successfully any role, including the one that requires a lot of physical actions. The fourth movie takes place in the different time than the first three, and it is set against the realities of the 50s: the beginning of cold war, the double agents, the talks about UFOs and aliens. One of the scenes, as remarkable as it is memorable, depicts a ground-level nuclear test in Nevada on the picturesque town that was built only to be destroyed after the drop of atomic bomb.

The movie is beautiful - no surprise here, Janusz Kaminski, usual Spielberg's "partner in crime" was DOP for it. I just realized that it was the first Indiana Jones movie for Kaminski - the first three were shot by Douglas Slocombe. I liked the story and the acting by Ford. At 65, he is perhaps one of very few actors who could bring back to life beloved character and the years would not have power over him. I like a lot John Hurt as Professor 'Ox' Oxley - equally comical and moving as the scientist who was able to talk to the mysterious Crystal Skull and who kept the keys to its secrets. I am always glad to see Ray Winstone and Jim Broadbent on the screen. No matter what nay-sayers think of it, I like the latest Indiana Jones movie and I was glad to see that "for an old guy", Dr. Jones is still good in a fight.