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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Nearly 20 years after riding his last Crusade, Harrison Ford makes a welcome return as archaeologist/relic hunter Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, an action-packed fourth installment that's, in a nutshell, less memorable than the first three but great nostalgia for fans of the series. Producer George Lucas and screenwriter David Koepp (War of the Worlds) set the film during the cold war, as the Soviets--replacing Nazis as Indy's villains of choice and led by a sword-wielding Cate Blanchett with black bob and sunglasses--are in pursuit of a crystal skull, which has mystical powers related to a city of gold. After escaping from them in a spectacular opening action sequence, Indy is coerced to head to Peru at the behest of a young greaser (Shia LaBeouf) whose friend--and Indy's colleague--Professor Oxley (John Hurt) has been captured for his knowledge of the skull's whereabouts. Whatever secrets the skull holds are tertiary; its reveal is the weakest part of the movie, as the CGI effects that inevitably accompany it feel jarring next to the boulder-rolling world of Indy audiences knew and loved. There's plenty of comedy, delightful stunts--ants play a deadly role here--and the return of Raiders love interest Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, once shrill but now softened, giving her ex-love bemused glances and eye-rolls as he huffs his way to save the day. Which brings us to Ford: bullwhip still in hand, he's a little creakier, a lot grayer, but still twice the action hero of anyone in film today. With all the anticipation and hype leading up to the film's release, perhaps no reunion is sweeter than that of Ford with the role that fits him as snugly as that fedora hat. --Ellen A. Kim
Stills from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Click for larger image)
Stills from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Click for larger image)
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Product Description
The newest Indiana Jones adventure begins in the desert Southwest in 1957 - the height of the Cold War. Indy and his sidekick Mac (Ray Winstone) have barely escaped a close scrape with nefarious Soviet agents on a remote airfield. Now, Professor Jones has returned home to Marshall College - only to find things have gone from bad to worse. His close friend and dean of the college (Jim Broadbent) explains that Indy's recent activities have made him the object of suspicion, and that the government has put pressure on the university to fire him. On his way out of town, Indiana meets rebellious young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), who carries both a grudge and a proposition for the adventurous archaeologist: If he'll help Mutt on a mission with deeply personal stakes, Indy could very well make one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in history - the Crystal Skull of Akator, a legendary object of fascination, superstition and fear. But as Indy and Mutt set out for the most remote corners of Peru - a land of ancient tombs, forgotten explorers and a rumored city of gold - they quickly realize they are not alone in their search. The Soviet agents are also hot on the trail of the Crystal Skull. Chief among them is icy cold, devastatingly beautiful Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), whose elite military unit is scouring the globe for the eerie Crystal Skull, which they believe can help the Soviets dominate the world... if they can unlock its secrets. Indy and Mutt must find a way to evade the ruthless Soviets, follow an impenetrable trail of mystery, grapple with enemies and friends of questionable motives, and, above all, stop the powerful Crystal Skull from falling into the deadliest of hands.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
351 of 446 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I love the first three Indy films. Like so many others I was greatly looking forward to seeing a new one. I thought (or hoped) that the very long time they took to come up with a script meant they were polishing it to a brilliant shine. After seeing the movie, I conclude it was really a long negotiation between Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford, with some of them eager to make a crappy movie, and some of them not, with the end result being crappy, but perhaps not as crappy as it might have been.
The movie started with a bit of promise (other than the infantile CGI prairie dog). I'm not as offended by the nuclear fridge scene as many are, because I know those mock towns weren't built at Ground Zero (or they would have been vaporized). They were built at a distance to judge the effect of the blast on places some miles from the explosion. So while it's not credible for Indy to survive being tossed around that much, he didn't exactly survive a nuclear explosion. Some of the other early scenes, such as those where Indy is actually discovering something, are also good.
Still...
About halfway through the movie, despite my fervent desire to like it, I realized it just wasn't working for me. No suspense. No real sense of urgency or danger. Low stakes. Too many marginal or pointless characters. Too much cartoon nonsense going on, far less believable than anything from the previous films (the stupid monkey vine swinging, Marian's idiotic tree-driving stunt, the multiple waterfall drops...none of it scary, none of it remotely convincing, or even fun). Marian's long-awaited big reveal was one of the biggest, flattest duds in film history. She shows up and spends most of the rest of the movie just tagging along with a dazed grin on her face like she was just grateful to be there, a flaccid dishrag compared to the character from the first film. Not Karen Allen's fault...she was just thrown in for nostalgia's sake, and was poorly written. Mutt was actually not a bad character, but I don't need or want him to be Indy's son. Is there any worse cliche in fiction than the Son He Never Knew He Had? I realize Spielberg and Lucas are fascinated by father issues, but I'm not. And then there's the whole point of the movie...the skull and the aliens...ehhhh. Who cares? The finale was a muddled jumble of flashing lights and wind that meant nothing and evoked nothing but tedium. Remember at the end of the previous films, where the characters actually seem to notice that something extraordinary has happened, were even scared, or traumatized just a little bit (okay, not so much in Crusade, where they quickly shake off any aftereffects and devolve into slapstick and lose all interest in their surroundings). Not this time. The giant flying saucer takes off, and Indy and his massive crew of sidekicks start cracking jokes.
I'm inclined to blame Lucas for most of this mess. He's made a habit of lapses of taste and judgement since...hmm..."Howard the Duck"?
I don't want to see this movie again, and I don't want to own it. I hope they don't make another, because these guys have proven they no longer have what it takes.
The movie started with a bit of promise (other than the infantile CGI prairie dog). I'm not as offended by the nuclear fridge scene as many are, because I know those mock towns weren't built at Ground Zero (or they would have been vaporized). They were built at a distance to judge the effect of the blast on places some miles from the explosion. So while it's not credible for Indy to survive being tossed around that much, he didn't exactly survive a nuclear explosion. Some of the other early scenes, such as those where Indy is actually discovering something, are also good.
Still...
About halfway through the movie, despite my fervent desire to like it, I realized it just wasn't working for me. No suspense. No real sense of urgency or danger. Low stakes. Too many marginal or pointless characters. Too much cartoon nonsense going on, far less believable than anything from the previous films (the stupid monkey vine swinging, Marian's idiotic tree-driving stunt, the multiple waterfall drops...none of it scary, none of it remotely convincing, or even fun). Marian's long-awaited big reveal was one of the biggest, flattest duds in film history. She shows up and spends most of the rest of the movie just tagging along with a dazed grin on her face like she was just grateful to be there, a flaccid dishrag compared to the character from the first film. Not Karen Allen's fault...she was just thrown in for nostalgia's sake, and was poorly written. Mutt was actually not a bad character, but I don't need or want him to be Indy's son. Is there any worse cliche in fiction than the Son He Never Knew He Had? I realize Spielberg and Lucas are fascinated by father issues, but I'm not. And then there's the whole point of the movie...the skull and the aliens...ehhhh. Who cares? The finale was a muddled jumble of flashing lights and wind that meant nothing and evoked nothing but tedium. Remember at the end of the previous films, where the characters actually seem to notice that something extraordinary has happened, were even scared, or traumatized just a little bit (okay, not so much in Crusade, where they quickly shake off any aftereffects and devolve into slapstick and lose all interest in their surroundings). Not this time. The giant flying saucer takes off, and Indy and his massive crew of sidekicks start cracking jokes.
I'm inclined to blame Lucas for most of this mess. He's made a habit of lapses of taste and judgement since...hmm..."Howard the Duck"?
I don't want to see this movie again, and I don't want to own it. I hope they don't make another, because these guys have proven they no longer have what it takes.
230 of 309 people found the following review helpful
By Justin Heath
Format:DVD
Personal sadness and disappointment here: what a great franchise this was, what a lovable character, now destroyed by pure Lucasian incompetence. I'd really loved all the first three movies, because in my opinion, they were perfect examples for timeless adventure classics and movie magic extraordinaire, each in its own style. Indy himself was one of my childhood heroes ... heck, I even loved the TV series (well, mostly), but when I saw this one, I almost puked my guts out. Honestly, I wanted to like it badly, but this flick is so incredibly stupid, so inconsistent and amazingly badly written, it's plain unbearable. All things which made the other movies so great are missing: the excitement of discovery, the thrilling adventure, the enjoyable character relations, the sarcastic yet charming humor, the over-the-top but still believable action scenes - all gone. What remains is this brainless, soulless, uninspired load of junk that (sadly) will score at the box office anyway, just because it's Indy - sort of. But worst of all, as you can clearly see in almost every take, the love is gone from the franchise. Even Harrison Ford looks mostly like he's just going through the motions. For my part, I blame it all on the ABSOLUTELY CRAPPY AND THOROUGHLY DUMB SCRIPT that 1) DENIES THE ACTORS ALMOST EVERY POSSIBILITY TO ACT (Karen Allen being the worst example) and 2) has literally everything that also made the star wars prequels fail: the ham-fisted dialogue, the completely ridiculous "storytelling", forced character development and relations, plot holes one could fly the death star through, overused CGI effects, the lamest humor imaginable ... the list goes on and on. So thanks, George Lucas, for ruining just another childhood love of mine - you couldn't have made it worse by introducing Steven Seagal as Indys long lost brother. But probably, that's what you were up to anyway and Spielberg just talked you out of it.
Bottom line: 20 years of waiting in vain ... excuse me now, but I think I'll go hiding in the basement and cry a little.
Bottom line: 20 years of waiting in vain ... excuse me now, but I think I'll go hiding in the basement and cry a little.
53 of 70 people found the following review helpful
By P. G. Keller
Format:DVD
THIS is the movie Lucas, Spielberg and Ford were all excited to make??? We've come to expect this sort of childish nonsense from George Lucas, but Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford also thought this was a good idea??? This is an absolutely awful excuse for a movie much less an entry into the Indiana Jones canon.
Fortunately for me I had the time of my life laughing at it's stupidity. I was in tears for most of the whole film because I just couldn't believe how bad it all was and just when I thought what I had just seen was bad enough, something even more ridiculous happened.
Examples:
Only a handful of guards at the US base protecting our most important secrets and artifacts, including the ARK!!!
It seems we've all over-reacted to the threat of atomic bombs as you can just get inside a refrigerator at ground zero and survive it. Oh yeah, then you'll be able to get out of it instead of getting locked inside and dying like others have before.
We also now know that boxers and MMA fighters are just a bunch of fragile weaklings because Indiana Jones took about a 1000 punches to the face and barely had a mark to show for it.
Tarzan swinging??? Are they serious??? He catches up to 2 speeding vehicles doing it!!!
The car scene, where it jumped off the cliff onto a branch and then they drove into the water??? Uh, yeah right.
How about Dr. Jones and company going over not 1, not 2, but 3 WATER FALLS in a freakin military jeep and surviving without or scratch on them!!!
Giant Ants??? Where do you find those?
Mayans just waiting inside the walls to pop out and attack intruders. How did they get in there anyways???
The skull was far too light to be crystal and looked like plastic filled with aluminum foil. Sure was easy to find too.
Every time they get wet, five minutes later their clothes are dry, pressed and cleaned. How about some consistency here?
And then the capper, it's all about........(drum roll)..........ALIENS!!! Yes, our standard, prototypical aliens with elongated heads and a flying saucer. E.T. go home indeed.
And there you have it. Indiana Jones has gained superpowers over the years and an experienced, award winning director has managed to make a movie with all the ability of a 5th grader. Whatever drove Lucas to madness has spread to Spielberg. Somebody put a stop to it before other talented film makers turn out nonsense like this! Oh well, at least I didn't pay for it and I laughed harder and longer during this mess than anything in recent memory. Although, people usually want you to laugh with them, not at them. I hope that's enough for them. I'd still like my 2 hrs. back though.
If you want to see 2 hrs. of what not to do in a movie and enjoy laughing at other peoples mistakes, go right ahead and check this out. But if you value your time, like the other Indiana Jones movies, quality films and consider yourself an intelligent person and like movie makers to treat you like you are, RUN, don't walk away from this movie. Avoid, Avoid, Avoid, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the NUMB Skull.
Fortunately for me I had the time of my life laughing at it's stupidity. I was in tears for most of the whole film because I just couldn't believe how bad it all was and just when I thought what I had just seen was bad enough, something even more ridiculous happened.
Examples:
Only a handful of guards at the US base protecting our most important secrets and artifacts, including the ARK!!!
It seems we've all over-reacted to the threat of atomic bombs as you can just get inside a refrigerator at ground zero and survive it. Oh yeah, then you'll be able to get out of it instead of getting locked inside and dying like others have before.
We also now know that boxers and MMA fighters are just a bunch of fragile weaklings because Indiana Jones took about a 1000 punches to the face and barely had a mark to show for it.
Tarzan swinging??? Are they serious??? He catches up to 2 speeding vehicles doing it!!!
The car scene, where it jumped off the cliff onto a branch and then they drove into the water??? Uh, yeah right.
How about Dr. Jones and company going over not 1, not 2, but 3 WATER FALLS in a freakin military jeep and surviving without or scratch on them!!!
Giant Ants??? Where do you find those?
Mayans just waiting inside the walls to pop out and attack intruders. How did they get in there anyways???
The skull was far too light to be crystal and looked like plastic filled with aluminum foil. Sure was easy to find too.
Every time they get wet, five minutes later their clothes are dry, pressed and cleaned. How about some consistency here?
And then the capper, it's all about........(drum roll)..........ALIENS!!! Yes, our standard, prototypical aliens with elongated heads and a flying saucer. E.T. go home indeed.
And there you have it. Indiana Jones has gained superpowers over the years and an experienced, award winning director has managed to make a movie with all the ability of a 5th grader. Whatever drove Lucas to madness has spread to Spielberg. Somebody put a stop to it before other talented film makers turn out nonsense like this! Oh well, at least I didn't pay for it and I laughed harder and longer during this mess than anything in recent memory. Although, people usually want you to laugh with them, not at them. I hope that's enough for them. I'd still like my 2 hrs. back though.
If you want to see 2 hrs. of what not to do in a movie and enjoy laughing at other peoples mistakes, go right ahead and check this out. But if you value your time, like the other Indiana Jones movies, quality films and consider yourself an intelligent person and like movie makers to treat you like you are, RUN, don't walk away from this movie. Avoid, Avoid, Avoid, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the NUMB Skull.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indie!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can't go wrong with an Indiana Jones movie. Loved this movie and I think it was a great addition to the trilogy. Great DVD with special features.
Published 20 days ago by Johnny
1.0 out of 5 stars
I refuse to acknowledge this as part of IJ series.
It makes me sad to think that Harrison reviewed this script and was OK with it. Then again, most of the stuff I loathed was CGI and he had no idea it would come off so bad.
Published 22 days ago by hookworm
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great movie
This is a great classic movie and a great addition to the Indiana Jones collection of movies. I wish they would have included it the boxed set.
Published 25 days ago by James M. Dunnam
4.0 out of 5 stars
Here's the thing ...
I only got this (for $3.00 total, no less) enable to have a copy of the uncut doc. on the second disc about the making of the film. Read more
Published 1 month ago by James A. Allder
5.0 out of 5 stars
He is back!
It was fun to see how the familiar characters had aged. For the most part the story line was a fun adventure. The ending did not come as a surprise, but was fitting.
Published 1 month ago by B. Olszewski
4.0 out of 5 stars
They really nuked the fridge on this one
I found this film to be similar in tone and execution to the original trilogy. The original trilogy was indeed before my time, but I have seen them all several times. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Seth T. Vuletich
1.0 out of 5 stars
Should not have been made
Just looking to add my rating without a lot of commentary. But from the start, everything seemed wrong. The CGI is clearly visible in the opening warehouse scene... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Complete
Got this for my husband to complete his set! Even if you don't really care for this one, it's nice to have to make the set complete!
Published 1 month ago by Donna Dauenhauer
3.0 out of 5 stars
Meh
Wasn't the best movie of the franchise, but at least it wasn't the worst. This beats out Temple of Doom but not by much.
Published 2 months ago by David G.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loaned it out and...
Yep, you guessed it. Loaned it out and it "got lost". Couldn't have my set broken up, so I turned to Amazon for help. Great sellers! Pleased with my purchase. Thanks!!
Published 2 months ago by Jacqueline R. Hungate
