by Joseph Whalen

Created on: May 27, 2008

After a painful nineteen year wait audiences are once again graced with the springtime pleasure of watching the swashbuckling Harrison Ford revive Dr. Henry Jones Jr. in the fourth and probably last movie in what has been some of the best and some of the worst memories in cinematic history over its run. As the movie starts out we fast forward to 1957 where our choice of movie villains have now changed from the ever believably evil Nazis to a barely passable Russian accented collection of KGB operatives who have some how managed to pass themselves off as American soldiers during the paranoid times of the "red scare" and infiltrate what we are left to believe is one of the most secure military installations in the country in order to steal some mysterious artifact.

While the whole opening scene lacks any level of believability from a continuity stand point, it is filled with a boat load of action, more clichs than should be allowed even in such a cult classic, and a few touching homage's. One thing that is done well in the beginning of the movie but overdone throughout the rest of the story is the acknowledgement of Harrison Ford's advanced age. It makes for interesting comedic fodder at certain times while verging on beating a long dead horse at other times. The action is consistent and smooth, interspersed with witty dialog which thankfully was free of the characteristically bad musings all too common in most works out of Lucas these days.

We find all of the basic necessities for a typical Indiana Jones film spattered throughout the movie as needed. From the "travel map overlay" to the creepy crawly creatures, all of the normal hooks can be found, most in the first fifteen minutes of the movie which quickly gives the movie the feel of a tired old retread of a fan flick in which the director goes out of his way to make sure he hits all the elements people are looking for before moving on with the rest of the story. It gives the movie a campy feel and verges on making the itself a parody of Indiana Jones movies. Once you slog your way through the old man jokes and signature Indy hooks Spielberg then takes the story forward in a completely new direction from anything even resembling an Indiana Jones movie.

Somehow the wonder team of Spielberg and Lucas meander back into the treacherously dark and gloomy world of insects, corpses and slow plots that bogged down Temple of Doom and made it the bane of the franchise. As our heroes crawl, fall, leap and climb through

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