He’s a senior citizen, he hasn’t made a decent film – much less had a hit – since the one-two punch of Air Force One and Six Days, Seven nights a decade ago. So the idea of Harrison Ford making another Indiana Jones movie 19 years after The Last Crusade made me cringe. It seemed a bit desperate.
Sure, Sly Stallone’s successfully resurrected both Rocky and Rambo and Bruce Willis took on more terrorists as John McClane, but Indy was special, an 80s action hero firmly planted in the serials of the 30s and 40s.
And tidbits about the premise of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – WORST. TITLE. EVER. (except for maybe the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace) – did not make me feel any better. Indy is investigating aliens instead of fighting Nazis and thugee cults? Ugghhh! Sounded a little too X-Files-ish.
Never mind that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were both back on board along with the still totally hot Karen Allen (hard-drinking hottie Marion Raven from Raiders of the Lost Ark). Unfortunately, no Sean Connery as Indy’s dad and we get Shia LeBeouf instead of Short Round, but ah, well… And there’s always Cate Blanchett as some sort of Nazi dominatrix – Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS meets Betty Page. Wowzers!!!
Then, the first trailer hit the internet this morning and all I can say is, it’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.
I’ve been humming the Indy theme around the office all morning and making whip-cracking noises (which most people around NOW seem to think has something to do with the new Love & Sex Issue, the fools).
Sure, there’s CGI in the movie, but damn, it still LOOKS like an Indiana Jones movie from the 80s, just a little cheesy, a little fake, but in a good way. And yes, part of it’s set in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 (which means aliens), but then there’s the big rather familiar-looking warehouse, the tribal warriors…crazy stunts that don’t look fake…
Indy’s back. A little rougher around the edges and grayer in the temple, but there’s no doom in that.
Lo and behold, the preview for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
