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Official Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Rottenwatch/Reviews

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G

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
The movie is not going to underperform... are you crazy? It's going to be the summer's big blockbuster.

There's Indy TV ads EVERYWHERE, there's merchandising everywhere (toys, I saw M&Ms today, BK has an Indy burger).

There's two whole generations that grew up with, and love, the films. My parents generation saw them when they were new in theaters, and other 20-somethings love them too.

Plus since it's PG-13 it's a great action/adventure flick to take kids to once they've graduated from Kung-Fu Panda type stuff.
 
F

fourzerotwo

Member
I'll be seeing the midnight showing here in Los Angeles and can't wait. This movie is honestly the biggest hype train I've been on since The Last Crusade came out. Regardless of how the actual movie is perceived to everyone else, to me, and my fanboy glaze, it will be the greatest cinematic triumph of this generation. :D

Heading down to Santa Monica now to pick up a fedora.
 
S

Sanjuro

Member
Also something to note. Anyone remember Family Guy: Blue Harvest when they kill John Williams and Danny Elfman does the score?

After Sallah tells him the Ark is on a truck and Indy replies "What truck!?". John Williams score there sounds exactly like the Elfman spoof.

Just found that kind of funny.
 
D

Defcon

Banned
Just bought the newly released trilogy set. It'll do for now, but I really hope a Bluray release is within the next year.
 
A

artredis1980

Banned
First newspaper review is in!!!!!

from CANNES!!!


and its gooood



http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/cannes/article3953920.ece
For almost 20 years, Hollywood has been waiting for the next instalment in the money-spinning Indiana Jones adventure series. Indy is back this week – and even an ageing Harrison Ford can still crack an impressive box office whip.

The worldwide opening on Thursday of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – the fourth instalment in the series featuring the world’s most indestructible archeologist – has been accompanied by enough controversy and intrigue to merit a film of its own.

Disagreements among producers, arguments between screen-writers and actors, and lawsuits against anyone who has dared to reveal a smidgen of plot, have combined to make the $185m (£95m) film one of the most eagerly anticipated of the year.

Directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by George Lucas (of the equally spectacular Star Wars series), the film returns to 1957 – the height of the cold war – for another round of heart-pounding chases through tunnels and across clifftops as a motley gang of intrepid treasure hunters span the globe in their quest for the usual nonsense.

The long delay between the new adventure and the previous instalment – released in 1989 and unwisely entitled Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – has piqued Hollywood’s interest.

In the internet/video game age, when most recent action blockbusters have been derived from superhero cartoons, can an ageing screen idol who hasn’t had a decent hit for years reprise the wild success of his youth?

The good news for Ford fans is that Indy may be older and greyer, but there’s still a spark to his repartee, and he still gets the girl in the end (the girl in question being Marion Ravenwood, played by Karen Allen, who was the love interest in the first Indiana movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark).

Whether Ford’s charm will be enough to earn the film the $400m it is estimated to need to recoup Paramount Pictures’ investment remains to be seen. However, a preview attended by The Sunday Times last week suggested that the internet gossips who have doubted the film’s drawing power may be proved wrong.

Jones admits early on that chasing baddies is not as easy as it used to be. In one scene he escapes from a nuclear blast by hiding inside a lead-lined refrigerator. Science and probability were never among the series’ strong points.

It rapidly becomes clear that since we last saw him saving the Holy Grail from the Nazis, Jones has become a sadder and more solitary character.

His gloom is broken when an unlikely pair of treasure hunters – Mac, played by Britain’s Ray Winstone, and Mutt, played by Shia LaBeouf, a teen idol – warn him that the dastardly Soviet Union is after a crystal skull that, in the finest Indy tradition, offers dangerous powers to anyone who possesses it.

Much has been made in internet chatrooms about LaBeouf’s potential impact on the film, and fears that he is merely a sop to lure teen viewers. Yet LaBeouf, who made a striking impact against computerised villains in Transformers, matches Ford quip for quip and leather jacket for leather jacket.

The first Indiana Jones film in 1981 was Spielberg’s homage to the Saturday morning cliff-hanger serials of the 1930s. The latest film still has a pleasingly old-fashioned feel, with several long, slow shots, plastic-like foliage, tinny sound effects and a silly python.

Cate Blanchett makes an eye-catching appearance as Irina Spalko, the spooky leader of the Russain villainry; John Hurt, the veteran British actor, lurks menacingly as a rival hunter.

The crystal skull itself was formerly the subject of obscure disagreement between Spielberg and Ford, but it’s now hard to see what the fuss was about. It might as well have been a brussels sprout for all the difference it makes to the plot.

The real pleasure for series fans may lie not so much in the madcap action, the carnivorous bugs and the familiar perils of quicksand, but the restored romance between Ford and Allen, and the fatherly relationship that develops between Ford and LaBeouf, who is clearly the new pretender to his whip.

Indy treats Mutt with the same sarcastic disdain that his own father, played by Sean Connery, lavished on him during the Last Crusade. You can probably guess how it all works out.

The new film has long appeared critic-proof – audiences will flock to it whatever the critical verdict. Yet will it have the box-office legs to join its distinguished predecessors among the most popular films in Hollywood history ?

It is bound to triumph this weekend – the Memorial Day holiday in America – but the latest Narnia adventure, Prince Caspian, is waiting in the wings, and the late Heath Ledger will soon make a posthumous return to screens in the Batman film, The Dark Knight. Indy may have his work cut out to save the day for Spielberg.
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J

JdFoX187

Banned
Blader5489 said:
Uh...did I read that review right? Indy 4 cost $400 million?
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That's how much it'd have to make at the box office. That's accounting for the theater cut, distribution costs, etc. And I believe it's worldwide, not just N/A.

SanjuroTsubaki said:
But but he past the crest!
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Seal :D
 
Z

Zilch

Banned
This'll make $700-800 million worldwide easily.

edit: that $125 million doesn't include marketing cost, does it?
 
L

Link Man

Banned
BenjaminBirdie said:
Wheee!! A movie that is fucking fun.

Praises be.
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It might not be as fun as fucking, but it's still great to have another fun movie.

Then again, I also found Caspian and Iron Man to be fun.
 
B

bill0527

Member
Another review from a Fox News Screener at Cannes. (Edited for spoilers).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356527,00.html

Crystal Skull: It's A Hit!

It's not the best movie of all time but "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is a thrilling, thoroughly enjoyable romp that should please even the most devout fans of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' franchise.

What you need to know is that Spielberg and Lucas have taken pieces of their most popular ideas and woven them together. There are major riffs on "American Graffiti," "Star Wars" and "E.T." Just dissecting all the references is half the fun.

The cast, tone and look are perfect. The first screening crowd in Cannes cheered this afternoon for Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett and Karen Allen. Shia LaBeouf makes a very convincing Indy junior.

In fact, there is plenty to love, jam packed into these two hours starting with Ford. He may be 65 but he is still a vital virile movie star. His Indiana Jones performance should be a lesson to wannabe action stars.

Sequels featuring him will be welcome.

How completely absurd then the bad buzz created by wayward blogs and the completely bogus review in the British papers today.

But even Ford would agree that the big picture is what counts most. The team has moved "Indy" into the mid 1950s using atom bomb tests in the desert, the red scare, and cheesy alien films of the decade as crisscrossing themes. There's a nod to Spielberg's Close Encounters too.

In the end, as Lucas said in this column on Friday, you get nothing more or less than chapter four in a continuum.
There are several winks at the first installment too like Allen's entrance (same as in "Raiders of the Lost Ark") and Indy's fear of snakes.
There are also lots of "parallel" chases involving various vehicles and the trading back and forth of passengers. The action never stops, and it's always richly textured with humor and wit.

So get the record books out. "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" lives up to the Spielberg/Lucas tradition particularly in parodying the great action reels of the 50s. Bravo!
Click to expand...
 
S

Spotless Mind

Member
I'm getting really excited. I mostly just can't wait to see Indiana and Marion on screen together once again. The way they left their relationship from Raiders unresolved to nary a mention in Last Crusade always kind of bugged me. Their interactions were the heart of Raiders for me. Plus Marion was awesome.
 
H

harSon

Banned
I think I'll be able to give the movie a fair review, I just recently watched all 3 movies so nostalgia will not really be present :p
 
C

Cheebs

Member
CajoleJuice said:
That seems a bit optimistic.
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I see it doing roughly around where Pirates 2 did. 400 or so million domestically and over 500 over-seas.

Right now its apparently tracking to do 175 million in it's opening full labor day weekend (including thrusday). I am less confident of the worldwide numbers but this will do over 400 mill in the states, no question.
 
The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
Spotless Mind said:
:lol Exactly.

Who the fuck is expecting a masterpiece?
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I'd say Raiders is a masterpiece of filmmaking. The other two are great films that are a lot of fun. If this is nearly as good as those I will be happy.
 
B

bill0527

Member
Spotless Mind said:
:lol Exactly.

Who the fuck is expecting a masterpiece?
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The internet expects a masterpiece at every movie released.

This is why I try to stay out of movie threads at various boards I visit. The internet age expects every movie to be a transcendental, mind-fuck, life-altering event, or it 'sucks'.

I blame the 1990's, when most of them grew up, for creating this view of cinema because most of that decade, and all of the 2000's have sucked the fun right out of movie going.
 
S

Spotless Mind

Member
DoctorWho said:
I'd say Raiders is a masterpiece of filmmaking. The other two are great films that are a lot of fun. If this is nearly as good as those I will be happy.
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I agree with you totally. Expecting a Raiders quality film just hasn't entered my mind for a second and that's not a bad thing.
 
B

brandonh83

Banned
I imagine I'll like it more than Temple and Crusade. Raiders is just... too damn good. Just one of those things, you know. But even if it's the second best Indiana Jones movie, I mean that's pretty kickass.
 
W

womp

Member
Jenga said:
Wow, I just noticed the earring. Sounds like Ford is in a mid-life crisis.
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As was said he's had it for a while now...Honestly though as much as I loved Harrison growing up, he's a bit of a wash for me these days. The last movies I liked him in to any degree were the two Clancy flicks and right around there was when the earring appeared.

He's just been in some truly blah movies in the past 10+ years and IMO has lost a lot of his star power.

Firewall, Sabrina, that one with Anne Heche, Hollywood Homicide, even Air Force One was silly as hell. It doesn't help he's been really partying it up either and looking a bit sloshy with the booze. :lol

Nothing can match his 80's incredibleness though...What an amazing run of films. Witness was just on in HD the other day and it still continues to be something I end up watching if it happens to be on while channel surfing.

That said, he certainly looks 66 but he also worked hard to get that look there (Muscle tone, not fashion). No one wants to see Indy played by the beer gut Harrison that was walking around a few years ago.
 
C

Cheebs

Member
Some nice photos from Cannes:
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W

womp

Member
I gotta say, I was always on the fence given her chameleon abilities with her roles (They confuse my testosterone) but Cate looks absolutely amazing.
 
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