Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ***

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" brings us back to the continuing saga of the archaeology professor/adventurer fifteen years later, which works out fine for Harrison Ford, since it has been about that long since the last installment. This time we're in the fifties, so instead of Nazi villains, we have Russian Communist villains, "better dead than red" rallies, the Bomb, and a sidekick with sideburns and a comb mixed in with ancient mysteries and a hidden treasure with its own fifties cachet. It's all great fun. If you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you'll like this one, and if you're too young to remember the first three, then you're in for a treat.

Harrison Ford carries himself creditably in the action sequences, Shia LaBeouf makes an appealing apprentice, and Cate Blanchett is a wonderfully cold, cruel, and driven adversary with more than a touch of the dominatrix. But as always, the real star is the action sequences. From the first motorcycle chase on campus running from Russian agents (shot on location at Yale I do believe), to the jungles of South America, Spielberg displays his mastery of the form. One small caveat: that truck chase through the jungle does go on a tad too long. Other than that, I say just sit back, don't take it too seriously, and have a great ride.

Rated PG-13. 124 minutes. Steven Spielberg - Director, David Koepp - Writer (screenplay), George Lucas - Writer (story) (characters), Jeff Nathanson - Writer (story), Philip Kaufman - Writer (characters), Frank Marshall - Producer, Janusz Kaminski - Cinematographer, John Williams - Composer, Guy Hendrix Dyas¹ - Production Designer, Michael Kahn - Editor. Distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment.

Principal actors: Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone, Karen Allen, John Hurt, and Jim Broadbent.