The NY Times reports on Sarah Jessica Parker's reaction:
“It is kind of mind-boggling,” Sarah Jessica Parker, the “Sex and the City” star, said in a telephone interview from her Manhattan home on Saturday. “We are thrilled and humbled that the audience came out.”
Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull almost broke the alltime holdiay weekend gross record. It came in second to Pirates of the Carribean 3. Indy 4 played to sold out shows all weekend as parents took their children in droves. And we were there, taking our three kids yesterday. My youngest had a bad fever Saturday so we couldn't see the film till Monday, and it was killing me to wait!
So, was it worth the wait? The 19 years we waited? Unreservedly, YES! Our family has been watching the old movies to get our kids ready for Indy 4. We saw the first film a week ago, and nothing can match the first one. The introduction to Indy, the boulder, Marion -- it can't be topped. But we also saw the second film Sunday night, Temple of Doom. Kate Capshaw is like nails on a chalkboard and my son was yelling at the TV -- I can't STAND her! Yes, Spielberg got a wife out of that film, but she is definitely not my favorite either. So with all that fresh in our minds, I can view Indy 4 not just through the mists of my memories and nostalgia. Indy 4 could never be the equal of the first film, but it can stand at least as high as the second if not higher. Yeah, the plot doesn't make sense -- but they never did!
I loved Indy 4 and everything about it. There were things about this film that most of the audience may not have been chuckling about the way I was. Starting the film with a drag race -- that was pure George Lucas, and echoed our very first image of Harrison Ford as he was in the drag race in American Graffiti! Shia LeBeouf rides on screen on his motorcycle with the leather jacket and even the very hat that Marlon Brando wore in The Wild Ones. I actually burst out a "HA!" right when I saw him (I was the only one!), laughing at how perfect the homage was.
I loved the emotional payoff of this movie -- How Indy finds his son, and just all the great banter in the movie with Marion. As the Tribune reviewer said, the goofy look on Indy's face when he first sees Marion again is worth the price of admission. Shia did great, and I love how Spielberg and Lucas gave him his own thing -- he's dropped out of tons of boarding schools but he knows how to handle a knife and fence! The car chase sequence is sheer cinematic brilliance, and will be studied by film students for years to come. All the supporting players were great -- Cate Blanchett was a standout as the Russian villain. Just pitch perfect.
So, three and a half stars (out of 4) and a MUST see in the theaters. If you haven't seen it yet, what's wrong with you? Are you American or what?! Those FBI agents from the film may need to speak with you!
Variety reviews Indy 4 at its world premiere at Cannes!
One of the most eagerly and long-awaited series follow-ups in screen history delivers the goods -- not those of the still first-rate original, 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but those of its uneven two successors. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" begins with an actual big bang, then gradually slides toward a ho-hum midsection before literally taking off for an uplifting finish. Nineteen years after their last adventure, director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford have no trouble getting back in the groove with a story and style very much in keeping with what has made the series so perennially popular. Few films have ever had such a high mass audience must-see factor, spelling giant May 22 openings worldwide and a rambunctious B.O. life all the way into the eventual "Indiana Jones" DVD four-pack. Read the rest of the review here!
For all the verbiage expended just to keep the story cranking forward, David Koepp's script accomplishes the two essentials: It keeps the structure on the straight and narrow, and is true to the character of Indiana Jones himself. Thanks to this and Ford's full-bodied performance, Indy comes through just as viewers remember him: crafty, capable, impatient, manly and red-blooded American. He looks great for his age, although it's never pretended he's younger than he is, and Mutt pays him the ultimate compliment when he says, "For an old man, you ain't bad in a fight."
LOS ANGELES — Nothing ever seems to change in the stormy love-hate relationship between Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood.
The characters created by Harrison Ford and Karen Allen in 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" are back at it with "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," due out May 22.
"As the film begins, they haven't seen each other for a long time, and suddenly, they're thrust back together," Allen told The Associated Press this week. "They kind of pick up from where they left off. A few bumpy roads have passed between them since then that they have to work out with each other."
Allen has always been the fan favorite among the women Indy was forever fighting and making up with in the first three films, with viewers long hoping for the two to reunite.
Director Steven Spielberg's future wife, Kate Capshaw, became the archaeologist's love interest in the second movie, 1984's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Allen's Marion could not have appeared in that one, since "Temple of Doom" took place earlier than "Raiders," which marked the first time she had seen Indy in a decade.
The next movie, 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," took place after "Raiders," and Allen joked that "I guess I could have been in that one, but they decided to go with Sean Connery," who played Indy's estranged dad.
...
Though Allen was more interested in stage work and serious films, Marion offered a rare chance to play a strong, full-blooded woman in a big Hollywood action flick.
Marion's first moments on screen said it all as she chugged through a drinking contest and gave Indy a greeting he would not soon forget.
"She was a very wonderfully written character," Allen said. "How can you go wrong when you meet a woman in a bar in Nepal and she's drinking men under the table, yelling at large men in Nepalese and ordering them out of the bar, and when she first sets eyes on Indiana Jones, she socks him in the jaw? It's a great introduction to the character, and it's hard to imagine she's not going to win a lot of fans."
And what about the speculation that Indy's new young sidekick, played by Shia LaBeouf, is the love child of Indy and Marion?
"You'll have to wait and see," Allen said.
Hat tip: Huffington Post
