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54
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51
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51
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43
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Paramount Pictures
 |
|
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for adventure violence and scary images
Starring
Harrison Ford,
Shia LaBeouf,
Cate Blanchett,
Ray Winstone,
Karen Allen,
John Hurt,
and
Jim Broadbent
The newest Indiana Jones adventure begins in the desert Southwest in 1957 – the height of the Cold War. Indy and his sidekick Mac have barely escaped a close scrape with nefarious Soviet agents on a remote airfield. Now, Professor Jones has returned home to Marshall College – only to find things have gone from bad to worse. His close friend and dean of the college explains that Indy's recent activities have made him the object of suspicion, and that the government has put pressure on the university to fire him. On his way out of town, Indiana meets rebellious young Mutt, who carries both a grudge and a proposition for the adventurous archaeologist: If he'll help Mutt on a mission with deeply personal stakes, Indy could very well make one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in history – the Crystal Skull of Akator, a legendary object of fascination, superstition and fear. But as Indy and Mutt set out for the most remote corners of Peru, they quickly realize the Soviet agents are also hot on the trail of the Crystal Skull. Indy and Mutt must find a way to evade the ruthless Soviets, follow an impenetrable trail of mystery, grapple with enemies and friends of questionable motives, and, above all, stop the powerful Crystal Skull from falling into the deadliest of hands. (Paramount Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Adventure
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Philip Kaufman (characters)
George Lucas (characters & story)
Jeff Nathanson (story)
David Koepp
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Steven Spielberg
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 14, 2008
Theatrical: May 22, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
123 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
English | German | Hebrew | Nyaneka |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
It's crammed full of the dash, filmmaking flair, swashbuckling magic, impossible stunts and tongue-in-cheek humor that made the series such a phenomenon of its time, and -- for those versed in its traditions -- almost every frame is enjoyable on some level.
90
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
It miraculously pulled off the effect of feeling like a surprise: The picture both fulfilled some vague, unexpressed hopes I didn't know I had and also left me with the sense that I'd just seen something I wasn't quite prepared for -- the kind of contradiction that great showmanship can bridge.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
I can say that if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you.
83
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Despite the merry duo of Ford and Connery, The Last Crusade offered a familiar pursuit of the Holy Grail. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull makes a better move: It goes back to the future. Once again, the Indiana Jones series is the rare franchise that treasures knowledge and embraces the unknown.
80
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
Entertaining, inventive and old-fashioned in the best way.
80
Variety
Todd McCarthy
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.
80
Empire
Damon Wise
A slick, fun film that has by no means sacrificed the fast action beats of the first three.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Though the film stars a relaxed and capable Harrison Ford as everyone's favorite intrepid archaeologist and boasts supporting players ranging from Cate Blanchett as a superb villainess to Shia LaBeouf as the inevitable youngster, the real heroes of this film are director Steven Spielberg and the veritable army of superb technicians who turn the film's numerous stunts and special effects into trains that insist on running on time.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Ford's Indy, who doesn't quite hang up his fedora at film's end, is still the only cinematic smartass-cum-bullwhipping scholar of antiquities I'd want by my side when push comes to shove comes to Nazis ("I hate these guys"), Russkies, or, for that matter, Al Quaeda. Go get 'em, Indy, and cue the John Williams while you''e at it.
75
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
The movie's pretty good, occasionally very good. But I also kind of hope they don't make another one.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Both the good and bad remind us that the most special thing about "Skull" is the man wearing the fedora and the rakish grin. He has never worn out his welcome, and this valedictory – it can be nothing else – is a fitting one.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The movie moves. It has action sequences that are so enormous that they won't just wow audiences, but rock them back in their seats and make them laugh at the audacity of it all.
75
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The overall effect is either exhilarating or exhausting, depending on your emotional investment in the franchise, but credit where credit is due: Steven Spielberg and George Lucas set out to make one for the fans and delivered.
75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Often thrilling, sometimes charming, occasionally clunky family entertainment that perhaps wisely doesn't attempt to scale the heights of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Merely grand old-school fun - a rollicking class reunion that stands as the second best entry in the venerable series.
75
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Crystal Skull is a fun ride, but if we have to wait 19 years for the next one, that's OK by me.
70
Time
Richard Corliss
There are scenes in the new movie that seem like stretching exercises at a retirement home; there are garrulous stretches, and even the title seems a few words too long. But once it gets going, Crystal Skull delivers smart, robust, familiar entertainment.
70
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
It's enough to make you forgive a great deal of this film's dumbness and appreciate it as meaningless, goodhearted and mostly non-obnoxious entertainment.
70
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
The character and plot contrivances are dumber than ever, but this is basically vaudeville, not narrative, and the thrills keep coming.
70
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
I can't deny it: I had a shit-eating grin on my face for most of the ensuing two hours. I also can't deny that many of the criticisms about to be leveled at Spielberg and Lucas over "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" are well-deserved, but it's still good to see Indiana Jones, and Marion, back in action one last time.
70
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
It's romantic manliness at its purest, almost but not quite schmaltz, ideally calculated to please true believers and ironic snorters at once.
67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
The biggest problem with Crystal Skull is one that's lately plagued Spielberg in otherwise excellent films like "Munich" and "War Of The Worlds": He fails to stick the landing. And for an entertainment with nothing much on its mind, that hurts.
67
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Harrison Ford? Terrific -- and re-energized.
63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Even with the ponderous dialogue, it's hard not to have fun on this adventure, and it's good to see that Indy, though slightly weary, still has the goods.
63
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Audiences looking for emotional resonance in Indy 4 are doomed to the temple of disappointment. Spielberg and Lucas aren't upping their creative game -- they're taking care of business.
63
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
The script was kept under unusually tight wraps during filming, but the biggest surprise in the picture is how talky the whole enterprise is. Particularly deadly is a long stretch in mid-film where the heroes walk through caves, talk about what they're seeing, get captured and talk with their captors, escape and talk some more.
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
While the production values are top-notch, and the action artfully choreographed, in the end - and quite well before the end - a sense of tedium sets in.
60
Slate
Dana Stevens
Even the most enthusiastic future Indy scholar would have to concede that the movie's habit of quoting from venerable Hollywood antiquities sometimes has the unfortunate effect of reminding the viewer that those movies were better.
60
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Things could be worse. At the end of the day, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is nothing if not consistent -- taking care of business solidly, professionally and without a lick of the genuine wonderment or inspiration that you can find in surplus in Jon Favreau's Spielberg-influenced "Iron Man."
60
Newsweek
Jennie Yabroff
Like Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard," Indy is still big; it's just that, in the new world of movie franchises, The Crystal Skull feels smaller.
60
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
There's plenty of frantic energy here, lots of noise and money too, but what's absent is any sense of rediscovery, the kind that's necessary whenever a filmmaker dusts off an old formula or a genre standard.
60
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Director Steven Spielberg seems intent on celebrating his entire early career here. Whatever the story there is, a vague journey to return a spectacular archeological find to its rightful home -- an unusual goal of the old grave-robber, you must admit -- gets swamped in a sea of stunts and CGI that are relentless as the scenes and character relationships are charmless.
50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Does not know when to quit. Nor does it extract much fun from a cockamamie story provided by George Lucas.
50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Simply isn't a very good motion picture.
50
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
All of it amounts to a been-there-done-that-better recapitulation of Mr. Spielberg's career.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Conducting another symphony in action, Spielberg seems a bit bored – always competent but never inspired – and who can really blame him? He tries to fire his interest by swiping a few tropes from the fifties pop bin, not-so-sly allusions to teen-trash movies and those McCarthy-era horror flicks. After that, there's really nowhere to go but inwards, which is when Spielberg starts looting Spielberg.
50
Premiere
Gregory Christie
It's clear the creators wanted to bring our hero back but were uncertain where to put him. Sadly, Indiana Jones is not relevant amidst the atomic blasts and disillusionment of the Soviet era, and he's not even recognizable in the pixilated universe of recent cinema. To quote the great Dr. Jones, "It belongs in a museum!"
50
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
No mainstream filmmaker since Orson Welles can touch Steven Spielberg when it comes to camera movement and composition--or, more precisely, to composition that gets more vivid as the camera moves...It's the work of a man with film storytelling in his blood. What a bummer when the story he has to tell is a cosmic nothing.
50
The New Yorker
David Denby
Crystal Skull isn't bad--there are a few dazzling sequences, and a couple of good performances--but the unprecedented blend of comedy and action that made the movies so much more fun than any other adventure series is mostly gone.
30
Village Voice
Robert Wilonsky
It's hard to tell whether Spielberg and Lucas are trying too hard or trying at all--the thing's such a mess, such an unmitigated disaster, that damned is the scholar stuck with the unfortunate task of deciphering this cynical, clinical gibberish in decades to come.
 The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 759 User Votes
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