Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

David Koepp (screenplay), George Lucas (story),

Stars:

Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 5 wins & 25 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Harrison Ford	...	Indiana Jones
Cate Blanchett	...	Irina Spalko
Karen Allen	...	Marion Ravenwood
Shia LaBeouf	...	Mutt Williams
Ray Winstone	...	'Mac' George Michale
John Hurt	...	Professor Oxley
Jim Broadbent	...	Dean Charles Stanforth
Igor Jijikine	...	Dovchenko
Dimitri Diatchenko	...	Russian Suit
Ilia Volok	...	Russian Suit
Emmanuel Todorov	...	Russian Soldier
Pasha D. Lychnikoff	...	Russian Soldier
Andrew Divoff	...	Russian Soldier
Venya Manzyuk	...	Russian Soldier (as Veniamin Manzyuk)
Alan Dale	...	General Ross

Storyline

During the Cold War, Soviet agents watch Professor Henry Jones when a young man brings him a coded message from an aged, demented colleague, Henry Oxley. Led by the brilliant Irina Spalko, the Soviets tail Jones and the young man, Mutt, to Peru. With Oxley's code, they find a legendary skull made of a single piece of quartz. If Jones can deliver the skull to its rightful place, all may be well; but if Irina takes it to its origin, she'll gain powers that could endanger the West. Aging professor and young buck join forces with a woman from Jones's past to face the dangers of the jungle, Russia, and the supernatural.

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Plot Keywords:

soviet | skull | professor | power | artifact | 

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Taglines:

The adventure continues . . . [Australia Theatrical]

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Genres:

Action | Adventure

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for adventure violence and scary images

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Russian

Release Date:

22 May 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fourth Installment of the Indiana Jones Adventures

Filming Locations:

Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$185,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£12,227,799 (UK) (23 May 2008)

Gross:

$317,011,114 (USA) (10 October 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Lucasfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Akator throne room designed by Guy Hendrix Dyas keeps up an Indiana Jones tradition by having C-3PO and R2-D2 etched into one of the yellow titles, and E.T. into another. According to the book "The Complete Making of Indiana Jones", the characters can be found somewhere in all four Indiana Jones pictures.

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Goofs

During the warehouse treasure hunt at the beginning of the movie, Indy uses handfuls of gunpowder and shotgun pellets to try and locate the highly magnetic item the Soviets are after. However, as soon as the box is discovered and moved, all of the light fittings within ten yards start leaning towards it. Given that wood is non-magnetic and hence would not have interfered with the magnetism of the item, the lights would have been leaning towards it even before it was taken out of the box, making the search a lot easier.

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Quotes

Indiana Jones: Marion, take the wheel.
Mutt Williams: That's not fair. She drove the truck.
Indiana Jones: Don't be a child. Find something to fight with.

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Crazy Credits

The movie begins with the Lucasfilm logo, followed by the 1954 Paramount "VistaVision" logo (with the text "PARAMOUNT" instead of "A PARAMOUNT PICTURE" and "A Viacom Company" instead of "A Gulf+Western Company" below "PARAMOUNT"). Gulf+Western became Paramount Communications in 1989, then merged with Viacom in 1994. The Paramount logo then dissolves into a gopher mound. (The static version of the current Paramount logo is seen at the end of the movie.)

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Connections

References Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

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Soundtracks

"Hound Dog"
Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Performed by Elvis Presley
Courtesy of The RCA Records Label
By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment

User Reviews

Entertaining in that self-parodying sort of way, but somebody PLEASE tell George Lucas to retire!!

Usually, when you go to see an action/adventure movie, especially an Indiana Jones movie, you're going to suspend your disbelief and just allow yourself to "get into" the movie. These kinds of movies are supposed to be mindless escapist fun. Still, one might expect some small modicum of plausibility or connection to the real world. When it comes to "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," forget about suspending disbelief. Just pretend you're in another dimension altogether. If you do that, you'll have have met one of the two prerequisites for seeing this movie. (If you don't believe me now, you will when you see this film and see our hero survive a cataclysmic event in a fairly cartoonish manner a mere 15 minutes into the film.) The other prerequisite is that you've seen the other three movies...religiously. A huge chunk of the entertainment value of this film comes from nostalgia, in-jokes, and self-parody. It is an entertaining movie and I had fun and laughed while I was watching it and the reason for this is because we are either enjoying seeing all of the same old gags done once again in a bigger and cooler way, or we are enjoying seeing those gags mocked. Trusty bullwhip? Check. Fedora? Check. Long car chase with fighting and leaping and what-not? Check. Dark tombs lit only by torches? Check. Gross creepy crawly critters? Check.

This is what makes the movie entertaining, but is also what prevents it from greatness and what makes me hesitant to call it a true "Indiana Jones" movie. George Lucas (who co-wrote the screenplay) has tried to do here what he did to the "Star Wars" prequels, namely that he thinks that appealing to the fan base with in-jokes, self-parody, and re-hashing the same old stuff can take the place of actually writing a a story that can stand on its own merits. The "Star Wars" prequels failed because Lucas could not get past his constant references to the original trilogy and so instead created fan fiction instead of true prequels. (Well, there was also the fact that Lucas' dialogue SUCKED.) Here, the stunts and action sequences and in-jokes keep us feeling entertained during the course of the film, but when we walk away, we wonder where was the real story.

Indiana Jones is a homage to 1930s serials about treasure hunters. He's out of place in the 1950s. Also out of place are the Soviets(led by Cate Blanchett in a Rosa Kleb-like role). And there are many, many, MANY instances where you will get to wondering just how implausible the next stunt will be. All of that I can put up with, though, and in fact can and do add to the entertainment value of the film. What I could not put up with was the ending, which will remind you not of Indiana Jones but of the ending to another Spielberg movies that pre-dates "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

This movie is lots of fun to watch, but it doesn't take itself seriously and probably shouldn't be part of the Indiana Jones canon.