Here’s the formula for Indy 4: (just so you know what’s ahead of you or need a refresher)

Chase, fight, investigate, fight, chase, escape, drama, chase, investigate, fight, capture, drama, chase, fight, chase, fight, chase, investigate, escape, resolve, drama, finale.

Yeah…. But isn’t that the same as the last three movies? Do you really care?

Old Indiana Jones is still in the business of rescuing rare antiquities that certain people covet and would kill for. This time around, instead of recovering an ark, or a stone, or a grail it happens to be a crystal skull with a very magnetic personality. Being some 15 or so years later, this time around the maniacal power hungry antagonists are Russians as opposed to Nazi Germans.

To fill in the sidekick roll is a young greaser (which eventually turns out to be Indy’s son) whose seeking help to find a mutual friend who was lost looking for the Crystal Skull. They are later joined by the kid’s mother who also happens to be Indy’s love interest from the first film. The end is the beginning, the beginning is the end.

When they recover the Crystal Skull they find that it has to be returned to its point of origin. Meanwhile the Russians want the skull for its power and aim to take it from Jones and crew by force. Who said archeology was boring?

The rest of the movie is chase after chase, action scene after action scene with as many death traps and obstacles that would make Pitfall Harry blush. The setting stems from a US Military Outpost to Jones’ University where he teaches part time to locales around the Amazon which leads to an ancient Mayan city which is still inhabited by ancient Mayans.

Not to spoil it, but we eventually see a UFO that while not necessarily from space, is still a damn UFO! At that point I said to myself, “Well this has to be the final installment because how are they going to top a UFO? I could see it now, Indiana Jones and the Multi-Dimensional Fedora”   

Perhaps I’m being a little harsh. I really do enjoy the Indiana Jones series and this is a very beautifully filmed production.  Yet I couldn’t help but feel just a little disappointed by this final installment about everyone’s favorite bullwhip toting archaeologist. It was everything that was expected right down to the clichés, but with an ending that I actually cringed at seeing. [rd] - 5.27.2008