Sections of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are a great deal of fun. I felt jazzed and charged during a good 60% or even 70% of it. I was more than delighted at times. What a pleasure, I told myself over and over, to swim in a first-rate, big-budget action film that throws one expertly-crafted thrill after another at you, and with plotting that’s fairly easy to understand, dialogue that’s frequently witty and sharp, and performances — Harrison Ford, Shia LeBouf and Cate Blanchett‘s, in particular — that are 90% delctable from start to finish.

I heard some guys say as they left the theatre, “It’s okay…it’s fine…it’s good enough.” I talked to an Israeli journalist who kind of wrinkled his face and went, “Not really…not for me.” But nobody hates it. It gave me no real pain, and a healthy amount of serious moviegoing delight. (Although I was, from time time, slightly bothered.) Fears of a DaVinci Code-styled beat-down were, it turns out, unfounded.
I’m hedging because Indy 4 doesn’t have the stuffings of a great adventure film. It’s fine and appropriate that it stays in the good groove of an old-time action serial, but (and I’m really trying to stay clear of snooty, high-horse attitudes because they really don’t fit the occasion) I only wish that Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, David Koepp and Jeff Nathanson had attempted at least a superficial injection of a little heart and soul. Just a stab, I mean.
What they’ve done is certainly okay or good enough. I didn’t go into this thing expecting something by Euripides. Plus I had such a good time with Spielberg’s immaculate architecture, choreography and editing that I was just charmed and off-the-ground during much of it. The “old-school” character of it is pretty damn sublime. It felt wonderful to watch an adventure flick untouched or uninfluenced by time or post-Matrix or Tarantino-ish attitudes.
But it would have been that much better if they’d faked just a little personal or thematic weight — the old traditional “who I am and what I really need” stuff — and thrown it in for good measure.

The weak link is Karen Allen‘s performance as Marion Ravenwood. She’s never been a great actress, and her energy here feels a little forced and lacking a center — she’s too energetically “up.” Plus she looks like she’s had some work done, and that in itself throws you out of the movie’s 1957 setting. I’ve never hankered over the last 27 years for a reunion between Indy and Marion, largely because I’ve always felt hugely irritated by her “Indieeeeee!” scream. They made a pretty good team in ’81 but let’s not get all sentimental about this.
I’m not going to reveal the ending, but it ties in with Allen’s character and it just doesn’t work. It’s delivers a very odd vibe, the finale does. There’s a little hint that LeBouf will take over the series down the road, but everyone had this half-guessed…right?
It’s a superficial thrill ride, this movie — more of an out-and-out comedy with thrills than a solid adventure thriller with sly, wink-wink humor, which is how I always regarded Raiders of the Lost Ark.
But don’t believe for a single second that they tried to keep this film grounded in recognizable physics. Spielberg & Co. keep to the 1957 milieu and all, but they throw everything imaginable at the audience, including a huge nuclear explosion. There’s a triple dose of huge-waterfall plunging, and there’s a scene at the end that rivals the parting of the Red Sea sequence in Cecil D. DemIlle‘s The Ten Commandments. It’s a very high-energy, high-gloss, big-whoosh entertainment and enjoyable as hell for everyone except the crab-heads.
That said, the truth is that I’m partly one of those crab-heads. I wanted more than what I was given. Maybe the word for my attitude is “greedy” or “demanding.”
Flashback to initial iPhone Indy 4 review written from salle de press conference while being shoved and elbowed by photographers, about an hour ago: My ideal version of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would be (a) just as beautifully shot, choreographed and CGI’ed as the film everyone just saw, but (b) grittier and snarlier with a stronger investment in good old classic machismo. Alas, Spielberg & Co. have decided, as far as (b) is concerned, on a lighter, more frolicsome tone — lots of eye-filling thrills and acrobatic derring-do but with an almost cartoonish emphasis on slapstick goofery. (Although this is delivered with great snap and panache.) The tone is a little less “classic Indy” and a little more (this dates me, I realize) Tom and Jerry.
Raiders was about a tough-guy archeologist; this latest installment is a family film — about Dad, Mom and Junior (i.e., Shia LeBouf’s “Mutt”) — with a very family-friendly, fun-time-at-Magic-Mountain tone.
The first two action sequences — an extended Indy vs. the Russians run-around and a wild motorcycle-and-car chase through New Haven’s Yale campus — are delightful. And the action sequences in the Amazon jungle that occupy the last 35 or 40 minutes are great also, if a little outlandish. Truth be told, a lot of the action is outlandish. But that’s the fun of it also.
Bottom line: it’s not the equal of Raiders of the Lost Ark or, frankly, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (The more times I watch that film, the better it seems.) But it’s better than Temple of Doom, and that, at least, is a welcome thing.

Harvey Weinstein announced this morning that he’ll produce a $60 million adaptation of Paulo Coelho‘s The Alchemist, the worldwide best-seller (over 30 million copies) which was first published in 1988. Laurence Fishburne will direct, star and also produce.

Harvey Weinstein during this morning’s announcement at the Majestic Beach.

Fishburne has produced several films (Five Fingers, Akeelah and the Bee, The Beltway) but directed only one — Once in the Life, which came out in 2000.
The Weinstein Co. is “currently in negotiations with an Academy Award-winning screenwriter to adapt the novel into a screenplay,” the press release says. Harvey said on the mike that he’s read all the previous screenplay adaptations and “hated them.” This viewpoint, he said, gives him creative cred as it indicates high standards. He envisions The Alchemist movie as a “simple, spiritual tale” that won’t be lathered up in typical Hollywood style.

Every now and then I’ll run an “art photo” — a shot that’s so screwed up (partly because I’m limited to using the i-Phone camera) that you could call it digital impressionism. This is a kind of capturing of Three Monkeys director Nuri Bilge Ceylan (r.) , co-screenwriter Ebru Ceylan (middle — two faces) and guaranteed Palme D’Or contender for Best Actress Hatice Aslan (r.). Photo taken at least night’s party for the Turkish film industry.

If Kelly Bush (i.e., Ben Stiller’s rep) is reading this, could she please call my cell? Or e-mail me. We spoke two or three days ago in the Carlton lobby. Thanks.

The Weinstein Co. sent out invites to press late yesterday to attend a coffee-and croissant announcement event this morning at the Martinez beach, something about a big literary acquisition. Then the Woody Allen/Vicky Cristina Barcelona press luncheon happens at the Martinez Palme D’Or restaurant from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. Some will slip out around 12:20 pm in order to get down to the Palais (a good half-mile walk) for the 1 pm Indiana Jones screening at the Grand Lumiere, which is going to be a madhouse. Then comes the Indy 4 press conference at 3:30. And then the writing of the full review, which I probably won’t finish until 5 pm or so. (11 am NY time.)

I don’t know how the Times Online‘s John Harlow managed to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull “last week,” unless he put on a hat and a fake beard and snuck into an exhibitor screening. Nonetheless, he’s got a “review” up in the Sunday, 5.18 edition. However good or bad Indy 4 is, I’m not going to take Harlow’s word. His prose tells you right off he’s a relatively easy lay.
Harlow spends the first six paragraphs blah-blahing and blowing obsequious journo-farts. He finally gets down to a semblance of business in paragraph #7: “The good news for Harrison Ford fans is that Indy may be older and greyer, but there’s still a spark to his repartee,” he says, “and he still gets the girl in the end (the girl in question being Marion Ravenwood, played by Karen Allen, who was the love interest in the first Indiana movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark).
“Whether Ford’s charm will be enough to earn the film the $400 million it is estimated to need to recoup Paramount Pictures’ investment remains to be seen. However, a preview attended by The Sunday Times last week suggested that the internet gossips who have doubted the film’s drawing power may be proved wrong.
“Jones admits early on that chasing baddies is not as easy as it used to be. In one scene he escapes from a nuclear blast by hiding inside a lead-lined refrigerator. Science and probability were never among the series’ strong points.
“It rapidly becomes clear that since we last saw him saving the Holy Grail from the Nazis, Jones has become a sadder and more solitary character.
“His gloom is broken when an unlikely pair of treasure hunters — Mac, played by Britain’s Ray Winstone, and Mutt, played by Shia LaBeouf, a teen idol — warn him that the dastardly Soviet Union is after a crystal skull that, in the finest Indy tradition, offers dangerous powers to anyone who possesses it.
“Much has been made in internet chatrooms about LaBeouf’s potential impact on the film, and fears that he is merely a sop to lure teen viewers. Yet LaBeouf, who made a striking impact against computerized villains in Transformers, matches Ford quip for quip and leather jacket for leather jacket.
“The first Indiana Jones film in 1981 was Spielberg’s homage to the Saturday morning cliff-hanger serials of the 1930s. The latest film still has a pleasingly old-fashioned feel, with several long, slow shots, plastic-like foliage, tinny sound effects and a silly python.
“Cate Blanchett makes an eye-catching appearance as Irina Spalko, the spooky leader of the Russain villainry; John Hurt, the veteran British actor, lurks menacingly as a rival hunter.
“The crystal skull itself was formerly the subject of obscure disagreement between Spielberg and Ford, but it’s now hard to see what the fuss was about. It might as well have been a brussels sprout for all the difference it makes to the plot.
“The real pleasure for series fans may lie not so much in the madcap action, the carnivorous bugs and the familiar perils of quicksand, but the restored romance between Ford and Allen, and the fatherly relationship that develops between Ford and LaBeouf, who is clearly the new pretender to his whip.
“Indy treats Mutt with the same sarcastic disdain that his own father, played by Sean Connery, lavished on him during the Last Crusade. You can probably guess how it all works out.
“The new film has long appeared critic-proof — audiences will flock to it whatever the critical verdict. Yet will it have the box-office legs to join its distinguished predecessors among the most popular films in Hollywood history?”
Here’s another early review from the Times Leader‘s Michael H. Price.

I went four, four and a half minutes with Harrison Ford a little while ago at a small Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull party held at the Carlton hotel. Usually you get maybe two or three minutes with a major star at a gathering like this with aggressive journalists prowling around like wolves, looking for a name to bite into and a quote to take home.

Harrison Ford inside the Carlton Hotel’s La Cote restaurant– Saturday, 5.17.08, 6:40 pm

I didn’t even try to talk to Steven Spielberg, who was wearing a black baseball hat and dressed like some semi-retired suburban guy driving down to the hardware store for some weed killer. He was there for maybe 25 minutes, if that. I also spoke to Indy 4 costars Shia LeBeouf (guarded, formal), John Hurt, Ray Winstone and Jim Broadbent.

Ford and I talked about director and mutual friend Phillip Noyce, who directed Ford in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, and about Phillip’s recently born daughter, Anthony Minghella‘s tragic death, his excellent appearance (trim, bright eyes, good color..forget that Uncle Festus stuff!), how often he works out (three times weekly), how many stunts he did in the film (“I just did the acting,” he said) and some minor stuff. We’d last spoken at a San Francisco junket for Clear and Present Danger, in ’94.

It was an odd crowd. Nothing but “top journalists,” as one Paramount publicist said, but some of them looked…I don’t know, a little weird. Like cattle buyers or Israeli used-car salesmen. They didn’t have the right uptown, dark-suited vibe. Bad clothes, funny hair. Not to judge a book by its cover.

Ray Winstoine, Harrison Ford — 5.17.08, 7:05 pm

I saw Ford give Fox 411‘s Roger Friedman one of those “jeez, man…I don’t know” looks when they started talking. Friedman has seemingly asked something unusual or challenging, something that required a little heavy consideration.

I told LeBeouf he looked great also, adding — this was a minor mistake — that the program obviously agreed with him. “The program?,” he asked. “Yeah,” I said. “AA….no? I read you’d gone into the program after the Chicago Walmart bust.” “Nope…no program..just livin’ my life,” he replied, registering zero emotion, cool as a cucumber. The guy looks rail thin — thinner that the way he looks in Indy 4, thinner than Transformers, etc.

I spoke to Hurt about his portrayal of Warren Christopher in Recount and the hullaballoo that had broken out about the accuracy or fairness of depicting the former Secretary of State as a wimp, which the film certainly does. He said the research was up to the filmmakers, but that he knew they had based the screenplay on first-rate source material. He also said that Recount screenwriter Danny Strong is smart as whip and a mine of information.

John Hurt, Steven Spielberg — 5.17.08, 6:55 pm

Collider‘s Steve Weintraub is, it seems, justifiably fumed over the continuing refusal of Variety and the Hollywood Reporter to credit online entertainment sites when one of the latter has broken a story.
Example #1: On 5.24.07, Weintraub posted a scoop about Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio agreeing to write an upcoming Lone Ranger movie. Ten months later — on 3.27.08 — the Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit and Carl DiOrio wrote a story which pretty much repeated Weintraub’s story.
Example #2: Two days ago (5.14), Weintraub says, Latino Review posted a story that broke the news of Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air project. At 9 pm the same day, Variety‘s Michael Fleming and Tatiana Siegel posted the same story with no mention of Latino Review. (Unfortunately, Latino Review didn’t post an exact time when its story went up.)

Walter Salles‘ Linha de Passe “is very subdued and intimate,” says a buyer who caught it this morning. (Unlke myself.) “Closer to Central Station then Motorcycle Diaries, it’s the tale of four brothers and their pregnant single-mother in the poor neighborhoods of Sao Paulo, with each family member dealing with some sort of problem throughout the film.
“It lacks a bit of direction and focus here and there. My favorite brother has to be the soccer prodigy who desperately tries to make it into a semi-professional team. There’s also an interesting cynical look between the evangelical faith — one of the brothers in a born-againer — and how this is losing its hold amid the surrounding madness that is overtaking the world.
“My bet is someone like IFC, Roadside Attractions or even Sony Pictures Classics could give it a small stateside release. Now, let’s hope Walter decides to finally make On The Road.”

“For all the warnings of history, the makers of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will stage their film’s world premiere at the festival on the French Riviera tomorrow night,” writes Times Online correspondent Dalya Alberge. “The film, which opens in the setting of 1957 at the height of the Cold War, is arguably the most anticipated movie release of 2008. Such is the interest that the trailer was seen more than 200 million times in its first week of release on the internet.

{[But] the last time a studio dared to premiere a major blockbuster in this sanctum of high-brow cinema, it was savaged. The actors and director of The Da Vinci Code barely escaped with their lives.”
Except The DaVinci Code made lots of money after that. The ’06 Cannes beat-down was embarassing, sure, but the general public didn’t care. Hundreds and hundreds of millions were spent on DaVinci Code admissions. And nobody in ticket-buying land will give a damn if Cannes critics whack Indy 4. At all. Obviously Paramount marketers know this, and that’s why they’re here. The Cannes spotlight will boost the film’s European, Eastern European, Russian, Asian, African and South American earnings. And that’s what matters.

Bust ’em, sic ’em….slap ’em down.