Critics Consensus: Indiana Jones is Certified Fresh!

This week at the movies, Indiana Jones makes his return after 19 years in
The
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, directed by
Steven Spielberg and starring
Harrison Ford. What do the critics have to say?

The wait is finally over, and the word is good.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull may not be of the order of the first three Indy
adventures, but critics say it’s a solid entry in the series. Skull finds
the principals from Raiders of the Lost Ark (director
Steven Spielberg,
producer George Lucas, and stars
Harrison Ford and
Karen Allen) battling the
Soviets to keep the world safe from nuclear war. This time, an aging Indy’s
joined by a youngster (Shia LaBeouf) who helps him track down the titular skull
before a ruthless Russian agent (Cate Blanchett) gets her hands on it. The
critics say Skull is a solid action adventure buoyed by the warm feelings
the Indy franchise has generated over the years; they say it’s good to be
in the company of these characters again, even if the results aren’t as
exhilarating as past entries. At 77 percent on the Tomatometer, Skull
despite being the worst-reviewed entry in the series, is still Certified Fresh.
(And check out all of our Indiana Jones features
here.)

Also opening this week in limited release:

• War, Inc., starring
  John Cusack and
  Hilary Duff in a satire of the
  military-industrial complex, is at 21 percent.

• Uwe Boll‘s
  Postal, a post-9/11 satire, is at 25
  percent (check out Boll’s list of his five favorite movies
  here).

• A Jihad for Love, a documentary about homosexual in the Muslim world, is
  at 83 percent.

  The Edge of Heaven, a drama about family ties and immigration, is at 76
  percent.

• The Children of Huang Shi,
  a drama set in war-torn China in the 1930s starring
  Michelle Yeoh,
  Radha Mitchell, and
  Jonathan Rhys Meyers,
  is at 25 percent.
  
  
  
  “Hey, where’s the fourth Horseman?”
  

  Indiana Jones Movies:
  —————————-
  90% —
  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
  87% —
  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
  95% —
  Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)