Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Surprisingly Decent Sequel

First off, I promise there's no spoilers here.

Sequels.....so they usually suck. They usually suck a fat one. But sometimes, there is one that breaks the rule.

I'm not saying that "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was great by any means. But it definitely was worth the $7.00.

The plotline - Maybe I went in with low expectations, but the movie exceeded them. I expected a cheesy throwback to the feelgood original Indiana Jones, and while there were one or two moments, they didn't overwhelm or dominate the story. The plot was overall pretty good, cheesy at points, but you come to expect a little cheesiness in and Indiana Jones movie.

Harrison Ford - Did a great job continuing his role as Indy. He had moments where his age showed, i.e. the second scene, in the warehouse, he definitely looked like an old man trying to run instead of the semi-young dude we all envision as the title character. It's definitely a big step above his last "action" movie (Firewall), where he looked like he was about to keel over from a heart attack. But overall, his acting kept the movie afloat, definitely more that the other characters.

Shia LaBeouf - The real life hooligan played a fuckin' hooligan in the movie, so he was pretty good at his role. I don't have much more to say about it....not bad, but definitely not memorable. I still give him props for getting with Megan Fox in Transformers.

Cate Blanchett - Second movie in a row of hers that I really didn't care for how she played the role (the last was the "I'm Not There" tribute to Bob Dylan. Yes, a chick playing Bob Dylan). She was mediocre but nothing to write home about. The fake Russian accent made my ears bleed a little.

HOWEVER - I was caught off guard (maybe because I avoided reading pre-reviews) that Karen Allen showed up in this one. She was Marion in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", for those of you who don't remember. And damn, she's still pretty easy on the eyes 27 years later. She looked good for her age, and even after 27 years was able to hit the exact same character she played back in 1981.

The Good - Karen Allen and Harrison Ford
The Bad - Cate Blanchett
The Mediocre - Shia LaBeouf, The Plotline

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 4/5
The quick and easy: Surprisingly decent, definitely worth seeing.

Rock on,
- Jon