Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

(2008)

"In May, the adventure continues."

First off: ponderous title, weak tagline.

I have to agree with many of the reviews I've read...too much CGI, not enough human interest/interactions. The warmth was lacking, and the script too. It seemed forever before Karen Allen came into it (I loved her in the first installment of the series), and she provided the *spark* here, she's still a sassy woman!

And, although Harrison Ford still looks pretty good, and I know he did a lot of his own stunts, he seemed overly grumpy and somewhat humorless this time around. Shia LaBeouf was okay, but his character seemed obviously just thrown in the film to either (1) attract a younger audience or (2) to hint at sequels with him in the title role - let's hope not! I think the series needs to give it up for good now.

There were some great scenes (loved the fight scene in the diner!) and many that seemed to really drag on - the dialogue-driven scenes just weren't written very well, they were...boring. And ALIENS? What a dopey plot twist. I was waiting for someone to say "ET! Phone home!" towards the end.

Actually, my first thought when I saw the plastic uhhhh "crystal skull" was that it looked like it could have been the skull from the monster in "Alien."

A lot of depth in the film was lost in what seemed to be a big push for show-offy CGI. That being said, I really had hoped to see Cate Blanchett's character go out in a more sensational manner, like the guy whose face melted in the first one. She just sort of went *poof* after a lot of buildup. That wouldn't have required any CGI, just a wax melting head like they used in the first one. And it certainly would have been more interesting.

Oh, and Blanchett's accent! I know it's been said but I have to reiterate it, I kept waiting for her to say "MOOSE AND SQUIRREL! MOOSE AND SQUIRREL!" I had trouble keeping from laughing every time she spoke.

As for the installments overall, the original Raiders Of The Lost Ark is still the best, although I do love The Last Crusade. Temple of Doom was truly awful, and not helped by Kate Capshaw's annoying character....a weak, stupid, shallow, whining bimbo. I liked the strong female characters in these films; Capshaw's was an insult to the series. And I won't go into a diatribe about the screechy kid.

Anyway, entertaining enough, but a big letdown I think for most Indy fans.

Films made in high school, circa 1975

"Mattel Place" - a Super8 movie made in 1975 for Film Class in my senior year of high school, using stop-motion animation with Barbie dolls, a Johnny West doll, a Skipper doll, a Francie doll, and other plastic people and assorted accessories such as my *official* Barbie doll convertible sports car, some fireworks that happened to be handy, and a very small model gun. P.S. My maiden name is listed, in case the credits confuse you.

Filmed in my childhood home's basement using sets made from cardboard boxes; also filmed in various outdoor locations such as the street in front of our house. Created very painstakingly over the course of three weeks. Transferred from the original (degraded, yes, the original footage was much sharper than what you see here) Super8 footage to DVD, with some sound added, in 2004.

It may seem rather crude, but this was filmed in 1975 with rather crude technology, including the dolls themselves, which had an extremely limited range of motion.

This was before computer animation etc, and the dolls I had weren't very "bendy". So I used a Johnny West doll as the man in it, since he had more bendable parts. The mustache is something I drew on with a permanent Sharpie when I was even younger. And unfortunately his "clothes" were permanent. No chest-baring scenes for him!

The title is a take-off on the classic "Peyton Place" which was a book, a movie, and also went on to become the first TV soap opera, starring Mia Farrow.

You can see my Monty Python-esque humor was fully developed at a very young age.

Anyway, enjoy!





...and on a more serious note...
THE IMPLOSION OF THE DURHAM HOTEL, 1975
This is the other film from my high school film class; it was a collaboration with 3 other students/friends. I had the film transferred from its original Super8 film onto DVD at the same time I had the Mattel Place one done. However, with Mattel Place, I had someone else do the credits and add some sound, as I didn't myself have the capability for adding credits and music at that time.

For this film I added the credits at the beginning and end myself in 2006, along with the music (a mix I made from the soundtrack of "To Kill A Mockingbird", my favorite film). The Durham Hotel was a landmark of downtown Durham and held a lot of memories for a lot of people...the day it came down was a sad one. And guess what? A parking lot went up in its place, yippee. Turn your sound on first before clicking to play it, but the music doesn't start until the beginning credits are over, just so you know.