Indiana Jones' retirement

Warning, there be spoilers.

Let's start with a disclaimer: with a slight embarrassment I confess to being a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, so everything I write here should be seen in relation to that. Besides, I've always had a soft spot for Indy and Han Solo. OK, so now you know my dark secrets, let's continue.

Due to spending most of the summer either abroad or in our summer home away from the silver screens it took me this long to go watch the last Indiana Jones. After waiting for at least a decade and after all the disparaging comments I had heard about the movie from those who had already seen it, my hopes were not high. Therefore it was maybe easy to be pleasantly surprised. Not by the twists and turns in the movie, which could be foreseen easily enough, and combined every trick ever seen in the previous three movies put all together - catacombs, waterfalls, pits, skeletons, snakes and other creepy-crawlies, not to mention lots of very bad shooting by the bad guys.

While watching the movie I got the feeling that old friends had just gathered together to have some fun. But in my opinion the movie was quite entertaining, and when you get to the bottom of it, that is what Indiana Jones movies are about (although in the beginning they had managed to put in a few jibes at the present rule of the US). And honestly, folks, if you want to watch a French art film, you don't go to watch Indy, do you?

The best joke of the movie was probably unintentional. :)

The young guy says to Indy : - So you're a teacher?
And Indy replies: - Part time.
So even if you are Indiana Jones, you only get a part time job!

Btw, it was somehow very disturbing that the commie doctor spoke in the voice of Lady Galadriel. Cate Blanchett seems to have certain mannerisms.

I also noticed that there will be a new Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser (who is not half as sexy as Harrison Ford) and Jet Li, coming later this year. Apparently the terracotta army comes alive! This is a must!

Probably the worst movie I've ever seen

I went to see "10 000 BC" with a couple of my archaeologist friends. It was a must, of course, since it is set in the past. Having seen the earlier films by the same director my hopes were not high. Even so, it was worse than I expected.

The story itself is a bundle of clichés. The main character belong to a tribe of Palaeolithic mammoth hunters. A man who is not especially bright or brave falls in love with a woman. She is robbed by the bad guys and of course he sets out to rescue her with a couple of helpers - a young boy, a brave soldier and a wise old man. On the road (a journe through a most unlikely geography which might or might not be Europe and Africa...) they meet other people (Neolithic tribes) who help them to overcome the bad guys. The only way the scriptwriter has found to motivate the people to act seems to be the fulfilling of some prophecy, which abound. Finally it is revealed that the bad guys are actually the people of the lost Atlantis, ruled by some alien! By this time, at the latest, you realize that 10 000 BC is not a movie set in the past, it is pure fantasy, or some kind of paleo-scifi.

The dialogue is almost non-existent, being replaced by a most annoying narrator. The characters are so thin that you could not care less whether they live or die. Through the two hours of suffering (in part of the audience) the movie seems to try to build towards an epic climax which never comes. In short, the movie did not touch anything in me.

Archaeologically, there were some nice details, like the care with which the material culture of the mammoth hunters and the farmers was portrayed. But if this much money is wasted on producing a film, could not someone have paid the scriptwriter a little more to get a proper plot?