TRICKY INDY FLICK

Here are excerpts from Lou Lumenick’s review, which appears in full at nypost.com and appeared in the paper Monday. A frequently thrilling, sometimes charming, occasionally clunky family entertainment, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” perhaps wisely doesn’t attempt to scale the heights of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Satisfaction-wise, it lands squarely between “The Temple of Doom,” and “The Last Crusade,” the second and third installments of the original trilogy conceived by Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg. Fans of the series - you can include me - will lap it up, flaws and all, and likely make it the summer’s biggest blockbuster. A slightly mellowed Harrison Ford, in very fine form, again dons Indy’s fedora as the archaeologist adventurer. As we open, Indy and a colleague (Ray Winstone) are captives of KGB agents led by Soviet parapsychologist Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). The Russkies take Indy to the same vast warehouse seen at the end of “Raiders,” in search of an extraterrestrial artifact. After the first of several well-mounted chase sequences that climaxes in a nuclear explosion, Indy has returned to the classroom and is being shadowed by FBI agents. An encounter with a young man named Mutt (Shia LaBeouf, skillful with comedy and action) leads to an even more spectacular chase through the streets of New Haven. Shortly, they’re off to Peru, in search of the lost city of El Dorado and the titular crystal skull, whose powers promise to dwarf those of the ark. I’m glad “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” doesn’t disgrace the memory of “Raiders.” That it manages to do a bit more than that is probably an accomplishment. INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

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