Wednesday, May 28, 2008


Grandkids are great to have for millions of reasons besides just loving them. For example, they make it possible to go to movies like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. At my age, if I tried to go to that movie without a kid escort, people would think I was insane or demented. It was a great movie that I enjoyed as much as the grandkids. It took me back to my childhood because it contained many of the exciting events of my youth. It was a review of the old movie serials, comic books and stories of lost cities and treasures in the jungle. I loved those stories and always imagined myself being a great explorer someday and finding a place like Machu Pichuu or King Solomon’s Mine.

At the first of the movie Indiana Jones meets up with a mean female Russian agent who is in search of a crystal skull. The skull has great psychic powers and can control the mind and will of everyone under its influence. If the Russians possessed the skull they would be able to control the world without firing a shot. Right away Indiana Jones ends up in the Nevada desert, in a mock town of the 50’s, right at ground zero for a test explosion of an atomic bomb. He survives the ordeal by locking himself in a lead lined refrigerator.

After all this, the race is on to find the crystal skull at the prompting of a motorcycle riding Marlon Brando type of the 50’s. Crystal skulls have been the subject of a legend, which says they come from Mesoamerica in pre-Columbian times. In actual fact, it has been shown that these skulls, located in various museums, were made in Germany in the late 19th century. One of these skulls is the Holy Grail of this movie and makes a good Indiana Jones story.

The motorcycle riding kid turns out to be the son of Indiana Jones. His mother, Marion Ravenwood, is the old girlfriend of Indiana Jones in an earlier movie in the series. This father, mother, and son team along with a cast of others end up in a quest for the skull and in a race with the Russians.

Everyone, including the Russians in hot pursuit, ends up in the jungles of the Amazon. The huge figures seen from the air on the plains in South America and made popular in the books “Chariots of the Gods,” and “ Gods From Outer Space” by Eric Von Daniken lead them to their destination.

There were great fight scenes with the Russians in the jungle. Indiana Jones and Marion are trapped in quicksand and rescued by their son using a huge snake as a rope. They also barely escape death by an army of man-eating ants. There is even a little touch of Tarzan as the son swings through the jungle on vines along with a tree full of monkeys.

They finally find the crystal skull but must return it to its place of origin in the lost city in the jungle. The team survives going over three waterfalls, the equivalent of Niagara, to finally reach the underground city. There in an enormous cave filled with treasure and several crystal skeletons sitting on thrones in a circle. One skeleton is without a head. They then attach the missing skull and everything begins to shake and tremble with a massive earthquake. Naturally, Jones and his bunch barely escape leaving the Russians to be consumed in a horrible death. The crystal skeletons fuse into one and become a large space creature who then ascends in his very large space craft to depart the earth after hundreds of years of entombment. The spaceship is the heart of the city itself. The whole thing ends with Jones marrying his long lost sweetheart and thus making the kid legitimate.

Boy, was I glad to get home to the porch and settle my nerves in the rocking chair. This movie has everything. It was worth all the bitten fingernails and cardiac stress to see such an exciting movie and a trip down memory lane with the grandkids.

1 Comments:

Blogger jeff ludwick said...

Alas, I am not able to enjoy going to the movies with my granddaughter any more. Once she obtained a driver's license it became very "uncool" to be seen at the movie with and adult, much less a grandparent. I was, however, able to enjoy all of the Harry Potter movies with her and will think of her every time I see the reruns on television.

Now she buys all of the movies and gives them to me when they come out on DVD. she seems to know which ones I will enjoy and the two most recent are "National Treasure" and "The Guardian." It is actually better this way because I can enjoy short naps if I want to stop the action and I also can indulge in a bowl of Blue Bell during the show. The best part is that I do not have to listen to the endless ringing of cell phones from the idiots who refuse to turn them off in theatres, funerals, weddings, etc. I shudder to think how many of those rude people will allow their phones to ring during the upcoming graduation ceremonies. They should all be sent to the Amazon jungle..........

8:29 AM  

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