CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD

Captain America takes flight

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (2025). Director: Julius Onah.

Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), formerly known as the Falcon, has become the new Captain America but kept his wings. He has a difficult relationship with the U.S. President, Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Harrison Ford), who apparently made a deal with the devil, a sick character named Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who is manipulating everyone behind the scenes. (Sterns is a variation of the Leader from Hulk comic books.) While Wilson and his partner Joaquin (Danny Ramirez) investigate when old friend Isiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) seems to try to assassinate Ross, they uncover Stern's secret laboratory and eventually join forces with security adviser Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) to take him down. But before that can happen Sam has to try to stay alive as Ross, transformed into the powerful and humongous Red Hulk, tries to do what the Hulk does best -- smash! 

The Red Hulk about to rampage through Washington D.C.

Captain America: Brave New World may have gotten lukewarm reviews, but I found it quite entertaining and suspenseful, and the Cap-Hulk battle is a decided highlight. Instead of the Serpent Society featured in Captain America comic books, there is a sinister (essentially unseen) group called SERPENT, of which the deadly Sidewinder (a zesty Giancarlo Esposito) is a member, along with Copperhead (who has less to do). Then there's a place called Celestial Island where there is a huge amount of adamantium, which Ross wants the U.S. to get his hands on, briefly bringing him into conflict with the Japanese. Mackie makes an excellent alternate Captain America, the large supporting cast is game, and Harrison Ford simply gives one of the all-time best performances of his long career. 

Verdict: There's still quite a bit of life in those Marvel Movies. ***. 

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

Indiana Jones in flashback

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (2023). Director: James Mangold. 

Professor "Indiana" Jones (Harrison Ford) is retiring when who should show up but his god-daughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who hopes that he didn't keep his promise to her father to dispose of an ancient relic that is supposed to be able to mess with the time-space continuum-- because she wants it -- badly. Someone else who wants it is an old adversary of Jones' named Dr. Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), a Nazi who wants to kill Hitler back in the past because in his opinion the German leader screwed up so badly. Helena seems quite amoral, although she may have other reasons for wanting the "Dial of Destiny" aside from avarice. As the good guys and bad guys go through car chases and gun fights in various locations, Indiana and the others do indeed wind up back in time -- although not exactly in the decade that Voller might have wished for. 

Indy at 81

The cast is enthusiastic, James Mangold's direction seems a bit better than Spielberg's on the last Indiana Jones film, and the plot is a little more interesting than the last time, although this can't be called any kind of classic. In flashback scenes during which Jones first meets Voller, Ford's face is digitally made young again through artificial intelligence -- it's quite effective if a little weird. Ford was actually eighty-one when he made this film and although he doesn't look too much younger, he hasn't lost any of his charisma and screen presence. The action sequences are generally well-done -- a business with eels near a wreck in the ocean falls flat, however -- and the underground cavern scenes are especially convincing. 

Verdict: Fun enough if you're not too demanding. **3/4. 

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008). Director: Steven Spielberg. 

In 1957 some Russians, led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), attack a U.S. military base and carry off an artifact that is stored there. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) manages to survive the attack, and even lives through an atomic test by sheltering inside a refrigerator in a model town filled with dummies. Teaming up with a young man named "Mutt" (Shia LaBeouf) he later learns that his mother is Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and that Mutt is his son. The whole group, along with Irina and her boys and an addle-pated Professor Oxley (John Hurt) ,wind up in South America, where they discover the hidden "El Dorado" as well as the remnants of alien beings who have skulls made of crystal. Or something like that. 

Ford, Allen, Blanchett

The trouble these days with the Indiana Jones movies, which were originally imitations of the classic cliffhanger serials, is that there have been so many imitations and rip-offs of the franchise -- everything from the National Treasure movies to the Da Vince Code and so on and so on -- that any originality has been completely eradicated. The very over-familiar elements in this include grumpy Jones' relationships with ex-girlfriend and son, the maps and codes that will lead to the treasure, the aliens (who resemble the monster in Alien in some ways as well as the aliens in Close Encounters), the locales that we've all seen before etc. etc. There is absolutely nothing fresh and new in the film. Obsessive fans probably won't care, finding the cliches comforting and endearing. 

LaBeouf and Ford

Steven Spielberg directs by the numbers. I've often felt that the FX people and cinematographers do all the work, actually, in some movies like this. Some of the action sequences in Crystal Skull are quite well-done -- not always the case in heroic thrillers -- but you are always getting the sensation that it's all stuff you've seen many times before -- the amazing leaps, the foolhardy jumps into space, driving off of cliffs etc. Is there anything unusual about any of this? The movie does have, for me at least, one knock-out sequence, and that's when the characters are besieged by very large and voracious ants who move with frightening swiftness. (Of course, there's nothing original about that, either, but it does look great!) The underground sets look too new and are always over-lit, making them much less creepy than they could have been. 

Allen, Ford and Hurt

As for the actors, well Ford could probably play this part while asleep. Blanchett is effective, although she seems to be channeling Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle most of the time. Allen remains perky and attractive in her way. It is probably not LaBeouf's fault that Mutt comes off as being rather obnoxious through much of the movie. I found the whole flick too cutesy and obvious by far and was annoyed that a sequence at the very end rips off Journey to the Center of the Earth. 

Verdict: You'll swear you've already seen this even if you haven't. **1/2.