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sunshine jen: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny! Destiny! Destiny!
When I first saw the title of the fifth Indiana Jones movie, my mind immediately went to that scene in Young Frankenstein when Gene Wilder is having a nightmare and shouting DESTINY! DESTINY! NO ESCAPE FOR ME! DESTINY!
Then I wondered if younger audience members would know what a dial is. Or would they wonder why Dr. Jones is seeking a bar of soap?
I saw the movie because gosh, it's Indy. It's better than Indy 4. However, I will warn you, it's two hours twenty minutes and the longest Indiana Jones film. Raiders was under two hours and moved like a bullet. This one is a little slower. Time is an important theme in this movie and the first thing we hear is the sound of a ticking clock. Then we get a World War II flashback because it's Indy. Then we get to 1969.
I used to like to say that I hit adolescence right when Harrison Ford took off his shirt in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now, forty years later, I'm perimenopausal (ugh), and sure enough, Harrison Ford has his shirt off in a new Indiana Jones film. Damn! He looks good. Damn! I'm getting old.
The shirt quickly goes on because Indy is a grumpy old man and those hippy kids are playing their Beatles music (Magical Mystery Tour) at 8:30 in the morning because they are celebrating the moon landing. However, Indy is a relic of days long gone and facing retirement and Marian is divorcing him.
Fortunately, after a bunch of circumstances later, Dr. Jones is off on another adventure with his goddaughter Helena (aka Wombat) played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (aka Fleabag, no smirks at the camera in this one). My Star Wars fan girl heart went a flutter when I realized that Han Solo was adventuring with the navigation computer of the Millennium Falcon.
Anyway, there's lots of action, action, action. Every punch still has that punch sound. There's a high energy John Williams score. There's a stunt team capable of climbing over, under, and around moving vehicles. There's a kid. Antonio Banderas shows up for a few minutes. So does John Rhys-Davies. Mads Mikkelsen plays the bad guy (By the way, if you're tired of seeing him as a bad guy, check out the Danish film Another Round). The key is to not overthink the plot or time travel, just ride with it. During the hot summer days, it's a good time in air conditioning.
Yes, Indy is older and a little slower, but he keeps going. Harrison Ford does a master acting class in committing to the wacky reality. He's still fun to watch. Indy was never a superhero. He was just a guy who did stuff. He never gave up. . .even when he clung to the periscope of a Nazi submarine for a long long long time in Raiders.
Marian does show up. When she came on screen, I could hear the audience (all two dozen of us) let out a collective sigh. She's old too, but she looks great. Maybe if we let Indy and Marian grow old, we can let ourselves grow old too. We're not all dead yet. There's still adventures to have.
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