As with the first movie, this is clearly “Meh-” material: as Mark Kermode put it I think, it passes the time until Indy 4 well enough. But as with the first movie, it must be said that it’s mostly a good “meh-”. It’s bookended by a build-up and finale that are almost identikit copies of their original counterparts (“it’s a little gold man …” anyone?) but it has its moments like a chase down the tiny backstreets of London, a foray into Buckingham Palace, a nice scene around Paris’ Statue of Liberty (which reminded me I really must remember to see that next time I go).

It’s a Bruckheimer movie, so you should expect plausibility to go entirely out of the window, and that it certainly does around the point where Nicolas Cage manages to kidnap a President who seems almost willing to be kidnapped – even that’s a fun sequence, though, I’ve gotta admit. Likewise the stuff with Helen Mirren and Jon Voight as “mom and dad” feel often hideously like pandering to the older audience, but, y’know, it’s Mirren and Voight, it’s hard to complain. If you don’t watch movies often then it’s the last thing you want to waste your time on; otherwise, knock yourself out.

I could’ve probably guessed how much I’d like this – in fact, I guess I did, in its relative absence from my Oscar predix Actually, were it not for my admittedly unfortunate habit for drawing parallels between movies and spotting even before it started that this is basically Erin Brockovich meets The Insider, both of which I’d rather see a second time (even Julia Roberts just beats out Clooney in my interests; though probably only in that movie) I might’ve really enjoyed this more than expected. I can take or leave George Clooney in just about anything, I don’t really see the big worship of his acting except that he’s a looker (in my opinion he’s much more interesting behind the camera) but (though they’re a little underused, I fear too little for any awards recognition) Tilda Swinton, Sidney Pollack and Tom Wilkinson more than held my focus in their supporting roles. The use of overlapping sound from scene to scene really keeps things moving forward making 2 hours seem like a lot less, and information is fed in such a way that the best is saved for last but it’s far from dull early on. I think the big Oscar buzz, especially over Clooney, is coming from the final shot, which I’ll admit, like the thing in Atonement, like a lot of the fleeting moments of wonder in the mostly overrated crop of this years’ Oscar hopefuls, certainly left me thinking I’d seen something better too. I don’t think I’ll be coming back to double check, though.

“I disapprove of women in pantsuits. The world doesn’t need any more Hilary Clintons.”

Thus begins the story of a man who makes Swimming with Sharks’ Buddy Ackerman look like a pussycat, lol. I loved director Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass – in fact I’m annoyed that I haven’t seen it a second time in the past four years – and this is kind of a neat inversion of the story there, despite still being based of course on a true story. Ryan Phillippe sort of does the Hayden Christensen part, posing as a clerk for Robert Hanssen, played by Chris Cooper. It’s Hanssen, however, who turns out to be the deceptive one; but not before Phillippe has warmed to him in quite a deeply human way – and maybe we have too. Cooper is fantastic enough to make that seemingly impossible thing occur – I like the almost comic presentation of Hanssen at times, he almost reminds me of George C. Scott Sterling Hayden in Dr. Strangelove or something, like the thing about Catherine Zeta Jones and his paranoia. It’s good to see Laura Linney again, too.