Well, colour me surprised. I thought this was my least favourite of the series, had believed some recent talk about the annoying Short Round, borderline racism etc, but none of it holds. This is riproaring from the Bugsy Malone meets Blade Runner start to the simply stunning rope bridge finale, passing through genuinely creepy crawlie, jump round every corner, horror and mine rollercoasters midway. I personally find Short Round hilarious, and John Williams adds even more catchy themes to the series score. The whole thing is just breathtakingly non-stop, at times almost hilariously so – it’s still semi-episodic in structure but rather than the episodes starting and finishing in their entirety they just keep on coming and flowing into one another. I absolutely loved it this time around, I think it’s this one that Crystal Skull will really have a hard time topping for me.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull seems, oddly, to look like the best film I’ll have seen so far this year come later on this evening – okay, I haven’t seen much, but there hasn’t been much to see … and it’s Spielberg, I’ve got faith. Though I was never a massive fan of this series, except in that horrid way that young boys are compelled to be rabid about such things, I’m pretty excited about it, so I’m watching the originals in preparation, I’m sure I’m not alone

The thing that I noticed more than ever before watching this installment was just how episodic the script is. I know this was like the whole point, etc, to recreate the old 30s and 40s serials and what-not – but it never before struck me as so crazily disjointed, each segment is its own separate short movie almost.

In so many ways, it’s an un-reviewable film: personally because I seem without ever really trying to have committed the whole darn thing to memory; because the Macfarlane/Groening/etc parodies in the intervening years make it impossible not to smirk in inappropriate places; and generally, because you can’t deny how perfectly iconic it is and how huge an impact it made on movies. John Williams’ score is one of the greatest, Karen Allen is gorgeous (_very_ excited about her being in the new one) and the finale is awesome, even more of a WTF moment, again than I ever recall it being – I mean, the movie’s just so nice and gentle up to that point, lol!