I really wanted to like this movie. I really, really did.

I remember watching “Raiders of the Lost Ark” at a birthday slumber party when I was six or seven. It was thrilling. I closed my eyes when the big German dude got caught in the airplane and stared in wonder as the Nazis melted. “Temple of Doom” was exciting and and horrifying, and “The Last Crusade” was a classic adventure without a weak scene throughout the entire film.

I wish I could say the same for “Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. My misgivings began when I heard a rumor about aliens showing up. Seriously, why? I still sent opening weekend with excitement in my heart. The opening scene at Area 51 was pretty good with some good action and an exciting chase. Harrison Ford getting shot five miles out of an atomic blast inside a lead refrigerator was over the top to say the least. What an unnecessary scene!

I thought Shia LeBeouf did a pretty good job as Indy’s son. He shows up as the spitting image of James Dean on a motorcycle and holds his own against a fading Ford.

I guess my main problem was that I didn’t buy into the action sequences. Don’t get me wrong, they were visually incredible with state-of-the-art effects. But they came across as cartoons. My other big problem was the setup for the archeological search. There was no logical sequence like “Last Crusade” of traveling from Venice to Alexandria to the secret canyon. The story seemed to be one disjointed sequence after another.

Let me be specific. The Russians are slowly plowing through the rain forest with a gigantic tree devouring tank. All the other vehicles slowly plod behind the behemoth. When Indy and the gang break free, they hijack a jeep and suddenly a high speed chase ensues through the jungle. Seriously, what the hell. Where did this jungle freeway come from where jeeps can push 60. This isn’t the middle of the desert.

So, sorry to say. Big thumbs down from me. Try again Lucas and Steve.

Scary movies make me want to scream.

I suppose that’s the idea, but when the people around you look at you like you’re a weirdo and say stuff like, “This is SOOO not scary,” you might feel a little small and try to stifle it. This just means you need to go to a movie that’s going to scare everyone in the place. Like “Frontier(s)“.

This movie is so scary and gory, the makers decided to release it unrated knowing it would get an NC-17 rating based on the violence and goriness alone. This is hardly ever done. First off, movies usually need a high level of overt sex to get this rating. Second off, releasing without a rating means fewer theatres will be willing to deal with the backlash of showing it. there’s always going to be someone who doesn’t look at a synopsis before going into a movie and assumes they know what it is about based on the title.

With this one, they’d probably think it’s about 17th century pilgrims or something and take it out on the staff when they realize what they’ve bought a ticket for. So this can be a controversial move, but the makers believed cutting it down enough to get a ‘R’ rating would compromise the integrity of the film.

So they left it. There was only one theater in the state showing it and it was close by. If you like scary movies, you can view the trailer and then see if you can still find it in the theatres. The movie was released May9th and the DVD release was a week later so you might only find it in DVD.

Have you heard of manga? I hadn’t until I saw a whole section of it at the bookstore and my sister looked at me like I’d been living under a rock because I didn’t know what it was. I’ve since educated myself.

For those of you who know about manga or are interested in finding out, I thought I’d let you know about “DeathNote“, the movie based on the superNatural magna series coming to theatres for only 2 days on May 20th and May 21st and there’s only one showing each day. When someone’s name is written in this supernatural notebook, they die. The character ‘Light’ gets ahold of the book and starts putting the names of criminals in it.

One of the most interesting tidbits about this film is that it’s live action – quite a change from what we probably all expect from our favorite magna series. If you go see this, you should know that it is unrated but would probably get an ‘R’ rating so it’s not for young kids.

On a side note, if I had one supernatural ability, it would be the ability to pass though solid objects at will. I had to add the ‘at will’ part because I always wonder why ghosts and the like can go through walls but don’t fall through the floor.