Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Jack and I enjoyed the action, special effects, photography locations, and Harrison Ford's charisma in this last  installment of Professor Jones' adventures. If you've seen none of the prequels some of it may go over your head, but it's pretty good fun for fans of the genre. 

The cast of hundreds includes Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, John Rhys-Davies, and Karen Allen.

This is the first one not directed by Steven Spielberg. James Mangold helms this time, from a script co-written by him, David Koepp, and brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth. The story begins in the 1930s with effects magically transforming Ford to a 40-something man; then it moves to 1969 so he can look his age, although he's in great shape for 81!

John Williams' orchestral soundtrack, on Apple Music and, no doubt, elsewhere, occasionally harks back to his original Indiana Jones themes. The luscious cinematography is thanks to Phedon Papamichael.

Ford was last blogged for Blade Runner 2049, Waller-Bridge for Solo: A Star Wars Story in which she voiced a robot (she plays a human in this one), Banderas for Official Competition, Jones for Empire of Light, Mikkelsen for Another Round, Koepp for Premium Rush (he wrote the previous Indiana Jones movie), Williams for The Fabelmans, and Mangold, the Butterworths, and Papamichael for Ford v Ferrari.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics were not destined to love this one, averaging a scant 70%, while its audiences are more dialed in at 88. We rented it on November 22 on iTunes/Apple TV but it can now also be streamed on Disney+ if you have that subscription.

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