INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

(Paramount)
Runtime: 124 min

As Harrison Ford filming Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Shia LeBeouf was still wearing a diaper. Now Shia joins Harrison as Spielberg renews Indiana Jones franchise. In this fourth installment of the Indy Jones series, age is not a problem. The 65 year old Harrison Ford still kicks and trading punches with his enemies.

This time the most soughted artefact is the crystal skull, believed to posess a power beyond earthly realms. To make Harrison age logical to the story line, now Indy lives in 1957, exactly 19 years after the last Indy film. America is in the middle of cold war, thus communist Russia as the enemy seems plausible. Opened in Nevada desert, the 50s got their taste from one of Elvis’s song, and then some fascinating action happened as Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), leader of the Soviet Army's unit whose hair resembles Chigurh’s wife, push Indiana Jones to search for something mysterious.

Spielberg fan got a hint from this opening scene, skinny fingers appeared of a bag and reference to Roswell 1947 (The X Files fans are jumping euphorically) indicates that alien play a large part here. Then Shia LeBeouf as Mutt Williams popped in, decked out in black leather jacket and cap, a la Marlon Brando. Mutt ask Indiana at his Marshall College to help rescue his mother, who we later find out along with Indy, it is his old love Marion from Raiders of the lost Ark and indicates that relation between Mutt and Indiana is more than we ever thought. Spielberg and Lucas also put a lot of homage from previous Indy movies, like a picture of Sean Connery on Indy’s desk. Another reference of the 50s were also present, a hint that McCarthysim of communist witch hunt has made the academic scholar uneasy.

The action scenes were fascinating (and defying logic), from the jungle of Peru to the temple of Akator, Spielberg and Lucas filled it with enough fights, effects, family feud and humor. For those remembering watching Raiders from VHS, this is a nostalgic journey, the whip, fedora and the John Williams score reminded us of the good old 80s that some icons are deeply etched in our collective conscience.

EL ORFANATO

(Picturehouse)
Directed by: Juan Antonio Bayona
Runtime: 105 min

Bored of Indonesian horrors which will make you sick to the core? This thing will cure your lust on gaspy and elegant chilling moments. Although most of the actual gaspy moments are on the soft side, the film does have quite away with sudden shocks. The backbone for this flick is surely the strong performance by Belén Rueda as Laura, who carries the entire film in a slick manner reminding you of any lead actress on Hitchcock movies.

Laura (Belen Rueda) as a young girl was raised in the orphanage before being adopted. Now in her 30s, she has returned with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and their young son Simon (Roger Princep) to buy the orphanage where she once lived and run it as a home for sick or disabled children. But it was not an ordinary orphanage, some dark secrets revealed. Simon has imaginary friends one of them is a boy with a sack over his head. But is it his imagination or has something terrible happened on that orphanage long time ago?

The line between reality and fantasy is so blurred in the film which will make viewers scratch their heads as the credits rolled but this film is undeniably chilling without any gore and scary without being cheap.

If some elements are familiar for you, like dark corners of the house, bleeding nightmares, grotesque truth and quiet scenes which leads up into a shocking moment, that means Guillermo Del Toro was here, and indeed he was the producer of this Spanish smash hit.