Oh hey, it's me, your weekend guy (Who's now on the masthead! Yahee!). So I went to the first showing today of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, because how could I not? And I thought I would tell you what I thought of it, without spoilers. I am not a film expert, and certainly not a critic, but I am all full of Indy right now, so, if you're interested, here's what I think.

It rocked much, much harder than I thought it would. I was truly afraid that Shia LaBeouf would ruin it. I don't like young men, period. I especially don't like young men who are challenging my old heros. But Shia actually plays a pretty interesting, funny character. And when he tries to push Indy into a corner, Indy gives him his awesome dead-pan, which amounts to, "C'mon, Kid, I could break you in half and you goddamn know it. Why not just behave yourself and learn something?" And Shia's "Mutt" is just obedient enough—and smart enough, recognizing that Indy is probably the best role model any boy or girl could have—to listen and not make the whole movie a stupid generational fight.

The whole Indy-as-role-model theme made me happy throughout the movie. It's not overdone, and Indy still does all his trademark slapstick falling, tripping, flat-on-his-ass stuff. But when Indy gives advice to this kid, I felt all teary. And then when his advice was stupid, I felt like, "Awesome movie!"

Indy is older, and it shows in the fight scenes, but it also shows that he knows how the fuck to fight. And his big punch-to-punch scene in this movie is the best he's had since he fought that huge German on the airfield in Raiders.

And... Marion Ravenwood. Karen Allen is just slightly underused in the main part of the movie. She's amazingly dreamy and beautiful, as ever, but she is mostly driving a car. Still her exchanges with Indy are so worthwhile, especially when they first see each other after 18 years. Indy's response is so priceless that I would have cried had I been drunk. But I caught the 3:00 p.m. show.

The ending is slightly hard to stomach. But, in general, this is a movie for fans that anyone should enjoy because it really is 2 hours of action. For fans, there were sneaky references to Star Wars and Raiders that you can chuckle about. I did.

Okay. Thanks for listening. That's just me. I'm not a critic.

Ian