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The man in the Fedora hat is back. While the next installment in this franchise could be titled “Indiana Jones and the Search for Lightning in a Bottle,” which is what the series has been trying to capture since RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, the first new installment in 19 years nicely bridges the gap in time, in both the real and fictional worlds, placing the action in the 1950s and crossing ancient and modern myths. The aging hero can still take a punch, but he comes off wiser. For all he’s been through, he should have all the wisdom in the world already, but I’ll get to that later.

Director Steven Spielberg, working from a screenplay by JURASSIC PARK scribe David Koepp, gets the story cooking right from the start. Indiana (Harrison Ford) and his partner Mac McHale (Ray Winstone, THE DEPARTED) have been kidnapped by Russians, lead by Soviet super-agent Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett, I’M NOT THERE), with her stark black Louise Brooks hairstyle and mysterious psychic abilities. She’s looking for the contents of a box in a government warehouse and needs Dr. Jones to find it. This incident kicks off an adventure that will lead our dashing hero to Peru in search of a highly magnetized (well, highly magnetized when the plot needs it to be) crystal skull, which could be the key to learning all the knowledge in the universe and beyond. So of course this would be of interest to the evil Commies, who want to get inside our brains and control our every thought. Along for the ride is greaser Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf, TRANSFORMERS), who informs Indy that his old friend Prof. Oxley (John Hurt, THE ELEPHANT MAN), who has dedicated his life to studying the legend of the crystal skull and it’s connection to El Dorado, is in danger. And lets not forget Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy’s girl from the original film; she’s back too.

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Check Out the Trailer

Master of horror George Romero returns for the fifth time to the zombie genre in which he reinvented. Romero’s observant eye hasn’t formed any cataracts in 40 years. His zombie pictures capture the eras in which they were made very well. Though LAND OF THE DEAD was released in 2005, Romero planned to make the rich get richer and the poor get poorer parable in the ’90s. So DIARY is truly his first statement on the first decade of the 21st century.

A group of film students are shooting a horror film in the forest. Jason Creed (Joshua Close, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE) is man behind the camera, the director. He wants to be a documentary filmmaker, but feels a horror film is an easier way to break into the industry. We are watching his story in retrospect as a documentary cut by his girlfriend Debra Moynihan (Michelle Morgan, TV’s HEARTLAND). During their shoot, they watch an Internet clip of dead people coming back to life and attacking the living. Tony (Shawn Roberts, LAND OF THE DEAD), the cynical make-up man (cynical because he wants to direct) doesn’t believe the news reports, believing its media and political fear mongering. But as the crew tries to get back to their homes, they learn more about what is really happening. And Jason is determined to film it all.

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