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The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing.
On Sunday the Cannes Film Festival’s most-anticipated premiere — the first showing of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — attracted a host of stars and critics from around the world.
According to those who saw it, Crystal Skull is an old-school, rip-roaring adventure that has Harrison Ford battling evil commies in the Eisenhower era. Along the way he saves himself from a nuclear explosion by hiding in a fridge, tumbles into quicksand in the jungles of Peru and uncovers buried space aliens in the secret temple of what-not. The whole thing is utterly ludicrous but lots of fun along the way.
Even so, the overall feeling was that the film failed to recapture the Indy magic. Most European critics agreed that it was not as bad as some feared it would be — but not as good as it could have been.
Peter Bradshaw, critic for London’s Guardian newspaper, awarded the film just two out of five stars. He said that most scenes are a retread from the VHS age. “There are some nice moments, and everything is good-natured enough. But this is a moment for Harrison Ford to hang up the hat.”
Beyond the red carpet, also making news is the fact that Cannes jury president Sean Penn refused to endorse a U.S. presidential candidate, although he said he was excited by the support Barack Obama has received. In the tradition of Cannes troublemaker Michael Moore, Penn criticized the “inane stupidity” of President Bush’s politics.
Discussing the incumbent’s record at today’s jury panel press conference, Penn said that “when somebody operates without a brain and without a heart they kill hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world.”
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