INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (2023, USA, 154m, 12) ***
Action, Adventure
dist. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; pr co. Walt Disney Pictures / Lucasfilm / Paramount Pictures; d. James Mangold; w. Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp, James Mangold; pr. Simon Emanuel, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall; ph. Phedon Papamichael (Colour | 2.39:1); m. John Williams; ed. Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker, Dirk Westervelt; pd. Adam Stockhausen; ad. Martin Foley.
cast: Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Helena), Antonio Banderas (Renaldo), John Rhys-Davies (Sallah), Toby Jones (Basil Shaw), Boyd Holbrook (Klaber), Ethann Isidore (Teddy), Mads Mikkelsen (Dr. Voller), Karen Allen (Marion), Shaunette Renée Wilson (Mason), Thomas Kretschmann (Colonel Weber), Olivier Richters (Hauke), Martin McDougall (Durkin), Alaa Safi (Rahim), Francis Chapman (SS Officer Dietrich), Alfonso Mandia (Italian Ticket Seller), Chase Brown (Larry – Beat Poet Guy), Nasser Memarzia (Archimedes), Amedeo Bianchimano (Milanese Suit Man), Anna Francolini (Mandy).
Daredevil archaeologist Indiana Jones (Ford) returns for one last adventure as he races against time to retrieve a legendary dial that can change the course of history. Accompanied by his goddaughter (Waller-Bridge), he soon finds himself squaring off against Jürgen Voller (Mikkelsen), a former Nazi who works for NASA. Whilst this action-packed adventure is never less than entertaining, it suffers from a frequently lazy script, an over-reliance on frenetic action sequences, which lack any threat due to their implausibility, and an overly fantastical finale. Mikkelesen, always a reliable villain, suffers some awful dialogue at times and the humour only occasionally works. What you are left with is a healthy dose of nostalgia, a sprightly performance from Ford, belying his age both literally and with the help of AI, and a knowing one from Waller-Bridge, who seems to be having a ball.
