Harrison Ford watching the Indy trilogy for the first time

It's a spoof really, the original video is of Harrison Ford playing Uncharted 3 on the PS3 but some clever person has superimposed clips from the Indiana Jones films. Ah bless the earring wearing old fella!

uh oh... Indiana Jones 5!

Shia LaBeouf has confirmed movie bosses are planning to bring Indiana Jones back for a fifth time - a new film in the archaeologist adventurer series is in the works.

LaBeouf joined Harrison Ford in the movie franchise's fourth installment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, last year and played the history hero's son and sidekick Mutt.

After the global success of the film, which came nearly 20 years after 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, rumours began swirling that director Steven Spielberg planned to continue the franchise without Ford - passing the lead to the young Transformers star.

And now the actor has confirmed the legendary director is working on another Indiana Jones picture - but refuses to reveal any of the details.

He says, "Steve just said that he cracked the story on it, and I think they're gearing that up."

Ford and LaBeouf have both dismissed reports that the younger star will be leading the Indiana Jones franchise in the future, even though LaBeouf recently told Playboy magazine that his movie father handed him his iconic hat as a parting gift on the set of the last film.


* Article pinched from IMDb news, 16/06/2009

Film update

Its been a while since I've reviewed anything so find below some quick write ups, shown in viewing order and with SPOILERS so be warned!


IRON MAN (2008); From the moment I heard Robert Downey Jr. (RDJ) was attached to lead this film I knew it was going to be something special. RDJ has got to be one of my most favourite actors and he captures the super intelligent/arrogant Tony Stark extremely well, its probably just an extension of his own personality judging by his other film roles.

Iron Man should be treated as a pilot show for what will eventually become a successful series in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, its a great film but you can tell by the way the story unfolds that its setting up scenario's/characters for many future sequels and I for one will be looking forward to seeing them.

The visuals are amazing, Iron Man really looks the part. The cast is also very good with Gwyneth Paltrow playing Starks secretary and Jeff Bridges as the nemesis Iron Monger.

I unfortunately missed this but watch all the credits to the very end for an extra scene featuring a certain Mr. S L Jackson.

The mandatory Stan Lee cameo is also something to look out for!


DOOMSDAY (2008); Doomsday is set around 30 years in the future after the outbreak of a deadly virus in Scotland. Scotland had been quaranteed for all this time by a massive Berlin wall separating it from England, with mounted automated gun turrets stopping people from getting in and out.

After 30 years the virus suddenly reappears in mainland England. Satellite footage reveals there are survivors still living in Scotland so an elite task force, lead by the sexy Rhona Mitra (and the cast from Dog Soldiers) are sent in to find the survivors and seek a cure by order of the prime minister. They have a very limited time window to complete the mission which gave it an 'Escape From New York' feel to the story.

Scotland, 30 years in the future with no contact from the rest of the world has devolved into a crazy Mad Max waste land filled with psychotic punks. I actually really liked that part of the film, I'm a bit of a Mad Max fan and thought of it as a nice tribute to the old film although its really insulting to Scottish people - it would only take 30 years for them to devolve into psychotic savages! Anyway, the elite task force quickly get whittled down to just a handful after falling prey to the cannibalistic punk gang.

They eventually manage to escape only to be captured by another sector of survivors which are held up in an old Scottish castle, with Malcolm McDowell as their ruler. Now this was a really stupid part of the film, everyone living in the castle had reverted back to 'ye olde times' with knights on horses, court jesters and town peasants begging for food.

So now the film claims that it would only take 30 years for Scotland to revert back to medieval times, thats really insulting!

Anyway, to wrap it all up - the team find the cure and escape again only to be chased by the gang of punks in what is a pretty cool Mad Max sequence using heavily modified old cars with spikes and other weapons attached. Overall its a stupid yet really fun movie and would happily sit next to that film series I've already mentioned far too many times, just don't watch it if your Scottish and easily offended!


SPEED RACER (2008); To me, Speed Racer is the film of the year so far. Its surprisingly good. Having never seen the original Speed Racer animation I didn't know quite what to expect and was a bit reluctant in watching it because it looked like a kids film. Well, it still is a kids film at heart but its also a bloody enjoyable one.

The Wachowski brothers (of Matrix fame) have made this possible and they really have gone overboard in recreating the excitement and look of a Japanese animated show which has to be seen to be believed.

It features a great cast including Matthew Fox (Jack from Lost) as 'Racer X'.

Go watch it, its awesome!




INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008); Hmm... yeah, you may have noticed since the release of this film I haven't mentioned anything about it and that monkey logo in the the top left of this page quickly turned into Batman. Well, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (I'll just refer to it as Indy 4 from now on) was really enjoyable and had some great Spielberg moments but overall didn't come up to scratch with the other films in the series in my opinion.

Harrison Ford does a great job of stepping back into Indy's shoes, now 65 but still doing just about as much running and jumping as he ever did. The rest of the cast were really good, with the return of Karen Allen (Marion from the original 'Raiders'), the lucky git Shia LeBeouf playing Indy & Marion's son, Cate Blanchett as the Russian leader, a double crossing Ray Winstone and crazy John Hurt.

There's loads of laughs packed in and enough nods and winks to the previous films to keep most fans happy to a point. However the main problem I had with the movie involves the last 30 minutes. I really didn't like the end of the story with its new sci-fi element. Maybe in a few years time I'll learn to appreciate it.


HAROLD & KUMAR - ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY (2008); The duo return in the stoner-comedy sequel to 2004's Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies (a.k.a. Go To White Castle).

I was really expecting this to be a complete load of rubbish but I was pleasantly surprised having laughed through the entire film.

Yes, its a totally stupid movie but the crazy things that happen from start to finish are brilliant.

The story starts with duo being arrested on a flight to Amsterdam as suspected terrorists. The FBI quickly send them off to Guantanamo Bay where they escape after just a few minutes of being there (hardly a good reason to use it as a title to the film) and the rest of the story involves them running away from the law, to Texas where a "friend" with good connections can get them pardoned.

The guy from the FBI chasing them is hilarious with his racist comments and just down right stupidity. The film plays around with a lot of racial stereotypes. It was also great to see the return of the very dodgy Neil Patrick Harris playing... Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D. to anyone that remembers back to 1989!).

Its definitely a lads film and could be improved by consuming large quantities of alcohol whilst watching! I look forward to watching this again, under the influence if possible!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull gets released to the general public tonight (well, its tomorrow morning really) at 12:01am. Need I say anymore?

I'm watching it Friday and can't wait to see it (if you hadn't noticed)!

Indiana Jones 4 countdown...

ONLY ONE WEEK TO GO!!!

Indiana Jones 4 countdown...

ONLY TWO WEEKS TO GO!!!

Indiana Jones 'opening in Cannes'

New Indiana Jones movie The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, one of its stars John Hurt has said.

But the actor, who plays Abner Ravenwood in the picture, told BBC One's Jonathan Ross show he was sworn to secrecy about the film's details.

There has been speculation the film will debut at the French event days before a worldwide release on 22 May.

Click here to read the full story as featured on the BBC Entertainment News site.

Lucas says his new 'Indiana Jones' is 'just a movie'

"To hear him talk, you'd think George Lucas would have preferred to call his movie 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Don't Get Your Hopes Up'." www.usatoday.com


To read the full story click here.

What a miserable git although I understand where he's coming from, it'll be incredibly hard for the new film to live up to the hype. Don't worry George, I'm sure it'll be great but if its not blame Spielberg!

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Trailer

Wow... I am really looking forward to watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!

May 22nd isn't too far away, I've put a countdown timer underneath the Popcorn Monkey logo if you want to know how many days are left 'til its worldwide release.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

I am really looking forward to watching this.

For Christmas I got the original Indiana Jones trilogy on dvd for the first time ever, on any format! I've no idea why its taken me so long to have these fantastic films in my ever growing movie collection but I'm glad they've arrived.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is set in 1957, a good idea since it keeps Harrison Fords age in check with the storyline. Russians have taken over from the Nazi's with Cate Blanchett playing one of them.

I haven't been looking too deep into the story but from the rumours going around the internet at the moment Indiana's new sidekick, Shia LaBeouf could be Marion (Karen Allen - from Raiders of the Lost Ark) & Indiana's lovechild.

Extra rumours are going around mentioning LaBeouf will take over the lead for a new generation of Indiana Jones movies although this is just speculation at the moment, Spielberg's yet to mention anything although he hasn't flatly denied the idea.



Another rumour suggests the trailer for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull may be attached to the start of the J.J. Abrams monster flick Cloverfield (previously known as just 'J.J. Abrams Untitled Project'). I hope its true, Cloverfield gets released in under a month!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens in the UK and worldwide on the 22nd of May, I can't wait!!!

Check out the official Indiana Jones website for exclusive behind the scenes videos, photos and gossip.

Ah bless...

Here's a terribly cheesy group photo for the forthcoming Indiana Jones adventure, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Notice Shia LaBeouf with his first piece of facial hair, ha ha!

I felt sorry for Karen Allen so made this up.

You're one of the boys now, welcome to the club!

Disturbia (2007)

Disturbia is basically a modern update of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film 'Rear Window'.

Its an enjoyable movie and the update really works well for the iPod/YouTube generation. Rather than having the lead house bound due to an illness/disability the main character is under house arrest with a monitoring device strapped to his leg, alerting the police if he strays more than 100ft from his house.

The lead is played by Shia LaBeouf, this guy seems to be getting some amazing roles at the moment - Transformers and the new Idiana Jones film (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) to mention a few. He's also got to star with some stunning women, Megan Fox & Sarah Roemer, not that I'm jealous or anything (lucky bastard!).

Anyway, its a great suspense/thriller which works really well and I recommend it. Find the trailer below.

Indiana Jones 4 (2008)

Here's the first pic of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, on the set of the new movie*.



*Taken from the BBC entertainment news section.