ADVENTURE
Like Indiana Jones's dusty fedora, this long-aborning fourth chapter of the series about the archaeologist-adventurer is familiar and comfy but lacks snap. Set in 1957, Skull finds Jones (Ford) 19 years older than we last saw him. Though he can still flick a whip with deadly verve, he's now a tad surprised when he outruns, jumps or punches the bad guys. Make that bad gal, as in a Russian military scientist (Blanchett, using an accent worthy of Rocky and Bullwinkle's Natasha) who thinks Indy can lead her to an ancient crystal skull in South America with possible supernatural powers. Soon Jones, accompanied by a new sidekick (LaBeouf) and an old flame (Karen Allen), is chasing through the Amazon jungle, tumbling over waterfalls, dodging bullets, uncovering a secret tomb and more.
Director Steven Spielberg and his capable cast try a little too hard to recapture old times, and the effort shows. If you came to Skull cold, minus nearly three decades of fondness for Indy (and that stirring theme music), would the sight of him give you such a warm, fuzzy feeling? Unlikely. Still, if you've been jonesing for Jones, it's swell just to have him back.
• Allen, 56, is back as Marion Ravenwood
HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE COMING BACK? I was in the Berkshires in my [knitting] studio. The phone rang and it was Steven Spielberg. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
AND BEING REUNITED WITH HARRISON FORD? It was fantastic. The first day back we were leaping from the back of a truck. It was like, "Here we are again!"
YOU RUN A KNITTING SHOP. DID YOU MAKE GIFTS FOR THE CAST? I gave Harrison, Shia [LaBeouf] and Steven all scarves. I couldn't resist!
• The Tudors star, 30, plays a heroic journalist who helps rescue 60 Chinese orphans in the historical drama The Children of Huang Shi
WHAT WAS FILMING IN CHINA LIKE? You suddenly find that you're really, really far from home. But it's not like Big Brother is watching you the whole time. There is no brother so big that it can watch a billion people at once. That's a lot of brothers.
THIS ROLE IS A BIG CHANGE FROM THE SELFISH ROGUES YOU OFTEN PLAY, LIKE KING HENRY VIII. It was a great relief in me that I could get to care for something that wasn't me. And the kids were incredible. They didn't care if it was 10 in the morning or 1 in the morning; they were constantly laughing.
ARE YOU READY FOR KIDS OF YOUR OWN? I am not so sure. Children don't need a check or a nanny, they need you. Until you can give them that, do us all a favor and stay away from it.
SO YOU DON'T WANT TO GIVE UP YOUR LAZY SUNDAYS? No. I'm a lazy guy. In fact I'm wearing a shirt that says "Lazy" on it right now.
• Rain dampened the red carpet, but that didn't stop critic Leah Rozen from taking in the sights at the annual Cannes Film Festival
A REEL DOWNER The French festival's opening film, Blindness (above, with Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo), was a high-brow misfire. Based on an allegorical novel by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago and directed by Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener), it's a heavy-handed drama about how people behave when a sudden blindness plague strikes and victims are quarantined. It opens in September.
PANDA-MONIUM The animated Kung Fu Panda (right), featuring the voices of Jack Black (as the panda) and Angelina Jolie, proved a cheerful palate cleanser between the grimmer, slice-of-downbeat-life films dominating Cannes' roster. It's due June 6.
A WOODY WINNER Woody Allen scored big with Vicky Cristina Barcelona (below, with Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson), an irresistible comedy. Cruz steals it with a hilarious turn as Bardem's fiery ex. The Oscar winner saunters through as a sexy Spanish artist dallying with two American tourists (Johansson and Rebecca Hall). Vicky arrives in theaters in late August.
CATHERINE DENEUVE FOREVER The reigning queen of Cannes—now 64, she has been coming nearly yearly since 1964, when The Umbrellas of Cherbourg screened—walked the red carpet for A Christmas Tale and I Want to See. The first, an amusing look at a dysfunctional family, costars her real-life daughter Chiara Mastroianni (Dad was Italian legend Marcello Mastroianni). Tale is slated for a U.S. release.
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