The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

May 2008. That's when the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones movies are coming to theatres, and will undoubtedly make tons of cash and will allow George Lucas to continue making "expensive" movies (wink wink to those who get that remark).

There's just one problem....HARRISON FORD IS 64 YEARS OLD!!!

When Last Crusade was released back in 1989, Sean Connery, who played Indy's dad, was actually younger than Ford is now.

Talks of another Indy film started as early as the mid-90's. At the time, hey, who didn't want to see another Indiana Jones flick? Ford was just coming off of making The Fugitive and was on a roll. Steven Speilberg just got an Oscar for Schindler's List. The public would certainly pay money to see Indy on the big screen one more time.

But, for me at least, it's too late. Lucas, Speilberg and co. couldn't get together a script for years and other projects distracted them. In the meantime, Ford made many forgettable movies and isn't the star he once was. Think about it: Sabrina, Six Days, Seven Nights, What Lies Beneath, Firewall...do you talk to your friends today about these pictures? And Ford turned down top scripts like Traffic. If he accepted the role to play the Michael Douglas character, I would have guaranteed an Oscar win for Mr. Ford. The Academy WANTS to give him one, but there is nothing he's done that could justify it. And Indy IV isn't going to win anything.

How are they going to make a story with the action Indy fans like myself expect without becoming a parody of itself? Imagine a senior citizen being dragged under a Mercedes like Indy was in Raiders. I would probably laugh. And it would probably be done for laughs. BUT I DON'T WANT TO LAUGH! The Raiders and Crusade movies took our imaginations with tremendous stories (going after the Ark and Holy Grail? Could there be greater quests than that!?!) with the occasional DASH of humour, but nothing more. I think we are going to be disappointed, unless they CGI Ford to make him look like he did in 1981.

I really think these guys are grasping for the limelight that has long eluded them. Stallone returned for a sixth Rocky movie. Sure, it was pretty good, but mostly because of nostalgia. I can't imagine a movie world without Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I can imagine one without Rocky Balboa. Remember when Guy Lafleur came back from retirement to play for the Nordiques? It wasn't the same. You got a warm fuzzy watching him play, but he wasn't the same dominant player he was in the 70s and early 80s. Today, I see a Hulk Hogan in his 50s returning to the ring to wrestle (and to make it more realistic, beating up guys 30 years his junior) trying to recapure the glory he had in his heyday. People seem to like him coming back, but I just see a guy who looks old and should gracefully exit the spotlight and let someone else have it.

This what I think we'll get when Indy IV comes to theatres: A warm fuzzy seeing Ford crack his bullwhip and don his fedora. Fond memories of the past Indy flicks. But a film that will be a shell of its former self.