Reviews

This role is not a stretch for Ms. Simpson..she plays a down on her luck movie star who joins the army after a rough night and a bad breakup. The first twenty minutes of the movie are painful but it picks up once our main character joins the army. Cheri Oteri really shines in the film and she has some of the funniest scenes in the film. Keiko Agena, formerly of the Gilmore Girls, is totally under utilized and her comic potential is still untapped. Overall, this is predictable comedy that seems like a bad remake of "Private Benjamin". In fact, if you want to see a funny film about a rich spoiled girl who joins the army you are better off with Goldie Hawn's classic 80's film than this cheesy flick.

This film "jumps the shark" in the first 15 minutes. Spielberg and Lucas seem to think that bigger is always better. Unfortunately, they are wrong. While Indy 4 contains many big action packed sequences, it is still a boring film. Worse than boring the film lacks heart. The main character has become someone else entirely, he is Henry Jones Jr. more than he is Indiana. People call him Henry, Jonesy, and even sweetie at one point. He rarely uses the whip after the first major sequence. In their insane quest to make all films "family friendly" Spielberg and Lucas give us cute prairie dogs and cgi communist hating monkeys. What they fail to deliver on is the promise of adventure made in the first (2nd and 3rd) Indiana films.

I enjoyed this movie when I first saw it 10 years ago, however since then I have listened to many episodes of "The Saint" (Old Time Radio Show, starring Vincent Price) and scene several episodes of the BBC "The Saint" with Roger Moore. Both of those versions had much better versions of The Saint character. The Saint is a Bon Vivant character, he likes blondes and adventure. In both the radio programs and the TV series he was an amateur detective, that for reasons that were never explained he did not need to hold a "real job". Some of his "cases" paid him very well, but many held nothing for him but adventure. There is also something a little dangerous about The Saint, he hovers just above the criminal underworld. But in this movie he is none of these things. He is just a completely different character. Fun, and good looking (as only Val Kilmer can be), but he's not the same character. There is no other way to explain it without giving parts of the movie away. So let's just some up by saying that it's a fun adventure film but Val Kilmer is no Saint.