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This sugarplum of a movie is held together with good intentions and paperclips, but its appealing cast and seasonal sweetness make it -- if not the perfect holiday treat, a pleasantly enjoyable one, especially welcome because there are so few Christmas stories about African-American families.

Some things are different. No more Nazis -- it is now a Cold War and the guys on the other side are the Soviets. And there may be enemies at home. A harmless-looking professor could be a Red. Or maybe it is the agents of the U.S. government who are the bad guys when they see enemies who are not there. And teenagers are acting wild. Some of them speed by in jalopies and some of them slick back their hair, drop out of school, and ride motorcycles.

But some things are the same. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford, for the fourth time) still packs a mean punch and carries a bull whip. He still has a way of getting himself into and out of trouble. He still hates snakes. And he is still a lot of fun to watch.

As always, we start right in the midst of the action. A motorcade of soldiers is approaching a "Hanger 51" Army base in Nevada that is shut down for a test of an atomic bomb. But it turns out not to be what it seems. They are Soviet spies and they want Indiana to find something in storage there (Indy fans will enjoy seeing a familiar item in one of the crates). This time, the artifact everyone wants is a crystal skull from South America that, according to legend, will grant great power to whomever returns it to its home. The Soviets are led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett, severe in an impeccable uniform and a ruthlessly aerodynamic bob), a specialist in the paranormal.

Instead of being congratulated for escaping from the Soviets, Indy becomes a "person of interest" to the FBI due to "this charged climate" and is suspended from his job. When he gets a message from a young man on a motorcycle who looks like he just rode in from the set of "The Wild One" that his old friend Professor Oxley (John Hurt) has been captured, Indy and the young man ("Transformers'" Shia LeBeouf) set out to rescue them.

Ford brings it. He is vitally and vibrantly present every moment on screen. He gets the a-word issue out of the way early on with a wry response to "we've gotten out of worse before" -- "We were younger then." He can still throw a credible punch and he has an even better and deeper sense of who he is as an actor and who Indy is as a character dealing with his own issues of aging. Moving the characters forward in time provides many opportunities for fresh and intriguing details that are instantly evocative of the past and lightly resonant for today's circumstances as well. LeBeouf, Ford, and Karen Allen, who makes a welcome return as Marian, Indy's best leading lady, have terrific chemistry. The stunts are thrilling and brilliantly paced, and the script, the first three-quarters of it, anyway, if not up to the level of the first Indiana Jones film, is at or better than the other two. The old-school effects are far better than the brief CGI. The unscripted real-life bug swallowed as an ad lib by Rene Belloq in the first movie was far more effective than an army of man-eating ants made from pixels in this one. John Hurt is underused as the addled Oxley as is Ray Winstone ("Beowulf") as a fellow traveler in more than one sense of the term. And it is a little too long, but that is understandable. Ford, Allen, producer George Lucas, and director Steven Spielberg enjoy spending time with Indiana Jones and don't want to say goodbye. We feel the same way.

It's The Shawshank Redemption part two, or it tries to be. It has voiceover narration by Morgan Freeman. It has an inspiring and life-affirming friendship -- featuring Morgan Freeman. It just is not very good.

If you've seen the trailer, you've seen the movie. And if, after seeing the trailer you want to see the movie, then you will get what you are expecting, a formulaic feel-good story of two dying men who finally learn how to live. There just will not be one original or authentic moment along the way. This is the kind of thing old pros Freeman, Jack Nicholson, and director Rob Reiner can pretty much phone in, and that is what they do.

We know the minute we see bombastic Jack Nicholson insisting that the hospitals he owns are not health spas and that everyone shares a room, no exceptions, that soon he will be sharing a room and won't be happy about it. We know that when saintly though embittered Morgan Freeman shows up in that other bed in the room, they are there to teach each other important life lessons about the importance of connections and living life to the fullest.

But the movie's idea of living life to the fullest is, well, not very full. It consists of sky-diving and tourism. There are some moments of family reconciliation that are thrown in toward the end but never shared, much less explored. Dying just seems an excuse for a geriatric, spend-it-all Spring Break.

The movie continually undercuts its own ostensible messages. It preaches authenticity but practices facsimile. It preaches tenderness but fetishises hedonism. It preaches on behalf of home but glamorizes running away. Freeman and Nicholson are always watchable, but the best their finer moments in this movie can do is remind us of how much better they are in other films.

The first movie ended with historian/treasure-hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) triumphant, with riches, a dream house, and a dream girl, historian/knockout (and conveniently named) Abigail Chase ("Troy's" Helen Diane Kruger). He has pretty much lost all of that as this movie begins. Meanwhile, sidekick Riley (Justin Bartha) can't get anyone to buy his book and has learned that "the tax on $5 million in income is $6 million) as his fancy car is towed away by the IRS. It's time to break out the treasure maps and cypher-decoders.

In 1935, the debate team from a tiny all-black college took on the top white team in the country and they won. This is that story, Oprah-fied to be sure (Winfrey's company produced the film), but powerfully told by director Denzel Washington, who also stars as the team's coach, distinguished poet Melvin B. Tolson.

Hillary Swank does not have the chin for romance or the rhythm for comedy. Her two Oscars were for earnest, androgynous roles (“Boys Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby”) that made the most of her strong jaw and lanky...

It is not easy to take a wealthy socialite, a powerful Congressman, and a CIA agent, have them played by three Oscar-winners, two who are genuine box office gold, and make them look like the underdogs, but in this...

It's time for the q-word again. Every year, it seems, there is some audience-favorite-quirky-little-indy -- that category is now a genre of its own, like thriller and romantic comedy. 2006's Little Miss Sunshine was called "this year's Napoleon Dynamite....

Novelty songwriter Ross Bagdasarian noticed that speeding up the audio recordings creatd a high-pitched sound in 1958, and used that technique in his song "The Witch Doctor." It was a hit. And so, he created the singing chipmunks, Simon,...

Fairy tales and modern-day Manhattan find a way to live happily ever after in this adorable Disney story about the adventures of a prince, an almost-princess, and an evil queen in New York City....

Will Smith plays the last man on earth in this third movie based on Richard Matheson's novella. Scientist Robert Neville was immune to the virus that wiped out everyone. He spends his days hunting for food in the deserted streets...

Those who are willing to open their hearts to this urban fairy tale will find its pleasures, as long as they they don't think about it too hard....

In the grand tradition of "he followed me home -- can I keep him?" movies, we have seen movies about children who are brought to adventure and understanding through dogs, horses, cats, a whale, a dolphin, dragons, geese, and...

Marjane Satrapi brings her award-winning graphic memoir to the screen in a powerful story of growing up in Iran as the Shah was ousted and hopes for democracy were crushed by the rise of the fundamentalists. Named for the legendary...

Childhood tragedy and attendant guilt feelings. A big career-defining concert followed by a flashback of everything that went before. Adults amazed by early evidence of extraordinary talent and feel for music. Tragedy and loss to overcome. A first wife who...

There could be no better match for the gothic saga of the barber who slit men's throats and the baker who made their bodies into pies than director Tim Burton, the master of the macabre. Here working with Johnny...

This is an enchanting story that lives up to the promise of a "once upon a time beginning," filled with romance, adventure, magic, and wit. It has witch sisters who need to find a fallen star to make the potion...

John F. Kennedy once advised, "Never pick a fight with those who buy ink by the barrel." He meant that you cannot win an argument with people who publish newspapers and have all the ink, paper, and readers to make...

This faithful adaptation of the worldwide best-seller puts a struggle for personal redemption and atonement in the context of devastating divides, ethnic, cultural, poltical, and moral, set in Afghanistan before, during, and after the Soviet invasion of 1979. Loyalty,...

Everything is changing again for Harry Potter. Back when Hagrid explained to him for the first time at age 11 that his parents had not died in a car crash but in a battle with an evil wizard and that...

There is not much story here. The set-up was two movies ago, when a man with a gunshot wound was fished out of the water. He had no memory but when it came to the tricks of the spy trade,...

Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is disobedient, obstinate, crafty, and skeptical. In other words, she challenges authority, she is is a creative thinker, and she is in the grand tradition of the heroes of classic adventure stories. And this...

Cheerfully outrageous and unabashedly offensive, this saga of three high school seniors in search of sex and liquor works because the vulgarity is in the context of a very sweet story about growing up and leaving home. It centers on...

Oh, we all love to feel superior to rich people, don't we? It makes us feel so nice and smug. They may have the fancy apartments and couture, but we have a lock on authenticity and unpretentiousness, right? That's...

The people behind "March of the Penguins" have put together another endearing story of life in the coldest place on earth. This time, it is the story of two newborns, a polar bear called Nanu and a walrus named Seela....

If the "Transformers" were the snips and snails and puppy dog tails of the toys-to-movie genre of the summer of 2007, the Bratz were the sugar and spice....

It will blow the box of popcorn out of your hand....

Filmmaker Jennifer Crandall has created a charming series of short autobiographical videos featuring everyday people talking about their lives, experiences, and lessons learned. Participants of all ages and backgrounds have spoken about friends, families, vocations and avocations. Participants have included...

Two hilarious You Tube hits put complaints to music. Complaints Choirs started in Birmingham, England and are popping up all over the world. Here, the Helsinki Complaints Choir combines the universal and the very particular in a hilarious and harmonic...

It is more op-ed than movie. "Lions for Lambs" is a well-meaning attempt to encapsulate and move forward one segment of our current political debates. But it is mostly speeches, not stories....

Good intentions often make bad movies....

Just as Entertainment Weekly picks the 1988 Die Hard as the greatest action movie of all time, Bruce Willis comma-ti-yi-yippies it up again for NYPD’s John McClane’s fourth explosion-and-wisecrack-fest. Number three is still my favorite, but this latest installment has...

Even in a summer blockbuster, sometimes less is more. Especially when it comes to the story. They throw in so many plots, so many battles, so many tonal shifts, so many characters, and ultimately so many Captain Jack Sparrows that...

Ashima (Indian superstar Tabu) pauses before entering the living room to meet her prospective bridegroom and his family. Their shoes have been left outside the door, according to the customs of her home in India. Ashima sees that inside the...

"A baby is God's opinion life should go on," Carl Sandburg said. So, in a world where babies have stopped being born and the death of the youngest person on earth is an international tragedy, there seems to be no...