‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ has left film critics divided: “Indy deserved better”

A Hollywood icon and philanthropist! Michael J. Fox gained worldwide recognition beginning in 1982 on the NBC sitcom Family Ties and continued his skyrocket to fame for the next four decades.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor At the Cannes Film Festival, Italy’s 102 Distribution is selling thriller “Light Falls,” directed by Phedon Papamichael, the cinematographer on James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Papamichael, who was Oscar nominated for handling the cinematography on Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” talks to Variety about shooting “Light Falls.” The film tells the story of Clara, played by Elene Makharashvili, and Ella, played by Nini Nebieridze, two young lovers whose Greek island holiday spirals out of control when a tragic incident leads to an encounter with a trio of illegal Albanian immigrants. The thriller establishes the relationship of the young women before moving in a darker and more violent direction.

Harrison Ford is defending the de-aging process he underwent for a flashback sequence in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The fifth installment of the James Mangold-directed film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where the star got a five-minute standing ovation.

Harrison Ford showed off the honorary award he received at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival while attending a photocall for his new movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny on Friday (May 19) in Cannes, France.

Harrison Ford looked emotional as he received a five-minute standing ovation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival on Thursday.

What a night it was for Harrison Ford yesterday, receiving an honorary Palme d’Or and a special tribute to his career before the world premiere of “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.” Did James Mangold‘s take on the legendary franchise live up to the proceedings? Well, the reviews from the premiere (including The Playlist’s) are pretty mixed. But many note Ford’s performance as a major highlight, so at least the actor gives his most popular movie character a proper send-off.

Cannes took audiences back to their childhoods with the first screening of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” The film’s splashy premiere saw stars Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen walk the red carpet, alongside Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger and director James Mangold. The first reactions were slow to drop but were filled with enthusiasm.

Harrison Ford said he actually didn’t need to prepare for his latest role in the last Indiana Jones movie.

Lucasfilm Boss Kathleen Kennedy was asked at the Cannes presser for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny to give her opinion as to how she’d like to see the standoff between AMPTP and WGA resolved.

Asked about the WGA strike at the Cannes Film Festival press conference Friday for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, director James Mangold said, “No movie happens without a great script, and no great script happens without writers.”

In “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the sturdy lark, positioned precariously in the liminal space between commerce and taste, there are the familiar callbacks, the big set pieces, the cracking bullwhip, dashing fedoras, nefarious Nazis, exotic locales, old friends and new faces. Something, however, is missing.

Come on, Harrison.”Ford was in a reflective mood throughout the press conference, talking about a lengthy career that allowed him “to learn from my experience a little bit of craft … and not get my ass kicked out when I didn’t do as well as I wanted to.” Harrison Ford addresses the de-aging technology in the new Indiana Jones movie – he looks decades younger in first 20 minutes: “it has to serve the story” #cannes @thewrap pic.twitter.com/qwl5rY9jkqThe film premiered on Thursday night in Cannes’ Grand Theatre Lumiere, where it drew the usual extended standing ovation from an audience of more than 2,000 in the huge theater. Prior to the screening, Ford was surprised by a film reel showing footage from throughout his career, and then by the presentation of an Honorary Palme d’Or for his body of work.“The warmth is unimaginable,” he said of his reception in Cannes.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” stars Harrison Ford in his final performance as the swashbuckling fedora-wearing adventurer, a legendary role he’s played in five films across 40 years. But he says he is officially ready to retire the character. “Is it not evident?” the 80-year-old actor joked at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday’s press conference for the action-adventure. “I need to sit down and rest a little bit.” In returning to the character for one last time, Ford expressed a desire to see “a completion of the five films.” He added, “I wanted to see the weight of life on him. I wanted to see him require reinvention. I wanted him to have a relationship that wasn’t a flirty movie relationship.

first reactions on social media were more positive. Per usual for Cannes premieres it did receive ovations, but they were reserved for Harrison Ford himself rather than the James Mangold-directed film.

The first reactions from critics for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny have been revealed following the film’s world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival!

It was a great night for Disney as Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny had a smash debut in its World Premiere Thursday evening at the Cannes Film Festival where the June 30th release received a warm 5 minute standing ovation, especially for Harrison Ford in his swan song in the title role he started playing 40 + years ago. There noticeably to witness the French love and affection was none other than Disney boss Bob Iger attending his first-ever Cannes Festival (believe it or not) and even taking his own photos during the ovation for the movie. At the Carlton Beach after party I told him Deadline had just been the first to post its review, a rave (from our colleague Stephanie Bunbury) and you could see the absolute relief on his face. “You have made me very happy to hear that, ” he told me, and he meant it. All this came on the same day Disney took another shot at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by announcing the cancellation of a plan to move several thousand California employees to Florida. The Cannes respite must have been nice.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is a dutifully eager but ultimately rather joyless piece of nostalgic hokum. It’s the fifth installment in the “Indiana Jones” franchise, and though it has its quota of “relentless” action, it rarely tries to match (let alone top) the ingeniously staged kinetic bravura of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” How could it? “Raiders,” whatever one thinks of it as a movie (I always found it a trace impersonal in its ’40s-action-serial-on-steroids excitement), is arguably the most influential blockbuster of the last 45 years, even more so than “Star Wars.” Back in 1977, George Lucas took us through the looking glass of what would become our all-fantasy-all-the-time movie culture. But it was Steven Spielberg, teaming up with Lucas in “Raiders,” who introduced the structural DNA of the one-thing-after-another, action-movie-as-endless-set-piece escapist machine. This means that “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” isn’t just coming after four previous “Indiana Jones” films. It’s coming after four decades of high-priced Hollywood action decadence, from the “Fast and Furious” series to the “Mission: Impossible” and “Terminator” and “Lara Croft” and “Transformers” and latter-day “Bond” films (not to mention the Marvel space operas), all of which owe a boundless debt to the aggro zap of the “Raiders” aesthetic.

Cannes Film Festival, is about the years and the mileage. Then it’s about the years some more because the semi-supernatural twist this time around involves time travel.The film is full of action, stunts and escapes from Nazis, because that’s what “Indiana Jones” movies are. It relies heavily on the charm and charisma of Harrison Ford because of course it does.

There must be 50 ways to escape a Nazi. Over the 2 hours and 22 minutes of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, we see Indy and his ragtag entourage drive planes, trains and automobiles through the streets of New York, Tangiers and somewhere picturesque in Sicily, hijack two getaway tuk-tuks, ride a horse at full pelt through the New York subway tunnels, and fly a vintage plane through a “time fissure” to land right in the middle of – well, we can’t say too much, but the kind of place and time that would be Indy’s idea of Shangri-la. “Too many Nazis!” growls Indy, just before he leaps from a speeding train hundreds of yards down into a churning river. Sometimes, the essence of being an adventuring hero is to know when to put the bullwhip down and get out of Dodge.

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is mostly encouraging. The fifth Harrison Ford-starring Indy flick doesn’t open theatrically until the week of June 30, but Cannes audiences got the first look. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” debuted at the 2008 Cannes Festival, however, that was days away from its Memorial Day weekend launch.