There may be other films released this week but with the imminent arrival of 'Dr. Jones' on Thursday we really don't care about anything else at the moment.

Unless you have been hiding, or living, under a very large rock of late you will know that this Thursday, 22nd May, sees the world-wide release of the fourth instalment of the Indiana Jones movie franchise, 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'.

Hard as it may be to believe it's been nineteen years since 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' (1989), the last Indiana Jones adventure.

The new film has already been seen by a number of select audiences and critics across the world and last week it received a special preview at the Cannes Film Festival, which gave Mr Spielberg, Mr Lucas and Mr Ford a perfect opportunity to spend some time in the sunny climes of the Cote d'Azur.

The original three movies in the franchise - 'Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' (1984) and 'Last Crusade' (1989) - were all released in the 1980s and following the release of 'Last Crusade' it was presumed there was to be no more.

That was until recently when rumours started to emerge that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg started developing the idea of a fourth adventure for the whip-cracking archaeologist.

Time was certainly not on their side as Harrison Ford isn't getting any younger - he'll be celebrating his 66th birthday this year - and surely they must have wondered was he too old to play Indiana Jones.

Time will tell whether we think he's too old or not but the simple fact of the matter is without Ford on board there simply couldn't have been another Indiana Jones film. End of story.

Despite being regarded as a Hollywood great Harrison Ford's movie career could be summed up by three characters: Han Solo ('Star Wars'), Indiana Jones and Jack Ryan ('Patriot Games', and 'Clear and Present Danger').

Of course there have been many other great parts in movies such as 'Presumed Innocent', 'Frantic', 'Witness', 'The Fugitive' and 'Blade Runner' as well as parts in great films like 'Apocalypse Now' and 'American Graffiti'.

But Harrison Ford was never one to work too hard and has only appeared in some ten films over the past eleven years, with a few of these being questionable projects - 'Random Hearts' anyone?

As a younger man Ford was a decent actor but in the recent 'K-19: The Widowmaker' Ford was completely wooden barely seeming interested in what he was doing.

Let's just hope he is interested in being Indiana Jones again, and that he remembers how to give us a few deadpan quips from time to time.

For some months now there has been an official movie trailer for 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' on the Internet and, judging by this, the new film looks pretty good.

So what can we expect from the new film?

Well, rest assured they will be liberal application of the original theme music (do do do doo, dat de da!) at every available opportunity as well as plenty of action, chase sequences, fights and plenty of near death experiences as Indy battles with the forces of evil - whoever they may be this time around - to win the prize before someone else gets their hands on it -which is always bad.

Having recently watched 'the Last Crusade' again I felt the action set pieces stand up remarkably well for a 20 year old film so just imagine what Spielberg and Lucas will have in store for us using today's available technology.

Someone said this morning that 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' is what they term a 'critic proof' movie in that people are going to go and see it no matter what anybody says about it.

I imagine this is probably true but, nevertheless, 'Indy 4' will be reviewed in this space next week. Roll on Thursday....