Marion Ravenwood is BACK!

. . . in Indiana Jones IV: the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And the best part: the bad guys are the Soviet Communists! Finally, 17 years after the end of the Cold War, Spielberg and Lukas are willing to portray the Soviets as the bad guys in the same un-ironic, campy way that they portrayed the Nazis.

It's too bad that Hollywood is so cowardly that it has to wait until our enemies are stinking up coffins before making movies where they're portrayed as, you know, evil, as opposed to misunderstood. Still, though, this counts as progress over fabricating enemies, or dragging out the Nazis for one last beating.

As a bonus, Karen Allen reprises her role as Marion Ravenwood, the spitfire love-interest from Raiders back in 1981. I always thought that their on-screen relationship was the most adult; those of the other Jones movies were ridiculous caricatures of romantic love. Reading that she's back, I teared up a little. It's like . . . Mom and Dad getting back together.