Indiana Jones and the Russian plot

The Russians are upset. And it's all because of Indiana Jones fighting them. Now Steven Spielberg could go blue in the face saying that his descendants (no typo, check the link) are Russian, but the Soviets aren't buying the fact that the US didn't have any other enemies back in 1957, which is when Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull is set.

Not that Indy hasn't courted controversy before.

The 1984 film Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom was banned in India because of its ridiculous Indian stereotypes -- I've never eaten chilled monkey brain myself, I must say -- and depicted Kali-worshippers as human-sacrificingly evil, which, Amrish Puri or not, is a pretty darned blasphemous thing to do. Still hey, it's Indy. And it's all in silly fun, right?

Not everyone gets it, though.

The Germans have been up in arms calling Tom Cruise a modern-day version of Joseph Goebbels -- not that the Nazi propaganda minister ever jumped a couch on Oprah -- because of the way he's spreading Scientology hoo-ha, and the release of Bryan Singer's Valkyrie, where Cruise tries to kill Hitler, has now been pushed back to February 2009.

Even the Kazakhs banned the groundbreakingly hilarious Borat, top, left when it released there -- though you can kinda see their point, to be fair. Hell, we're living in a world where the Flintstones get arrested. God save us all.