In another life long ago and far away, I plied my trade as a film critic.

I used to joke I spent more time in darkened rooms than most hookers, such is the life of those of us addicted to the - movies.

Here’s one way, at least for me, to determine just how severe one’s love affair with the flicks burns.

I am almost 59 years old. I have been going to the movies for more than a half a century and yet, when the lights dim and the curtain pulls back I still feel that excitement that (hopefully) something exciting, or special is about to happen on the big screen. Even worse, I like getting to the theater early to see the previews.

You’re probably right. I’m hopeless.

And so it was with that anxious anticipation that the Bombshell of the Balkans and I took in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” over the Memorial Day weekend.

If I was still formally in the film critic racket I probably would have given the movie somewhere between two-and-half and three stars.

Is it a great movie? No. Will the fourth installment of this action-adventure franchise represent an historic moment in the evolution of cinema? Hardly.

Still, if you are a lover of the movies “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was a delight to sit through and enjoy for the simplest of pleasures.

By any measure Harrison Ford has enjoyed one of the great careers as a Hollywood leading man.

Where to begin? “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Blade Runner,” “Witness,” “Mosquito Coast,” “Presumed Innocent,” “Working Girl,” “The Fugitive,” “Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger” and,of course “Air Force One.”

And if you’ve never seen “Frantic,” you are missing one of Ford’s best little treasures on screen.

It’s been a wonderful run for hugely successful box office hits for Ford, a resume the envy of virtually any actor.

However since “Air Force One” in 1997, Ford had fallen on some hard times, with a string of either dreadful movies and/or box office disasters - “Six Days Seven Nights’ (oh dear), “Random Hearts” (ugh). “K-19: The Widowmaker” (Run away! Run Away!), “What Lies Beneath” (Harrison Ford as a bad guy? Please!) and the simply horrible “Firewall,” an attempt to set “Air Force One” in a bank. It wasn’t pretty.

So despite whatever the shortcomings associated with “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” it was still good to see one of the screen’s most popular figures once more score with a hit.

It is not an easy feat for 60-ish actors to pull off the action-adventure genre.

Clint Eastwood was still chasing bad guys at 63 in “In The Line Of Fire.” Sean Connery played several action roles well into his 60s, too before realizing he just looked silly at 69 romancing Catherine Zeta-Jones in “Entrapment.”

John Wayne, naturally, stayed in the saddle all the way to the end with “The Shootist” at 70. And Henry Fonda, at 63, seemed to revel in portraying one of the most brutal heavies in screen history in “Once Upon A Time In The West.”

Harrison Ford shot “Indy 4” at 64. He looks terrific and performed many of own stunts. Not bad.

But enough is enough.

To be sure, Ford still has a long career as a character actor ahead of him if he chooses to follow the example of Clint Eastwood, who has allowed his screen career to age with dignity.

Still, for a few hours the other day, it was grand fun to turn the clock back just a bit.

But only for a bit.