| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 08/08/2008 : 20:05:18
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Timed so well to coincide with the Beijing Olympics - let's hope this film isn't the lasting impression the West gets of the Orient. I'd like to rename it > Sub.
Everything about it is below par. It's not out and out terrible and there are some great fx. Yeah, yeah, it's a romp kinda thing. But I just couldn't get past the stench of cheese to appreciate any of it properly.
First there's Brendan ... nope, not a fan, never have been. Just cannot see the appeal, and I don't care how many leopard-skins he poses in. Not here, of course ... here he's dressed in a sub-Indy wardrobe, with a sub-Indy kid in tow, and lots of lung-power to rise above the soundtrack as the following irresistable forces meet immovable objects:
fists to ... well, everything
arrows to petrified armour
re-vitalized mummy chariots to post-war cars
avalanches to ... yep, everything
explosives to ancient temples
Yetis to ...
Hang on -- did she say Yetis? Well, of course - you can't have an adventure set in the Orient without scaling a Himalaya or two - in yer designer parker that wouldn't last two hours on K2 - without a trio of fanged Yetis.
Or an immortal woman in the guise of the sweetfaced Jessey Meng who can understand them. As normally pretty decent John Hannah is forced to say: She speaks Yeti?!!!
He's also seen in the hold of a rickety airplane bunking up with a Yak. The Yak gets airsick. His line? The Yak yakked!
Oh how we laughed.
It's no good, I can't go one step further with this review. Well, maybe just to say Maria Bello is a wizard of transformation - her character may be totally risible, but she acts her little mountain boots off as the successful author of a series of Mummy adventures, and the wife of Brendan I'm-missing-the-charm-gene Fraser. They're supposed to be the parents of a son who's equally gagging to put himself in danger in the name of archeology. Yeah right. Parents! In real life they're about 11 years older than the kid.
Which is just about as believable as anything else in the film.
BTW - Jet Li looks great as an encrusted entombed immortal.
Finally - let's hope Russell Wong - criminally wasted in this film - soon gets more chances to realize that screen charisma that makes you forget everything else on screen the minute he appears.
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| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| randall |
Posted - 01/15/2009 : 21:56:39
Just caught it on DVD. It's remarkable how something so frenetic can seem so ordinary -- perhaps because we've seen it all before, much of it in previous Mummy movies. CGI is becoming a visual cliche in less talented hands: you know you shouldn't believe it, so you don't. I think the LotR trilogy may turn out to be the high-water mark in 2-D CGI.
I do like Brendan Fraser, but I thought having to play the stern father [old enough to have this preposterously-aged son] took away from his usual comic charm. This movie even made Indy 4 look better.
For me, if Fraser's going to do this, he's far better off taking the JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH tack: throw logic out the window, park your brain, and just sit back and enjoy. |
| w22dheartlivie |
Posted - 08/12/2008 : 08:19:55
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
First there's Brendan ... nope, not a fan, never have been. Just cannot see the appeal, and I don't care how many leopard-skins he poses in.
In a remarkable inversion of the old "I don't care what her face looks like, have you seen her in a bikini?!?", I still find the sight of him in that leopard-skin loincloth particularly delectable, but first noted what a great body he has in Gods and Monsters. That's what happens when we have equal rights. Women get to make male chauvinist pig comments too. |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 08/12/2008 : 06:44:32
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
But despite what B.B. thinks, Brendan Fraser is just nice, meant with all warmth.
... or Mr Potato Head as I like to think of him. Warm Potato!
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| Salopian |
Posted - 08/11/2008 : 23:11:58
Yup, the age thing is quite bizarre: Brendan Fraser's character is at least twenty years older than in the first film, but the actor himself is only nine years older and looks nought years older. On top of that, instead of an actor who looks like he is a late teenager, they chose one who could pass for thirty and perhaps is!
The film's so-so. I drifted in and out of sleep as I didn't sleep last night. Chasing, fighting, chasing, fighting. But despite what B.B. thinks, Brendan Fraser is just nice, meant with all warmth. |
| silly |
Posted - 08/08/2008 : 21:07:49
80 years ago, or so, they started putting air conditioning in movie houses to help draw in customers in the summer.
Especially around here, where it's 100 degrees or more in the afternoon. The promise of "chilled air" is hard to resist.
Last Friday, the A/C at my house was out, it was 104 degrees, and the boys and I escaped to the movies. We saw the Mummy, and it was air conditioned.
Guess which was the best part? |
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