The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Widescreen)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, John Hannah, Maria Bello, Michelle YeohBrand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
Primary Contributor: Rob Cohen
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-12-16
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Widescreen)
Movie Review: When an Oscar-Winning Actress Says the Script's Bad...
Summary: 1 Stars
...you might consider taking her word for it. Especially if she's Rachel Weisz. And especially if she was part of the ensemble that made the first two 'Mummy' films work. Needless to say, she was not involved in this film, citing the script. Knowing that ahead of time, I should have taken her word for it, like the filmmakers ought to have, and avoided it like a plague. Instead, I suffered through the 2 hours of this disgrace to film. The things that went wrong with this movie are too many to state in one review, so I'll state the worst of the offenses:
Casting Maria Bello. Granted, she's replacing Rachel Weisz, an impossible job for any actress. But casting this actress? Who looks/sounds/acts NOTHING like Weisz at ALL is just cheap, unintelligent, and degrading. She tries, certainly, but she has to try hard, and with everything, and fails--her British accent (she's from Pennsylvania) slips and falls constantly, her chemistry with Brendan Fraser is non-existent, and she is completely unbelievable as the once tough-as-nails in-the-Princess-Leia-vein Evie O'Connell. (Oh, and by the by, writers: Evie fictionalized their adventures to sell as stories? Please. We saw the house they had; they were in no trouble for money, and would never EVER go around selling stories like that. It was good film-making when they treated events as "Oh, not this AGAIN!" It is bad film-making when they go "Oooh, I can write another story off this!". Come. ON.)
Leaving Egypt/Dropping Oded Fehr. At this point in the series, both were established elements, one as the perfect setting (mysticism, sweeping vistas, and lots and lots of mummies) and the other as the righteous warrior Medjai, Ardeth Bai. Honestly, the filmmakers could have gotten away with dropping one or the other--but not both, especially not with the humor (something this film desperately lacked) that having an Egyptian warrior in China could have provided.
Casting Luke Ford. I genuinely don't know what could have possibly been going on at that casting office. First, they take a character who is established as very British--born, raised, and accented--and make him the worst kind of John Wayne-stereotyped American. Second, cast an Australian actor to play this now-Americanized Alex O'Connell, and have him use a John Wayne voice to complete the stereotype. I think even Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin, two of America's dumbest men, would look at that and go, "yeeeeesh, bad idea."
Wasted Talent. Michelle Yeoh?! Jet Li?! Two of the best actors I've seen, and they were squandered. Both are skilled artists, capable of playing amazing characters, and here they play the worst kind of wooden cariacatures imaginable. A witch who somehow manages to learn English, buy clothes, raise a daughter, and still watch over the Emperor's Tomb without ever leaving once? A terracotta'd corpse that has mastery over the elements, yet only uses them two or three times? The sheer unbelievability and imbecility of this story should've been warning signs to these two actors.
The Script. Oh. Dear. Lord. The two who wrote this film (Alfred Gough and Miles Millar) are brilliant guys. Really, they are. They know how to write compelling characters (the TV series 'Smallville') write for humor (Jackie Chan's 'Shanghai Noon' & 'Shanghai Knights' films)and action/drama (Millar contributed to 'Spider-Man 2' and 'Iron Man'). So what in hell happened here? The characters are flatter than pressed leaves--even the once-humorous and likable Rick O'Connell is dull and uninteresting, despite Fraser's efforts to make it work. The storyline is at once absurdly over-the-top and also poorly underdone (Shangri-La...consists of a cave and a fountain? Yeti...are used in a single sequence and then abandoned? Two mummy armies...that the script ignores [a huge potential for action/comedy] to focus on the characters it has forced us to not care about?) The dialogue is pathetically childish and painfully unfunny. Even John Hannah's Jonathan, always good for a laugh, falls completely flat.
Honestly, if Amazon let me give a 0-star rating, I would have. Please, save yourselves: don't borrow this movie out of the library, don't rent it, and for God's sake, don't buy it. If possible, destroy it; watching the disc melt, crack and explode in a fire would be a far better use of the disc, your time, and be more entertaining in 2 minutes than this movie's 2 hours.
Summary of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Widescreen)
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 12/16/2008 Run time: 112 minutes Rating: Pg13The third film in the The Mummy series freshens the franchise up by setting the action in China. There, the discovery of an ancient emperor's elaborate tomb proves a feather in the cap of Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford), a young archaeologist and son of Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evelyn (Maria Bello, taking over the role from Rachel Weisz). Unfortunately, a curse that turned the emperor (Jet Li) and his army into terra cotta warriors buried for centuries is lifted, and the old guy prepares for world domination by seeking immortality at Shangri La. The O'Connells barely stay a step ahead of him (climbing through the Himalaya mountains with apparent ease), but the action inevitably leads to a showdown between two armies of mummies in a Chinese desert. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has a lot to offer: a supporting cast that includes the elegant Michelle Yeoh, Russell Wong, and Liam Cunningham, the unexpected appearance of several Yeti, and a climactic battle sequence that is nightmarishly weird but compelling. On the downside, the charm so desperately sought in romantic relationships, as well as comic turns by John Hannah (as Evelyn's rascal brother), is not only absent but often annoying. Rarely have witty asides in the thick of battle been more unwelcome in a movie. Rob Cohen's direction is largely crisp if sometimes curious (a fight between Fraser and Jet Li keeps varying in speed for some reason), but his vision of Shangri La, in the Hollywood tradition, is certainly attractive. --Tom Keoghbr>
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