The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Two Disc Deluxe Edition
Directed by Rob Cohen
Starring Brendan Frasier, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Luke Ford, Michelle Yeoh, Isabella Leong
Universal Home Entertainment
Release Date: December 16, 2008

The third installment of The Mummy series is sure not to disappoint. Well, one thing is disappointing and I have to say it right from the beginning. What happened to the real Evelyn O’Connell? I really hate to start a review like this. I like to tell a bit about the movie and then give my feelings, but I couldn’t, and I am sure you won’t be able to. It’s not that Maria Bello (Thank You for Smoking, A History of Violence) is bad in her depiction of Evelyn, it’s just that, Rachel Weisz is our Evelyn. Maybe Weisz’s decision to do Definitely, Maybe or My Blueberry Nights blocked her from The Mummy project. If it did, I have one thing to say: she should have stuck with The Mummy series. No judgments on the other two movies, but, you get my drift.

In The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, a new kind of mummy is released, Emperor Han (Jet Li), by mistake of course, and it is up to Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn, along with their now-adult son Alex (Luke Ford) and Evelyn’s brother John (John Hannah) to save the world from complete enslavement.

The Mummy franchise has yet to disappoint me and Rob Cohen does not do so now. In the interest of not giving away everything in the movie, I am keeping my review short, but I will go in detail about this DVD edition’s many bonus features.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Blu-ray
Directed by Rob Cohen
Starring Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, Luke Ford, Michelle Yeoh
Universal Home Entertainment
Release date: December 16, 2008

I admit it – I’m a Brendan Fraser apologist. What can I say? I like the guy. He’s just so damn”¦ likable! I can watch him in pretty much anything and enjoy it. School Ties – Check. Monkeybone – Check. Blast from the Past – Check. George of the Jungle – Check. Encino Man – Guilty. So I look back on the release of The Mummy with fond memories. It was a funny, adventurous rollicking old-school action flick that remembered what made such films work — it was fun. And Fraser captured that sense of “gee whiz” fun playing Rick O’Connell. When The Mummy Returns came out it was disappointing, but not awful. It felt more like an excuse to try to set up a franchise for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson than it legitimate continuation of the series.

So it was with a healthy dose of skepticism that I popped in the Blu-ray of the newest entry into this series — The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. And all I can say is – Brendan Fraser tried. He really, really tried”¦ and I’m sure he’s sorry.

Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior
Directed by Russell Mulcahy
Starring Michael Copon, Randy Couture, Karen David, Simon Quarterman, Natalie Becker
Universal Home Entertainment
Release date: August 19, 2008

I received the standard and Blu-ray DVDs for Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior, and had planned on doing the standard disc review myself, but I just got bogged down with other tasks, so I sent it out to one of my writers. Since I don’t have a Blu-ray player [yet], I sent that out to Henchman21 (read his review), who flat out told me this was not a good movie and that he had trouble even finishing the viewing. The other writer could conjure up little more than to say that the movie was “in a word, shit.”

When people give something such bad reviews like this, I just HAVE to see it for myself, because I wonder, can it really be all that bad and if so, why? I have to know!

So, I pop in the disc and prepare to be brutally assaulted by what I am now expecting to be pure and utter crap and after 20 minutes of the film I found myself thinking, jeez, it’s not that bad.

This is a direct-to-DVD prequel to 2002’s Scorpion King, which itself was a prequel/spin-off to Universal’s The Mummy Returns, which had Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Mathayus/Scorpion King. The key words here are direct-to-DVD, so right there you know not to expect something on par with the Academy Award-winning Gladiator.

Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior
Directed by Russell Mulcahy
Starring Michael Copon, Randy Couture, Karen David, Simon Quarterman
Universal Home Entertainment
Release date: August 19, 2008

A funny thing happened about halfway through this movie, the Minotaur showed up, and suddenly I realized that I was watching an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journey. This is not to say I was ever a fan of Hercules, but I was just very much reminded of that series. The dimly lit sets, the goofy comic relief, the bad CG monsters, yes it had it all. And like Hercules, Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior had a simple charm to it, and I found myself starting to appreciate it.

Now let’s get this out of the way. This is NOT a good movie. It looks about as good as you would expect a direct-to-DVD movie to look. The dialogue is pretty wooden, as are a lot of the actors. I mean, you don’t even get to make fun of The Rock, or ogle Kelly Hu’s magnificent figure, which is pretty much the only reason to watch the first Scorpion King film.

Before I get into this piece, let me be clear that Universal does not pay me to be kind to their Mummy franchise. I wish they did, cuz I’d have quite a bit of cash right now. I’m simply a fan of the movies.

When I was at Comic Con last weekend, I found out that none of my fellow movie bloggers was looking forward to The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I was the only one, as I happen to be a great fan of Universal’s The Mummy franchise (starting with the first one from 1932). At the Con, I made it a point to get back to the big Hall for the Universal panel, which would have the cast from the third Mummy movie.

My friend and fellow movie blogger David Chen sat in front of me as a clip was shown of the Yeti attack sequence. It was CGI-heavy and had a few corny bits of dialogue. When it was finished, David stood up, turned to me with a horrified look on his face, and then without a word, walked out of the hall.

I’ll admit, at that moment, my anticipation of the film started to dissipate, but I wasn’t going to let such a tiny sample of a 2-hour movie influence me. I read some of the early reviews of the film, the majority of which were incredibly negative. I started to wonder, How bad could this movie possibly be? But, I still had every intention of seeing Mummy 3 and judging it for myself.