Revisiting The Mummy (1999)
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Hey, listeners, welcome back to Matt Goes to the Movies.
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We have talked about what we consider the bad one.
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So we thought we'd revisit the 1999, I'll call the fun version of this series and go back and watch The Mummy with Brendan Fraser.
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And, you know, Rob, we had talked about doing these.
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for a, for a while actually.
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And I think we've said multiple times, like, man, we're, we're surprised we've never done this series and going back and, and rewatching this today.
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Now I I've watched this movie a lot.
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Like this is one of those movies that I will really oddly just periodically turn on just because I see it.
Cast Chemistry and Appeal
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Um, when it was, when it's on a streaming platform, um,
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But man, I'll tell you what, this movie, and I'll wait to get into complete details, but this movie is a, to me, a shining example of what can happen when you have really, really likable characters who,
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And a cast that seems like they're having a good time and has chemistry because this movie is not perfect by any means.
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There are some things wrong with it, but man, I was thinking to myself looking at this from like a critical standpoint to talk about it that.
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In a weaker movie with a weaker cast doing this, there would be things that I would not like about this movie.
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And that's exactly what we talked about with the 2017 version of The Mummy with Tom Cruise.
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But man, this movie overcomes some, what I would say are some pretty significant flaws in certain aspects.
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But this cast just, you cannot help but be in love with them.
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You know, this is funny.
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You mentioned like we've talked about this series on again, off again, almost as long as I've been coming on the air to talk about movies.
Entertainment Value of The Mummy
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at some point, this has come up that we've wanted to do this.
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And for whatever reason, it just hasn't been until right now that we've decided to go ahead and do it.
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And honestly, if you look back at the last few months of some of the absolute turd piles that we've been watching now,
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I kind of feel like we owe it to ourselves just to watch something that was just a total blast.
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It was a lot of fun.
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I mean, when is, when have you ever watched this movie and regretted the decision?
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Like never, it never, like who out there has ever been like, I think I'm going to put on the mummy, turned it off and was like, I think that was a bad idea.
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I should have watched something else.
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Like nobody has ever done that.
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And you mentioned the cast.
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100% the way that they interact with one another, even characters that just meet, you know, it, it's really, um, they, they just work together.
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They absolutely work together in ways that it, it takes a lot of pieces, right?
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If you have to have a good story, you have to have a good vision.
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You have to have good storytelling and you have to have the cast that can sell it.
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And this movie has a lot of kind of weird things.
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It's got some genre tropes of that action adventure period piece, but it's like you kind of look past some of the things that don't work because you're having so much fun.
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There's enough seriousness and there's enough to create stakes.
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You know, a lot of it is done sort of off camera with shadows, like the murders and things like that.
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You really don't see a lot of like true gore per se.
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So it's not like you have to have like the distraction of...
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the gross out of gore from, from a traditional horror film.
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So you've got enough of that to make the stakes seem real.
Brendan Fraser's Charisma and Career
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you've got enough humor to, to keep it lighthearted because this is ultimately a lighthearted movie, but there's not so much that it feels silly.
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It never crosses over into silliness.
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Even the score really helps keep the tone of all of the major action set pieces where it needs to be.
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There's, there's stakes, but it's,
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but you never take it too seriously.
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And, and just the way that this group of actors plays off one another and just, you said it, they seem like they are having fun making this movie.
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And I have fun every time I've watched this movie.
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Yeah, no, I mean, it is,
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it's crazy how I will like come back to this movie time and time again, but you know, it also makes me sit there and you sit there and go, man, it's certainly, he's had, you know, a resurgence and people will say, you know what they will about a Batwoman getting canceled.
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But man, I'll tell you what you almost forget that.
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how charming and lovable Brendan Fraser was back.
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I know back during this timeframe.
Franchise Shift to The Rock
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I kept thinking that as I was rewatching, this is like, why did he ever go away from, from like,
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just being in movies all the time.
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Like who have you ever heard is like, you know what?
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I could take or leave Brendan Frazier.
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Like I'm not into him.
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Like nobody's ever said that.
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Why did this guy go away?
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Why, why did we not have 10 of these movies instead of 10 fast and furious movies?
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Like I know the third one eventually we'll talk about it.
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But if you look at how much is there and how much works for this, it almost seems inconceivable that,
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that we only got three of these and that there was a period of time where Brendan Fraser wasn't in a blockbuster movie every year.
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Yeah, I mean, certainly I've heard some reasons why he was out of Hollywood.
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Some of them are actually, you know... Kind of messed up.
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Kind of messed up.
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And I think certainly, too, there was the hope that after The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King, you know, that's... Before, you know, Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, became this huge movie star, you know, 1999, when The Mummy Returns came out and everything like that, you know, that's when...
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everybody was thinking the rock was going to be a huge movie star.
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And he was doing things like the game plan.
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And not that I don't mind any of his, you know, not that I don't like any of his early movies, but I think after the mummy returns and then the scorpion King, I think the reason we never saw more of these one, the third one didn't do very well, but two, I think they really were looking to hand this franchise over, unfortunately, because they thought,
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you know, oh, well, The Rock's going to be this huge movie star right now and we'll do things with The Scorpion King, which didn't really pan out.
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But I don't know if that's true, but I think to me, I feel like that was their intention, kind of like they did with Blade Trinity.
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They really made that movie to try and spin that off.
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And not only that, I mean, they tried to spin off the character of The Scorpion King overall.
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So he had his standalone film, which
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It's interesting if you if you look at that, I mean, that was I believe the rocks first like like leading role where he was the lead character, if I'm not mistaken, unless you're thinking of something I'm not.
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Was that before Walking Tall?
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I think it had to have been.
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And what's amazing is if you look, if you rewatch that movie, I haven't seen it in a while, but he's got more fight scenes than he does lines.
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And that's intentional because at that stage of his career, he could not act like camera acting, you know, say what you will about his wrestling acting.
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But for camera, he was bad.
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And he's certainly come a long way.
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But after that, they did.
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So before streaming for for listeners who were like.
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younger millennials or Gen Z that never really had like a blockbuster or something like that, or the equivalent in your town of, you know, your local video store, there was such a thing as straight to video and that, you know, before streaming, you know, and honestly, like streaming movies don't really have the negative connotation that sometimes they once did.
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I mean, Netflix's internal studio has cranked out some pretty, pretty good things.
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We've talked about a few of them here and there.
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Hulu has got some great exclusives.
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So there's been some pretty good stuff.
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But back in the day, if you created a straight-to-video movie, it meant that it wasn't good enough for a theatrical release.
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Nobody was going to pay for a ticket for it.
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So you would just release it straight-to-video.
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And they did a sequel to The Scorpion King that went even further back.
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It had Randy Couture in it as one of the primary villains.
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Matt, did you ever see it?
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So, yeah, I actually did watch because it was during one of my like kicks of just watching bad movies where I was just going through like for whatever reason, I was just going on the weekend and going through consistently bad movies.
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They've actually made.
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I think I saw the three or four.
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I think let's see the Scorpion King, the Scorpion King 2.
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the Scorpion King battle for redemption and the Scorpion King quest for power.
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So they've made four of these, which is three more than they should have.
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And I, I saw the second one and I believe I saw part of the third one, which has Billy Zane and Ron Perlman in it.
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And Dave Batista, by the way.
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Oh, and Kimbo slice.
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I didn't even know that, but Randy Couture literally relinquished the UFC heavyweight title while he was on the set filming the second Scorpion King movie because he is contractual things.
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And that's another show for another day, but he thought he was going to be a big movie star in the Scorpion King too, was the movie he was working on when he thought that was going to be a thing for him.
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Well, how did that turn out?
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Yeah, they made four of these.
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I might have to just go watch the other ones.
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But yeah, no, the Scorpion might be on your own.
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Yeah, no, that'll be one of those.
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I just watch for the sake of watching it.
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But yeah, that my God, man, that was.
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Man, I tell you, the Scorpion King 2 was just so bad.
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And not that the first one was great.
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Oh, they made another one called Scorpion King Book of Souls.
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That's part of the same universe.
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Speaker
As demanded by who exactly?
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Yeah, as you're you are correct.
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As demanded by who?
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Anywho, let's get back to the good one.
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But yeah, so that's literally in my notes.
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I have the mummy comma good one is how this labeled.
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And, you know, it starts off with and here's what I'll say.
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It starts off with.
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4k and sometimes this has, has been the case.
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Certainly for me, this was the case with independence day when we went back and watched it.
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But, you know, some of these movies that have 4k transfers, um,
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doesn't do the old effects a lot of favors.
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And some of the, some of the CGI in this movie is pretty bad.
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Um, now emo tap, I think is done very, very well, but there are certain things like that opening scene.
CGI Effects and Imhotep's Transformation
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where they're talking about emotep and anoxin a moon and they're you know they're showing all of the pyramids to me it's not that great looking um there's certainly some green screen there that you can very very clearly see but again
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it's overweighed by the fact that you're just having fun in this movie.
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And even for 1999, the mummy effects in this movie are really well done, especially after Imhotep is resurrected, where he's transforming from just bones to getting flesh and everything in between.
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For the most part, I was impressed with how well this actually held up.
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we've watched movies that have come out in the last two or three years with worse CG than what we saw here from 1999.
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Yeah, it's, it's incredible.
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And that's, that's really saying something.
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I made a note towards the beginning of the movie, you know, when we really first meet Rick O'Connell, when he's in the, I think he's in the French foreign Legion or whatever that is he's in.
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It's just so nice to see an army of real people on horses instead of a cheap CG one.
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And I might just be an old man yelling at a cloud here, but it just always feels more real to me when it is real.
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And there's so often in this movie, again, released in 1999, before visual effects were, and I'm using air quotes here, as good as they are now,
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And he got to be less expensive really is what it comes down to than paying a stunt guy to actually get lit on fire.
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You think about that boat scene a little bit further into the movie where the fire starts and there's multiple fire burns in this movie that are real fire burns.
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That's a real stunt man with a real crew around that burn.
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And today that would just be all CG and it would look terrible, but that was a real fire burn.
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And it was so effective.
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And just the, the impact of seeing real people on real camels and real horses at the beginning of this, instead of digital extras, um, God, it may be nostalgic.
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Like that's how things used to be.
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Like, why, why can't we go back to that?
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Yeah, it was better.
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And it's again, it just like it gets cheaper or whatever the case may be.
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But when it feels realistic,
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That's when you're in it.
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And again, as lighthearted as this movie is, there does feel like there's stakes.
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And that's something that this movie did so well at balancing where the mummy that we just talked about,
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doesn't know how to it doesn't know how to balance it because it has weirdly like mistimed humor where the movie is supposed to be incredibly serious where this movie even though it's light-hearted there's still some dark you know some darker tones to it you know when they uh when the the diggers get the the acid burn from opening up the chest you know that that's pretty graphic
Performance Highlights and Dialogue
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bodies that get their freaking very life sucked out of them.
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And there's detail in that.
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So there's dark moments in this movie, but it plays those different genres and it plays the humor very well.
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And again, it's because of
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It's because of the cast, because all of them work in this movie.
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I mean, it's not only Brendan Fraser, and he's great.
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He is fantastic in this movie.
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But Rachel Weisz, even Arnold Voslow as Emotep, you know, I don't always particularly think of him as great.
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I don't think he's awesome.
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But John Hannon as Jonathan...
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he's, he's fantastic in this movie.
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I like his relationship with Evie.
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I like how, you know, he is really, really like a coward.
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He's not a tough guy.
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He's not a fighter, but when they first get to the dig site, uh,
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And they all have their guns drawn on each other.
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And they're like, this is our site friend.
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And they're like, well, we got here first.
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And, oh, well, we have more guns than you.
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And Rick O'Connell's like, I've had worse odds.
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And Jonathan goes, so have I. And just like the look that Rick shoots him, it's just like, it's funny.
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And he plays this very well.
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Again, that'll be a conversation for another time.
00:16:36
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That's part of the reason why The Mummy 3 did not work for me is because of the change in actress from when Rachel Weisz decided not to come back and be Evie.
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Her chemistry with Brendan Fraser is off the charts in this movie.
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Speaker
And in the scenes with her and Jonathan together are really good, too.
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You buy them as kind of this this really unique brother sister relationship that it's got its strains as as all familial relationships do.
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But there's real care there.
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There's just so much that works with this.
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You mentioned Arnold Vosloo that plays Imhotep.
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He really impressed me with this.
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I kind of had forgotten how good I thought he was in this, but he speaks no words of English in this whole movie.
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And yet the way he's able to convey a level of evil charisma without and really even the dialogue he does speak is very limited.
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It's mostly through facial expressions that he's able to execute what he does and is a very, I would say, an iconic villain of this period of time.
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was like, wow, I kind of forgot how good he was in this.
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And overall, I was like, wow, I kind of forgot how good this movie was overall.
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Speaker
Like, just why have I waited?
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Speaker
It might be 10 years since the last time I've seen this movie, to be honest.
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Speaker
And it's like, why did I wait this long?
00:18:05
Speaker
And you can really see kind of the inspiration the Pirates of the Caribbean series took from this kind of movie, where they...
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They have some of those horror elements, some of those macabre elements, while still keeping it fairly lighthearted and keeping the adventure and having the supernatural elements, but still making it feel grounded like it's in the real world.
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I really got a lot of those kind of same vibes as when we watched Pirates of the Caribbean.
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Two summers ago, three summers ago.
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Speaker
How long ago was that?
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Now we did that whole series.
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That was I was just really kind of feeling those sort of vibes.
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And that's usually a good place.
00:18:53
Speaker
Now, there's some cheesy dialogue, but again, the characters deliver it.
00:19:00
Speaker
This is, I'm going to say this one more time, this is a movie where the cast makes it believable.
00:19:07
Speaker
We have seen what some people would consider better actors and actresses do worse with dialogue.
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Speaker
But for whatever reason, everybody in this, it's like a perfect storm.
00:19:23
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Everybody in this movie lined up, whether it was the, you know, I don't know if the directing had something to do with it, just how it was on set, if it was just loose.
00:19:34
Speaker
And again, like everybody was having a good time, so they were into it.
00:19:39
Speaker
But some of the things in this movie would crush the,
00:19:42
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you know, what we would consider a good movie or something we would say, eh, yeah, this is where I was disappointed.
00:19:50
Speaker
This is where the movie really fell short for me.
00:19:52
Speaker
Now, in a joking manner, when breaking this thing down, I think we can both agree the Magi suck at their job.
00:20:01
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A hundred percent.
00:20:03
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They are not good at what they do.
00:20:05
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And it's like, you had one job, right?
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You had one job and they show up and they, and this is the, like my, probably my biggest beef with this is yes, they suck at this really bad.
00:20:15
Speaker
They show up, they stop them from opening the thing and they're like, all right, well, that's probably enough bloodshed.
00:20:21
Speaker
we're just going to leave and let you guys do whatever you're going to do.
00:20:24
Speaker
And we're just going to make you pinky swear that you're actually not going to touch the curse thing.
00:20:28
Speaker
That's going to kill everybody.
00:20:31
Speaker
We're out of here.
00:20:33
Speaker
And then they leave and then all hell breaks loose.
00:20:36
Speaker
And then the one other complaint that I have in his, and it's Magi related is,
00:20:41
Speaker
is that they go from literally shooting and killing each other and watching their blood brothers get taken down in a hail of bullets to being BFFs with the people that pulled the trigger to begin with.
00:20:52
Speaker
They do that move pretty quick.
00:20:54
Speaker
And I understand it's a move of convenience, but man, that sure happens pretty quick.
00:20:59
Speaker
Now, here's the thing.
00:21:02
Speaker
But really, I don't care because this movie is just fun.
00:21:06
Speaker
And like, it doesn't matter at all because I literally don't care what happens after is, is really fun.
00:21:12
Speaker
And then again, just like switching back, there's, you know, the scene where,
00:21:19
Speaker
Like once emo tap is, is resurrected and they leave the pyramid, like all of that is fun.
00:21:28
Speaker
And there's horror elements involved where his hand comes popping up out of the sand.
00:21:34
Speaker
That, that is fantastic.
00:21:39
Speaker
The eclipse coming over.
00:21:45
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They are cornered and they're trying to get away on the street.
00:21:49
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All like all of that really, really works well.
00:21:53
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And just, you know, again, Brendan Fraser, charming, good looking guy, great build.
00:22:02
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But he can pull off the role of like, okay, like he's a charmer.
00:22:06
Speaker
He's a ladies man.
00:22:08
Speaker
But when emo tap is going to take Evie and she's going to go with him to save everybody.
00:22:15
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And he just says like, he's got the gun and he's like, I'll be seeing you.
00:22:19
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, you're a badass dude.
00:22:21
Speaker
Like, and he's shown that earlier in the movie, but he just, he plays this role so well, man.
00:22:31
Speaker
I cannot say enough for Brendan Fraser in this movie.
00:22:34
Speaker
In the cinematic history of damsels and scoundrels, the pinnacle is always and will always be Han and Leia, right?
Rick and Evie's Dynamic Compared to Iconic Couples
00:22:43
Speaker
that's that is the standard by which you judge all other versions of that relationship and those types of characters in movies.
00:22:51
Speaker
But I'll tell you, Rick and Evie make their case to be on Mount Rushmore of of, you know, the damsel and scoundrel kind of
00:23:00
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relationship that we see on screen.
00:23:01
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And I got a lot of those kinds of vibes too.
00:23:03
Speaker
And I mean that in the most complimentary way.
00:23:05
Speaker
I don't mean that in a way that I think they ripped anything off, you know, from, from the way that those characters were portrayed.
00:23:13
Speaker
This is the, this is their own interpretation of that kind of, you know, roguish bad boy that sometimes plays by the rules, sometimes does his own thing.
00:23:24
Speaker
And, and the, the female character that gets overlooked and underestimated, but is a total badass and can take your head off to when, when required.
00:23:35
Speaker
This is, you know, again, I'm not going to compare it at the same level, but, but they're on the Mount Rushmore of top four of best versions of that relationship of all time.
00:23:47
Speaker
I absolutely agree.
00:23:49
Speaker
I think this really is a really good couple.
00:23:54
Speaker
Regardless of what happens in the memory returns with some of the retconning, which I'm sure we'll get into when we talk about that movie, their chemistry and their bond and how you feel about them as a couple...
00:24:08
Speaker
It grows in that movie.
00:24:11
Speaker
And again, that's just one of the reasons why I was so disappointed that it had to be recast in The Mummy 3 is watching their relationship grow from the first movie to the second movie.
00:24:23
Speaker
And even just through the first movie, it again, their relationship does feel very like organic.
00:24:32
Speaker
It doesn't feel forced.
00:24:33
Speaker
It doesn't feel like that typical, like, come on, these two people would never actually.
00:24:39
Speaker
fall in love or, you know, start to catch feelings for each other.
00:24:44
Speaker
It going through the movie again, I was very impressed with how organically things flowed.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's enough good things can't be said there.
00:24:56
Speaker
And yet, you know, you have those elements and you get these great one liners throughout the movie that it it dabbles in so many different genres and trying to mix that many genres or that many elements together in one movie.
00:25:12
Speaker
I think in a lot of cases is trying to do too much.
00:25:14
Speaker
And we've seen that go off the rails.
00:25:17
Speaker
And yet this is like the near perfect mixture of everything.
00:25:21
Speaker
Like if you were making a recipe for a movie and you had all of these ingredients, it would be very easy to put in like way too much of this or way too much of that and have it not work.
00:25:32
Speaker
It was supposed to be a pinch and the top comes off the salt.
00:25:35
Speaker
Like, you've added way too much.
00:25:39
Speaker
And, and we don't have that here.
00:25:41
Speaker
It's just some of the one liners that I absolutely love.
00:25:43
Speaker
Just the number of times that, that Rick says goodbye, Benny, he just leaves it behind is it just, every time that happens, it makes me laugh.
00:25:52
Speaker
And I'm, I'm thinking of another moment.
00:25:54
Speaker
So the, the scene on the boat where it's burning down,
00:25:57
Speaker
And, um, and there's the local guy that was actually the jailer that agrees to get them out and goes on with them.
00:26:03
Speaker
And he says, what, uh, what are we doing?
00:26:05
Speaker
And he's, and, uh, and Rick looks at him and says, wait here, I'll go get help.
00:26:09
Speaker
And then jumps over the edge.
00:26:12
Speaker
Like the humor is clever.
00:26:15
Speaker
The humor doesn't feel like things we've seen before.
00:26:20
Speaker
you know, just even the small moments, like when, when Evie saying, Oh, we got to go back and get the map.
00:26:25
Speaker
And he's like, Nope, got the map right here.
00:26:27
Speaker
And he just pointing at his head, just the way that, uh, Brendan Frazier commands that scene.
00:26:32
Speaker
Like I distinctly always sort of remember that line of that, of that moment for whatever reason, it just always like stood out as like something I've iconic that I've remembered about this movie.
00:26:44
Speaker
But yeah, there's so many, like the score, I mentioned it, it just really helps set the action adventure comedy feel, you know, yes, there's shooting and flames and fighting, but that whole scene on the boat just feels fun.
00:26:58
Speaker
And it's like, wait, there's, there's, I just watched a man get lit on fire and another man with a, with a curved hook, try to destroy someone.
00:27:07
Speaker
And yet I'm laughing and having fun.
00:27:09
Speaker
This feels weird, but it works.
00:27:11
Speaker
Well, because yeah, like right before all that though, like again, you talked about his, you know, his delivery and stuff like that, but not even, you know, not even just his delivery, but again, to hit like Jonathan in those scenes, when he's talking to the other team, he's like, who says we're looking for how monotra he does.
00:27:31
Speaker
And he's just Jonathan's like, well, all right, guys, like no need to pull.
00:27:36
Speaker
He doesn't say that, but like his face is like, no need to point like Jesus.
00:27:41
Speaker
But you have like those scenes.
00:27:42
Speaker
You have the scene where he like you just said, he tells him like, wait here.
00:27:45
Speaker
And he jumps over.
00:27:47
Speaker
Then when they're off the boat and even him and Benny, like even though Benny is a bad guy, I like their relationship too.
00:27:54
Speaker
And when he's like, looks like I've got all the horses.
00:27:57
Speaker
And he's like, looks like you're on the wrong side of the river.
00:28:01
Speaker
Like that's a great scene.
00:28:04
Speaker
It's just it's it's funny when they get to Hamonoptera.
00:28:12
Speaker
Like, just there's humor, then there's tension, then there's an action scene.
00:28:18
Speaker
And again, it just balances all of these elements so well.
00:28:23
Speaker
And then again, there is a sense of stakes when the stake to this movie when Imhotep summons the cloud storm.
00:28:33
Speaker
That is super cool.
00:28:35
Speaker
That's a great effect.
00:28:36
Speaker
Like, I remember the first time watching this movie when that face pops up in that giant frickin tower of sand.
00:28:43
Speaker
That was really cool.
00:28:45
Speaker
Like, that was a really good moment.
00:28:47
Speaker
And by 1999 standards, we had never seen that before, really.
00:28:52
Speaker
I mean, think about where the state of special effects was at that time.
00:28:57
Speaker
And it was nowhere near what we have now.
00:28:59
Speaker
Although, again, I still don't feel like we've come that far considering how well this does hold up.
00:29:04
Speaker
I want to go backtrack just for a second.
00:29:06
Speaker
You mentioned how well Rick and Benny worked together.
00:29:10
Speaker
I love that this movie makes that relationship very complex.
00:29:15
Speaker
And it's not just straightforward that they're frenemies.
00:29:19
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:29:19
Speaker
There's, it's not just that Benny backstabs Rick and, and there's never a moment where they're literally trying to just kill each other, where it feels weird that they run into each other later.
00:29:32
Speaker
Like are goofing it up and laughing it up and not like trying to kill each other still like the relationship seems very complex and you can't just nail it down in like one sentence is how you would describe the relationship.
00:29:45
Speaker
And I, I, I've always loved that about this movie that they.
00:29:50
Speaker
They just added this goofy, comedic relief character, but somehow made him somewhat complex.
00:29:56
Speaker
Like, even when Imhotep sort of grabs him, you know, it's like, you kind of understand.
00:30:01
Speaker
Like, dude's trying to save his own skin.
00:30:03
Speaker
Like, how many other people would make that same decision?
00:30:06
Speaker
Like, he's not necessarily a bad guy.
00:30:10
Speaker
You know, he's just...
00:30:12
Speaker
an opportunist trying to keep himself alive.
00:30:16
Speaker
I find Benny to be a really interesting, like I said, complex character and the relationship with Rick to be interesting and complex.
00:30:24
Speaker
Cause I mean, he even does like Rick still tries to save him.
00:30:28
Speaker
Like he's not, and it feels right.
00:30:30
Speaker
It feels like he would do that.
00:30:31
Speaker
He's not necessarily heartbroken, but, but he, he, he does try to save him.
00:30:39
Speaker
I do like to I was talking about the the scene where Rick tells Emotep like I'll be seeing you.
00:30:45
Speaker
But in that same scene, I can't remember the exact I might be reversing these lines, but he's like, you'll be Prince Emotep says you'll be his forever.
00:30:57
Speaker
And she's like, for all eternity, you idiot.
00:31:02
Speaker
And just put again, like the look on Benny's face from the actor.
00:31:05
Speaker
He's just like, hmm.
00:31:09
Speaker
So the other part where there's something like that sort of comes up and I think it might be my favorite scene in this movie.
00:31:15
Speaker
Towards the end, you've got, you know, your big climax, you've got the big final battle and they're trying to decode the gold book.
00:31:24
Speaker
And Jonathan's got it.
00:31:26
Speaker
And it's been established that he's got some knowledge, but he's nowhere near the level of expertise that his sister Evie has.
00:31:34
Speaker
And he's running around trying to decipher it.
00:31:37
Speaker
And he's describing in the middle of three different fights to his sister, what the characters are and what the glyphs are.
00:31:45
Speaker
And she's trying to translate them while she's fighting for her own life.
00:31:50
Speaker
it is so funny and so well executed.
00:31:55
Speaker
You never feel like they're wearing plot armor.
00:31:58
Speaker
You never feel like any part of it stops being believable.
00:32:03
Speaker
And it's, it's, it's well shot.
00:32:06
Speaker
It's well edited, well paced, well acted, well executed.
00:32:10
Speaker
Just, I think it's my favorite scene in this movie because it just works on so many levels.
00:32:16
Speaker
the amount of time that the camera focuses on each of those three main characters.
00:32:23
Speaker
It just works so well.
00:32:24
Speaker
And I laugh every time, particularly because of how cool, like the special forces undead are and, and they seem different, you know, like instead of just throwing us regular zombie mummies, like they gave us something a little bit different, a little bit scarier, a little bit more threatening.
00:32:42
Speaker
And I just, I love that whole scene.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah, no, I totally agree.
00:32:47
Speaker
That scene is probably one of my favorites.
00:32:50
Speaker
And again, it feels like a it feels like a very good.
00:32:58
Speaker
It actually feels like a good climax to the movie.
00:33:01
Speaker
Sometimes those can fall short.
00:33:03
Speaker
It's like, well, that ended rather quickly.
00:33:07
Speaker
It didn't feel, you know, yeah.
00:33:11
Speaker
like a good payoff, but I felt like, yeah, this ending battle here was actually really good.
00:33:19
Speaker
And tonally, it matched the rest of the movie.
00:33:25
Speaker
Right, that's exactly what it felt like.
00:33:29
Speaker
I just, again, watching this movie, I was... And the funny thing is, this movie did not really...
00:33:38
Speaker
it did not have a lot going for it when it was first announced.
00:33:40
Speaker
There was a lot of, um, worry because the movie was not tracking well, especially with the title.
00:33:48
Speaker
And, you know, they were, they were talking to test audiences about it and they thought it was going to be like this, this dark tone movie.
00:33:56
Speaker
So it was like, well, we're not going to go really see X again, 1999 different times.
00:34:04
Speaker
But then this really did turn out to be a surprise hit for 1999.
00:34:10
Speaker
This made a boatload of money, but it wasn't really a sure thing until they really had that first test screening that audiences were like, oh, crap, like this is really fun.
00:34:22
Speaker
And then I mean, the only movie that beat this out when it came out is The Phantom Menace.
00:34:28
Speaker
Which, again, it's Star Wars.
00:34:31
Speaker
So if you could be the number two movie behind Star Wars for that period of time, you're doing something right.
00:34:40
Speaker
Yeah, you came in second place to Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps.
00:34:43
Speaker
You're probably still pretty good.
00:34:46
Speaker
I wouldn't be mad with the silver.
00:34:48
Speaker
Yeah, you're good.
00:34:54
Speaker
Yeah, so, you know, it...
00:34:59
Speaker
Again, good score.
00:35:02
Speaker
I don't think the score gets enough credit, actually, because, again, a score can drop a movie, in my opinion.
00:35:11
Speaker
But what is played with this fits really well in the Egyptian theme.
00:35:18
Speaker
It just flows together very, very smoothly.
00:35:22
Speaker
And that's another thing that enhances a lot of the scenes is that score.
00:35:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think, again, when you're trying to go for action-adventure comedy, the score really does help set that mood.
00:35:37
Speaker
It sets that tone.
00:35:40
Speaker
the right feel there without something truly iconic.
00:35:44
Speaker
And you, and you kind of need like hero and villain themes too.
00:35:48
Speaker
You need those moments where it's going to change.
00:35:51
Speaker
Like when Imhotep, you know, powers up a little bit, you'll notice there's changes in the score.
Impact of the Musical Score
00:35:56
Speaker
They feel there's a lot more of that orchestral kind of hit as, as he has things happen.
00:36:03
Speaker
And it really just,
00:36:06
Speaker
tells you the audience member how you should feel in this moment about what you're seeing on screen.
00:36:12
Speaker
It's just like, you ever take the Benny Hill theme song, Yakety Sax, and you just play anything, any piece of video you want, and fast forward and put that underneath, and it automatically makes it funny no matter what you're watching.
00:36:24
Speaker
Like, it's music, when used appropriately, can completely change something or ruin it.
00:36:34
Speaker
And I do want to point out, too, you know, with Emotep and credit again to the actor that when he is powering up because it's not against our main, main characters.
00:36:51
Speaker
part of it's really cool.
00:36:52
Speaker
And I know he's literally draining people of their basically life force.
00:36:59
Speaker
I mean, he does pull a dude's eyes and his tongue out of his face.
00:37:02
Speaker
But it's like, it's just done.
00:37:06
Speaker
So like, it's done so well again, because like the effects after he does it,
00:37:12
Speaker
like how he starts going from bones to somewhat flesh to mostly flesh.
00:37:17
Speaker
And then he's just full fledged, you know, that character again, it's just done in a way where it looks so cool that you, you kind of forget the fact that like, Oh yeah, he's just over here killing people left and right.
00:37:32
Speaker
And, and that's the other part too, is he, while he is a villain and he does kill people,
00:37:41
Speaker
I think that he's kind of a compelling villain because you understand his motives.
00:37:47
Speaker
He had this love for Aksu Naman and they were forbidden from being together.
00:37:55
Speaker
I love the gold paint system overall.
00:37:57
Speaker
It's a very, it's a very clever, like security system, if you will.
00:38:01
Speaker
You know, the Pharaoh comes in and notices the smudge.
00:38:04
Speaker
Like, couldn't she just be like, hey, man, you know, I was just taking a nap and bumped into it.
00:38:08
Speaker
Like, it's no big deal.
00:38:09
Speaker
Like nothing happened.
00:38:10
Speaker
You know, like, why does it automatically mean that she was stepping out on him or something like that?
00:38:15
Speaker
I mean, couldn't she just sort of like redo the paint?
00:38:17
Speaker
Like, there's no place they could have got some paint and just kind of touched it up and fixed it.
00:38:21
Speaker
just went on their way.
00:38:22
Speaker
Like that was the thing, but it's creative.
00:38:24
Speaker
Like, and I love that about it, but no, he had, they had this love for each other and they were forbidden from being together.
00:38:30
Speaker
So, you know, perhaps you could even say that he was justified in taking his revenge on those that harmed him because the way he was put to death was, was pretty awful.
00:38:41
Speaker
I mean, it was among the most awful ways you could do it.
00:38:45
Speaker
not justifying his actions, but you kind of see this is a little bit more of a complex villain.
00:38:50
Speaker
He's not just trying to wipe everybody off the face of the planet just for fun.
00:38:55
Speaker
He's trying to reunite with his lost love and using anything at his disposal to do it.
00:39:02
Speaker
Not that different from how some people might also do that if they had those abilities and were put behind that kind of wall to be with those they love.
00:39:14
Speaker
Well, not for nothing, too.
00:39:16
Speaker
I mean, they turn him into this.
00:39:18
Speaker
Like, they're the ones who frickin' buried him and put this curse on him if he was ever resurrected.
00:39:23
Speaker
Could have just thrown him in jail and been done with it.
00:39:26
Speaker
But no, they had to curse him eternally.
00:39:28
Speaker
Yeah, so, I mean, part of it's not even his fault.
00:39:31
Speaker
But, no, I do love the paint system where he's like, her arm is smudged.
00:39:36
Speaker
He's like, who has touched you?
00:39:37
Speaker
And it's like, so...
00:39:40
Speaker
Does she like, does she ever gets to just bump into a wall on accident?
00:39:44
Speaker
But like, does she get wiped down like every night or like, when does that paint get done?
00:39:50
Speaker
Is it every morning?
00:39:51
Speaker
Because does she just have to stand straight?
00:39:53
Speaker
Like, does she have to fall asleep standing straight up?
00:40:00
Speaker
Every time the Pharaoh leaves like her chamber, like there's, there's just like a whole bunch of like handmaidens that come in to reapply the pain.
00:40:09
Speaker
Like, how does that work?
00:40:12
Speaker
Um, but yeah, no, I mean that, that part was, I, I always kind of thought that part, like, well, wait a minute.
00:40:18
Speaker
Like you could just like, if she ever, like if she tripped and fell, that stuff would rub off.
00:40:26
Speaker
Yeah, like she never just like, you know, comes out of the outhouse or whatever they use and is like, hey, what's that that's missing over there?
00:40:34
Speaker
I just came out of the bathroom.
00:40:39
Speaker
You had your bodyguard in there with me, for God's sakes.
00:40:43
Speaker
That's a little creepy when you really start getting into it.
00:40:46
Speaker
Like how controlling of a douchebag was the Pharaoh?
00:40:49
Speaker
But I suppose he had reason to be suspicious, though.
00:40:54
Speaker
Emotep was, you know.
00:40:57
Speaker
fooling around but hire better bodyguards right right exactly he just I love I love how the guys too um oh man
00:41:13
Speaker
I can't even I'm not even going to say that part.
00:41:18
Speaker
But yeah, I always thought that was kind of funny of that system.
00:41:23
Speaker
But anything else that you are going to touch on?
00:41:28
Speaker
No, let's grab some popcorn.
Final Ratings and Enduring Appeal
00:41:30
Speaker
we will do popcorn time and we're going to rate this out of five buckets.
00:41:35
Speaker
And Rob, I'll let you go first on this one.
00:41:38
Speaker
If you haven't figured it out already, this is easily a five out of five for me.
00:41:42
Speaker
I love this movie.
00:41:43
Speaker
I adore this movie.
00:41:45
Speaker
We've been talking about this movie for so long at various points about doing this.
00:41:50
Speaker
I was really excited that when it was time to do it, I've never once watched this movie and not had fun.
00:41:57
Speaker
even the parts that I know very, very well, I look forward to them every time they come on.
00:42:03
Speaker
I would, I definitely recommend this movie to people who haven't seen it.
00:42:06
Speaker
Like if I'm just casually having a conversation with somebody and this movie were to come up for any reason and they say they hadn't seen it, I would implore them, go check this out.
00:42:15
Speaker
It is a hundred percent worth it.
00:42:17
Speaker
I was actually even talking about this, this movie this week with, with people at work.
00:42:22
Speaker
We were discussing just a couple of things and I was just saying, Oh yeah, I got to do this.
00:42:25
Speaker
I got this going on this weekend.
00:42:27
Speaker
And Matt and I are going to be talking about The Mummy.
00:42:29
Speaker
And I'm really excited about that.
00:42:30
Speaker
Like I was it was I was excited to tell people that I was going to be watching this to talk about it.
00:42:35
Speaker
And and, you know, of the people that I shared that with, they're like, oh, yeah, that's really good.
00:42:40
Speaker
I haven't seen it in a while.
00:42:41
Speaker
And now I'm like, yeah, I want to go home and watch that, too.
00:42:43
Speaker
So easily five out of five.
00:42:46
Speaker
I didn't even have to think about it a little bit.
00:42:48
Speaker
No, either do I. This is a five out of five for me.
00:42:51
Speaker
It is certainly, it was great to go back and see it.
00:42:54
Speaker
I'm certainly looking forward to going back and seeing The Mummy Returns, but this was, you know, this was a time when movies could, you know, when movies could be fun and there were different properties coming out and
00:43:14
Speaker
you know, it was good to go back to this time period.
00:43:17
Speaker
And then even so, and I'll talk about this more once the mummy rich, once we review the mummy returns, but just seeing some of the movies that came out, um,
00:43:28
Speaker
during these time periods and how fun they were.
00:43:32
Speaker
And you could have lighthearted kind of like big blockbuster movies.
00:43:37
Speaker
Um, it was a good time period.
00:43:38
Speaker
It was, it was a lot of fun.
00:43:40
Speaker
Not that we haven't gotten incredible movies, you know, now.
00:43:44
Speaker
Um, but there's just something about going back and seeing this and kind of having a, a carefree movie that you could sit back, enjoy on multiple different levels.
00:43:54
Speaker
So, uh, this is again, a five out of five for me.
00:43:59
Speaker
Yeah, easily, easily, easily, easily.
00:44:01
Speaker
So that will do it for our review of The Mummy.
00:44:05
Speaker
Certainly much different thoughts than the Tom Cruise version.
00:44:11
Speaker
Much, much different.
00:44:13
Speaker
And we will be looking forward to re-watching The Mummy Returns.
00:44:19
Speaker
And then giving you our thoughts on that.
00:44:21
Speaker
But Rob, before we sign off, let listeners know where they can get this review and interact with us.
00:44:30
Speaker
Oh, man, listeners, you can find Macos in the Movies everywhere on the Internet where you already are.
00:44:35
Speaker
Certainly whatever streaming platform you are listening to this in.
00:44:39
Speaker
You can subscribe to the show.
00:44:41
Speaker
You can get the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, literally everywhere that you can get good podcasts.
00:44:47
Speaker
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00:44:49
Speaker
Just go ahead and hit the subscribe button and just make it easy.
00:44:51
Speaker
That way, as the show has new releases and we're really excited to try to keep the release schedule up.
00:44:58
Speaker
As we get through the end of the year, plus we definitely have our end of the year, second annual end of the year review coming up.
00:45:06
Speaker
So we're really, really looking forward into the year that was, and I'm personally really looking forward to it because.
00:45:11
Speaker
There's so much that's even happened this year to even try to remember what was this year and last year.
00:45:17
Speaker
I'm really looking forward to that one where we kind of predict the future a little bit, too.
00:45:20
Speaker
So we've got that coming.
00:45:21
Speaker
Make sure you hit subscribe so that you don't miss a single opportunity.
00:45:25
Speaker
In the meantime, go back and listen to any episodes that you haven't checked out.
00:45:28
Speaker
There's three years plus worth of catalog that you can dig through.
00:45:33
Speaker
for some great times and good episodes.
00:45:35
Speaker
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00:45:43
Speaker
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00:45:49
Speaker
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00:45:52
Speaker
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00:45:58
Speaker
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00:46:01
Speaker
Just the initials for Matt Goes to the Movies podcast at gmail.com.
00:46:06
Speaker
Make sure you send us your thoughts, anything you have about this or any requests for future reviews.
00:46:11
Speaker
Always love to hear from listeners.
00:46:15
Speaker
Well, I couldn't have said it better myself, and that's why I don't.
00:46:21
Speaker
But, Rob, thank you so much.
00:46:23
Speaker
And listeners, thank you so much for joining us, and we will see you very soon at Matt Goes to the Movies.