suntonova

If you won't recognize the Kirk reference when a character uses unnecessary tumbling to evade a phaser blast, the Riker reference when a character cockily puts one foot up on a rock and leans forward in a way that screams ego, or the Scotty reference when a character says the job is going to take 4 hours when he knows it will only take two then you're probably going to find this show stupid, lame and pointless. If you've watched and rewatched multiple Star Trek series and laugh at memes that your non-trekker friends don't understand then you should love this show. Every episode is filled with Easter eggs and in-jokes. We even have Star Trek the Animated Series references.

So, for some reason I had moderately high hopes for this installment of The Mummy. For one thing, I was sort of expecting it to be mostly "Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" that was just using the hype of The Mummy franchise to market it... oh how wrong I was. This movie is such a complete waste of Asian talent, it is like buying an imported, antique, Chinese dinner table, setting some Ikea chairs around it, throwing on a Martha Stewart K-Mart table cloth and topping the whole thing off with place settings made by Chinette and Dixie. I'm sure no one needs any convincing that Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh can do action scenes without the use of elaborate editing and camera angle tricks. I get the impression, however, that Rob Cohen has never seen Hero or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon like the other 90% of American movie goers. Even in fight sequences involving only Li and Yeoh we see nothing but the same short-cut editing and extreme closeups used to make Brendan Frasier look like he can fight. Wait, no, I take that back. The Frasier fight scenes were actually better edited. Apparently the team knows how to film bar-brawl choreography. In other complaints: When did George Lucas become the role-model for script writing? When you have poor dialogue there is only so much that can be done to salvage your performance. Natalie Portman could do little to compensate for it in Revenge of the Sith and Yeoh and Li can do little with it here. As for Frasier, well, his goofy expressions were about all I expected of him anyway. As for Isabella Leong in her U.S. debut - sorry sister, I hope you get another opportunity to show us what you can do, because from this audition we're not getting much. Besides the dialogue we still have nothing. What little chemistry we got from Frasier and Weisz in the original installments is completely missing here. With the role of Mrs. O'Connell picked up by Maria Bello (who actually can act, check her out in History of Violence for one of the... well, for a memorable sex scene) we have absolutely zero chemistry between the couple, despite the middle school idea of romance they attempt to portray. Also consider the evil villain we have wasted. We start with probably one of the most documented evil dudes in history and we reduce him to a less dimensional monster than what we find in rubber suits. So much more can be said about the complete banality of this movie. CGI that belonged in Ice Age with a dragon that is way too reminiscent of King Ghidorrah, and a plot that is just.. nothing, it's the plot of the second movie, but less inspired. I was actually bored. Even with all the ways you expect and allow for a movie such as The Mummy: whatever to fail, you at least expect to be "entertained." This movie does not. My advice: If you are looking for something to watch when your showing of The Dark Knight is sold out, just go see Step Brothers, at least that movie is funny.

In "The Warlords," another rendition of the classic Chinese tale of loyalty and betrayal of three brothers, we see evidence of something many may not realize: when not hampered by his horrible accent, Jet Li can act, in fact, for this role he received an Asian Film Award nomination for Best Actor. He may not be a Deniro or a Denzel, but he's at least got that certain intensity that makes Clint Eastwood. We do not, however, get to see what American audiences know Li for, his martial arts prowess. As winner of the Hong Kong Film Awards both for best film and best director, Peter Chan ("The Eye," 1 through infinity it seems), we see here an exemplary piece of cinema which demonstrates the high quality of movies coming from China today. The cinematography is well done, costumes are excellent, epic battle sequences are choreographed beautifully and the characters and complex character relationships are well developed, sincere and sympathetic. In addition to Li, we see moving performances by Andy Lau, a winner of numerous Asian film awards, and Takeshi Kaneshiro, both who Americans may know from "The House of Flying Daggers." If you are looking for a "Jet Li movie" you may likely find yourself bored. Despite the war background of this movie it is, at heart, a drama, and a very good one at that.

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