The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Starring:
Brendan Fraser
Maria Bello
Jet Li
Michelle Yeoh

Written by:
Alfred Gough
Miles Millar

Directed by:
Rob Cohen

First of all, let me introduce myself, my name is Jesse, and I like movies. I will weigh in from time to time on some of the movies I see if Jones himself has not already done the honors.

Now, introductions aside, I recently went to see The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. This is the third installment of this franchise (although some may disagree with that statement). This time around our hero, battles against a new foe, an ancient and ruthless Chinese Emperor who has been re-awaken. Familiar faces such as Brendan Fraser and John Hannah return. All new this time is Jet Li as the new Mummy, Michelle Yeoh as his immortal foe, and Luke Ford as the O'Connells' son who is now much older since we last saw him. Maria Bello steps in this time around as the character of Evelyn originally played by Rachel Weisz. Unfortunately this was the worst decision. Maria would have done well as a new character, but placing her as Evey was just not believable to me and I found my brain really reaching to be convinced that this was the same person.

Unfairly though, I am a sucker for an action\adventure movie. And the action and adventure scenes in this movie were done really well and I can see that they spent a lot of time on them. Also, the new setting and new mummy are a refreshing change to the series and was a step in the right direction. Jet Li does well in his role, but is seen very little as most of the time he is in other, unhuman, forms. The ancient backstory behind the Emperor, his General, and their love interest was fun to get lost in, but was incredibly similiar to that of the original Mummy, just placed in reverse as to who betrayed who. Also, once again you find forces trying to resurrect an ancient army to conquer the world, that being familiar to the second Mummy movie. So in all, the story was rather unoriginal.

The jokes were mediocre, and the love story was rather silly. You do find a second romance brewing in this version, which means they could have easily dropped the Evelyn character, as I believe they should have. But in all, I did find this move enjoyable to see. If you like action with a little bit of science fiction, and you like the other movies in the Mummy franchise, you will probably still like this movie.

I would give it a 6.5 out of 10.

The Dark Knight

Starring:
Christian Bale
Heath Ledger
Aaron Eckhart
Michael Caine
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Gary Oldman
Morgan Freeman

Written by:
Jonathan Nolan
Christopher Nolan

Directed by:
Christopher Nolan

This movie was definitely the best movie I have seen all summer, and quite possibly one of the best movies I have seen period. The Dark Knight has it all. This movie is quite a bit darker than the first, but it doesn't leave you down by any means, it has plenty of laughs, action, and romance too. This was Heath Ledgers best performance in my opinion, he took this role and made it his own. The Jokers voice is still echoing in my head a day later. Aaron Eckhart does an excellent job as well in his role as Harvey Dent. Christian Bale comes forward again with a powerful performance as Batman. I feel the spotlight was evenly distributed in this movie and not shining on one character for too long.

A robbery of a bank where mob bosses store some of their money causes them to meet and discuss options and coincidentally they find one, The Joker shows up and gives them a proposal. Ever since Batman showed up in Gotham, their business has been dwindling and will continue on a downward spiral until someone takes care of Batman, so The Joker offers to rid them of Batman for half of their money. What the mob doesn't know is by agreeing to this they have unleashed the most diabolical, insane criminal Gotham has ever seen. The Joker uses people to try and draw Batman out and reveal who is truly is. He starts killing public officials and promises to keep killing until Batman reveals himself. This causes the people of Gotham to turn on Batman and call for his arrest. What follows is a thrill ride of car chases and shoot-outs. Several twists and turns keep you guessing through the whole movie. We also meet Two-Face in this movie, and I have to say that is some of the best CG work I have ever seen. His face is truly disturbing.

The movie carries a PG-13 rating for violence, language, and some gruesome scenes. I wouldn't take any kids to this movie that are sensitive to violence and gore.

Overall I give this movie a 9 out of 10.

Step Brothers

Starring:

Will Ferrell

John C. Reilly

Mary Steenburgen

Written by:

Will Ferrell

Adam McKay

Directed by:

Adam McKay

I'm not sure where to start on this one. I usually know what to expect when I go to see a Will Ferrell movie, but this one completely surprised me, it was unexpectedly bad. It is almost as if they didn't even try with this one, they just threw some funny scenes into the movie and hoped it would be enough to keep people entertained. For me it was not.

The story is about a woman, Nancy Huff (Mary Steenburgen) who has a 39 year old son, Brennan (Ferrell) still living at home. During a medical conference Nancy meets Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins) and she soon discovers that he also has a middle aged son Dale (John C. Reilly) still living at home. They fall in love (overnight it seems) and soon after get married and move in with each other. This is when Dale and Brennan meet and at first hate each other, a few fist fights, name calling, and a violated drum set later they find a person they both hate more than they do each other, Brennans younger brother Derek (Adam Scott). This mutual hatred causes them to form a bond and find other mutual interests they share.

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are hilarious on-screen together, but for me there was not enough funny scenes to make it worth sitting through the rest of the movie. Talladega Nights to me was a much better Ferrell / Reilly movie overall as there was enough other entertaining factors to fill the gaps.

The movie is given a well deserved R rating, for vulgar language and slight nudity (brief shots of Hustler magazines and some of male genitalia)

Overall I give this movie a 3.5 out of 10.