The Weekly Planet - The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: February 27, 2020

To cap off The Mummy Trilogy we''re taking a look at the third entry, Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor. With the return of Brendan Fraser's Rick O'Connell and not Rachel Weisz as Evie the team set off to China in order to stop an ancient terracotta warrior played by Jet Li. All in all, it's not very good. Thanks for watching our full Caravan Of Garbage movie review or retrospective whatever this is.SUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNVideo Edition ► https://youtu.be/Z-WT4Ul2tfMLXG Commentary► https://bit.ly/38Eh72yJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownTWP Itunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4TWP Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetTWP YouTube Channel ► https://goo.gl/1ZQFGHPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4T-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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May 10. Tickets on sale now. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. If I can quote the great Rick O'Connell from this third Mummy film, here we bloody go again, Mason, with this shit. Oh, yeah? Is that what he says? There's a moment where he's like, the mummy's back, and he's like, a different mummy. And is this your vibe?

Very much so. Interesting. I would say this, because I'd not seen this movie before. I'm seeing this in the year 2020 as an adult man. Wow. Arguably a man.

I thought this was the second best of the series. But bearing in mind it's a trilogy, that also makes it the second worst of the series. Absolutely. I think it's better than The Mummy Returns. Yeah, you might be right, but there is a lot I feel missing at the heart of this

which makes it less compelling, way less funny. The characters don't mesh as well. Well, I mean, saying that, I did start watching this and I'm like, this is pretty good.

I'm sad I didn't see this earlier on. But at one point, I did pause and I saw that there was an hour left and I'm like, oh, I'll finish it tomorrow.

So you're right, it is probably not as compelling, especially, you know, compared to the first one. Absolutely. Oh, if people could leave a like on this video, that'd be great because, look, we wrapped up the Mummy trilogy as requested. Is that not worth something to somebody somewhere? It's certainly worth a like, I think.

Thank you. So, of course, Stephen Sommers left this project. He was working on G.I. Joe, I believe, at the time, which came out the year later. Rob Cohen is on board as director. He mentions in the behind-the-scenes stuff that this is edgier and bigger and all of those things. It's certainly bigger.

Yep. There's more guns and people being like, look at this gun, look at this gun. I feel it's also greyer. Yes, it is. It's like a greyer movie, but I think maybe that... Was this the start of the era when they just colour-graded everything kind of grey and brown?

It may have been, yeah. Color disappeared from the movie. We're still in that era, by the way, but the color just disappeared. Yeah, right. Like, edgy is gray. Is gray, that's right. Of course, he came hot off the back of the first Fast and Furious, the XXX franchise. He's just wrapped up Hurricane Heist.

It's hit cinemas. That's right. What was it? Who knows? Who knows? Were they stealing a hurricane? The thing is, though, I do admire that it goes in a slightly different direction than the second one.

The second one is pretty much a flat retread. Yes. And the idea of working in the Terracotta Warriors is a great idea. Yeah. And bringing in Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh. I think the CGI is better for the most part. The bit where he's spewing up the terracotta when he's transforming into the mummy. Look, I really like the design of Jet Li's dragon emperor, especially.

I love the fact that he's been cursed to become this terracotta warrior, and so he has this sort of expressionless clay face. But if he wants to emote, he has to tear it off his head, then there's a lot of screaming, and then it sort of regrows around his face. I think that's fun. I completely agree. I think it's way better than bringing back Imhotep again. Because the story is, of course, it's essentially the mummy but in China.

A guy gets cursed for doing a thing and whatever. The backstory feels like a really long time in this one compared to the first one as well. I think it's a standard issue cursor if you're an ancient ruler. Anywhere around the world, you step out of line, somebody's going to curse you eventually. And again, I defer to my comments on the first movie the video we did for this just cut his throat don't give him the weird immortal curse where he comes back as a terrible monster where he can turn into both a dragon and a dog or something right just cut his throat yeah hit him with a brick hit him with a brick a terracotta brick turn one of his other soldiers into a terracotta warrior

hit him with the terracotta warrior but so this this one's set in sort of 1945, 1946, I think. So it's post-World War II. And so Rick O'Connell and Evelyn O'Connell, they're retired, but they apparently, we didn't see it, but they spent some time doing some more adventuring and sort of participating in some World War II espionage. I didn't want to see any of that anyway, Mason. And I think maybe one of the missions required Evelyn O'Connor

to have massive plastic surgery to turn her into Maria Bello. What do you think of that? It's jarring. I think she does a good job in the role, but I think the chemistry is not there. And that's also part of it because they're like, we're not even banging anymore. That's a plot point.

They're both bored. They're in a sexless marriage, which is weird because they're both incredibly attractive people yeah which makes me believe that it's not that it's that they can only get horny over adventuring and like killing mummies and stuff oh yeah like they bonded over that back in the day and now there's just we're trying to relive it exactly yeah without some sort of horrendous monster to kill they got no they got no charge yeah but there yeah there is a the opening sequence with Evelyn O'Connor because she's now like a pulp novelist.

Yes. You don't see her face for a bit, but you hear her voice. I think that's the scene where they make her sound like Rachel Weisz. Really push that she sounds like Rachel Weisz. This is the transition scene. But I think for the rest of it, it's just kind of... It never quite plays. They maybe should have said they divorce and he's got a new wife who has the same name and hair and hair yeah there's uh actually stories behind a few

stories behind why rachel weiss didn't want to come back one of them is she refused to portray somebody with a 21 year old son i don't know whether that's true no that doesn't sound like it yeah but we don't know anything about it that's true exactly yeah it could sound just like her based on my limited experience of the movies the The Mummy, where she's a nice character, it doesn't sound like the actor Rachel Weisz that I know. That's right. Rumours also circulated that Weisz didn't want to be separated from her toddler son at the time, but she's since made it clear that that had no impact on her decision whatsoever

because she did also make films in that same year. And there's also the story that the script wasn't enough to sign on which is probably the most likely scenario i'd say so that sounds just like rachel weiss that's right yeah you know what else i think though rick o'connell feels like an entirely different character in a lot of ways also and i think it's because he's lost some of his luster and by that i mean he's golden tan it's's gone. It is. He's quite pallid. He's ruddy in some sense. I mean, I guess he is.

He's living in England, isn't he? He's not getting that golden Egyptian sun, is he, all day every day. But I also think that some of the appeal is disappearing from Rick O'Connell in this movie because it's very evident that they wanted to shift focus from him to new O'Connell, Alexlex o'connell luke ford yeah because i even because i streamed this and the little description before beforehand said

adventurer alex o'connell travels to ancient china to china and i'm like no no no no excuse me no no no i don't think so this is a rick o'connell joint yeah if you don't mind well there was going to be a fourth movie with him but we could talk about that at the end i heard he signed up for three more movies that's exactly what happened yeah i think he's good like i don't mind. Well, there was going to be a fourth movie with him, but we can talk about that at the end. I heard he signed off for three more movies. That's exactly what happened, yeah. I think he's good. I don't think he's Brendan Fraser, the mummy one, but I think he does a pretty serviceable job.

I think the loving just stuff with him does not work at all. They don't have any chemistry together. I have a different opinion to you. I think that he is not... I think he's barely serviceable in this movie. I think he might be... As an actor, I'm sure he's good in other things. He is.

But I think that it's tough to follow up on Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell in these movies because Rick O'Connell has this wide-eyed manic desperation. He's got this, clearly, the way Brendan Fraser sells it in this is that something broke in him in the desert and he has never gotten it back. I get the feeling in a lot of the action scenes in all of these movies, he's like,

I might die right here, guns blazing, but I'm totally fine with that. You're absolutely right. I don't think Alex O'Connell has that. He's just like, I'm cool and smooth and I'm prepared and I'm ready to do battle and everything's going to work out fine. That's not what you want. You want a guy to just run in like a lunatic

and probably get run over by a horse. I think it also speaks to the fact that he clearly grew up in a nice home and has nice things, which is fine. Good on you. You're allowed to do that. But Rick O'Connell, even in the first movie when we didn't get his backstory, we meet him in a prison at one point.

He's just dishevelled and they're going to hang him because he's a bad bloke. It's not the same. He's like a preppy kind of dude. Yeah. With an unplaceable accent. Yeah, absolutely. Australian for some of it.

Some of it. Yeah. And also I get that, you know, he was raised by an American parent and an English parent and they've probably been all over the world. And an Australian butler maybe? Maybe that's it. But also I don't, I don't think it works. No, I agree.

Speaking of voices though, the moment where they're showing each other the guns that I mentioned. Yes. Ben, if you could play a clip. What the fuck is going on with Rick O'Connell's voice in this? He sounds like a completely different character. You probably don't know what I'm talking about but there's like a bluster and maybe an 80s-ness to it where it's just kind of spun my head around when I'm watching this.

I couldn't quite comprehend what was happening in that scene. It's no good. James, they're showing each other their cool guns. Okay, now I get it. Because it's father and son comparing manhood for some reason. Speaking of comparing manhood, my favourite line from this movie is where Jonathan's butt gets lit on fire and then he yells,

Spank my arse! Spank my arse! Me too. And that's a great joke. That's the problem with this movie as well. There is not a good joke in this entire film. There's a great joke that's the problem with this movie as well there is not a good joke in this entire film there's a scene speaking of Jonathan

there's a scene there's a plane crash sequence where because of course there is well yeah but a yak throws up on him and he goes

the yak yacked is that an expression from the 40s I don't think it is well I don't know what to tell you they've spoiled the historical accuracy of the mummy movies for me

let me tell you but you're right it's all bad it's all bad jokes and at the same time I don't know what to tell you. They've spoiled the historical accuracy of the Mummy movies for me, let me tell you. But you're right, it's all bad jokes. And at the same time, I don't think there's as much stuff retread as the second one did. But there's still, like, the Mummy gets resurrected, there's a chase through the streets at the start, Rick knows the best pilot who's also the worst pilot, a main character gets resurrected from dying again,

which happened in Mummy's Return. So it's different, but it's not different enough. And the things that it retreads is not better than the stuff that it's done before, except for the bit where the Yetis come from nowhere. Oh, yeah, I forgot about the Yetis. They have a field goal with a guy. The Yeti puts his hands up like a field goal. It's a great reference.

That's a joke. Shades of whichever Uncharted game it was where you fight yetis for a while. Yeah, absolutely. And it turns out they're just dudes in suits. They're just dudes in suits. Not this time, though. Actual yetis. Actual yetis.

For some reason. But I mean, you know, when I watch this, I'm like, well, the yeti CGI isn't perfect. And I'm like, yetis, come on, really. But then I realized I've been watching three movies about mummies and killer scarab beetles and whatever. It really doesn't matter. You've got to roll with it at this point. Yeah, you definitely do.

So when Jet Li went into the pool to resurrect himself, I did not expect a three-headed crap dragon. I've seen this movie and it completely blindsided me. I also don't understand what is going on there because I think Jet Li's great. He can control the elements. He can turn into a three-headed dragon and also a dog with a horn or something.

It's very vague and ill-defined right did those did those monsters exist in ancient times is he inventing them on the fly like it seems weird like you'd think that he would start with something normal yeah like you turn into a giraffe or something you know at the very least something we we are aware of so you go oh he's got powers. And then later he'd be like, I'm going to try a dragon and see what that's like. But to immediately go, you know what, three-headed indestructible fire-breathing dragon. Yeah. Too weird.

Too weird. I think the reason that they did it this way is because they didn't have Jet Li for a lot of this. You notice he shows up in person at the start and then at the end. Everything else in the middle is a terracotta warrior or a dog or a dragon or a giraffe, whatever's going on there. So I think that's why they went, okay, he needs to get A to B, but we don't have Jet Li.

Let's not do a CGI Jet Li other than those three faces that look terrible. Crap looking dragon, I guess. A to B with Jet Li. No CG. That's the one rule they laid down in this movie. And they followed through and you got to respect him for that. I do respect him for that. Okay, here's two improvements that I would make to this movie.

First of all, keep Michelle Yeoh. She's great. She's terrific in that. Agreed. That's not an improvement. That's just something I feel like I need to say. She's terrific in this. She's good in everything.

I would keep the snivelling British guy from the start alive till the end. Right, yes. As payback. Because the guy who betrays them, he gets murdered pretty early on. Yeah. And then it's just whoever. It's like henchmen and whatever. Also, why? That's then it's just whoever. It's like henchmen and whatever. And also, why?

That's something that I've just remembered. In that sequence, they're like, here's the thing we promised you, British guy. And he's like, now I'm going to kill you and give it to bad people. Just wait till they leave. Yes. And then give it to bad people. They'd never have to know. I thought of that.

It's because he needed Evelyn to unlock it. Oh. But I think anybody, you could get anybody to read that. Oh, you need somebody who can read ancient Chinese and you need someone pure of heart? Is that the thing? Yeah, but you can get somebody else. There's a bunch of those people.

She's done so many adventures you wouldn't get her because you know she's going to shoot you. That's all I'm saying. Also, how pure heart are you? You've killed so many people at this point, Evelyn. You've probably done some bad stuff in World War II. You're not wrong. The other thing they should have decided on was,

does Jet Li have a beard or does he not have a beard? Because at the start, he doesn't have a beard. But then he gets old. And he does have a beard. He dies with a beard. And the terracotta, when he's in terracotta, it has a beard. But then when he's back, he doesn't have a beard. If you dies with a beard, you've got to rise with a beard.

Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that, but they didn't follow that rule, with a beard, you've got to rise with a beard. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that, but they didn't follow that rule, did they? We're doing A to B with Jet Li. That's right. Whatever the thing you said. Thank you. What was it? If you dies with a beard, you've got to rise with a beard.

Exactly. So I don't know. There's so many components that I think are there to make this work. Yeah. And the thing is, it made money. It didn't make as much money as the other ones. It was successful enough, but it was so critically maligned and also fan-wise that they just went, we're not doing any more of this.

Yeah, right. I am going to talk about the fourth one, but before I do that, we mentioned briefly what happened to Brendan Fraser over the course of these movies and other action movies he was doing at the time. Because in this movie, Mason, they should have called him bloody ripped O'Connell, am I right? You see him shirtless. Geez, he's looking's looking good isn't he but here's the thing he was heavily heavily

injured during the making of this film from previous movies yeah right we talked about it but he's mentioned that when he was hung in the first movie he was actually properly hung he said they killed me for 18 seconds that's what they said yeah well that's what he said. In the second movie, he tore a spinal disc, crapped a rib, crapped a hole. He crapped a rib? Oh my God. Cracked a rib and injured his knee during production. By the time he did the third Mummy picture in China,

this is a direct quote from him, I was put together with tape and ice, screw cap ice packs and downhill mountain biking pads because they're small enough and light enough that you can fit them under your clothes. I was building an exoskeleton for myself daily and these injuries led to multiple surgeries, including a laminectomy, a back procedure. Is this interesting?

Yeah. It'll be interesting when I edit it. Yeah, make a little list, put a little, some dot points. Maybe do it Mortal Kombat style, like zoom in and like you see the bones explode in an x-ray. That's a great idea. I'll send that to Ben. A back procedure to relieve pressure on his spinal cord or nerves, but the

lumbar didn't take, so he had to do it again a year later. He also had a partial knee replacement, more back surgeries to bolt compressed spinal pads together, vocal cord repair, and other procedures. Fraser said he essentially spent seven years going in and out of hospital for just pushing himself too far in these movies.

And then, right at the end, Maria Bello blew him a kiss, and the kiss like floated in the air and then it landed on him and then he exploded. Fatality. Fatality, very good. Now he has to put it in, doesn't he? That's right. Yeah, absolutely.

Ready for Trivia Time Big Time? Yeah, Trivia Time Big Time. That's what this segment's called, isn't it? It's always been called that. Don't fucking at me. This is what it's called. Don't go back and watch any previous videos, but do. This is really the scene where it's like, up we mentioned it that's what this is because you

know there's a lot of like actually you forgot in the comments but it's called trivia time big time that's right also if we miss something that you remember from this movie it's in the extended audio edition definitely so just skip on over there we definitely mentioned the thing that you're thinking of we even said your exact opinion it's in that but if you listen to the audio version and it's not in there, it's probably in the video version. Watch it again. Leave another like somehow.

Yeah. So the crossbow traps in the tomb scene were based in reality because according to Chinese archaeologists, the excavation of the terracotta army is progressing so slowly, partially because it's still filled with similar traps. Goodness. Those are pretty hectic too. Originally, Rob Conn was going to kill off Rick O'Connell entirely.

I feel that's the way it was going for a while, yeah. Definitely. Ardeth Bay, we mentioned this in the last video, he didn't return because he doesn't know nothing about China. So apparently he was asked and he was like, I don't know nothing about China, either my character or in real life. I still would have liked to see him just be like, we need help with some undead shit.

Do you want to do this? And he's like, yeah, sure. I've got a big curved sword. I'm's ready to go i've been oiling this curved sword for ages i've been oiling this curved sword all the way through world war ii i hope somebody to be like you want to swing that curved sword yes i do yes sir i'll wait chinese mummies nah i can't do it good luck idiots uh and also of course the club owned by jonathan is um imhotep imhotep's club it's after the other we saw it is Imhotep Imhotep's it's after the other we saw it

I mentioned it it's not interesting but it's in there I've said it haven't I that's right and then afterwards and after the events of the Mummy 3

obviously he opens a curry store called Voslu's Vindaloo's I'd eat that me too are you kidding me yeah okay let's talk about

the Mummy 4 no not Tom Cruise's the Mummy 4 which is technically maybe The Mummy 4. Oh, nuts. I'm not interested then. So Rise of the Aztec, or Aztecs, was supposed to come out in 2014, also with Rob Cohen. Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, and Luke Ford had signed on.

As you mentioned, Luke Ford was in for the trilogy. In for a trilogy, in for a pound? Is that the expression? Mm-hmm. In for a trilogy, in for a thrilogy. Oh, that the expression in for a trilogy in for a trilogy oh very good i'm never good at these things you're so good at them it upsets me i'm just rhyming words most of the time it doesn't even make any sense don't go back and think that one made sense though didn't it uh scarlett johansson and bryce dallas howard there he's a love interest

but one of them probably betrays him at some point uh ling is dead or something his love interest from this. That's why he needs a couple more love interests. Yeah, that's apparently the line in the movie as well. Ling is dead or something. I need a couple more now. Antonio Banderas would have played the main antagonist. I like that.

That's an all-star cast. And Jeremy Irons would have played a cursed Aztec eagle soldier. That is more fitting, yes. That guy can do any accent. He can do German. He can do regular. He can do weird albino guy living underground in the Time Machine movie. Remember that movie?

Yeah, I remember that movie. Remember when he turned up at the end and everyone went, this is a bad movie. I just remember there being that movie. I don't remember him being in it. Terrific. Well, he is. Anyways, I didn't like it.

It felt like a real drag, if I'm honest. And it kind of goes out with a whimper for me, this trilogy. And I don't know if I do want to see any more of these. At the start, when we did the first one, I'm like, oh my God, I love this movie. I'll see a hundred more of these. But to win, no, not so much. Look, honestly, having not seen it before, I think this is worth a watch. I'm glad I seen it.

Great. Would you recommend it to a friend? Yeah. Me. No, you said you didn't like it. Okay, good. You're a good friend. Thank you.

Anyways, of course, we do Caravan of Garbage here every week. You got a suggestion? Leave it below. Also, we have Patreon polls to see, like, what do you want to see? That's right. And these often go up early. Actually, every week they go up early. So if you do want to see them early, head on over there.

It's linked below. And here's a hint towards next week's episode. I don't know. I don't know either. Do you want me to bring up the list again? Yeah, maybe. Do you want me to? No, it's okay.

I can do it. No, don't. I'm already doing it, Mason. Oh my goodness. This guy's on fire. I just feel like people deserve it, Mason. Don't they? The people who stuck around for the extended audio edition.

Oh, that's what this is going in. We left out. Yeah, spinning our wheels at the end. You know it is. Absolutely worth it. So, Doom. Wait, which one? The one that we already recorded.

Oh, yeah. Like last year. We're getting around to that. The rock Doom? Yeah, the rock Doom. Wow. Yeah. Thought that was out.

At least we don't have to record it again because we already did it. Oh, my goodness. Oh, what a dream. That means Doom Eternal is coming out soon. That's right. Also, of course, I'm at MrSundayMovies a dream. That means Doom Eternal's coming out soon. That's right. Also, of course, I'm at MrSundayMovies on Twitter. I'm at WikipediaBrown on Twitter. Subscribe if you want and we'll be back. We love being back,

don't we? We love being back. We love being back. We had a good time with this trilogy. Suggest us another trilogy. An even worse trilogy. Oh, do. Also, of course, we've got our League of Extraordinary Gentlemen commentary. That is up if you want to see it. If you want some Dark Universe stuff. Little hint for the audio listeners.

We're just about to record it. I'm not. I don't want to. Neither am I. All right. See you guys later. Grab that jam, you guys. We'll see you next week.

Goodbye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want. It's up to you. As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors. Like when our estrogen levels drop during menopause, causing the risk of heart disease to go up.

Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.