December 12, 2025 • 45 mins
The third film in The Mummy takes the franchise to China. We discuss the highs, lows and possibilities of the 2008 film. Let Samantha have this!
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I wont for this stuff. I never told your Protection
by Heart radio.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Well, because it's the end of the year and we
are approaching the holidays as well as the days here
in Georgia has been really dark and gloomy. Like dark
and gloomy, I have requested for the chance of lamenting
what could have been. I guess in the form of
a movie the making of history. I mean, like I
(00:38):
was so excited and we're talking about the movie The
Mummy three. And I will say when it came out,
originally I didn't know it existed, Like it took me
a long time to realize it was there was a
third one. And actually they don't go buy The Mummy three. Instead,
it's actually known as the Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
So if you need to search that, you have to
(00:59):
buy it because it's nowhere. It's not streaming anywhere. And
Ani and I had two very different reactions when we
rewatched this, didn't we And we'll talk about it then,
but I just need a note. Weirdly, there is a
brief mention of child abuse. Yeah, but we're not going
(01:23):
to go into it. But you know, just so you
were in there. This is supposed to be a lighthearted,
what could have been what I wish it had been,
kind of episode about a movie that really is iconic.
And also because we're celebrating the fact that there is
a new reprise of The Mummy supposedly coming through with
(01:44):
the original cast, and at the end, I think we
should do a prediction of that. Oh okay, but that's
just laiter down. But there's all these things. So this,
I will say, is not a feminist movie feature. I repeat,
not a feminist movie feature. This is what I would
call let me have this moment, just let me have
(02:05):
this second.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Is that what I should call the I'm just gonna I'm.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Just gonna just let me have this? Okay? Is it
a good movie? But did it make his profits? Sure?
Did this kind of end the franchise as we knew it? Maybe?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But anyway, just let me have this, okay. Anyway, this
is a two thousand and eight movie. Again, it didn't
do awful, Like I think the budget was like one
hundred and forty million, but it didn't made four hundred million.
So you know, better than some of the other movies
that are out there today that doesn't make back what
they put in, so you know, we got that. It
didn't do great. I think it's like two stars for
(02:46):
the Letterbox, which does a lot of opinions on this.
The reviews go back and forth. If you read some
of the IMDb reviews, you were like, don't judge, go watch,
and the other people like this is awful, don't watch it.
So it's mixed back. I feel like it might could
be up there with the Scorpio King in that level
of like yeah, come backness, But I could be wrong.
(03:11):
I probably am wrong. They did use the same CGI
company as Lord of the Rings, though.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know what, one day we should do the Scorpion King.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Oh, I have not watched that. After the Mummy too,
I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Watch the actual I think to complete.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
This out, okay, I refuse to watch the Tom Cruise movie,
I will.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Say, yeah, that's okay.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I'm not I refuse to watch that one.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I've already seen it. I can do that for you.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Okay, thank you, thank you so again. Like I said,
we were doing this partly because the rumors and the
scene as confirmed. You never know till you never know,
because sometimes they do get a shelf though so of
the newest comeback because Brendan Fraser really has really come
back to be celebrated as he should be. Unless something
(04:01):
comes out that's like really dark and twisted, I don't know,
but we're excited to see him come back. They did
do you know the where the artist on artists or
actor on actor Hollywood thing. They did do an episode
with Brennard Fraser and Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Oh okay, yeah,
they had a Q and A. So all of these
things are wild, Like, we just need to we need
(04:22):
to finish this trilogy, even if it's not to the
height of its glory of what it could have been
because I had some bad actors in it, Amy, Amy,
who are you? Let me? Let me have this? This
is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
They did have bad actors. And for listeners who haven't
seen these, they're very like action adventure, they're very fun
and they've gotten There's been a lot of nostalgic bringing
back of them. You can see we did a feminist
movie Friday on the Mummy and some of the Mummy too.
(05:08):
We have a future episode coming up that's also related
to this. But yeah, I mean they were really fun.
I remember clearly. I saw every one of them in theaters,
and even if I don't remember the contents necessarily, which
will discuss later, I did. I loved them. I loved them.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I thought you hated them. That's out left too.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I did hate them. I just what I loved the
first one, and then the second one I was like, huh,
and then third one I kind of just forgot, like legitimately.
I watched it this morning for the first time since
I saw it in theaters, and I was surprised at
(05:52):
how much I was like, Oh, they're yetties. Don't remember
any of this.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Okay, you know what, you just have me, had me
have a flashback, and I lied. I think I did
see this in theaters because I was the nanny and
I took the kiss to see this movie as an
excuse to see this movie, but paid by someone else. Yeah,
they really liked it to be there.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's got a lot of action in it.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I mean, okay, okay, all right, So I'm gonna do
a rough synopsis. I'm not probably not even getting the
whole lot like we usually do. I'm just gonna do
a rough synopsis and you're gonna interject what you remember
here and there. Because also there's a lot of like
Mandarin and like Chinese folklore that I don't know, and Annie,
who got kicked out as band from China, knows way
(06:38):
more than I do.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I have to say, I actually did. I did pick
up on some things. I was like, oh, oracle phones,
I know what those are?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Now, Okay, okay, I see that. I knew it. I
knew you being banned from men kicked out of China
was a good beneficial.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So I could understand the Mummy three you a little
bit better.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, glad, I'm glad that I can introject that into
every episode of China. All right, here we go. So
we start off with the ancient area that's known as China.
Now obviously it's like a whole different territorial time with
lots of wars and battles, and we have the Dragon
Emperor who is jet Lee and he's fighting well everyone
(07:22):
because you know, we've got to take over all the lands.
That's just the whole thing that they do. He is
evil and power hungry, but does as he sets off
to do, like he's got a goal and man is
he doing his thing. We also see his general General Ming,
who was played by war Russell Wong, who had a
huge crush on in the younger days. We featured him
before on when we talked about joy Lut Club, which
(07:44):
yes he was also he was a bad guy in
that one, but he was a player in that one.
But he is a good guy in this one, and
we get to see him once again as a general.
And then we have Michelle Yeo. You know how we
feel about her. We love her playing the sources Zion
and the three of them are and I love tryinggle
except she wants nothing to do with the general with
(08:05):
the emperor because she knows, but he is jealous, and
so things don't go well for them, like ordering of
the general who was his best friend by the way,
because they fell in love. The sorceress and the general.
But all this, The reason they went to find the
sorceress is because the Emperor wants to be immortal. He
has learned the elements of firewater all the power, so
(08:28):
he's already magical, but he needs more. He wants to
live forever, obviously, so he goes and fetches her, who
says she can find the immortality spells or whatever whatnot?
Does a spell on him in Sanskrit, and you know
this is when he kind of pulls up like, I'm
gonna kill your lover because I know what you did
unless you marry me. She's like, you won't keep your promise.
(08:50):
He's like, you're right, kills the general and then stabs her.
She runs away. Uh. Oh, it turns out she actually
cursed him and the terra Cotta army if you know
that they actually exist a lot of like bits of
history placed in there. So he turns into fire and
sand and his entire army all get buried. But of course,
(09:12):
because this is the Mummy franchise, we know things are
gonna happen. So at this point in time, we cut
to Rick trying to live his retired life by fly fishing.
It's not good at y'all, not good at it, Evie,
who puts out the line. We've talked about this many
a time, about the fact that when she was doing
an odd book reading because I'm like, this doesn't fit.
(09:34):
Evie was a Cambridge scholar who has wanted to like
curate all of these things, all of a sudden is
writing romance adventure books. Yeah, that didn't make sense to me,
I will say that. However, on that note, she makes
the line that that was a completely different person or
(09:55):
woman than me. Haha, and it's Maria Bello she was
set up to. It really is hard shoes to fill.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yes, so listeners, if you don't know, Rachel Weiss, who
played Ev in the first two movies, did not come
back for the third one and was played by a
different person, and that was sort of their acknowledging joke
that yes, this is not the same person. And I
have to say, watching it today, I kept thinking, how
(10:23):
odd to act in a that must be strange for
Brendan Fraser as well, right, because it's not the same
very right.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Right, There's so many things for that. All that to
say that they are retired and comfortably living in the UK,
I'm assuming London. But all of this is happening at
the same time. We find out Alex is all grown now.
He's twenty something years old, dropped out of college, is
now in China in search of this army and all
(10:56):
about the Emperor and all these things because he knows
everything about it. He's kind of seemingly he followed his
father and mother's footsteps in discovering new things. He has
been sponsored by this guy from the UK, professor who
is helping him do all these things. They get into
a lot of hijinks, lots of traps, which, by the way,
apparently is true that they when they were actually digging
(11:16):
up these types of artifacts in China, there are so
many traps that were laid out that they were like
it took them years to onefold. I'm like this series
which took a day and a few deaths, no beginning, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
A few diths. I was like, wow, how.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Many people died in discovering mo Tip Oh yeah, yeah,
so many, so many Okay, sacrifices. Anyway, all of that
to say, okay, we're back to this. We discovered there
as a protector assassin who was also going after Alex.
By the way, Alex now has an American accent instead
of the English accent that he had when he was younger.
(11:54):
I'd been moving on all this point. We go back
to Rick and Evy and like the British government is
asking them to go take back an artifact the eye
of Shingri law, which always sounded made up to me
in my head, but I guess that's the thing. Anyway,
(12:15):
they go back and even though back and forth happened,
they decided, Okay, we're gonna take it back to China. Jonathan,
her brother, who is played by the original actor, is there,
so they're going to visit him as well. All these
adventures because also they're dying to go back onto adventure
times and do some discovering. All this is a They
go to China, discover Alex's there all unhappy. Apparently things
have not gone well for the father's son. A lot
(12:37):
of stereotypical things happen, whether the mother is trying to
keep the peace and the father and the son don't approve,
Jealousy abounds. I don't know things are happening there. We
also have Game of Thrones actor playing the pilot in
this one, because they are they need a pilot. I
feel like in everyone, whether it's an air balloon, a
(12:57):
war or warplane, or this plane which was a cargo
plane with the X.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I didn't know he was shrimp Game of Stones, but yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yes, yes, I was like, wait, I know him anyway,
And so at this point they go to see Alex's
exhibit that he has discovered. Plot twists. The Chinese government
is trying to bring back the Emperor from the dead
so they could take over the world as intended. Things
happen the Mummy, he's a mummy, but he comes back
(13:30):
as a really weird figure and trying to be Holigan
has to find the immortal pool. Turns out this young
assassin girl was protecting the world from this creature and
it was actually those sorcerers, Zil's younger daughter, who is
also the daughter of the general, and they've been living
for thousands of years trying to protect the world from
(13:51):
this painous thing. Lots of ventures happened, Rick almost dies.
They end up with a help of some Yetti's pilots
so much so many things get to the immortal place
and he gets all healed, and there's a cute, great
great reunion scene. Really awkward love story between Alex and
the daughter Lynn happens, and it's very forced and very
(14:15):
awkward to me.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, some of it. I couldn't tell if this was
acting or writing problem, but also like it just felt strange.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
It felt strang I do get to like.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You know, she tried to murder me, how hot or
people do that in entertainment a lot, But it just
felt like.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
She was so ready to sacrifice her mother for this, Like,
I'm I don't you don't.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Know him very well. Maybe maybe takes some time.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, this dude was like going after another girl in
the bar previously, and then he got his face punched
and be like there's so many things that I'm like, okay,
but you know, I go on, God, the love story,
I guess I'd like to see how they play this.
But we move on, and yes, battle ensues. The emperor
does become a mortal and raises his terra Cotta army,
(15:09):
and if they can go bypass a certain line, then
they will come back to life. But at the same time,
the end brings back all those that have been wronged
by the emperor, including her love on and only love
General ming to defend against those people, and we have
a big battle, and then it turns out she sacrifices
herself to get to a dagger that could kill this
(15:32):
now immortal emperor. All these things happened, the son and Rick,
Alexan and Rick come together and stab him in the
heart at the same time because they're so great after
really bad CGI but three headed dragon Sure Sure Sure
has kidnapped the daughter at one point, and then as
everything goes back to play. We see the mother dies,
Goodbye to you, we love you, Michelle Yo, and the
(15:55):
club is now given to that English pilot that we
talked about, because Jonathan was he's done with all the Mummies,
but he's got some treasure somewhere from Shangri La. We
don't know what because he know he knows how to
get away with things. And everybody's dancing inappropriately like he was.
Alex was wall touching this girl's button. I was like, wow, okay,
(16:17):
interesting choice, and that was the end.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yep, yeah, and again this is one of those movie
descriptions that for listeners who have not seen this, and
especially who haven't seen any of the Mummy movies, thank
you for coming along with the ride. I know it
sounds wild, but that is what happens.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
That a goat oh I will. So I got some
fun and not so fun facts, including uh that there
was like when Maria Bellow, who jumped on the chance
(17:03):
because she is an action stars like she's chained in
muay Thai and I believe jiu jitsu and different types
of martial arts, was so excited to do this type
of film. So she was like, I don't think after
forty I didn't think I would get this type of offer.
I jumped on it and then she was like, no,
We're gonna have so many more. Was so excited, and
then that was a cut short that I know, no,
(17:24):
you know you're not. But the director at the time,
who has some big things under his name, he got
really excited, who was not the same director as the
original Mummies, was excited because he wanted to film in China.
So that's why he ended up doing it. This was
I think his last movie. Maybe he had a couple
more after, but the last big name movie that he had.
(17:45):
And after that there were some allegations from his daughter
about child abuse and he has been out of the
business since, so you know, not so wrong about that.
So we also have Maria thought it was just the
beginning for her. It was not the people who decided
(18:06):
to say no, including Imotep, Artith Bay or Odette Fair,
who was Artith Bay like. He was only supposed to
be in for a quick like and die in the
first momment, but people loved him so much and he
was like too beautiful that they couldn't tattoo his face.
They're like, no, no, no, no, no, he could have
one or two tattoos, but he's too pretty. He said
no because he did not like the fact that Emotep
(18:28):
said no. So both of them were supposed to like
come and be a part of this, and imotep Reddit,
the guy who played Imotep Reddit, Arnold Voslou, was like, no,
I'm good. No, thank you. So after that they're like
both like, no, they were good, but I know that
people were trying to say Rachel Weiss said no because
(18:49):
she just had a baby, but she came back to
wudn't no. I just didn't like it. Hey, oh they
were trying to be politically correct, I think, and she
was just like, nah, I just didn't like the do
and I thought, we also know the rumor. Like the
first movie she did, she really was really hesitant because
(19:10):
she was like, this is gonna ruin my career. Really
didn't think it was gonna be good or big, and
turned out it was great for her career, but it
did take a minute for her to realize that. So
the original she was like yes, and the second one,
I think she really had to be pushed into doing
so because she also wanted to do a little more
action because the first one was too lady in distress,
(19:31):
So both those things happened, and then this one she's like, nah,
I'm good, I think we're good. Interestingly, it was also
part in part because the son that she was playing
was only ten years younger than her, and she was
like this is absurd, like this is why are you
aging women like this? And like it is because in actuality,
Mario Bella was only fourteen years older than this actor,
(19:53):
so he was supposed to play a twenty one year
old he's actually twenty eight and like all these things
as well as like he's thirteen years or the Brendan Frasier.
So like, yeah, you know, you know, but we see
that all the time where we have a lot older
actors playing younger constant in Korea, like they're twenty years
older than they're actually they play high school kids, and
you're like why, but we see that. So that was
(20:15):
one of the conversations that was had and need to
be had in this, like why aren't we making really
young women being like middle aged mothers. This is a
weird jump, and I think it had like con continuity
and trying to make the film something like that and
aging them because of that, even though it really was
only ten years after the first film happened, and only
(20:37):
what five years after the second film happened, so it
was like he would only be like eighteen.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah, yeah, I think about this a lot. I just
see it all the time. I feel like in enfranchise
that people love, there comes a point where the characters
you love have aged yea, and they have a kid,
(21:05):
and then it becomes about how they're like can't fly
fish or they can't they it's almost like a sad
they painted as sad when it's really just your aging
and it's fine, you don't have to, but they paint
it as like a strange mid life crisis and your
(21:27):
kid is causing chaos. It's odd to me how often
that happens. And I think it's because the creator's age
with the franchise that they're going through this stuff too.
I see that that I see it everywhere. Sabouta, I
see it all the time.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I could definitely see that like they they they got
to portray where they are.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
This is what it is.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
For this like and again like this director was specific
to it, like he wanted to do it because of
it being based in China. And wanted to do something
in China. I mean he really did have some of
the biggest Chinese celebrities at the time. Michelle Yo, Russell Long,
jet Lee jet Ly is like huge and him coming
(22:16):
he's I don't think he's been any more films for
the US since, not this, but like in a long time.
So like having those kind of names and also having
that like notoriety of movies like Crouching Tiger and Dragon
and as well as Hero, which was one of my
favorite movies. Complete communist propaganda by the way, Chinese communists propaganda.
(22:39):
But it's so beautiful and the artistry of like martial
arts and the legends that it's not tapped into in
the US or in like in the wes Western culture.
To have that being played it could have been amazing
because it's also based on the Chin dynasty, the Chin Emperor,
Like this is actually based on history we talked about before,
(23:01):
as well as the terracotta soldiers that are absolutely in
display right now, some of the sites that we've seen,
so some really great ideas in it. Again, the martial
arts that we get to see with jet Lee Michelle Yo,
like the things that they do are beautiful, and the
fighting scenes are gorgeous. This is where I say it
could have been as someone who was starving for any
(23:26):
Asian love like in cinema, because I really thought at
a young age that I could be an actor. But
I'm okay, I'm fine with all of that. Seeing these
faces and seeing these actors being placed in Western media
(23:47):
with the power of the Mummy franchise. What could have
been is what bothers me so much because these are
some of my favorite people. As a person who is
again starving and didn't see hardly any Korean representation, to
have any Asian face of an Asian heritage makes me
so happy again. I go back to my love of
(24:09):
the Brandy Cinderella story because you had a Filipino actor
coming in and being a heart throb. You're like what
and being loved, And this is that same level, like
I really want this culture instead of being the stereotypes
that we often hear or hurt. Especially during that time,
(24:30):
there was this level of infantilizing all of Asian culture
and it still happens. But like seeing that often where
we see if they are only sidekicks or really smart,
like stereotypes or talkative stereotypes in general, but we get
to see them in action and being leaders and being
heroes and being love interests. It really had so much
(24:54):
potential and then it didn't. And this is where you
and I were not gonna like. I guess I loved.
I wanted to love it so much that when I
started watching, I was like, oh my god, this is
really cheesy. Oh my god, why did they do that?
Oh my god, why do they have this? Oh my god?
(25:15):
Why am I watching? Like mm hmm. It just felt
so like there was a little bit of a secondhand
embarrassment in me saying I love this movie, and I'm
not gonna lie. I will still love this movie. I
will probably never watch it again after this watch.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, So I had the opposite experience, Yeah, because I did.
I saw it in theaters pretty much. The only thing
I remembered was the line when Eve says, it's almost
like I can I'm a completely different person. And then
I knew there was a dragon. I remembered there was
a dragon. So I felt like I was watching it
(25:57):
the first time, to be honest with you, and I
was like, Oh, this isn't as bad as I remember
it being. So we did have a sort of a
different thing. I also want to point out I didn't
know this came out in two thousand and eight. That
was the year. I could be remembering incorrectly, but I
(26:19):
don't think I am. That was when Beijing hosted the Olympics.
That was a big year for American co pros with China,
co productions with China. That was like the big like
we should invest in China year. Oh yes, I believe,
And that's to be honest with you. That's one of
(26:41):
the reasons I went to China is because it became
sort of this big you should go. This is the
time Mandarin.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
That makes a lot of sense because Je Lee is
pro China. If nothing else, that dude loves China or
is told he has to love China. Some weird rumors
going around about him right now that I like this
sounds like sci fi level of rumors, and I think
if people know what I'm talking about, y'all are in
the deeps of the conspiracy theory of Chinese government. But
(27:16):
all that to say is like, there's some interesting stuff.
But like I could absolutely because yeah, it was a
summer Olympics or of in Beijing. So that's Yeah, that
makes a lot more sense because they actually had permission
to film in location, including the museum that was holding
all of these artifacts. So I was actually surprised when
(27:36):
I noticed that, where I was like, oh, they really
let them, because I thought maybe I'm wrong. But tell me,
in the first scenes when they're in the dining room,
it looks like green screen where they're supposed to be
in London. They're trying, like and they're trying to show
off that they're okay and everything's fine, and they're eating
the fish that he shot because he can't fish. Yeah,
poor Rick, But like it looks like the green screen
(27:59):
of what should be yeah, a mansion.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
We just explained that they didn't have the budget to
be in the UK, but they had the budget to
be in China.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
It's possible. I mean, I just I know that was
a big push for a while.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because they got
some they got some leeway and being able to film there,
Like it's pretty tight knit on whose can film it,
especially in this conversation is not necessarily pro China.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, yeah, but it was interesting that they had I'm
going to assume I could be wrong, but they did
do like a lot of the the legends and the lore.
Can't believe they mentioned Tibet. That took me back because
I was like, Chinese government would not uh uh no way,
(28:56):
but they did mention Tibet and the oracle bones and
all that stuff. But they must have had some kind
of some presence on set that was like here are
our legends go about it this way? Maybe yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
And I yeah, I don't. I want to say a
couple of the actors or would be like Hong Kong
things and we know the big like yeah, the controversy there.
One of the actors would probably call them self Taiwanese
and then another actor was American. I believe Russell Long
is technically American, but Chinese American, Yeah, I think are.
(29:37):
But like it's pretty interesting because that is a real
big issue and we know that it is ongoing conversation
about colonialism and all of that, so like in itself,
so there's a lot to be said in that name.
So for them to come through like that, it is
kind of interesting who's representing what in this level. I
(30:08):
again like I want to love this film so much
because I love them so much. I love Michelle yo
so much. I love Jete again interesting and controvertical, was like,
what is this because like he was in Romeo Must
Die and that will forever be one of my favorite movies.
Mmm forever?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Maybe a future. I haven't seen it, so maybe a future.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
I go back and forth because there's a lot of
political incorrectness.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Oh okay, okay, Russell Wong is.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Also in that movie. Okay, But I love Jetlee and
Aliyah together like that made me so happy. I don't
know what it was that had my heart singing singing,
and apparently jetly loved Aliyah. My nineties heart just keeps
beating higher.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Early ship were you shipping?
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I didn't know that was a thing. I thought it
was awkward because it was obvious said they were trying
to cast them as love interests. He's significantly older than her.
To me, that was a little odd, but they kept
it PG like they weren't shipping them as the like
Romeo and Juliet couple. But if I remember correctly, I
think she was like, I look, you made me on zydequests.
(31:20):
I think myself was I mean myself honest, she was
thirty seven, bro was thirty six, thirty seven women, right,
so yeah, significant difference. I'm not sure why we were
all okay with that. I don't think we would again.
The most that they did was handholding. Yeah, so there
(31:45):
was never any kissing. I don't think he has done
any kind of he doesn't do romance. But they really
wanted this Romeo Juliette title for this, and she was
playing someone significantly older than that. She shouldn't have been
maybe she was twenty. I think she might have been twenty,
but still still not good. Still not great mm hm.
(32:06):
So I wouldn't say I was shipping them at any point,
but I love the fact that they did have the
cross section and it was especially because again it's supposed
to be the California based and it was the black
community versus the Asian community, and it was gangster fighting.
So all of these things are like, this is really
politically not good, but the movie is iconic and I
(32:27):
loved it and the soundtrack. Legitimately one of my favorite
DMX was in it. I mean, who doesn't love a
good DMX. He also gets killed in there spoiler alert.
Care about that. Gently really came in with being like
someone that the black community loved because he was in
(32:47):
movies like that, and then he was in Cradle to
the Grave like that also is with DMX by the way,
and so he did a lot that was in that
level that brought into that like understanding communities because like
we know Jackie Chan who is great and fine, then
he did you know, all the things the Rush Hour,
but it was a lot more gimmickey yeah somehow than this.
(33:10):
So seeing Jente being in any movie maybe very happy,
very happy because I felt like he was at least
respectful in what he was doing. Like even him playing
this bad guy, it still was never like he's a
bad guy. Improd the Dragon Emperor is a bad guy obviously,
but like Jentlee just seems like someone who did a
(33:32):
craft that was mixed on martial arts and acting, you
know what I mean, and not trying to take opportunities
and so doing the movie like Romeo Must Die. I
do want to know the backstory who thought of this?
So loving him from the two thousands and yes I
had that VHS and then later the DVD. Oh yeah,
of course I think I still have it.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Actually could be worth something some look up. Some things are.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Worth a lot of money that you're not I'm gonna
go back, but it's such a great time. And so
anytime I saw him and then Michelle yo, who I again.
I love her on everything and anything. Haven't gone to
see her in Wicked.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, I'm waiting that one. Oh, I saw the first
one that I'm waiting.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
She's in the second one, right, she's Oh, she is
in both. She hasn't gotten great accolades for her singing.
There's been a lot of criticism because the way they
say it that the director really wanted her and so
fit her into the role, rather than the role fitting her.
(34:40):
I don't know about that, but anytime I see those
types of caliber of actors, I'm like, yes, it's gonna
be amazing. Like I feel like we expected The Rock
to not be great because that was his first movie. Yeah,
and also really badly cegied it.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Was notorious sleep very bad.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
And by the way, in that interview they talk about it, yeah,
and he says because Brendan Fraser actually said that they
never met while they were filming at all, and they
the first time they met was on the red carpet
because the entire time they were filming, he was a
stick with them.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, like a tennis ball, Yeah with a ball. Yeah.
Now actors have like broken down crying like how can
I act with this tennis ball?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
This is right? Like I know Meryl streepis and that
we talked about that that's becomes her. She just like,
I'll never do this again because how am I supposed
to do this? This is ridiculous. But I did find
that funny. But he talks about like this advanced his
career because that was the first movie that he had
ever done, and Brendan Fraser was like, yeah, we should
(35:51):
bring him on. Come on, he's a big name type
of conversation. So stuff like that is really you know why.
But the third one I thought would be just a
little bit better because you had high caliber and Maria Bellow,
God bless her. She is a phenomenal actor.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Oh yeah, I don't think like you said, she had
everything stacked against her. I don't think she did a
bad job at all. It was just that she was
not not Rachel. Yeah, people were used to and who
they were expecting, but she did she degreat.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
So with all of that, this is why I wanted
to love it so much. And now we're watching I'm like,
oh god, it was really okay, okay, come back to
come back to the new movie. I'm actually interested in
how they're going to do this, Like if they're bringing
back the entire cast, are they going to bring back
Alex or are they going to just make them a blip? Yes?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
So listeners, if you don't know that they are bringing
back According to rumors, Rachel Vyce and Brendan Fraser and
Arnold woslu emotep.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yep, as well as Odette Fair as.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Artist Bay, Yes, uh, I don't.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Know Jonathan's coming back?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I think yeah, I think so too. It seems I don't.
I honestly have no idea, uh, because so much time
has passed. As someone who is getting older myself, I'm like,
am I gonna go out there beat up on Nies again?
(37:27):
I don't know, But I I don't know who's directing
it or anything or writing.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Is I thinks that bringing back the original? So Steven Summers,
who was the director of this two and then third one,
He's like, out, but I'll produce it and had nothing.
He literally says, I really didn't know anything about this movie.
I was just we're done. The way he went about
it is like I would love to have come with
the original actors and if they say yes, And Britain
(37:55):
Fraser was the same way with his like come back.
Everybody's like, yeah, let's do this, and he's like, I'm
down if they're down. I don't see how what that
would look like. I think everybody, everybody is seemingly confused
of that what this will look like. It's going to
be under Universal Pictures. I mean that exists. There's a
lot of murders happening. Who know. The writers for that
(38:16):
third movie, by the way, like lost work for so
long until they were able to come back for Wednesday Juice,
and so they have made it back. So for a
little while though it's not going well for them. They're
saying that it could be Matt Beteranelli opened and Kyler
(38:40):
Gillette from Radio Silence, with the script being by David Coghis.
Sheell ko Shell, kogay Shell. I don't know. And this
is from Deadline article of November, so there is I
guess they have new people. I thought it was gonna
be Stephen Summerville. I thought he said that he was
(39:01):
down for it, but it doesn't seem like it in
this article.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Well, I think a lot of pieces are still moving this. Yeah,
it got a lot of hype because a lot of
us love it.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
So, I mean, if it happens and the thing is,
it's gonna be better than the last one, I think,
and even the new one new reprise would Oh yeah,
so it's got to be better than those two things, right,
I don't know, But will it be better than the first?
(39:35):
Probably not so, Like that's kind of that level, like
we would love it for the sake of loving it,
but do we love it enough to support it if
it's not great?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I okay, I'm going to say something I said no
very quickly there. I like to think I'm an open
minded I try to creep a really open mind about
these things things and my mind has been changed before,
so it's possible. I just think that when something I
(40:09):
remember seeing that in theaters, the First Mummy, and I
loved it, and I think that it's going to be
really hard to match me being whoever old I was
at the time, like nine, and watching that movie in theaters,
(40:31):
I just think that's going to be a difficult experience
to match.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Could it reopen where the younger generations gets to love
a newer version?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Yeah, I think so. I think so. I actually have
a happy hour about how I've been kind of accidentally
learning more about the use and fandom.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
So.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I can't really predict what they're up to, to be honest,
that's kind of my I don't know.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Apparently there's a another Mummy movie coming out hmmm, but
it's not the same. I think it's just using the
title because it's oh yeah, Warner Brothers and uh it's
a horror.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
I ran into this when I was trying to search
where I could stream this movie. I found it. Yeah, okay, okay, I.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Feel like we should just tell people stop doing that,
give new names. No, they're not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
They want you to fall into the chap that's their desire.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
But apparently this is under Blomhouse as well. So oh okay,
I don't know. I don't know. Okay, but there's a
lot happening. Thank you for letting me have this because
I needed to explore. My bowls kind of popped, I
will say, after rewatching, and now I need to reduce.
Maybe I'm gonna go back with Romeo must die for real,
just to have I will say. Immediately after I watched
(42:05):
this one, I was like, I need to first watch
the first one. I got to cleanse this money mommy
taste out of my mouth, out of my spirit. So
it's like that I need to watch the first one
just to get back into it, because it would. Yeah, look,
look when you look at childhood memories and what you
want to love again, why you want to love things,
(42:25):
and things come crashing down, it's a little disappointing. I
do have I do have hopes for a good not remake,
but a revamp, because I mean, I honestly, I just
get really hyped when I see actors that I've seen
work together, so we'll come back together and reunite. That
(42:48):
I would just be hyped for that. So like when
I see a correlation like these two were in this
together and now they're in this, it does make me
very happy. So I would just be happy with Rachel
Byce Brendan Fraser like guest appearance in a random movie
or show. That would make me happy, to be honest,
but you know, I'm interested. I'm excited to see I
(43:10):
guess again. I feel like Brendan Fager's comeback is delightful.
I love Rachel Vice even with all of the personal
relationship with you know, leaving her husband to be with
Daniel Craig, who's a very sexy, sexy man. So I
get it, but still, you know, questionable, but you're happy.
(43:33):
We hope you're happy because she is a gorgeous woman
that deserves everybody deserves to be happy. No one likes
to be in online line with those ways, but all
those things we want to see things, all the bad
things that I'm like, there's so many things that we
are people or corporations that have to be boycotted, and
she's just finding trying to find small pleasures, yeah, without
(43:55):
wanting to burn one like burn the world down. Also
hard to come by sometimes mm yeah, yeah, I'm gonna
have to take a pause and go watch the original Anie,
I think.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Oh yeah, well I think you should.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
And maybe next year Romeo Must Die will happen. Then
we have to address all of the big are.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Oh yes, rough rough yes. I also I've said it before.
I said it in our original Moment episode and it
kind of happened here, not to the best degree, but
it was kind of evy story and Rick was just
supporting her. It was very much like she was leading
(44:40):
the way and he was like here are the tools
I stole from somebody?
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Yes, here this time is guns, all the guns, which
the second one was about guns as well, honestly.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well we'll see. I'm sure we'll
be back here when the if, when the fourth one
comes out, maybe the Scorpion King. I think we should
do it.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
But meantime, listeners, please let us know if you have
any movies like this, any kind of I hate the
word guilty pressure, but like anything like that that you
like to revisit that you don't discover. You know, maybe
it's not the best, but it meant something to you
for some reason. You can email us at Hello at
(45:22):
Stuffhannever Told You dot com. You can find us on
blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and
TikTok at stuff Who Never Told You. We're also on YouTube.
We have some new merchandise at Cotton Hero, and we
have a book you can get wherever you get your books.
Thinks It's always too our super discresting our executive who's
to my anti conturder Joey.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Stuff Never Told You. Spect from my Heart Radio for
more podcasts from My Heart radio. You can check out
the heart radio app, Apple podcast, or if you listen
to your favorite shit
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I wont for this stuff. I never told your Protection
by Heart radio.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Well, because it's the end of the year and we
are approaching the holidays as well as the days here
in Georgia has been really dark and gloomy. Like dark
and gloomy, I have requested for the chance of lamenting
what could have been. I guess in the form of
a movie the making of history. I mean, like I
(00:38):
was so excited and we're talking about the movie The
Mummy three. And I will say when it came out,
originally I didn't know it existed, Like it took me
a long time to realize it was there was a
third one. And actually they don't go buy The Mummy three. Instead,
it's actually known as the Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
So if you need to search that, you have to
(00:59):
buy it because it's nowhere. It's not streaming anywhere. And
Ani and I had two very different reactions when we
rewatched this, didn't we And we'll talk about it then,
but I just need a note. Weirdly, there is a
brief mention of child abuse. Yeah, but we're not going
(01:23):
to go into it. But you know, just so you
were in there. This is supposed to be a lighthearted,
what could have been what I wish it had been,
kind of episode about a movie that really is iconic.
And also because we're celebrating the fact that there is
a new reprise of The Mummy supposedly coming through with
(01:44):
the original cast, and at the end, I think we
should do a prediction of that. Oh okay, but that's
just laiter down. But there's all these things. So this,
I will say, is not a feminist movie feature. I repeat,
not a feminist movie feature. This is what I would
call let me have this moment, just let me have
(02:05):
this second.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Is that what I should call the I'm just gonna I'm.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Just gonna just let me have this? Okay? Is it
a good movie? But did it make his profits? Sure?
Did this kind of end the franchise as we knew it? Maybe?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
But anyway, just let me have this, okay. Anyway, this
is a two thousand and eight movie. Again, it didn't
do awful, Like I think the budget was like one
hundred and forty million, but it didn't made four hundred million.
So you know, better than some of the other movies
that are out there today that doesn't make back what
they put in, so you know, we got that. It
didn't do great. I think it's like two stars for
(02:46):
the Letterbox, which does a lot of opinions on this.
The reviews go back and forth. If you read some
of the IMDb reviews, you were like, don't judge, go watch,
and the other people like this is awful, don't watch it.
So it's mixed back. I feel like it might could
be up there with the Scorpio King in that level
of like yeah, come backness, But I could be wrong.
(03:11):
I probably am wrong. They did use the same CGI
company as Lord of the Rings, though.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know what, one day we should do the Scorpion King.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Oh, I have not watched that. After the Mummy too,
I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Watch the actual I think to complete.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
This out, okay, I refuse to watch the Tom Cruise movie,
I will.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Say, yeah, that's okay.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I'm not I refuse to watch that one.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I've already seen it. I can do that for you.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Okay, thank you, thank you so again. Like I said,
we were doing this partly because the rumors and the
scene as confirmed. You never know till you never know,
because sometimes they do get a shelf though so of
the newest comeback because Brendan Fraser really has really come
back to be celebrated as he should be. Unless something
(04:01):
comes out that's like really dark and twisted, I don't know,
but we're excited to see him come back. They did
do you know the where the artist on artists or
actor on actor Hollywood thing. They did do an episode
with Brennard Fraser and Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Oh okay, yeah,
they had a Q and A. So all of these
things are wild, Like, we just need to we need
(04:22):
to finish this trilogy, even if it's not to the
height of its glory of what it could have been
because I had some bad actors in it, Amy, Amy,
who are you? Let me? Let me have this? This
is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
They did have bad actors. And for listeners who haven't
seen these, they're very like action adventure, they're very fun
and they've gotten There's been a lot of nostalgic bringing
back of them. You can see we did a feminist
movie Friday on the Mummy and some of the Mummy too.
(05:08):
We have a future episode coming up that's also related
to this. But yeah, I mean they were really fun.
I remember clearly. I saw every one of them in theaters,
and even if I don't remember the contents necessarily, which
will discuss later, I did. I loved them. I loved them.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
I thought you hated them. That's out left too.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I did hate them. I just what I loved the
first one, and then the second one I was like, huh,
and then third one I kind of just forgot, like legitimately.
I watched it this morning for the first time since
I saw it in theaters, and I was surprised at
(05:52):
how much I was like, Oh, they're yetties. Don't remember
any of this.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Okay, you know what, you just have me, had me
have a flashback, and I lied. I think I did
see this in theaters because I was the nanny and
I took the kiss to see this movie as an
excuse to see this movie, but paid by someone else. Yeah,
they really liked it to be there.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's got a lot of action in it.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I mean, okay, okay, all right, So I'm gonna do
a rough synopsis. I'm not probably not even getting the
whole lot like we usually do. I'm just gonna do
a rough synopsis and you're gonna interject what you remember
here and there. Because also there's a lot of like
Mandarin and like Chinese folklore that I don't know, and Annie,
who got kicked out as band from China, knows way
(06:38):
more than I do.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I have to say, I actually did. I did pick
up on some things. I was like, oh, oracle phones,
I know what those are?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Now, Okay, okay, I see that. I knew it. I
knew you being banned from men kicked out of China
was a good beneficial.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So I could understand the Mummy three you a little
bit better.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah, glad, I'm glad that I can introject that into
every episode of China. All right, here we go. So
we start off with the ancient area that's known as China.
Now obviously it's like a whole different territorial time with
lots of wars and battles, and we have the Dragon
Emperor who is jet Lee and he's fighting well everyone
(07:22):
because you know, we've got to take over all the lands.
That's just the whole thing that they do. He is
evil and power hungry, but does as he sets off
to do, like he's got a goal and man is
he doing his thing. We also see his general General Ming,
who was played by war Russell Wong, who had a
huge crush on in the younger days. We featured him
before on when we talked about joy Lut Club, which
(07:44):
yes he was also he was a bad guy in
that one, but he was a player in that one.
But he is a good guy in this one, and
we get to see him once again as a general.
And then we have Michelle Yeo. You know how we
feel about her. We love her playing the sources Zion
and the three of them are and I love tryinggle
except she wants nothing to do with the general with
(08:05):
the emperor because she knows, but he is jealous, and
so things don't go well for them, like ordering of
the general who was his best friend by the way,
because they fell in love. The sorceress and the general.
But all this, The reason they went to find the
sorceress is because the Emperor wants to be immortal. He
has learned the elements of firewater all the power, so
(08:28):
he's already magical, but he needs more. He wants to
live forever, obviously, so he goes and fetches her, who
says she can find the immortality spells or whatever whatnot?
Does a spell on him in Sanskrit, and you know
this is when he kind of pulls up like, I'm
gonna kill your lover because I know what you did
unless you marry me. She's like, you won't keep your promise.
(08:50):
He's like, you're right, kills the general and then stabs her.
She runs away. Uh. Oh, it turns out she actually
cursed him and the terra Cotta army if you know
that they actually exist a lot of like bits of
history placed in there. So he turns into fire and
sand and his entire army all get buried. But of course,
(09:12):
because this is the Mummy franchise, we know things are
gonna happen. So at this point in time, we cut
to Rick trying to live his retired life by fly fishing.
It's not good at y'all, not good at it, Evie,
who puts out the line. We've talked about this many
a time, about the fact that when she was doing
an odd book reading because I'm like, this doesn't fit.
(09:34):
Evie was a Cambridge scholar who has wanted to like
curate all of these things, all of a sudden is
writing romance adventure books. Yeah, that didn't make sense to me,
I will say that. However, on that note, she makes
the line that that was a completely different person or
(09:55):
woman than me. Haha, and it's Maria Bello she was
set up to. It really is hard shoes to fill.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yes, so listeners, if you don't know, Rachel Weiss, who
played Ev in the first two movies, did not come
back for the third one and was played by a
different person, and that was sort of their acknowledging joke
that yes, this is not the same person. And I
have to say, watching it today, I kept thinking, how
(10:23):
odd to act in a that must be strange for
Brendan Fraser as well, right, because it's not the same
very right.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Right, There's so many things for that. All that to
say that they are retired and comfortably living in the UK,
I'm assuming London. But all of this is happening at
the same time. We find out Alex is all grown now.
He's twenty something years old, dropped out of college, is
now in China in search of this army and all
(10:56):
about the Emperor and all these things because he knows
everything about it. He's kind of seemingly he followed his
father and mother's footsteps in discovering new things. He has
been sponsored by this guy from the UK, professor who
is helping him do all these things. They get into
a lot of hijinks, lots of traps, which, by the way,
apparently is true that they when they were actually digging
(11:16):
up these types of artifacts in China, there are so
many traps that were laid out that they were like
it took them years to onefold. I'm like this series
which took a day and a few deaths, no beginning, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
A few diths. I was like, wow, how.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Many people died in discovering mo Tip Oh yeah, yeah,
so many, so many Okay, sacrifices. Anyway, all of that
to say, okay, we're back to this. We discovered there
as a protector assassin who was also going after Alex.
By the way, Alex now has an American accent instead
of the English accent that he had when he was younger.
(11:54):
I'd been moving on all this point. We go back
to Rick and Evy and like the British government is
asking them to go take back an artifact the eye
of Shingri law, which always sounded made up to me
in my head, but I guess that's the thing. Anyway,
(12:15):
they go back and even though back and forth happened,
they decided, Okay, we're gonna take it back to China. Jonathan,
her brother, who is played by the original actor, is there,
so they're going to visit him as well. All these
adventures because also they're dying to go back onto adventure
times and do some discovering. All this is a They
go to China, discover Alex's there all unhappy. Apparently things
have not gone well for the father's son. A lot
(12:37):
of stereotypical things happen, whether the mother is trying to
keep the peace and the father and the son don't approve,
Jealousy abounds. I don't know things are happening there. We
also have Game of Thrones actor playing the pilot in
this one, because they are they need a pilot. I
feel like in everyone, whether it's an air balloon, a
(12:57):
war or warplane, or this plane which was a cargo
plane with the X.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I didn't know he was shrimp Game of Stones, but yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yes, yes, I was like, wait, I know him anyway,
And so at this point they go to see Alex's
exhibit that he has discovered. Plot twists. The Chinese government
is trying to bring back the Emperor from the dead
so they could take over the world as intended. Things
happen the Mummy, he's a mummy, but he comes back
(13:30):
as a really weird figure and trying to be Holigan
has to find the immortal pool. Turns out this young
assassin girl was protecting the world from this creature and
it was actually those sorcerers, Zil's younger daughter, who is
also the daughter of the general, and they've been living
for thousands of years trying to protect the world from
(13:51):
this painous thing. Lots of ventures happened, Rick almost dies.
They end up with a help of some Yetti's pilots
so much so many things get to the immortal place
and he gets all healed, and there's a cute, great
great reunion scene. Really awkward love story between Alex and
the daughter Lynn happens, and it's very forced and very
(14:15):
awkward to me.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, some of it. I couldn't tell if this was
acting or writing problem, but also like it just felt strange.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
It felt strang I do get to like.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You know, she tried to murder me, how hot or
people do that in entertainment a lot, But it just
felt like.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
She was so ready to sacrifice her mother for this, Like,
I'm I don't you don't.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Know him very well. Maybe maybe takes some time.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, this dude was like going after another girl in
the bar previously, and then he got his face punched
and be like there's so many things that I'm like, okay,
but you know, I go on, God, the love story,
I guess I'd like to see how they play this.
But we move on, and yes, battle ensues. The emperor
does become a mortal and raises his terra Cotta army,
(15:09):
and if they can go bypass a certain line, then
they will come back to life. But at the same time,
the end brings back all those that have been wronged
by the emperor, including her love on and only love
General ming to defend against those people, and we have
a big battle, and then it turns out she sacrifices
herself to get to a dagger that could kill this
(15:32):
now immortal emperor. All these things happened, the son and Rick,
Alexan and Rick come together and stab him in the
heart at the same time because they're so great after
really bad CGI but three headed dragon Sure Sure Sure
has kidnapped the daughter at one point, and then as
everything goes back to play. We see the mother dies,
Goodbye to you, we love you, Michelle Yo, and the
(15:55):
club is now given to that English pilot that we
talked about, because Jonathan was he's done with all the Mummies,
but he's got some treasure somewhere from Shangri La. We
don't know what because he know he knows how to
get away with things. And everybody's dancing inappropriately like he was.
Alex was wall touching this girl's button. I was like, wow, okay,
(16:17):
interesting choice, and that was the end.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yep, yeah, and again this is one of those movie
descriptions that for listeners who have not seen this, and
especially who haven't seen any of the Mummy movies, thank
you for coming along with the ride. I know it
sounds wild, but that is what happens.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
That a goat oh I will. So I got some
fun and not so fun facts, including uh that there
was like when Maria Bellow, who jumped on the chance
(17:03):
because she is an action stars like she's chained in
muay Thai and I believe jiu jitsu and different types
of martial arts, was so excited to do this type
of film. So she was like, I don't think after
forty I didn't think I would get this type of offer.
I jumped on it and then she was like, no,
We're gonna have so many more. Was so excited, and
then that was a cut short that I know, no,
(17:24):
you know you're not. But the director at the time,
who has some big things under his name, he got
really excited, who was not the same director as the
original Mummies, was excited because he wanted to film in China.
So that's why he ended up doing it. This was
I think his last movie. Maybe he had a couple
more after, but the last big name movie that he had.
(17:45):
And after that there were some allegations from his daughter
about child abuse and he has been out of the
business since, so you know, not so wrong about that.
So we also have Maria thought it was just the
beginning for her. It was not the people who decided
(18:06):
to say no, including Imotep, Artith Bay or Odette Fair,
who was Artith Bay like. He was only supposed to
be in for a quick like and die in the
first momment, but people loved him so much and he
was like too beautiful that they couldn't tattoo his face.
They're like, no, no, no, no, no, he could have
one or two tattoos, but he's too pretty. He said
no because he did not like the fact that Emotep
(18:28):
said no. So both of them were supposed to like
come and be a part of this, and imotep Reddit,
the guy who played Imotep Reddit, Arnold Voslou, was like, no,
I'm good. No, thank you. So after that they're like
both like, no, they were good, but I know that
people were trying to say Rachel Weiss said no because
(18:49):
she just had a baby, but she came back to
wudn't no. I just didn't like it. Hey, oh they
were trying to be politically correct, I think, and she
was just like, nah, I just didn't like the do
and I thought, we also know the rumor. Like the
first movie she did, she really was really hesitant because
(19:10):
she was like, this is gonna ruin my career. Really
didn't think it was gonna be good or big, and
turned out it was great for her career, but it
did take a minute for her to realize that. So
the original she was like yes, and the second one,
I think she really had to be pushed into doing
so because she also wanted to do a little more
action because the first one was too lady in distress,
(19:31):
So both those things happened, and then this one she's like, nah,
I'm good, I think we're good. Interestingly, it was also
part in part because the son that she was playing
was only ten years younger than her, and she was
like this is absurd, like this is why are you
aging women like this? And like it is because in actuality,
Mario Bella was only fourteen years older than this actor,
(19:53):
so he was supposed to play a twenty one year
old he's actually twenty eight and like all these things
as well as like he's thirteen years or the Brendan Frasier.
So like, yeah, you know, you know, but we see
that all the time where we have a lot older
actors playing younger constant in Korea, like they're twenty years
older than they're actually they play high school kids, and
you're like why, but we see that. So that was
(20:15):
one of the conversations that was had and need to
be had in this, like why aren't we making really
young women being like middle aged mothers. This is a
weird jump, and I think it had like con continuity
and trying to make the film something like that and
aging them because of that, even though it really was
only ten years after the first film happened, and only
(20:37):
what five years after the second film happened, so it
was like he would only be like eighteen.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah, yeah, I think about this a lot. I just
see it all the time. I feel like in enfranchise
that people love, there comes a point where the characters
you love have aged yea, and they have a kid,
(21:05):
and then it becomes about how they're like can't fly
fish or they can't they it's almost like a sad
they painted as sad when it's really just your aging
and it's fine, you don't have to, but they paint
it as like a strange mid life crisis and your
(21:27):
kid is causing chaos. It's odd to me how often
that happens. And I think it's because the creator's age
with the franchise that they're going through this stuff too.
I see that that I see it everywhere. Sabouta, I
see it all the time.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I could definitely see that like they they they got
to portray where they are.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
This is what it is.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
For this like and again like this director was specific
to it, like he wanted to do it because of
it being based in China. And wanted to do something
in China. I mean he really did have some of
the biggest Chinese celebrities at the time. Michelle Yo, Russell Long,
jet Lee jet Ly is like huge and him coming
(22:16):
he's I don't think he's been any more films for
the US since, not this, but like in a long time.
So like having those kind of names and also having
that like notoriety of movies like Crouching Tiger and Dragon
and as well as Hero, which was one of my
favorite movies. Complete communist propaganda by the way, Chinese communists propaganda.
(22:39):
But it's so beautiful and the artistry of like martial
arts and the legends that it's not tapped into in
the US or in like in the wes Western culture.
To have that being played it could have been amazing
because it's also based on the Chin dynasty, the Chin Emperor,
Like this is actually based on history we talked about before,
(23:01):
as well as the terracotta soldiers that are absolutely in
display right now, some of the sites that we've seen,
so some really great ideas in it. Again, the martial
arts that we get to see with jet Lee Michelle Yo,
like the things that they do are beautiful, and the
fighting scenes are gorgeous. This is where I say it
could have been as someone who was starving for any
(23:26):
Asian love like in cinema, because I really thought at
a young age that I could be an actor. But
I'm okay, I'm fine with all of that. Seeing these
faces and seeing these actors being placed in Western media
(23:47):
with the power of the Mummy franchise. What could have
been is what bothers me so much because these are
some of my favorite people. As a person who is
again starving and didn't see hardly any Korean representation, to
have any Asian face of an Asian heritage makes me
so happy again. I go back to my love of
(24:09):
the Brandy Cinderella story because you had a Filipino actor
coming in and being a heart throb. You're like what
and being loved, And this is that same level, like
I really want this culture instead of being the stereotypes
that we often hear or hurt. Especially during that time,
(24:30):
there was this level of infantilizing all of Asian culture
and it still happens. But like seeing that often where
we see if they are only sidekicks or really smart,
like stereotypes or talkative stereotypes in general, but we get
to see them in action and being leaders and being
heroes and being love interests. It really had so much
(24:54):
potential and then it didn't. And this is where you
and I were not gonna like. I guess I loved.
I wanted to love it so much that when I
started watching, I was like, oh my god, this is
really cheesy. Oh my god, why did they do that?
Oh my god, why do they have this? Oh my god?
(25:15):
Why am I watching? Like mm hmm. It just felt
so like there was a little bit of a secondhand
embarrassment in me saying I love this movie, and I'm
not gonna lie. I will still love this movie. I
will probably never watch it again after this watch.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, So I had the opposite experience, Yeah, because I did.
I saw it in theaters pretty much. The only thing
I remembered was the line when Eve says, it's almost
like I can I'm a completely different person. And then
I knew there was a dragon. I remembered there was
a dragon. So I felt like I was watching it
(25:57):
the first time, to be honest with you, and I
was like, Oh, this isn't as bad as I remember
it being. So we did have a sort of a
different thing. I also want to point out I didn't
know this came out in two thousand and eight. That
was the year. I could be remembering incorrectly, but I
(26:19):
don't think I am. That was when Beijing hosted the Olympics.
That was a big year for American co pros with China,
co productions with China. That was like the big like
we should invest in China year. Oh yes, I believe,
And that's to be honest with you. That's one of
(26:41):
the reasons I went to China is because it became
sort of this big you should go. This is the
time Mandarin.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
That makes a lot of sense because Je Lee is
pro China. If nothing else, that dude loves China or
is told he has to love China. Some weird rumors
going around about him right now that I like this
sounds like sci fi level of rumors, and I think
if people know what I'm talking about, y'all are in
the deeps of the conspiracy theory of Chinese government. But
(27:16):
all that to say is like, there's some interesting stuff.
But like I could absolutely because yeah, it was a
summer Olympics or of in Beijing. So that's Yeah, that
makes a lot more sense because they actually had permission
to film in location, including the museum that was holding
all of these artifacts. So I was actually surprised when
(27:36):
I noticed that, where I was like, oh, they really
let them, because I thought maybe I'm wrong. But tell me,
in the first scenes when they're in the dining room,
it looks like green screen where they're supposed to be
in London. They're trying, like and they're trying to show
off that they're okay and everything's fine, and they're eating
the fish that he shot because he can't fish. Yeah,
poor Rick, But like it looks like the green screen
(27:59):
of what should be yeah, a mansion.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
We just explained that they didn't have the budget to
be in the UK, but they had the budget to
be in China.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
It's possible. I mean, I just I know that was
a big push for a while.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because they got
some they got some leeway and being able to film there,
Like it's pretty tight knit on whose can film it,
especially in this conversation is not necessarily pro China.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, yeah, but it was interesting that they had I'm
going to assume I could be wrong, but they did
do like a lot of the the legends and the lore.
Can't believe they mentioned Tibet. That took me back because
I was like, Chinese government would not uh uh no way,
(28:56):
but they did mention Tibet and the oracle bones and
all that stuff. But they must have had some kind
of some presence on set that was like here are
our legends go about it this way? Maybe yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
And I yeah, I don't. I want to say a
couple of the actors or would be like Hong Kong
things and we know the big like yeah, the controversy there.
One of the actors would probably call them self Taiwanese
and then another actor was American. I believe Russell Long
is technically American, but Chinese American, Yeah, I think are.
(29:37):
But like it's pretty interesting because that is a real
big issue and we know that it is ongoing conversation
about colonialism and all of that, so like in itself,
so there's a lot to be said in that name.
So for them to come through like that, it is
kind of interesting who's representing what in this level. I
(30:08):
again like I want to love this film so much
because I love them so much. I love Michelle yo
so much. I love Jete again interesting and controvertical, was like,
what is this because like he was in Romeo Must
Die and that will forever be one of my favorite movies.
Mmm forever?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Maybe a future. I haven't seen it, so maybe a future.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
I go back and forth because there's a lot of
political incorrectness.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Oh okay, okay, Russell Wong is.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Also in that movie. Okay, But I love Jetlee and
Aliyah together like that made me so happy. I don't
know what it was that had my heart singing singing,
and apparently jetly loved Aliyah. My nineties heart just keeps
beating higher.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Early ship were you shipping?
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I didn't know that was a thing. I thought it
was awkward because it was obvious said they were trying
to cast them as love interests. He's significantly older than her.
To me, that was a little odd, but they kept
it PG like they weren't shipping them as the like
Romeo and Juliet couple. But if I remember correctly, I
think she was like, I look, you made me on zydequests.
(31:20):
I think myself was I mean myself honest, she was
thirty seven, bro was thirty six, thirty seven women, right,
so yeah, significant difference. I'm not sure why we were
all okay with that. I don't think we would again.
The most that they did was handholding. Yeah, so there
(31:45):
was never any kissing. I don't think he has done
any kind of he doesn't do romance. But they really
wanted this Romeo Juliette title for this, and she was
playing someone significantly older than that. She shouldn't have been
maybe she was twenty. I think she might have been twenty,
but still still not good. Still not great mm hm.
(32:06):
So I wouldn't say I was shipping them at any point,
but I love the fact that they did have the
cross section and it was especially because again it's supposed
to be the California based and it was the black
community versus the Asian community, and it was gangster fighting.
So all of these things are like, this is really
politically not good, but the movie is iconic and I
(32:27):
loved it and the soundtrack. Legitimately one of my favorite
DMX was in it. I mean, who doesn't love a
good DMX. He also gets killed in there spoiler alert.
Care about that. Gently really came in with being like
someone that the black community loved because he was in
(32:47):
movies like that, and then he was in Cradle to
the Grave like that also is with DMX by the way,
and so he did a lot that was in that
level that brought into that like understanding communities because like
we know Jackie Chan who is great and fine, then
he did you know, all the things the Rush Hour,
but it was a lot more gimmickey yeah somehow than this.
(33:10):
So seeing Jente being in any movie maybe very happy,
very happy because I felt like he was at least
respectful in what he was doing. Like even him playing
this bad guy, it still was never like he's a
bad guy. Improd the Dragon Emperor is a bad guy obviously,
but like Jentlee just seems like someone who did a
(33:32):
craft that was mixed on martial arts and acting, you
know what I mean, and not trying to take opportunities
and so doing the movie like Romeo Must Die. I
do want to know the backstory who thought of this?
So loving him from the two thousands and yes I
had that VHS and then later the DVD. Oh yeah,
of course I think I still have it.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Actually could be worth something some look up. Some things are.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Worth a lot of money that you're not I'm gonna
go back, but it's such a great time. And so
anytime I saw him and then Michelle yo, who I again.
I love her on everything and anything. Haven't gone to
see her in Wicked.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, I'm waiting that one. Oh, I saw the first
one that I'm waiting.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
She's in the second one, right, she's Oh, she is
in both. She hasn't gotten great accolades for her singing.
There's been a lot of criticism because the way they
say it that the director really wanted her and so
fit her into the role, rather than the role fitting her.
(34:40):
I don't know about that, but anytime I see those
types of caliber of actors, I'm like, yes, it's gonna
be amazing. Like I feel like we expected The Rock
to not be great because that was his first movie. Yeah,
and also really badly cegied it.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Was notorious sleep very bad.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
And by the way, in that interview they talk about it, yeah,
and he says because Brendan Fraser actually said that they
never met while they were filming at all, and they
the first time they met was on the red carpet
because the entire time they were filming, he was a
stick with them.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, like a tennis ball, Yeah with a ball. Yeah.
Now actors have like broken down crying like how can
I act with this tennis ball?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
This is right? Like I know Meryl streepis and that
we talked about that that's becomes her. She just like,
I'll never do this again because how am I supposed
to do this? This is ridiculous. But I did find
that funny. But he talks about like this advanced his
career because that was the first movie that he had
ever done, and Brendan Fraser was like, yeah, we should
(35:51):
bring him on. Come on, he's a big name type
of conversation. So stuff like that is really you know why.
But the third one I thought would be just a
little bit better because you had high caliber and Maria Bellow,
God bless her. She is a phenomenal actor.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Oh yeah, I don't think like you said, she had
everything stacked against her. I don't think she did a
bad job at all. It was just that she was
not not Rachel. Yeah, people were used to and who
they were expecting, but she did she degreat.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
So with all of that, this is why I wanted
to love it so much. And now we're watching I'm like,
oh god, it was really okay, okay, come back to
come back to the new movie. I'm actually interested in
how they're going to do this, Like if they're bringing
back the entire cast, are they going to bring back
Alex or are they going to just make them a blip? Yes?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
So listeners, if you don't know that they are bringing
back According to rumors, Rachel Vyce and Brendan Fraser and
Arnold woslu emotep.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yep, as well as Odette Fair as.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Artist Bay, Yes, uh, I don't.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Know Jonathan's coming back?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I think yeah, I think so too. It seems I don't.
I honestly have no idea, uh, because so much time
has passed. As someone who is getting older myself, I'm like,
am I gonna go out there beat up on Nies again?
(37:27):
I don't know, But I I don't know who's directing
it or anything or writing.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Is I thinks that bringing back the original? So Steven Summers,
who was the director of this two and then third one,
He's like, out, but I'll produce it and had nothing.
He literally says, I really didn't know anything about this movie.
I was just we're done. The way he went about
it is like I would love to have come with
the original actors and if they say yes, And Britain
(37:55):
Fraser was the same way with his like come back.
Everybody's like, yeah, let's do this, and he's like, I'm
down if they're down. I don't see how what that
would look like. I think everybody, everybody is seemingly confused
of that what this will look like. It's going to
be under Universal Pictures. I mean that exists. There's a
lot of murders happening. Who know. The writers for that
(38:16):
third movie, by the way, like lost work for so
long until they were able to come back for Wednesday Juice,
and so they have made it back. So for a
little while though it's not going well for them. They're
saying that it could be Matt Beteranelli opened and Kyler
(38:40):
Gillette from Radio Silence, with the script being by David Coghis.
Sheell ko Shell, kogay Shell. I don't know. And this
is from Deadline article of November, so there is I
guess they have new people. I thought it was gonna
be Stephen Summerville. I thought he said that he was
(39:01):
down for it, but it doesn't seem like it in
this article.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Well, I think a lot of pieces are still moving this. Yeah,
it got a lot of hype because a lot of
us love it.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
So, I mean, if it happens and the thing is,
it's gonna be better than the last one, I think,
and even the new one new reprise would Oh yeah,
so it's got to be better than those two things, right,
I don't know, But will it be better than the first?
(39:35):
Probably not so, Like that's kind of that level, like
we would love it for the sake of loving it,
but do we love it enough to support it if
it's not great?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I okay, I'm going to say something I said no
very quickly there. I like to think I'm an open
minded I try to creep a really open mind about
these things things and my mind has been changed before,
so it's possible. I just think that when something I
(40:09):
remember seeing that in theaters, the First Mummy, and I
loved it, and I think that it's going to be
really hard to match me being whoever old I was
at the time, like nine, and watching that movie in theaters,
(40:31):
I just think that's going to be a difficult experience
to match.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Could it reopen where the younger generations gets to love
a newer version?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Yeah, I think so. I think so. I actually have
a happy hour about how I've been kind of accidentally
learning more about the use and fandom.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
So.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I can't really predict what they're up to, to be honest,
that's kind of my I don't know.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Apparently there's a another Mummy movie coming out hmmm, but
it's not the same. I think it's just using the
title because it's oh yeah, Warner Brothers and uh it's
a horror.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
I ran into this when I was trying to search
where I could stream this movie. I found it. Yeah, okay, okay, I.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Feel like we should just tell people stop doing that,
give new names. No, they're not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
They want you to fall into the chap that's their desire.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
But apparently this is under Blomhouse as well. So oh okay,
I don't know. I don't know. Okay, but there's a
lot happening. Thank you for letting me have this because
I needed to explore. My bowls kind of popped, I
will say, after rewatching, and now I need to reduce.
Maybe I'm gonna go back with Romeo must die for real,
just to have I will say. Immediately after I watched
(42:05):
this one, I was like, I need to first watch
the first one. I got to cleanse this money mommy
taste out of my mouth, out of my spirit. So
it's like that I need to watch the first one
just to get back into it, because it would. Yeah, look,
look when you look at childhood memories and what you
want to love again, why you want to love things,
(42:25):
and things come crashing down, it's a little disappointing. I
do have I do have hopes for a good not remake,
but a revamp, because I mean, I honestly, I just
get really hyped when I see actors that I've seen
work together, so we'll come back together and reunite. That
(42:48):
I would just be hyped for that. So like when
I see a correlation like these two were in this
together and now they're in this, it does make me
very happy. So I would just be happy with Rachel
Byce Brendan Fraser like guest appearance in a random movie
or show. That would make me happy, to be honest,
but you know, I'm interested. I'm excited to see I
(43:10):
guess again. I feel like Brendan Fager's comeback is delightful.
I love Rachel Vice even with all of the personal
relationship with you know, leaving her husband to be with
Daniel Craig, who's a very sexy, sexy man. So I
get it, but still, you know, questionable, but you're happy.
(43:33):
We hope you're happy because she is a gorgeous woman
that deserves everybody deserves to be happy. No one likes
to be in online line with those ways, but all
those things we want to see things, all the bad
things that I'm like, there's so many things that we
are people or corporations that have to be boycotted, and
she's just finding trying to find small pleasures, yeah, without
(43:55):
wanting to burn one like burn the world down. Also
hard to come by sometimes mm yeah, yeah, I'm gonna
have to take a pause and go watch the original Anie,
I think.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Oh yeah, well I think you should.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
And maybe next year Romeo Must Die will happen. Then
we have to address all of the big are.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Oh yes, rough rough yes. I also I've said it before.
I said it in our original Moment episode and it
kind of happened here, not to the best degree, but
it was kind of evy story and Rick was just
supporting her. It was very much like she was leading
(44:40):
the way and he was like here are the tools
I stole from somebody?
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Yes, here this time is guns, all the guns, which
the second one was about guns as well, honestly.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well we'll see. I'm sure we'll
be back here when the if, when the fourth one
comes out, maybe the Scorpion King. I think we should
do it.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
But meantime, listeners, please let us know if you have
any movies like this, any kind of I hate the
word guilty pressure, but like anything like that that you
like to revisit that you don't discover. You know, maybe
it's not the best, but it meant something to you
for some reason. You can email us at Hello at
(45:22):
Stuffhannever Told You dot com. You can find us on
blue Sky at mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and
TikTok at stuff Who Never Told You. We're also on YouTube.
We have some new merchandise at Cotton Hero, and we
have a book you can get wherever you get your books.
Thinks It's always too our super discresting our executive who's
to my anti conturder Joey.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Stuff Never Told You. Spect from my Heart Radio for
more podcasts from My Heart radio. You can check out
the heart radio app, Apple podcast, or if you listen
to your favorite shit
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
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