The Mummy (1999)

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Remember when blockbuster movies didn't take themselves so seriously? When they balanced action, horror, comedy, and romance without sacrificing pure entertainment value? The 1999 adventure classic "The Mummy" represents this perfect equilibrium, and we're diving headfirst into its sandy depths to uncover what makes it so enduringly appealing.

Brendan Fraser's Rick O'Connell and Rachel Weisz's Evelyn Carnahan create magic on screen with their natural chemistry and witty repartee. Their relationship evolution feels authentic despite the extraordinary circumstances, providing an emotional anchor amid the supernatural chaos. Whether they're bickering over packing a suitcase or facing down an ancient evil, their scenes together sparkle with an energy rarely captured in today's blockbusters.

The film's special effects present a fascinating time capsule of late '90s Hollywood innovation. Released the same year as The Phantom Menace, The Mummy showcases both cutting-edge CGI and practical effects that combine to create memorable sequences - from the sand face storm to the partially regenerated Imhotep. While some effects show their age, others remain impressively effective more than two decades later. The scarab beetles crawling under human skin still make us squirm, proving that sometimes imagination trumps perfect visual execution.

We explore the fascinating historical liberties taken by the filmmakers, who borrowed real Egyptian historical figures separated by millennia and placed them together in a fictional narrative. Despite these creative choices, the production team's attention to detail in hieroglyphs, language, and cultural elements demonstrates a genuine appreciation for Egyptian history and mythology. The film manages to create an immersive world that feels respectful of its source material while prioritizing entertainment over strict historical accuracy.

What makes this episode particularly compelling is our discussion about why Hollywood rarely produces mid-budget adventure films of this nature anymore. The Mummy represents a lost era when studios were willing to take chances on original adventure stories without the pressure of universe-building or franchise potential. Join us as we reminisce about this perfect popcorn movie that reminds us all why we fell in love with cinema in the first place.

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https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back, guys and geeks, to episode 115 of
Project Geekology.
My name is Dakota, I'm onethird of your hosts and we're
very excited today because we'recovering a movie that I had
never seen before prior to this.
I was surprised how much, likehow big of a role Tom Cruise had
in this movie, the 2017 Mummyfilm.

(00:21):
It's a remake of the, you knowthe, the Brendan Fraser one and
then the one from you know, likeUniversal's past.
But, yeah, we're really excitedto talk about the Mummy and
kind of sad that this is thelast that it'll ever be of like
the dark universe.
Guys, what did you think of it?
Did I mess up, guys?

(00:42):
Did I do something?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I watched the whole franchise Did I mess up guys Did
.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
I do something wrong.
I watched the whole franchise.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
So I'm going to be very upset if that's what I was
supposed to do.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Dakota.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm looking at your face.
Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
I'm looking at your face to read you because I'm
like, yeah, this man is justmessing around, right?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
now I didn't know what we were going to do.
I was like, what are we goingto do now?
Guys messing around right now,I didn't know what we were going
to do.
I was like, what are we going?

Speaker 1 (01:05):
to do now.
Guys, I am joined, as always,with Anthony.
Yeah, we're covering theoriginal Brendan Fraser movie
from, I think, 2000?
No, 99.
Was it 99?
Yeah, it was 99.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, so just before the millennium.
But yes, you hear it here.
Here we are covering the notoriginal mummy but like the
brendan frazier mummy in 99 theone in the middle, yeah, yeah,
in the middle, the one that mostpeople the one that most people
attribute right right the, theone that people have the most
fun with.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
But, yes, joining us, as always now, is rich and I'm
super excited with to be herewith you guys and you know, dig
deep and uncover some truthsabout the mummy yes, um, there's
a lot of truths to be uncovered.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Um, there's a lot of, uh, falsehoods when it comes to
the real world timeline.
I'm so excited to dive intothat because, I don't know, I
don't think I've ever mentionedit on this podcast, but, like,
when I was a kid, my dream jobwas to be an egyptologist.
So, like, this movie was, youknow, like, my favorite thing as
a kid and growing up and, youknow, having done research on

(02:15):
egypt, I realized this hasnothing to do with egypt at all,
um, or barely any.
You know it is.
I should say that the settingis is, uh, very much egypt,
egypt, but it takes a lot ofliberties.
It's harder to enjoy it alittle bit, but it's still such
a fun movie.
I have to just kind of roll myeyes and move on.
But, yeah, we're excited totalk about the Mummy from 1999,

(02:38):
not the 2017 Mummy, which Istill haven't seen.
Actually, yeah, I haven'twatched that one.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
I had seen it.
I saw it.
Watched that one.
I had seen it.
I saw it around the time thatit had come out.
It's been a while.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Wow, you must feel so good about yourself.
I do.
You haven't seen that movie, Ido.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
I'm in company with Rich because you know, rich and
I, you know we're caught up onthis.
You know verse mummy.
Okay, right, yeah, I the darkuniverse, for sure.
Oh yeah, you're right, it isthe dark monster versus godzilla
.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, I'm caught up on monster verse, that's for
sure.
Anyway, guys, uh, before we getinto this, the discussion of
the mummy from 1999 starringbrendan frazier what are?
What have you been up to thispast week, anthony?
You got some big news.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, uh, this this week I started my my job, the,
the remote job, the it job.
It's it's been nothing but likereally training.
So you know, I'm trying to, youknow, soak up as much as I can
I that, um, a lot of this stuffI'm probably not going to
remember like right off the topof my head.

(03:49):
It's gonna like take time forme to like you know kind of work
it and and, um, I guess likebuild my way up to that or build
my up to like a like a betterlevel of proficiency.
But but it's been cool.
I definitely do feel, eventhough I'm learning a lot and

(04:10):
kind of stepping out of mycomfort zone, because I've
worked in a lot ofcustomer-facing jobs or just
general public-facing jobs.
So being in a job that's athome and a little bit more on
the back end, like it'sdefinitely different for me.
But I do feel like a lot morelike at peace because of like

(04:32):
I'm not dealing with a lot ofstuff grabbing my attention all
day, and it's it's so odd, likewhen you, when I go to clock out
for lunch, like I'm at home,that is.
That is pretty cool though.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, it is.
I mean, are you finding it a?

Speaker 3 (04:50):
challenging job at this point, or uh, yeah, there,
there is.
There there challenges to it.
There's things that you know Ihave to kind of, you know, dig
into to files and and use thecommand prompt for for different
things, which I've used thecommand prompt before for stuff
on my computer, but like this iscommand prompt stuff to like

(05:12):
mess around with.
You know stuff with likeprograms and and and different
things.
You know programs that I don'tknow the backend of.
You know, like I know, the backend of some of the stuff that
I've messed with, like I'vemessed with files and, like you
know, with video games and stuffto like mod it and whatnot.

(05:32):
But like this is, you know,trying to fix and troubleshoot
issues and programs that I don'tknow the back end of.
But I know that I'll, you know,learn it as time goes by.
I know that I'll learn it astime goes by and it's definitely
going to be an interestingendeavor and I do believe that

(05:55):
there's a lot that I can learnfrom this and I know that once I
feel proficient that I'lldefinitely move on to either a
higher position or to, you know,to maybe a different position.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
So nice man yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
So so it's, it's interesting.
Yeah, man, like that, that'slike really my biggest thing,
that that I have going on.
But but, yeah, man, and justwatching this movie for the
first time in like maybe fiveyears.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
I'm sure you watched it plenty, you know, back in the
day, when you know, when I wasa kid, I watched it all the time
.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
So yeah, yeah yeah so yeah, I liked it a lot.
But yeah, um, how, how about,how about?
Uh, you rich, we'll go with younext let's see.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
I think I'm not sure if I mentioned it last time, but
I was working on this weirdlesson plan with the star the
Next Generation episode.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
You did mention it.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
So I'm still kind of getting the germs out.
I tested it on a couple of kidsand realized that I might also
have to update what my memes are.
They're like yeah, no, that's ameme I know from, like my dad,
like my dad has that one.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
I'm just like, okay, great, so I might need to yeah,
that's the thing with memes isthat the lifespan of memes is uh
shorter and shorter these daysbut I also, I think, discovered.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Well, I was talking about how I discovered this a
couple years ago, but there someof my students had been talking
about, uh, oh, they, they hadbeen saying you know, oh, he
woke up and chose violence, youknow.
And I remember immediatelygoing like they quote did you
just quote cersei lannister?
And they're like who, who thehell is cersei lannister?
I'm like she's the woman whosaid, like, woke up and chose

(07:37):
violence, like that's, that's,that's like from when she, you
know, bombs baylor's bay,baylor's, sept or whatever in
King's Landing.
And the kids were staring at melike we don't watch Game of
Thrones, bro, and that's when Istarted to realize, which was
really sad.
But it's in that moment that Irealized that they don't know

(07:58):
the original source material.
Right, right, it's, it'sgetting almost more and more
like the next generation episode, because here now they're,
they're ascribing all this stuffto these short clips of
something that they don'tactually know the larger, larger
context of.
So, uh, yeah, I'm, that's realnerd stuff level.

(08:18):
Uh, teacher stuff, I'm tryingto do stuff but that's.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
But that works, you know, in a meta way with the
lesson plan that you have,because the episode that you're
trying to, you know, showcase Iforget the name of the episode
Darmok Darmok.
It basically is a alien racethat communicates through
references to past works intheir culture.

(08:44):
So it kind of makes.
I'm sure there's plenty ofreferences that you and I use
that we don't realize.
Oh, that was started byShakespeare or something like
that.
So yeah, it's kind of on parwith what your kids are or what
you're experiencing with yourstudents, where they are
referencing things that theydon't even know.

(09:05):
You know, like that's, that'spretty funny.
But yeah, I mean, uh woke upand chose violence has been uh
co-opted by the the internet,and you know it's just a
colloquialism at this point yeah, I was very surprised, you know
.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, that's.
That's kind of like the theeducation side, the work adult
side.
The other side of of me leftwork early last Thursday.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Oh, yeah, tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Got someone to cover my class the last 10 minutes
because I looked at the scheduleand the New York Metropolitans
were starting the season at 3.10pm.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
My workday ends at 3.05.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
I knew I had to make something happen, so I got my
friend to come in at 245, I gotin my car and I raced home, all
right.
I pull into the driveway, Ijump out of my car, I get on the
couch at 309, I have an IPA inmy hand and I can't find the
game.
And I'm distraught and I'mlooking all over the place and I

(10:02):
finally discover that the gamestarts at 4.10.
There was no reason for me toleave work early, no reason for
me to speed, no reason for me torun, no reason to have HR
message me and say how is itthat you got home at 3.07 when
the workday ends at 3.05?
Because I had the misfortunethat the HR director happened to

(10:25):
be driving down the streetwhere I live, where near I live,
and happened to notice my verynoticeable volkswagen bug making
a left right towards my housethat was smooth, that was really
smooth in a fair, in like aferris bueller's day off moment.
I just I somehow got caught butnarrowly avoided real trouble.
Uh, so that's that.

(10:46):
And then, uh, this week, thisweek's the big one, guys, this
one's the big one, the open, thehome opener.
All right, we're gonna befreezing our butts off in new
york probably gonna be pouringrain all day long oh, you guys
haven't played at home yet nope.
So we're uh, our first threegames for the season.
Where, kind of like Cal-El, Inow have the sun shining on me

(11:09):
again, I will be attendingbaseball games live.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Excellent, glad, glad to hear it.
I'm happy for you.
New York, I don't.
I haven't been following Metsteams, but the Yankees have been
doing pretty good.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah about that.
The Yankees have been doingpretty good.
Yeah about that.
Yeah, wow.
Oh no, they scored more runsthan any other team has in the
first three games.
Nine home runs in one game whata great record, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Listen, here's the thing.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Listen, listeners, if you guys are listening to this
and I know you guys don't likejust knowing what's going to
happen you like a roller coaster?
All right, you want a rollercoaster of emotion.
You want to feel like garbagebut then feel great, but then
feel like garbage in the span of12 minutes.
Sign up to be a new yorkmetropolitan fan okay, all right

(11:59):
, that's a good idea.
Yeah, but other than watchingbaseball, your favorite, your,
your favorite team over there.
For now, what have you been upto?

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Dakota.
Well, that's the thing Ihaven't been watching baseball
that Saturday that they had thatsupposedly the best game that
the Yankees have ever played,where they got more runs than
they've ever gotten in a singlegame.
They got more homers than Ithink any MLB team has ever
gotten in a single game, and awhole bunch of other records are

(12:27):
broken.
I was trying my hardest tofigure out where this game was
streaming.
I was downloading apps left andright.
I downloaded the MLB appbecause we looked at the MLB app
and they said on screen thatthis game was playing.
So I was just like, all right,let's just, let's just, you know
, do the free trial and then youknow they'll charge us if we

(12:48):
want to keep it.
And it was like 150 bucks itwas a lot of money and we get
the app and it's just like, dueto streaming rights, we don't
have app access to this game soblackout restrictions?
yes, it was so annoying dude, Iwas super pissed.
Anyway, I missed that entiregame.
I canceled that membership,good, and they charged me $162

(13:15):
anyway.
What?
Yeah, it was the craziest thing.
It was an April Fool's joke.
I got it yesterday, oh wait.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
That just might mean that you can.
It's like playstation.
So if, like, I upped myplaystation subscription to the
highest tier to get like demosfor one year and then, of course
, of course, because they won't,they remind you one month
before they're like hey, in 30days we're gonna charge you.
I'm sure you're gonna rememberthat.
So I forgot to change my tierand it bumped me again.

(13:44):
So when I canceled it itdoesn't cancel it like you could
still, you still have it.
They're like no, you paid forit for the year, buddy.
Like now it's canceled for thenext time.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
But maybe I clicked into one of those random things
where I had to read the fineprint.
But anyway, I I you knowdisputed the charge with apple,
so I'll probably get that back.
I hope I get that back.
That's a lot of money for anapp that doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yeah, yeah, that is a lot of money.
Yeah, I've had stuff like thatand like I hate it when you go
to to get rid of a subscriptionand they're like are you sure,
are you sure, are you sure?
Like you have to hit like like10 times?

Speaker 2 (14:21):
before they actually cancel it.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
I know, and I've had that before, but I've had that
happen to me before where I'vecanceled the subscription.
I remember canceling it and Istill got charged.
I was like, oh no, heck, no,y'all gonna give me my thing
back, because I definitely and Ihad like an email like with the
confirmation for it yeah, no,it's, it's bizarre and you can
actually like I have a record ofmy like purchase history.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
It says that free trial, and then it's it's
bizarre and you can actuallylike I have a record of my like
purchase history.
It says free trial, and thenit's just like 150 plus tax.
I was, I was really pissedanyway.
Um, other than that, other thanmissing the best yankee game in
history, uh, me and my wifefinished watching the crown.
We, we've been slowly goingthrough that um, which has been
really kind of cool, honestly.

(15:04):
You know, just getting um, ahistorical series that takes
place over the course of, Ithink it's like 40 or 50 years
between you know, when queenelizabeth went, you know, got on
the throne to, you know, notnot to her death.
It goes up until, like, thelike, the early 2000s, but um,

(15:27):
it's a really incredible show,uh, fantastic.
Every single episode that Iwatched was, has, has or was
fantastic, um, and it was a goodending.
So that was pretty cool.
And then I decided I wanted towatch succession.
Wait, no, not succession.
Why do I always get these two?
Severance I've already seenSuccession, severance.
I wanted to watch Severance,the Apple TV series, and I only

(15:54):
watched the first episode, but Ican tell it's going to blow me
away.
So I'm really excited aboutthat and it's a show that
everyone's talking about rightnow.
Think they the second seasonjust finished, so I'm eager to
continue that.
What else have I been up to?
Oh, I started my timeline noteson season two of the legend of

(16:14):
korra.
I'm making my way through thatslowly.
One thing that I noticed, um,which is actually like really,
really cool world building, isum in the first season in, you
know, they spend the entire timein republic city, right, and uh
it when, when cora gets there,all the trees are like autumn

(16:35):
colors, you know, like uh, but abunch of like oranges and reds
on the trees and all that.
And slowly, as the season goeson, it goes into winter.
So like snow is pretty abundantin the past in the last couple
episodes of the first season.
Then the second season starts.
It's two months later I'm notgoing to spoil this for you rich
it's or sorry, it's six monthslater.

(16:57):
So six months after winterstarts would be the beginning of
summer, right?
So in republic city thatmatches up.
It has like um, you know, likethe, the, the green plains, lots
of like green on the trees,obviously no snow or anything
like that.
So I thought that was reallycool.
But then they go to the southpole and then they you know,

(17:20):
there's, there's a someone,someone claims that it's the
winter solstice tomorrow and Iwas briefly like wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
This this messes up my entirelike timeline for the show.
Like what, what is going on?
Like I was, I was having a minimeltdown as I was trying to
like rationalize it and then Irealized that there, that in the

(17:41):
world building, theyincorporated hemispherical
seasonality.
That they're that in the worldbuilding, they incorporated
hemispherical seasonality.
So just like right now, uh, solike, if it's summer in the
north hemisphere, it's winterdown in australia.
So they, they did that in thisseries because republic city is
like very north on the map,whereas south pole is obviously

(18:02):
the south pole, you know.
So where it would be the heightof summer in republic city, it
is the uh, height of winter in,uh, the south pole.
So that blew my mind that theyincorporated, you know, a real
world, like time mechanic, like,uh, hemispherical seasonality.
So I thought that was that waspretty interesting, it's cool.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
We had like an exchange student from argentina
who came and it was wild tothink that you know.
He said he left the summer ofjanuary and february.
And I said you left the summerof january and february to come
to winter in new york in january, february.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Like that's quite a decision, sir yeah, that is a
decision, but uh, other thanthat, I didn't, I didn't really
get.
I mean, it sounds like I did awhole lot, but I've mostly been
complaining, uh, in my time.
But, um, yeah, uh, you guys,have you guys done anything else
before we jump into el mumi?

Speaker 2 (18:55):
oh, I, I did.
I have been watching therighteous gemstones, which is uh
not family friendly and uhreally offensive, but kind of
hilarious and uh, my wife and Iare very enjoying it.
Yeah, I've heard that that'sreally funny, so okay it's danny
mcbride and you know I mean hewrote it, so it's very day if
you've seen any danny mcbride,uh, led, you know production.

(19:18):
It's basically what you thinkit is.
It's just a uh, a family ofpastors in pastors in the ilk of
large arena, televised eventsand how they're just dastardly
terrible people.
Walter Goggins is in it, johnGoodman's in it, danny McBride,

(19:43):
of course, so it's actually gota pretty good cast.
I mean, to see John Goodman inthis is is pretty wild, and
Walter Goggins is.
He's amazing in anything hedoes.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, I love him.
I love him.
He played the he's in the mostrecent season of White Lotus,
which is still going on I thinkthere's one more episode of that
and he recently was in amazonprime's fallout series, yeah,
which he played the ghoul, andhe did a fantastic job with that
.
He was my favorite characterexcellent.

(20:14):
That's great show.
Guys.
Should we jump into the mummy?

Speaker 3 (20:18):
yes, let's hop into the mummy, let's hop in um
really quickly.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Uh.
One thing that I thought wasreally uh, a well written line
um is when they first open upthe, you know, the sarcophagus
that holds the decaying, theslowly decaying, uh, emotep, uh.
Brandon frazier goes.
Is he supposed to be so juicy?

Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I thought that's perfect.
I almost died and sent you guysthe clip.
I just couldn't like just leavea five-star juicy sarcophagus
review.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, so just like Imhotep who is like being dried
out very slowly.
We need you to give us a juicyfive-star review on our podcast.
Uh, we're really, you know, we,we thrive on those.
You know juicy five-starreviews, guys.
So, um, just not as decayed,yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway.

(21:22):
Uh, let's, let's, let's, jumpinto the Mummy guys.
Obviously we've all seen itbefore, right.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
No.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yes, was this a first for you, roach?

Speaker 2 (21:38):
I have only seen any of the movies by pure accident
and just as a you know, I'm asucker for putting on.
I don't know what it is, it'smy age showing.
I kind of like movies on tbroadcast tv okay, I I like
sometimes it.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
It just feels like a tv show like that.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, no, I get it I like the built-in bathroom
breaks where I don't feel likeI'm stopping everything.
I kind of like the uh, thethrill of running to the
bathroom and getting a sandwichand seeing if I can make it back
in two minutes.
Uh, so I've always done that.
But I, you know, if I wasgrading, I think at any time,
that it would have been on TV, Iwould have been, I would have

(22:19):
had it on the background, youknow.
So I I remember seeing, forexample, imhotep's face, the uh,
where his, when his cheek isnot completely together and he's
kissing, uh, evelyn, right thatI?
I can distinctly remember that,right, and I also know, I really
probably know about thisfranchise because of the rock,
all right, if I have to behonest, like the rock brought my

(22:41):
attention to it, so I probablyI saw some of scorpion king, but
since I hadn't seen the wholething, the whole franchise, I
didn't really understand what I,what I was supposed to care.
So this is the first time thatI ever sat down and said I'm
going to want to watch, I'mgoing to watch one of these
movies from the beginning to theend and then I watched the
franchise.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
You watch, you watch the whole franchise.
Did you jump into the spinoffScorpion King movie with Dwayne
the Rock Johnson?

Speaker 2 (23:09):
For the purposes of not having extemporaneous I
can't remember the word rightnow Information that really
wasn't Extemporaneous.
Yes, there we go.
I couldn't say it, get it out.
I paused there because I didreally watch a lot of them in a
row.
I mean, yeah, you did yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Well, I'm very impressed.
There is no extra credit onthis podcast, what it's.
We should have let you knowthat when you started.
Actually, yeah, there's no extracredit, but yet you still got
an F somehow somehow so as Iguess this is the first time
that you're like activelywatching, let's let's just focus

(23:51):
on the first one for the timebeing.
Um, this is the first timeyou're actively watching the
mummy yep.
How do you?
How did you enjoy it?
How did you?
I know that you had, uh, neverseen, um, honor among thieves,
the dungeon dragons movie thatwe covered a couple of weeks ago
.
Did this compare to that in anyway?
It kind of has a very similarvibe in terms of, like the

(24:13):
action adventure humor aspect ofit.
But I want to hear yourthoughts.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
I OK, so let's see.
So I mean, compared to HonorAmong Thieves, it's not.
Still, honor Among Thieves isway better.
Honor among thieves it's not.
Still, honor among thieves isway better.
Like I, that movie has hasjumped into like a top.
You know, you know it.
It is like if if you said to meand this is crazy for me to say
but if you were like, pick, youknow 17 movies or so that you,

(24:43):
that's the only ones you couldwatch.
Honor among thieves is now inmy rotation that's amazing.
All right, I cannot say the sameabout the mummy, but that's not
to take away from it.
I'd say, if I'm not gonna putlike fun franchises, you know
like I love pirates, pirates isgreat.
You know like, and I'm leavingout star wars and I'm, you know

(25:04):
I can't even star wars isreligion, so I'm not going to
include this in thisconversation.
But like I love the pirates,the pirates franchise, this I
thought was really fun.
I mean I at first I was alittle concerned with some of
the cgi, like in the first atthe end of the day, you have to
realize it's 1999 you know, thisis the same year as phantom

(25:27):
menace, so yeah, so yeah, it wasa little.
I thought it was a littlesketchy, like it was a little
hit or miss at first, but Ithought they did a really good
job with imhotep, like when wegot to see his transformation
and and and his cgi I thought itwas really good.
I thought the acting was great.

(25:47):
Brendan frazier is a really funlike uh.
You know I love nathan drakefrom the uh yeah, uncharted
series, you know, and he andhe's kind of like nathan drake
brought to life, you know that'sit.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
That's a really good point.
Actually, everyone alwayscompares nathan drake to indiana
jones, which you know there'sdefinitely influence there.
But he is very much, you know,I think he might, might actually
be closer to Rick O'Connellfrom the mummy, he's literally a
.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
He's more of a a literal kind of tomb Raider than
you know.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
In Indy was doing it for like to find it yeah, to
protect the these like cultural,significantly.
I don't even know what I'msaying, but yeah, I I know what
you're saying yeah, you know,nathan drake's kind of just a
ne'er-do-well and I love thatabout.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
And brandon frazier is just uh, he's a great.
I think he's just a greatcomedic actor.
You know he's got the build toto be, uh, you know, that kind
of the action hero type.
He's.
Uh, I thought I thought he jobwell done here.
Uh, some fun for me, some funcameos, my favorite.
I'm just gonna get this out ofthe way now because I'm super

(26:55):
ancient and you guys probablywon't get this, but winston in
the movie downright delighted me.
Winston is the he flew theairplane yeah, they got them
around, all right.
And this man, the actor, allright.
I first saw him back when I wasa wee lad, watching episodes of
bewitched and black and white,and I would see dr bombay, the

(27:18):
magical doctor, appear out ofnowhere.
And it's the same actor and Isat there and I went holy
shnikes.
This movie is older, like Irealized that the mummy is so
much older than I thought it was, because I was like that guy
was on black and whitetelevision and he's in this
movie.
What's going on here?

Speaker 3 (27:37):
you know, to be fair, a bewitched was way before you
also yeah, yeah, no, yeah, theywere.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
It was like you're not that ancient, yeah, no um
you're just more susceptible toreruns yes, yeah, yeah,
absolutely, anthony anthony, Igotta ask why do you hate this
movie so much?

Speaker 3 (27:55):
man, bro, like the way that americans are portrayed
as, like you know, thesecaricatures, man, like where
these gunslinging like cowboys.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Where's rick o'connell from?
Because he kept saying that hekept calling these people the
americans.
But like, is he not alsoamerican?

Speaker 3 (28:12):
I'm a little bit confused I mean, I guess he's
just like labeling that group aslike the americans, but but
like you know that, uh was it?
Um, oh my gosh, I'm thinking ofher actual name, evelyn.
So Evelyn was like saying abunch of like crap about
Americans and like you know,like you can tell like it was

(28:37):
kind of agreeing.
He was kind of agreeing butlike you could tell that, like
he, it was like a funny momentbecause like he's kind of lumped
up in with americans, so he isan american yeah, but I, I, I
went to paris once and you know,we, you know you hear this, you
know, oh, americans, whatever,and we're behaving ourselves,
we're being polite.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
I'm trying to order in french as much as possible
and communicate that way andthere was definitely an american
couple at the other side of therestaurant being loud,
obnoxious, abrasive, and we justput our heads in our hands and
we're like this is why we gettreated poorly when we're just a
little lost, asking for wherethe train is you know, so it was

(29:19):
like, yeah, we're both the same, but we're not the same they
look at you and you just hitthem with a spanish like saying
yeah, I'm not, I'm not fromamerica.
You know, like just bam, bam,I'm safe, but uh, no, that's uh,
that that's the americanslander, is you know?
But there's also, uh, you know,I, I don't know if, uh, if, the

(29:42):
egyptians come off too.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
No, actually they definitely make the Egyptian
warden like the butt of many,many jokes.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Oh yeah, yeah, like that video that I had sent you.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
Yes, where he like, uh, what's the term oleolate?

Speaker 3 (30:03):
yeah, where he like starts oleolating his tongue.
Absolutely like ridiculous it's, it's the most out of pocket
scene in the whole movie andthere's a lot of, but when it
happened I just laughed becauseit came out of nowhere right
before, literally right beforehe dies, right right right, like

(30:23):
like there's scenes from thismovie that like I don't remember
, so like I didn't remember thatone, so like, yeah, like when I
popped up like dude, I'mlaughing, I'm like dude, that
was absolutely ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
I don't even think I can make that noise on camera.
I know, yeah, I can't, I'd haveto like, really like, practice
it.
I'm not going to do it here onthe podcast for the the sake of
your ears, um, but yeah, thatwas reaching in my ears that was
something that was a choice.
Uh, one thing, rich, you said,um, that looked really good, was

(30:55):
the actual uh mummy, mummyhimself, because it kind of
starts with like a practicalmodel in the coffin and then
it's mostly cgi, uh, mixed orsuperimposed onto the, the
actor's body, which is reallycutting edge.
You know, at the time this is1999 again, and cgi was at this

(31:20):
point less than a decade old.
You know in in actual practice,you know on screen practice.
So, yeah, no, I think that theythey did a really good job for
what they had, and I'm sure thisyou know I haven't looked into
it, but I'm sure that this moviepioneered certain techniques
that carried on into futuremovies and series, kind of like

(31:40):
Pirates of the Caribbean came acouple years after this point
and they did something verysimilar with their skeleton crew
, not the Star Wars skeletoncrew, the actual skeleton crew
of the Black Pearl.
It was very similar-ish to thatkind of CGI that they
incorporated with Imhotep which,yeah, again, it looked great

(32:02):
and he was actually pretty scary.
I know as an adult it not like avery scary movie, but like as a
kid, this, this, this, uh, thisshook me right, right, like
like this is.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
This is like an adventure, like rom-com, with
like horror elements, kind oflike sprinkled into it.
I'm going to be honest with you.
I remember seeing this as a kidand those scarabs scared me,
dude, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Let's just talk about those scarabs.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
The scarabs frightened me.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
There was literally no need for them to make the
dung beetle as scary as it is inthis movie.
For those of you who have notbothered to look this up, if you
go to Egypt, you will not beeaten alive by scarab beetles.
They do not care about you.
They are not flesh-eating.

(32:54):
They literally just pick uppoop and make balls out of it.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
That's their life goal.
So if you go into a lostEgyptian city and you find these
jewel scarabs in the wall, youcan ululate in peace.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
I don't know about that.
I think that is stillconsidered tomb raiding and all
that.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yeah, I guess so, but you don't have to worry about
being eaten by by scarabs thatis correct.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yes, you can, or you lay in peace next to the scarab
jewelry.
Um, yeah, what?
What did you think about the?
Uh, the scarab beetles?

Speaker 2 (33:39):
uh, rich they frightened me.
That was definitely, for me,the the worst part of the movie.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Seeing it under the skin, that was something.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
That's a crazy effect , though, yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Oh, that was terrible .

Speaker 3 (33:53):
You don't see that too often.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Just absolutely awful , I mean really well done.
Really that was.
And I didn't know that theywouldn't attack me.
So maybe now I will go to Egypt.
It was off my list before, butmaybe it'll be back on.
I'm still not going toaustralia, you won't.
There's nothing you can say toconvince me.
But uh, I think egypt is a safeplace now they're.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
We're gonna kidnap you and just like drop you be a
parachute over australia nightabsolute nightmare scenario
right in the right, in thecenter of the outback yeah,
right in the center, in thedesert, yeah, you're gonna be uh
, fighting for your life, butyeah, no, they, they.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
There are no you know flesh-eating scarab beetles
anywhere in the world, actually.
But I like the ingenuity of it,like I guess the movie wasn't
scary enough with just a mummy,so they needed, like they needed
someone to say I hate bugs andthen, like, come up with like
the worst bug of all time.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, I mean I do like the little nod to you know,
to Indiana Jones.
I mean I hope, right, it'sgotta be, it could be.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
I actually don't know .
You know, uh, and then yeah,and then even there's there,
isn't there one where one of thecharacters dislikes rats?
oh, it's uh his father yeah,right, so you know, there always
seems to be some sort of uhdisliked vermin.
I'm not sure if there'swell-liked vermin, to be honest,
uh, except for home alone 2, uh, where the lady the pigeon lady

(35:22):
liked the pigeons.
But other than that, you don'treally sky vermin, yeah, the sky
vermin, you don't really.
Other than that you don'treally see, uh, you don't.
You don't really see vermincelebrated.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
So there, was that one like series of movies where,
uh, that family adopted a rat?
Or a mouse, stewart littlestewart little, yeah, wait wait,
I thought you were.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
I thought you were going with Harry Potter.
I'm like he's talking aboutScabbers.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
I'm like Scabbers is a killer.
That actually really could haveworked, but yeah, no, I was
actually talking about StuartLittle.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
It's a fun fact is, I was teaching in downtown
Brooklyn and one of my studentsbecause I was wearing a plaid
shirt and jeans and I happenedto be of paler complexion than
that student said why are youdressed as stewart little today?
And I I fell back onto my chairlaughing because you can't even
get angry, you can't even get Idon't, guys.

(36:15):
Just I know you may not be ableto see me.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
I don't actually look like a white mouse, all right,
so but I wish, I wish you guyscould see this podcast because
I'm.
My backdrop today is the GreatPyramids of Giza.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
My head is like right on the Great Pyramid itself,
the back of a dollar bill.
It does kind of look like thatI'm super opposed on the Pyramid
of Khufu right now guys all wehave to do is just like get a
screenshot and throw some, likeyou know, dollar signs on there,
man yeah, we should um, butyeah, it's dude.

(36:58):
You know the the biggest thingthat I was thinking about this
movie, like while watching thismovie, is that from time to time
we do, but we don't get movieslike this ever really anymore.
I know, uh, the closest thatthat I could say in recent time
that I've seen I don't know ifthere have been any others, but
like dungeons and dragons that'swhy I brought it up genuinely

(37:20):
like a fun like movie and likeyou know there was, there was
action there, there was likecomedy there, there was, like
you know, this whole, like amagical aspect to it.
Um, there was like creepiness toit also, you know, because of
the red wizards, but you know,like that, that's movies like
this, like I just I don't knowwhat it is like.

(37:41):
I I believe that you know, wasit?
This movie didn't do the beston rotten tomatoes, it's like a
60.
But like for me, the way that Isee it, is that like a movie
doesn't have to be this crazycertified fresh film for you to
actually like it and enjoy it.
And you know, it kind of got meback thinking back on like

(38:03):
movies, like, like man, like you.
This is when you think of asummer blockbuster or a summer
fun film to watch.
You might see a movie like this, or Jurassic Park or Back to
the Future or something,something that's really just fun
to watch man, really like justfun to watch man.

(38:29):
And it doesn't matter if it, ifit scores a 15 or or a hundred
percent of rotten tomatoes, youstill had a good time.
You know, like the the story.
I guess sometimes you don'talways have to have the most
compelling story to enjoyyourself at the movies yeah, and
I totally agree with that.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
and not only is it a fun time, it's well constructed,
right, like.
Almost every shot in this ispleasing to look at, like there
are no stale shots.
There's a lot of dynamic camerawork in this movie.
It was very creative with itsuse of CGI tracking, you know,

(39:01):
like even the.
I was thinking about like howthey needed to um prepare for
that scene where the guy had theyou know the scarab beetle
going up his body, like heneeded to know exactly where
that bug was going to be, youknow, superimposed onto his body
or in his body.
You know, while he was actingand the, the camera followed

(39:23):
like all the way up his body.
Eventually it went into hisbrain and he basically crashed
out.
But little stuff like that isso well done and we don't see a
lot of that nowadays.
We see a lot more still framestuff, not a lot of dynamic

(39:47):
angles or anything like that andwas really impressed um the.
The movie flowed really well, itwas edited really nicely and
the music was great.
Like this.
This, this movie specificallyhas such pleasant music to
accompany it that, like itbrings me back to my childhood,
you know it, it just transportsme and I think that's the great

(40:08):
thing about like, uh, goodscores, you know they have the
ability to um, you know, takeyou back to like that feeling of
when you first watched it rightand, and I feel like it, it
just it went well with the, thevibe of the film, and and I feel
like that's the kind of scorethat you would have gotten with,

(40:30):
maybe, indiana Jones, if itwasn't scored by John Williams.
Right, yeah, exactly, I like the.
Yes, I like that.
Especially, it had a veryHollywood Egyptian vibe.
We obviously don't know whatancient Egyptian music sounded
like, but, um you know,hollywood has given it a, a
sound, and this definitely isthat sound?

(40:53):
It's like that sound to a T.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
Right.
It's so funny because, like, ifyou hear that sound, you know
that they're like trying to um,give you the like an ancient
Egyptian vibe.
Even though you know exactlywhat you said, we don't know
what it is that they used.
Hollywood has gotten that soundso ingrained into our brain

(41:17):
that you know what it?
Is, and Western same thing too.
There's a vibe that differenteras have gotten and you know,
when you hear it you're like,okay, this is the vibe that
they're going for.
So, yeah, no, you're right.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Certain things like that, like Hollywood has
definitely manipulated thepublic consciousness towards you
know, consciousness towards youknow, if, if you were to read
the frankenstein novel and thenlook at the original you know,
universal monster frankenstein,they look nothing alike.
Those, those two characters arejust complete like that is a

(41:57):
complete, completely differentlook, even like, uh, vikings
there's no record of them everhaving hats with horns on them,
but that was a Hollywood thingthat you know.
Everyone now just believesVikings had horns on their head
and you see that even in, likehow to train your dragon and
stuff.
So, yeah, it's, and like withwith the music like this, you,

(42:18):
you hear it all the time in likeEgyptian stuff, so, but it's
pleasant, it's really, it'sreally fun to listen to and it
transports you into thisadventure, which I really like.
What did you guys think of thebackstory of Imhotep and what
his ultimate goal was?
I'll throw it over to you, rich.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
So it was just, he was just basically trying to get
with.
I can't remember her name, butthe pharaoh's concubine, if I'm
correct right, pharaoh'sdaughter, I believe was it her
daughter?

Speaker 3 (42:51):
was it the daughter or was it the mistress?

Speaker 2 (42:54):
oh, maybe it was the mistress I, I think it was the
mistress was like, and it waslike nobody lays a hand on her,
but that's right.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Yeah, that's okay, you're right.
You're right, you're right.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
So, uh, you know, I, I was a little confused about
what was going on at thebeginning and I was like, oh
snap, you know, uh, because I, Iwas like swerve, didn't see
that coming m night shamalanshowing up at the beginning.
I didn't think that you know.
So it's, I'm saying that youknow, kind of tongue-in-cheek
part of it's, like obviously Ididn't, I'm not going to see it
coming because I don't, I don't.

(43:24):
There's no motivation to knowwhy she so quickly turns on him.
You know, it's, it's, it's.
It is a little bit odd, but youknow what one does for love.
I mean, you know some peoplepush small children out of the
windows of a tower while they'resleeping with their sister and
some just plot to kill thepharaoh.
You know, sleeping with theirsister, and some just plot to

(43:44):
kill the Pharaoh.
You know, but you know it, itdoes establish in some way, you
know, if you, if you in a, in acertain retelling, this could be
a love, a tale of enduring love, like this could be Titanic.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
You know, in some ways, because it was filmed by
James Cameron Sure.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yeah, cause his love for her is, I mean, you know,
transcendent.
If you will, it really is.
He never wants to let go, youknow.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Love it.
Yeah, what about you, anthony?
What are your thoughts onImhotep and Anak Sanamun?

Speaker 3 (44:23):
You know there is that whole like love aspect and
I know that he wants to, youknow, kind of like be with her,
but then there's like that wholelike aspect of like immortality
that he's going for.
So, like you know, love isn't ahundred percent like the thing,
you know.
I mean, yeah sure, he wants tolike be with her like forever,
but he also wants to like liveforever too and uh, kind of like

(44:47):
rule the world.
So there there's, there'sdefinitely, you know, a little
bit going on there.
You know it's, it's uh, yeah,it it's like I feel like it's
something that, like I've seenbefore.
You know it's like very similar.
Like there there's a little bitof a trope kind of going on

(45:07):
there, but I guess it was freshenough that I didn't feel bored
with it.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Yeah, what struck me re-watching these as an adult is
the three named characters inthe ancient Egypt arc Imhotep
Anaksanam and, uh, pharaoh seti.
The first are all actual reallife people, or like they were

(45:35):
real life people at some point,but none of them ever met each
other.
Uh, because they all lived atdifferent times, like vastly
different times.
So, uh, I I did a littledigging and I was because I was
trying to like figure outexactly how much time, like
apart these individuals were theworld power for, like for the

(46:08):
longest period on our planet.
As far as we know, it was like2 000 years or uh, from.
Yeah, so, like there's the, andthey split it up into kingdoms.
So it's the old kingdom, whichis the, the oldest, most ancient
kingdom, which is where the,the great pyramids, were created
.
Then there was the middlekingdom, which is not
represented in this movie at all, and then there's the New

(46:29):
Kingdom, which you know endswith the Hellenistic pharaohs
you know Cleopatra's among them.
In the New Kingdom we have SetiI, and one of the dates that the
film gives us is 1290 BC, whichis the start of his reign, the
study of the first reign.
So they did look up thischaracter and then they sent him

(46:53):
to.
They killed him immediately.
So he started his reign in 1290.
I guess in this universe hedies in 1290.
But like he lasts in that rolefor 20 years.
So if they wanted to get theirtimeline right they could have
had Imhotep kill Seti I around1271 BC.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
So anyway.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Oh, and Anaxanamun is from a century before Seti I,
so she was an actual figure, um.
But emotep is one of theearliest known figures in all of
like egyptian history and it'sinteresting that they chose to
use him because he is creditedum with.
He's credited as the architectof the very first pyramid.

(47:45):
At least as far as they're ableto date ancient history, they
believe that the Pyramid ofDjoser is the first pyramid and
it's credited as being createdby Imhotep in 26, 2600 something
BC.
So this is 1300 plus yearsprior to the time period of the

(48:12):
mummy.
So they're they're a couplemillennia off, uh, with Imhotep
as as a character.
But, uh, I, I still appreciatethat they just like picked and
you know they, they like, I wantthis guy or this pharaoh, uh
but it's interesting like aroundthey shopped around.
Why seti the first like that?
That's.
That's an interesting one,because seti the first is the

(48:34):
father of the, the most popularpharaoh in history, which is
rameses the great.
It's, it's the.
It's the pharaoh that's mostcommonly misconstrued as the
pharaoh in the Bible.
Most people believe thatRamesses the Great was the
pharaoh in the Bible, butthere's no actual proof of that

(48:57):
and according to Bible record,the exodus happened a couple
hundred years before Ramesseswas even born.
So it doesn't match up, but itis interesting that Ramesses the
Great was the most popularpharaoh and Seti I was his
father.
So I'm guessing they tried touse Ramesses and they just

(49:19):
didn't want any connection toMoses and the Book of Exodus.
So they cut that out.
But then they added the, the 10plagues of Egypt.
Anyway, I I was like this movie.
Just you know it, it had itscake and it ate it too, hey you
know like what, what's, what'ssome?

Speaker 3 (49:40):
uh, you know, uh, film gluttony every once in a
while.
You know what's a little filmgluttony every once in a while.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
What's a little film gluttony every once in a while.
Speaking of the 10 plagues, Ireally liked Jonathan randomly,
whenever there was a plague he'dbe like, and the water turned
to blood, he would just quotethe scripture.
And darkness fell upon the landof Egypt, and it's just like.

(50:09):
If it's not blatant enough,here's here's like a quote that
you might have heard from churchalso I thought it was weird
where, uh, how is it that?

Speaker 2 (50:17):
like how many of them were there?
Like nobody noticed that theyhad cups of blood, like until
they drank it.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
Uh, I mean you're in a bar, right, so you're probably
not.
You probably already assume youknow what's in your drink.
Is you know your drink?

Speaker 2 (50:32):
okay, so something different?
Okay, all right, okay, becausethey all had it like, right like
it's.
Didn't they all take it fromthe fountain?
Am I?
Am I misremembering?
It's like they all put theircups to the fountain and, and
they had it was no, I think theyjust showed.
They showed the fountain turnfrom water to blood there you go
, yeah, yeah no, I had thisthing, they were actually served

(50:54):
.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
Okay, they were served those drinks.
It was just like, yeah, they,they wanted to give, give.
Uh, like the image of of um,the water, like turning into
into blood, but like yeah, no,like like it was happening in
their cup, like as they weredrinking.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
It's like a like church for me.
You know me and the catholics.
Every on sundays, transtransestabulation, it was
actually changing thetransfiguration.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
yeah, basically, uh, but it was.
It was literal blood for theseindividuals.
Actually, though, like in thescriptures, I don't think it
said every liquid turned toblood, just water.
You know what you need, youneed water.
So I don't know if the drinks,like the whiskey, would have
turned, but it is, I argue.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
When my wife says I'm not hydrating enough, I argue
that beer and coffee are madefrom water, so I like that.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Actually, I like that a lot.
Yeah, anthony, do you like that?
Do you like that logic?

Speaker 3 (51:54):
I guess it's I, you know.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
You know, I did want to say because, before I forget
it, I just I do.
You guys were commentingearlier about how we don't see a
lot of these movies.
You know, and I think part ofit.
I just I do, you, you come.
You guys were commentingearlier about how we don't see a
lot of these movies.
You know, and I think part ofit's.
I mean, I don't think stufflike rotten tomatoes necessarily
helps, you know.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
I remember when.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
I was like younger, I saw a trailer and if I was
slightly, you know, like hey,that kind of oh, oh, maybe right
, and I also was, just it was.
It was like maybe it's alsobecause the tickets are more
expensive, so it's double it's,it's it's knowing the reviews
and knowing how much you'regonna spend, but it's just, I

(52:35):
was okay with going to see amovie.
That was not amazing I could.
I didn't walk out and be like Iwant my money back or my time
was wasted.
It was like okay, cool, like Ipassed the time and that was
pretty.
You know, that was mildly.
I saw the spawn movie twice intheaters, like that.
That was not a great movie byany stretch and I I remember

(52:57):
going like willfully back thesecond time.
I was like yeah why not?
why, not what else do I gotta do?
And and part of it was that youdidn't have everything at your
disposal, right Like?
I'm not going to go see a movienow that I'm not sure about,
because I could just rewatch theLord of the Rings trilogy and
then probably stream that moviethat I didn't go see in seven

(53:19):
days.
You know it's going to be, andI'm not even.
I'm not talking illegally, I'mtalking completely legally.
So I think that companies aretaking fewer chances on making
these like these rom-com actionmovies.
I mean, I remember like bigtrouble in little china when I
was a little kid, I, I loved ohyeah, I remember that.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
Yeah, you know I I'd seen that movie.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
They were bad, they look, you knew they were kind of
gonna be bad and you were like,all right, cool, you know, like
it was all right, you didn'thave to be the best thing ever.
I mean, like nobody goes to asly stallone movie and goes like
, hey, I'm looking for goodcinema, you know like I mean, if
you're, if it's a rocky movie,then yeah, I'm looking for good
cinema, or are?

Speaker 3 (54:05):
you talking, talking about Stop, or my Mom Will Shoot
with Estelle Getty A perfectexample of a movie that is not
great but it's still so fun thatyou can't help but watch.
It is the first Mortal Kombatmovie I don't know if you've
ever seen it, dakota but like oh, it's so good it's like so, so

(54:30):
like the movie.
It's not a great movie, youknow like you're not talking
about the mortal kombat recently.
No, like no, I'm talking aboutlike 90s mortal kombat, okay,
yeah, okay, um, so, but thething is is that it pretty much
follows the story of mortalkombat, like you, of Mortal
Kombat, like you know, it's likeyou know, humans defending
earth realm from being um takenover, and so, like it, it gets

(54:53):
that right, at least it doesrespect the source material.
But, like, when you watch ityou're like like this movie
isn't great, but like, dude,it's just you can't help but
like it because it's so zany andlike there's just just so much
kind of going on.
It's like, dude, are you likefor real?
And then you have kind of likethis, a little bit of like
crappy cgi on it, but like youstill, you know you forgive it

(55:15):
because you're having a goodtime watching it yeah, listen,
somebody cast jean-claude vandamme as an american military
man guile for the street fightermovie.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
All right, that was.
That was one of the mostridiculous casting choices ever.
All right, I mean, raul juliabasically died so we could have
street fighter.
All right, that movie is isequal.
But we're just not taking thesechances anymore.
Everyone takes themselves that.
They're everyone's playing itsafe and I, I, this movie, the

(55:47):
whole franchise, honestly, likeI act, I was happy that there
was.
I ended up watching the otherones.
It's, you know, uh, it's reallyfun.
I mean, the third one is kindof ridiculous.
They do decide like, hey, youknow what, maybe we're, we're
overdoing the Egypt thing.
Do you think that there'smummies in China?
And then that's kind of thethird one.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Give me your ranking of the three, the three movies,
if you can, oh shoot.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
One, two, three, like I mean really it's got to be
one, two, three.
I mean for me it is.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
I'm sure the rock kind of like raises that bar a
little bit, even with like theworst cgi you've ever seen yeah,
I mean it's pretty uh, the thethe rock cgi and the second one
the scorpion king, I mean, andthat is it's.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
It's legendarily bad, like it's.
It's like people talk aboutthat scene as like.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
Remember that yeah, it was I don't even think video
game, like graphics were thatbad.
No, like you, maybe had acouple that looked that bad.
But like, if you're being likeserious, I mean, when did that
come out?
Was it 2002, 2000, yeah, likearound that time.
And we had final fantasy 10that came out at n01 and that

(57:06):
looked way better than than thatscorpion king did it was it's.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
It's so bad that actually I might almost I almost
okay.
I have a weird affinity whenthe third movie in a franchise
is kind of awful and completelynot with the rest of it right,
like there's a charm to thosemovies that I kind of enjoy.
Like we're hanging on to thelast vestiges of this franchise

(57:31):
and trying to squeeze it drywe're, we're, we gotta see this
through to the bitter end likethe turtles movies.
Right, like suddenly it's likeone, two and then we're gonna go
back to ancient japan, right,like what?
Uh, you talking about guys.
You know the home alone, homealone one.
Home alone two, great homealone, three, with that weird

(57:52):
new kid no, not having it, butkind of loved it.
All right, this kind of was thesame.
You have the sun, the they.
You know there's a son grown up.
They've replaced Evelyn.

Speaker 3 (58:03):
I don't know why, see , see, like that, put me out,
like automatically, like theyhad this recasting it didn't
work.
Like to me that, like I mean,like the, the charm, like went
out the window.
Yeah, she's not a librarian.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
They like, they put glasses on her and they're like
she's a librarian and I'm likeevelyn's a librarian from the
first two movies.
All right, I can believe,because she put glasses on and
her hair was up, that she's kindof nerdy.
I've seen those teen movies, Iknow what it's like.
I bought her.
I didn't like the new actressas Evelyn.

Speaker 3 (58:38):
I did not buy that she was working in a library.
Well, the OG, she sold it.
They did kind of give her thelook, but she also had like kind
of like that, that knowledgeand she, she, she, very much so
seemed to be like a nerd inegyptology, you know.
So hey, but but she sold itlike yeah, that third one bro

(59:02):
that one just doesn't exist.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
That one doesn't exist.
I'm gonna be honest, I don'teven remember the third one.
The only thing I remember isthat there's a scene where, like
, abominable, snowmen areplaying football let me that.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Let's see, I'm gonna tell you that's way better.
That's way better than whenthey're like the beginning is
essentially okay, essentiallywe're retired, wow, our son is
gone, we don't talk to himanymore and we don't really like
being around each other anymore.
All right, and she, it, it's.

(59:36):
And then they're like waitadventure where we can risk our
lives again and then like itsuddenly like literally gets
their, like their, their mojoflowing and uh, they, I think
they even get like oh, like kindof sexy timey because they're
excited.
It is so bad.
I actually implore all of youout there, all right, despite

(59:58):
what you're hearing, you need tosee it for yourself, all right.
Jet lee's in the movie jet leeLi.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Oh yeah, isn't he like the mummy emperor?

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
or something.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Yeah, but Jet Li being in the movie can't save it
alive, he turns into lava, heturns into water.
That movie doesn't exist, thatmovie just I thought he was very
adamant about this.
If I had a choice between thatmovie and Baby Shark, just throw
in Baby Shark, I'm just.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Dude, I always wondered what did the Terracotta
Army do to get stuck down there?
And then we get to find out inthis movie.
All right, I learned.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
Well, I mean, we knew that they were supposed to
protect the Emperor's tomb.
I knew that.
But I didn't need a crappymummy movie to see it played out
.
But other than that, we're kindof getting sidetracked.
We're over an hour.
Let's reel it back in to thisfirst mummy movie.

(01:01:02):
There is a love story kind oflike put into this movie.
We've kind of skirted along ita little bit.
Like what are your guysthoughts on on that?

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
like kind of that romance between, uh, rick and
evelyn I personally really finduh the two actors to have a lot
of chemistry uh, rachel weissand brendan fraser.
So every scene that they're inon screen just works.
I don't know what it is, but itjust works like from the moment

(01:01:33):
they meet and he is about to bekilled, so he's like wild and
crazy and like he kisses her,like uh, you know randomly um
that that interaction betweenthe two characters is magnetic,
just like the, the look thateach other gives, that each
other it's, it's, it's fantasticum, and it continues throughout

(01:01:55):
the movie in just really funand unique ways, uh, as as they
pit more and more stuff uhagainst them.
Um, and I really like liketheir brother Jonathan, not
Jarnathan, jonathan, yeah yeah,no, I like his character too.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
No, I agree, I agree with you.
There is like some really goodlike chemistry on screen.
You can see it Like it doesn'tfeel forced, it feels very
organic.
You can tell that like evenlike the casting like as a whole
like worked very well.
They kind of like uh, playedoff of of each other.

(01:02:34):
So, yeah, no, no, I, Idefinitely agree with you.
It was.
It was like it never, was likea moment when you saw them to
those two on the screen yeah, uh, what do you think rich?

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
I thought they were, they were great together.
I mean, honestly, it's theirrelationship, the believability
of their chemistry is actuallyultimately what makes me dislike
the third one so much becausethe actress changes and then I
mean almost, in, almostappropriately, their, their,
their marriage is kind ofloveless and there's no spark

(01:03:08):
and it's like, yeah, becauseit's not the same woman.
Come on brandon, you can't.
Come on rick, like that's agreat name, richard o'connell,
richard's a great name and he,richard, is a great name.
He couldn't even see it.
I don't understand.
I, you know, I, I, but honestly, I, I really did, I, I love
them together.
I think, uh, they play offreally well.
Uh, just, their dialoguedoesn't feel forced, it doesn't

(01:03:32):
feel stilted, it doesn't feel it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
It, it all feels very natural there's a scene where
they uh, they head back I thinkit's to Cairo.
After they awaken, the mummyand Rick is adamant about we got
to get out of here.
We're getting on the next planeand he's shoving random things
into her suitcase and she's veryadamant.

(01:03:58):
No, we have to stay.
We open this can of worms.
We have to close it.
And she's taking stuff out ofthe suitcase and it's a whole
minute and a half scene of them.
He's putting stuff in and she'sgoing around and replacing it
in other spots and it's so welldone.
The acting is so fantastic andneither of the characters even

(01:04:20):
look at each other in that sceneuntil the very end Because
they're so busy with whatthey're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
And it's almost like abedin costello type of humor
where like yeah, you know whatI'm saying like it's just like
goldie hawn do this with kurtrussell and and like bird on a
wire and stuff like that, likethis is the okay yeah, you would
see these in like the late 90s,late 80s, excuse me, early 90s.
Uh they were.
They just had kind of anattractive guy and a a uh, you

(01:04:53):
know quick-witted lady who hadgood chemistry and they were
just fun on screen together, youknow, and that's yeah you get.
You get that here.
It's just, uh, it's a little z,it's it's not the real world
and I think that I really kindof this is sacrilegious, right,
but I love superhero movies, butI also liked when you just

(01:05:14):
watched a movie that was in thereal world but it really wasn't.
You know like, yeah, the police, academies and the all these
rom-com adventures that we are,we're missing out.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Speaking about the real world, but really isn't so
often.
In this movie they show theGreat Pyramids right next to a
big city or right next to thiscity.
They show it next to Thebes.
Thebes is like 500 miles awayfrom the Great Pyramids In the
beginning.
I think the first shot rightafter the big universal globe

(01:05:50):
goes around is ancient Egyptcity of Thebes.
Shot right after the big uh,you know universal globe goes,
goes around, um is like ancientegypt city of thieves and you
know the great pyramids are likeliterally right behind it,
nowhere near that like it's likeyeah, yeah, no, no.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
I I find that funny that you say that, because it's
literally like a stone's throwaway.
Yes, like major cities.
I'm like I'm pretty sure thatthey're like and they did that a
lot.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
They did that a lot throughout the the movie, like
whenever there was like anestablishing shot of like we
have to make sure that thislooks like egypt pyramids,
pyramids pyramids.

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
Just drop them in the background.
How are they gonna know thatthey're?

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
in egypt.
Funny enough, they filmed inmorocco, so maybe they did need
to.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Uh, they did need those pyramids for establishing
we're in morocco, but we need wereally need to be in egypt oh
yeah, I love that.
Um, yeah, I know I agree withyou, uh, also with um jonathan.
Jonathan is very much so likethe comic relief, but he's not
the only one.
Like, everybody has like theirmoments.

(01:06:53):
You know, rick, evelyn, theyall have like, but like they're
funny in their own way.
You know, like in like, likethey're, it's like not out of
character for them when theyhave their funny moments.
You know, and also, uh, the,the thing between, uh, rick and
benny, like my benny we haven't,we haven't even brought up

(01:07:15):
benny yeah, like probably thebest character.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Just maybe not the best character, but like such a
fun character, especially onrewatch, like I quote benny and
uh and rick all the time in myin my day-to life.
Like, maybe not all the time,but like, uh, sometimes like my
brother will be.
Like, looks like I've got allthe horses and Benny goes, or

(01:07:42):
and Rick goes.
Hey, benny, looks like you'reon the wrong side of the river.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
Dude.
Yeah, that, that that part wasso funny, like it was so like
childlike, but like it washilarious, like it worked so
well in that moment and itdefinitely gives them their like
relationship yeah, yeah, no,that's good.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Um, I even like, just like, the first time we meet
benny and he's like, he's onrick o'connell's side in
whatever battle they're facingat Hamunaptra, which is a
fictional Egyptian place itdoesn't exist.
He's totally on board.
He's just like.

(01:08:22):
I forget what he says, but it'ssomething like I'll be with you
till the end, or something likethat, and then you just see him
running off, and that's everyscene, every scene.

Speaker 3 (01:08:33):
That was so funny.
Yeah, after like the, theofficer like kind of runs off.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Oh let's talk about language a little bit.
Um, I thought that that waslike an interesting um like
thing that they had bennyincorporate into his character.
Um, he carries a bunch ofnecklaces with different, you
know, religious symbols.
He's got a cross, he's got thestar of david, he's got a buddha

(01:08:58):
, he's got hindu symbols, he'sgot a whole bunch of uh symbols
that he has attached to his neckalmost as if, you know, these
things are going to protect him.
And he tries, you know, like,as soon as he sees like Imhotep
wake up, he starts going throughdifferent religions.
And it's not until, you know,like, he brings up the Star of

(01:09:20):
David and he starts speaking inHebrew that the that Imhotep
like recognizes oh, it's thelanguage of the slaves.
I really like that scenebecause I I feel like the actor
did a really good job ofmimicking the intonations of
each you know, like spoken wordin that, like you know, I'm I'm

(01:09:41):
afraid I'm praying speech.
You know, I don't know all ofthose languages, obviously right
, but like right it didn't soundanglicized, you know.
It didn't sound uh, likesomething you'd see on the cw or
whatever.
You know, like, right, right,like I always yeah, I agree I
always hated um in like, likelike.
In smallville there's anepisode where um lana is like

(01:10:05):
possessed by the, the spirit of,like some witch or something
that speaks latin, and it's likethe most english sounding latin
ever.

Speaker 3 (01:10:12):
It's the worst.
I hate that one.
Yes, it's, it's crazy it'sanyway.

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
um, I hate that kind of stuff, but when I see stuff
like this where, like, theyclearly gave this guy an acting
coach or he just knows theselanguages and it's like an
actual, like polygl or whatever,which is actually pretty
impressive on that character'spart.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
This man knows a lot of languages like.
Chinese, hebrew, I forget theother languages.
I know he was like I think hehad pulled up the Islamic symbol
too.
I think he did.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
Yes, yeah, no, it was really impressive on the
actor's part and the thecharacter's part and it adds a
lot of depth to his character,because that kind of shows that,
like this is a guy who will doanything to get by, including
learning other languages andpraying to other gods, you know,
or other versions of a god.

(01:11:10):
So, yeah, I thought that thatwas really really well done.
Um, and the ancient egypt thatthey had.
Um, emotep and anaxanamun speak.
Obviously, I don't know ancientegypt, I don't read hieroglyphs
or anything like that, but Idid look it up.
They, uh, they did a reallygood job of, you know, using

(01:11:33):
real hieroglyphs andenunciations of hieroglyphs and,
uh, they, they tried their bestto incorporate ancient egypt,
like speech, into, uh, the movie.
So when they're speaking, it'snot modern day england or it's
not modern day egyptian, it'sactually ancient egypt Egyptian
that they kind of modeled aftera Coptic, which is a newer form

(01:11:57):
of ancient Egyptian, like closerto, like Jesus time.
They, they use the Copticlanguage.
So so that it has cause.
We don't know what ancientEgypt sounded like, you know, we
barely know what ancientEnglish sounded like, but by
using a more modern version ofthat and incorporating that into

(01:12:17):
how you would read those words,um, that's how they came up
with their ancient egypt and Ithink they did a really good job
.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
I think the actors like killed it actually there
was, I thought the even um, justwhen they were.
I think they were it wasactually, I thought it was
arabic, I mean, I don't know, Iused to teach at a school where
kids spoke arabic and they keptsaying yelling, uh, yalla, which
was kind of a hurry up, hurryup, hurry up, so that actually
kind of pulled me into it, rightit was like oh yeah, yalla I

(01:12:45):
remember that one because uh,that was one of the few words I
would learn with the kids.
It was like yalla, yalla yola,hurry up, get to class.
So I thought that was prettycool.
I actually as much as I loveall the acting.
What kind of astounded me wasmy wife randomly was like you
know, I just could never getbehind Brendan Fraser.
He just looks like kind of dumb.

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
And this is somebody who.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
She loves the National Treasure movies, right,
Just loves them just okay, andthen?
Also loves like all the fastand furious.
Like loves vin diesel and I'mlike you love vin diesel and
nick cage, but you're likebrendan fraser that guy looks
dumb like that's a step.

Speaker 1 (01:13:23):
That's a step too far , even for me.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
I'm just but I thought fraser's great I, I
thought they the casting wasreally good.
You know they just top tobottom that it was really well
executed and uh it's, it's sadthat there was there was drop
off, especially by the endbecause it just had so much uh
promise to be.

(01:13:46):
Uh, you know you could have hadlike, uh, I think you could
have had a couple more.
I wouldn't, I wouldn't mind tosee a return to e I would not
mind that either.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
I think now they'd probably be in there in like the
1950s or 60s, just because ofthe age of the of the actors
involved.
But yeah, I, I would.
I would like to see that forsure.
Um Guys, what are we doing nextweek?
Are you guys interested incontinuing not necessarily the
Mummy, but continuing in ancientEgypt?

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Sure, Are we going to Agrabah?
Where are we?

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
about no, no.
So sad note, the actor ValKilmer passed within the past 24
hours, so one of my firstmovies where I experienced him
as an actor was the Prince ofEgypt, where he actually plays

(01:14:46):
the voice of God when speakingto Moses.
Would you guys be interested indoing prince of egypt?

Speaker 2 (01:14:53):
let's get her done yeah, we can't.

Speaker 3 (01:14:56):
I think my my first experience with him was batman
it might have been batman orprince of egypt.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
I I don't remember what I saw first as a kid, but
yeah, I think mine was probablywillow that might.
Yeah, Cause that that would bebefore that Very old.
Oh you, you, you put your doubtyourself down too often on this
podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:15:16):
We're just uh make yourself like a lot more like
like aged out than we are.
Dude, you are still technically.
You're technically a millennial, so I'm, I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
I feel like I'm like a mummy under wraps in a
sarcophagus.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
Well, hopefully someone resurrects you soon.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
I think that Pete Alonzo is going to be doing that
on Friday afternoon Nice.

Speaker 3 (01:15:46):
But yes, let's wind this thing down, wrap it up.
We are running like wild hyenasright now, even though that
that's Africa, uh.

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
Egypt is in Africa, Well yeah, you're right.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
Well, I guess I'm thinking like more of like the
you know the.
Sahara, yeah, yeah, the Sahara,yeah Not.
That's so much of them runningaround in Egypt, yeah, but yeah.
So last minute thoughts.

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
Good movie.
I'm biased towards it because Igrew up with it, but yeah, I
love everything about this, eventhe anachronisms that I brought
up before, where I was kind ofcomplaining.
It's still fun, it's still agood movie.
I still love it, even despiteall that.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
So yeah, I thought it was a really good time.
It's not going to be my toptier, like Honor Among Thieves.
I'm not sure if I don't know ifwe can watch a movie that's
going to be better than HonorAmong Thieves.

Speaker 1 (01:16:44):
Anthony, we got to find a movie that's better than
Honor Among Thieves that he hasnot seen it's thrown down the
gauntlet.

Speaker 3 (01:16:49):
I mean, like I, you're saying that, but then
like, there you have theexistence of the lord of the
rings well, no, that's yeah, butlike it's a movie that he
hasn't seen, that's yeah okaylet's be clear uh, whenever you
guys want, sir, I, I Ire-watched that franchise just
for s's and g's.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
Uh, you know, on a sunday, all right, uh, so no,
but so we, we already did those.

Speaker 3 (01:17:15):
The next one I mean for us like we'd have to cover
is like the hobbit, the lord ofthe rings.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
We already did like that extensively the hobbit's
the best one, that there's, thebest that was made yeah, sure,
yeah sure you, you know I'mgonna watch that, um, as I watch
, uh, mummy three when?
Yeah, oh man, when poor, poor,poor keely, poor keely it is.
It is very real.
Tolkien love interest.

Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
The elf, yeah all right, we're, we're like going
uh off the rails guys next weekfor episode 116.
Um, it has been decided thatwe're covering the Prince of
Egypt.
It's an animated movie byDreamWorks.
Val Kilmer plays a prettysignificant role.
So, yeah, it'll be a little ValKilmer send-off next week, guys

(01:18:04):
.
But yeah, thank you so much forlistening to us here for our
episode 115.
And if you haven't alreadyalready, be sure to give us a
five-star juicy review.
If you want to check out any ofour socials, be sure to click
into the show notes down belowand we'll see you later, guys
make sure it's juicier thanemotep bye y'all.

Speaker 3 (01:18:24):
Death is only the beginning.