Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
The Mummy (1999)
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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Welcome back, guys and geeks, to episode 115 of Project Geekology. My name is Dakota, I'm one third of your hosts and we're very excited today because we're covering a movie that I had never seen before prior to this. I was surprised how much, like how big of a role Tom Cruise had in this movie, the 2017 Mummy film. It's a remake of the, you know the, the Brendan Fraser one and then the one from you know, like Universal's past. But, yeah, we're really excited to talk about the Mummy and kind of sad that this is the last that it'll ever be of like the dark universe. Guys, what did you think of it? Did I mess up, guys? Did I do something?
Speaker 2:I watched the whole franchise Did I mess up guys Did.
Speaker 1:I do something wrong. I watched the whole franchise.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to be very upset if that's what I was supposed to do.
Speaker 1:Dakota.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at your face. Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 3:I'm looking at your face to read you because I'm like, yeah, this man is just messing around, right?
Speaker 2:now I didn't know what we were going to do. I was like, what are we going to 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:to do now. Guys, I am joined, as always, with Anthony. Yeah, we're covering the original Brendan Fraser movie from, I think, 2000? No, 99. Was it 99? Yeah, it was 99.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so just before the millennium. But yes, you hear it here. Here we are covering the not original mummy but like the brendan frazier mummy in 99 the one in the middle, yeah, yeah, in the middle, the one that most people the one that most people attribute right right the, the one that people have the most fun with.
Speaker 2:But, yes, joining us, as always now, is rich and I'm super excited with to be here with you guys and you know, dig deep and uncover some truths about the mummy yes, um, there's a lot of truths to be uncovered.
Speaker 1:Um, there's a lot of, uh, falsehoods when it comes to the real world timeline. I'm so excited to dive into that because, I don't know, I don't think I've ever mentioned it on this podcast, but, like, when I was a kid, my dream job was to be an egyptologist. So, like, this movie was, you know, like, my favorite thing as a kid and growing up and, you know, having done research on egypt, I realized this has nothing to do with egypt at all, um, or barely any. You know it is. I should say that the setting is is, uh, very much egypt, egypt, but it takes a lot of liberties. It's harder to enjoy it a little bit, but it's still such a fun movie. I have to just kind of roll my eyes and move on. But, yeah, we're excited to talk about the Mummy from 1999, not the 2017 Mummy, which I still haven't seen. Actually, yeah, I haven't watched that one.
Speaker 3:I had seen it. I saw it. Watched that one. I had seen it. I saw it around the time that it had come out. It's been a while.
Speaker 1:Wow, you must feel so good about yourself. I do. You haven't seen that movie, I do.
Speaker 3:I'm in company with Rich because you know, rich and I, you know we're caught up on this. You know verse mummy. Okay, right, yeah, I the dark universe, for sure. Oh yeah, you're right, it is the dark monster versus godzilla.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm caught up on monster verse, that's for sure. Anyway, guys, uh, before we get into this, the discussion of the mummy from 1999 starring brendan frazier what are? What have you been up to this past week, anthony? You got some big news.
Speaker 3:Yeah, uh, this this week I started my my job, the, the remote job, the it job. It's it's been nothing but like really training. So you know, I'm trying to, you know, soak up as much as I can I that, um, a lot of this stuff I'm probably not going to remember like right off the top of my head. It's gonna like take time for me to like you know kind of work it and and, um, I guess like build my way up to that or build my up to like a like a better level of proficiency. But but it's been cool.
Speaker 3:I definitely do feel, even though I'm learning a lot and kind of stepping out of my comfort zone, because I've worked in a lot of customer-facing jobs or just general public-facing jobs. So being in a job that's at home and a little bit more on the back end, like it's definitely different for me. But I do feel like a lot more like at peace because of like I'm not dealing with a lot of stuff grabbing my attention all day, and it's it's so odd, like when you, when I go to clock out for lunch, like I'm at home, that is. That is pretty cool though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is. I mean, are you finding it a?
Speaker 3:challenging job at this point, or uh, yeah, there, there is.
Speaker 3:There there challenges to it.
Speaker 3:There's things that you know I have to kind of, you know, dig into to files and and use the command prompt for for different things, which I've used the command prompt before for stuff on my computer, but like this is command prompt stuff to like mess around with.
Speaker 3:You know stuff with like programs and and and different things. You know programs that I don't know the backend of. You know, like I know, the back end of some of the stuff that I've messed with, like I've messed with files and, like you know, with video games and stuff to like mod it and whatnot. But like this is, you know, trying to fix and troubleshoot issues and programs that I don't know 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 as time goes by and it's definitely going to be an interesting endeavor and I do believe that there's a lot that I can learn from this and I know that once I feel proficient that I'll definitely move on to either a higher position or to, you know, to maybe a different position.
Speaker 1:So nice man yeah.
Speaker 3:So so it's, it's interesting. Yeah, man, like that, that's like really my biggest thing, that that I have going on. But but, yeah, man, and just watching this movie for the first time in like maybe five years.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you watched it plenty, you know, back in the day, when you know, when I was a kid, I watched it all the time.
Speaker 3: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 you next let's see.
Speaker 2:I think I'm not sure if I mentioned it last time, but I was working on this weird lesson plan with the star the Next Generation episode.
Speaker 1:You did mention it.
Speaker 2:So I'm still kind of getting the germs out. I tested it on a couple of kids and realized that I might also have to update what my memes are. They're like yeah, no, that's a meme I know from, like my dad, like my dad has that one.
Speaker 1:I'm just like, okay, great, so I might need to yeah, that's the thing with memes is that the lifespan of memes is uh shorter and shorter these days but I also, I think, discovered.
Speaker 2:Well, I was talking about how I discovered this a couple years ago, but there some of my students had been talking about, uh, oh, they, they had been saying you know, oh, he woke up and chose violence, you know. And I remember immediately going like they quote did you just quote cersei lannister? And they're like who, who the hell is cersei lannister? I'm like she's the woman who said, like, woke up and chose 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 me like we don't watch Game of Thrones, bro, and that's when I started to realize, which was really sad. But it's in that moment that I realized that they don't know the original source material. Right, right, it's, it's getting almost more and more like the next generation episode, because here now they're, they're ascribing all this stuff to these short clips of something that they don't actually know the larger, larger context of. So, uh, yeah, I'm, that's real nerd stuff level. Uh, teacher stuff, I'm trying to do stuff but that's.
Speaker 1: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 I forget the name of the episode Darmok Darmok. It basically is a alien race that communicates through references to past works in their culture. So it kind of makes. I'm sure there's plenty of references that you and I use that we don't realize. Oh, that was started by Shakespeare or something like that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's kind of on par with what your kids are or what you're experiencing with your students, where they are referencing things that they don't even know. You know, like that's, that's pretty funny. But yeah, I mean, uh woke up and 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:Yeah, that's. That's kind of like the the education side, the work adult side. The other side of of me left work early last Thursday.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 2:Got someone to cover my class the last 10 minutes because I looked at the schedule and the New York Metropolitans were starting the season at 3.10 pm.
Speaker 3:My workday ends at 3.05.
Speaker 2:I knew I had to make something happen, so I got my friend to come in at 245, I got in my car and I raced home, all right. I pull into the driveway, I jump out of my car, I get on the couch at 309, I have an IPA in my hand and I can't find the game. And I'm distraught and I'm looking all over the place and I finally discover that the game starts at 4.10. There was no reason for me to leave work early, no reason for me to speed, no reason for me to run, no reason to have HR message me and say how is it that you got home at 3.07 when the workday ends at 3.05? Because I had the misfortune that the HR director happened to be driving down the street where I live, where near I live, and happened to notice my very noticeable volkswagen bug making a left right towards my house that was smooth, that was really smooth in a fair, in like a ferris bueller's day off moment.
Speaker 2:I just I somehow got caught but narrowly avoided real trouble. Uh, so that's that. And then, uh, this week, this week's the big one, guys, this one's the big one, the open, the home opener. All right, we're gonna be freezing our butts off in new york probably gonna be pouring rain all day long oh, you guys haven't played at home yet nope. So we're uh, our first three games for the season. Where, kind of like Cal-El, I now have the sun shining on me again, I will be attending baseball games live.
Speaker 1:Excellent, glad, glad to hear it. I'm happy for you. New York, I don't. I haven't been following Mets teams, but the Yankees have been doing pretty good.
Speaker 2:Yeah about that. The Yankees have been doing pretty good. Yeah about that. Yeah, wow. Oh no, they scored more runs than any other team has in the first three games. Nine home runs in one game what a great record, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Listen, here's the thing.
Speaker 2:Listen, listeners, if you guys are listening to this and I know you guys don't like just knowing what's going to happen you like a roller coaster? All right, you want a roller coaster of emotion. You want to feel like garbage but then feel great, but then feel like garbage in the span of 12 minutes. Sign up to be a new york metropolitan fan okay, all right, that's a good idea. Yeah, but other than watching baseball, your favorite, your, your favorite team over there. For now, what have you been up to?
Speaker 1:Dakota. Well, that's the thing I haven't been watching baseball that Saturday that they had that supposedly the best game that the Yankees have ever played, where they got more runs than they've ever gotten in a single game. They got more homers than I think any MLB team has ever gotten in a single game, and a whole bunch of other records are broken. I was trying my hardest to figure out where this game was streaming. I was downloading apps left and right. I downloaded the MLB app because we looked at the MLB app and they said on screen that this game was playing. So I was just like, all right, let's just, let's just, you know, do the free trial and then you know they'll charge us if we want to keep it. And it was like 150 bucks it was a lot of money and we get the app and it's just like, due to streaming rights, we don't have app access to this game so blackout restrictions?
Speaker 1:yes, it was so annoying dude, I was super pissed. Anyway, I missed that entire game. I canceled that membership, good, and they charged me $162 anyway. What? Yeah, it was the craziest thing. It was an April Fool's joke. I got it yesterday, oh wait.
Speaker 2:That just might mean that you can. It's like playstation. So if, like, I upped my playstation subscription to the highest tier to get like demos for one year and then, of course, of course, because they won't, they remind you one month before they're like hey, in 30 days we're gonna charge you. I'm sure you're gonna remember that. So I forgot to change my tier and it bumped me again. So when I canceled it it doesn't cancel it like you could still, you still have it. They're like no, you paid for it for the year, buddy. Like now it's canceled for the next time.
Speaker 1:But maybe I clicked into one of those random things where I had to read the fine print. But anyway, I I you know disputed the charge with apple, so I'll probably get that back. I hope I get that back. That's a lot of money for an app that doesn't work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that is a lot of money. Yeah, I've had stuff like that and like I hate it when you go to to get rid of a subscription and they're like are you sure, are you sure, are you sure? Like you have to hit like like 10 times?
Speaker 2:before they actually cancel it.
Speaker 3:I know, and I've had that before, but I've had that happen to me before where I've canceled the subscription. I remember canceling it and I still got charged. I was like, oh no, heck, no, y'all gonna give me my thing back, because I definitely and I had 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 of my like purchase history.
Speaker 1:It says that free trial, and then it's it's bizarre and you can actually like I have a record of my like purchase history. It says free trial, and then it's just like 150 plus tax. I was, I was really pissed anyway. Um, other than that, other than missing the best yankee game in history, uh, me and my wife finished watching the crown. We, we've been slowly going through that um, which has been really kind of cool, honestly. You know, just getting um, a historical series that takes place over the course of, I think it's like 40 or 50 years between you know, when queen elizabeth went, you know, got on the throne to, you know, not not to her death. It goes up until, like, the like, the early 2000s, but um, it's a really incredible show, uh, fantastic. Every single episode that I watched was, has, has or was fantastic, um, and it was a good ending. So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:And then I decided I wanted to watch succession. Wait, no, not succession. Why do I always get these two? Severance I've already seen Succession, severance. I wanted to watch Severance, the Apple TV series, and I only watched the first episode, but I can tell it's going to blow me away. So I'm really excited about that and it's a show that everyone's talking about right now.
Speaker 1:Think they the second season just finished, so I'm eager to continue that. What else have I been up to? Oh, I started my timeline notes on season two of the legend of korra. I'm making my way through that slowly. One thing that I noticed, um, which is actually like really, really cool world building, is um in the first season in, you know, they spend the entire time in republic city, right, and uh it when, when cora gets there, all the trees are like autumn colors, you know, like uh, but a bunch of like oranges and reds on the trees and all that. And slowly, as the season goes on, it goes into winter. So like snow is pretty abundant in the past in the last couple episodes of the first season. Then the second season starts. It's two months later I'm not going to spoil this for you rich it's or sorry, it's six months later. So six months after winter starts would be the beginning of summer, right? So in republic city that matches up. It has like um, you know, like the, the, the green plains, lots of like green on the trees, obviously no snow or anything like that. So I thought that was really cool. But then they go to the south pole and then they you know, there's, there's a someone, someone claims that it's the winter solstice tomorrow and I was briefly like wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This this messes up my entire like timeline for the show. Like what, what is going on? Like I was, I was having a mini meltdown as I was trying to like rationalize it and then I realized that there, that in the world building, they incorporated hemispherical seasonality.
Speaker 1:That they're that in the world building, they incorporated hemispherical seasonality. So just like right now, uh, so like, if it's summer in the north hemisphere, it's winter down in australia. So they, they did that in this series because republic city is like very north on the map, whereas south pole is obviously the south pole, you know. So where it would be the height of summer in republic city, it is the uh, height of winter in, uh, the south pole. So that blew my mind that they incorporated, you know, a real world, like time mechanic, like, uh, hemispherical seasonality. So I thought that was that was pretty interesting, it's cool.
Speaker 2:We had like an exchange student from argentina who came and it was wild to think that you know. He said he left the summer of january and february. And I said you left the summer of january and february to come to winter in new york in january, february.
Speaker 1:Like that's quite a decision, sir yeah, that is a decision, but uh, other than that, I didn't, I didn't really get. I mean, it sounds like I did a whole 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:oh, I, I did. I have been watching the righteous gemstones, which is uh not family friendly and uh really offensive, but kind of hilarious and uh, my wife and I are very enjoying it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've heard that that's really funny, so okay it's danny mcbride and you know I mean he wrote it, so it's very day if you've seen any danny mcbride, uh, led, you know production. It's basically what you think it is. It's just a uh, a family of pastors in pastors in the ilk of large arena, televised events and how they're just dastardly terrible people. Walter Goggins is in it, john Goodman's in it, danny McBride, of course, so it's actually got a pretty good cast. I mean, to see John Goodman in this is is pretty wild, and Walter Goggins is. He's amazing in anything he does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love him. I love him. He played the he's in the most recent season of White Lotus, which is still going on I think there's one more episode of that and he recently was in amazon prime's fallout series, yeah, which he played the ghoul, and he did a fantastic job with that. He was my favorite character excellent. That's great show. Guys. Should we jump into the mummy?
Speaker 3:yes, let's hop into the mummy, let's hop in um really quickly.
Speaker 1:Uh. One thing that I thought was really uh, a well written line um is when they first open up the, you know, the sarcophagus that holds the decaying, the slowly decaying, uh, emotep, uh. Brandon frazier goes. Is he supposed to be so juicy?
Speaker 2:And I thought that's perfect. I almost died and sent you guys the clip. I just couldn't like just leave a five-star juicy sarcophagus review.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so just like Imhotep who is like being dried out very slowly. We need you to give us a juicy five-star review on our podcast. Uh, we're really, you know, we, we thrive on those. You know juicy five-star reviews, guys. So, um, just not as decayed, yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway. Uh, let's, let's, let's, jump into the Mummy guys. Obviously we've all seen it before, right.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yes, was this a first for you, roach?
Speaker 2:I have only seen any of the movies by pure accident and just as a you know, I'm a sucker for putting on. I don't know what it is, it's my age showing. I kind of like movies on t broadcast tv okay, I I like sometimes it.
Speaker 1:It just feels like a tv show like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I get it I like the built-in bathroom breaks where I don't feel like I'm stopping everything. I kind of like the uh, the thrill of running to the bathroom and getting a sandwich and seeing if I can make it back in two minutes. Uh, so I've always done that. But I, you know, if I was grading, I think at any time, that it would have been on TV, I would have been, I would have had it on the background, you know. So I I remember seeing, for example, imhotep's face, the uh, where his, when his cheek is not completely together and he's kissing, uh, evelyn, right that I?
Speaker 2:I can distinctly remember that, right, and I also know, I really probably know about this franchise because of the rock, all right, if I have to be honest, like the rock brought my attention to it, so I probably I saw some of scorpion king, but since I hadn't seen the whole thing, the whole franchise, I didn't really understand what I, what I was supposed to care. So this is the first time that I ever sat down and said I'm going to want to watch, I'm going to watch one of these movies from the beginning to the end and then I watched the franchise.
Speaker 1:You watch, you watch the whole franchise. Did you jump into the spinoff Scorpion King movie with Dwayne the Rock Johnson?
Speaker 2:For the purposes of not having extemporaneous I can't remember the word right now Information that really wasn't Extemporaneous. Yes, there we go. I couldn't say it, get it out. I paused there because I did really watch a lot of them in a row. I mean, yeah, you did yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm very impressed. There is no extra credit on this podcast, what it's. We should have let you know that when you started.
Speaker 1:Actually, yeah, there's no extra credit, but yet you still got an F somehow somehow so as I guess this is the first time that you're like actively watching, let's let's just focus on the first one for the time being. Um, this is the first time you're actively watching the mummy yep. How do you? How did you enjoy it? How did you? I know that you had, uh, never seen, um, honor among thieves, the dungeon dragons movie that we covered a couple of weeks ago. Did this compare to that in any way? It kind of has a very similar vibe in terms of, like the action adventure humor aspect of it. But I want to hear your thoughts.
Speaker 2:I OK, so let's see. So I mean, compared to Honor Among Thieves, it's not. Still, honor Among Thieves is way better. Honor among thieves it's not. Still, honor among thieves is way better. Like I, that movie has has jumped into like a top. You know, you know it. It is like if if you said to me and this is crazy for me to say but if you were like, pick, you know 17 movies or so that you, that's the only ones you could watch. Honor among thieves is now in my rotation that's amazing.
Speaker 2:All right, I cannot say the same about the mummy, but that's not to take away from it. I'd say, if I'm not gonna put like fun franchises, you know like I love pirates, pirates is great. You know like, and I'm leaving out star wars and I'm, you know I can't even star wars is religion, so I'm not going to include this in this conversation. But like I love the pirates, the pirates franchise, this I thought was really fun. I mean I at first I was a little concerned with some of the cgi, like in the first at the end of the day, you have to realize it's 1999 you know, this is the same year as phantom menace, so yeah, so yeah, it was a little.
Speaker 2:I thought it was a little sketchy, like it was a little hit or miss at first, but I thought they did a really good job with imhotep, like when we got to see his transformation and and and his cgi I thought it was really good. I thought the acting was great. Brendan frazier is a really fun like uh. You know I love nathan drake from the uh yeah, uncharted series, you know, and he and he's kind of like nathan drake brought to life, you know that's it.
Speaker 1:That's a really good point. Actually, everyone always compares nathan drake to indiana jones, which you know there's definitely influence there. But he is very much, you know, I think he might, might actually be closer to Rick O'Connell from the mummy, he's literally a.
Speaker 2:He's more of a a literal kind of tomb Raider than you know.
Speaker 1: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'm saying, 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 that about.
Speaker 2:And brandon frazier is just uh, he's a great. I think he's just a great comedic actor. You know he's got the build to to be, uh, you know, that kind of the action hero type. He's. Uh, I thought I thought he job well done here. Uh, some fun for me, some fun cameos, my favorite. I'm just gonna get this out of the way now because I'm super ancient and you guys probably won't get this, but winston in the movie downright delighted me. Winston is the he flew the airplane yeah, they got them around, all right.
Speaker 2:And this man, the actor, all right. I first saw him back when I was a wee lad, watching episodes of bewitched and black and white, and I would see dr bombay, the magical doctor, appear out of nowhere. And it's the same actor and I sat there and I went holy shnikes. This movie is older, like I realized that the mummy is so much older than I thought it was, because I was like that guy was on black and white television and he's in this movie. What's going on here?
Speaker 3:you know, to be fair, a bewitched was way before you also yeah, yeah, no, yeah, they were.
Speaker 1:It was like you're not that ancient, yeah, no um you're just more susceptible to reruns yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely, anthony anthony, I gotta ask why do you hate this movie so much?
Speaker 3:man, bro, like the way that americans are portrayed as, like you know, these caricatures, man, like where these gunslinging like cowboys.
Speaker 1:Where's rick o'connell from? Because he kept saying that he kept calling these people the americans. But like, is he not also american?
Speaker 3:I'm a little bit confused I mean, I guess he's just like labeling that group as like the americans, but but like you know that, uh was it? Um, oh my gosh, I'm thinking of her actual name, evelyn. So Evelyn was like saying a bunch of like crap about Americans and like you know, like you can tell like it was kind of agreeing. He was kind of agreeing but like you could tell that, like he, it was like a funny moment because like he's kind of lumped up in with americans, so he is an 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:I'm trying to order in french as much as possible and communicate that way and there was definitely an american couple at the other side of the restaurant being loud, obnoxious, abrasive, and we just put our heads in our hands and we're like this is why we get treated poorly when we're just a little lost, asking for where the train is you know, so it was like, yeah, we're both the same, but we're not the same they look at you and you just hit them with a spanish like saying yeah, I'm not, I'm not from america.
Speaker 2:You know, like just bam, bam, I'm safe, but uh, no, that's uh, that that's the american slander, is you know? But there's also, uh, you know, I, I don't know if, uh, if, the egyptians come off too.
Speaker 1:No, actually they definitely make the Egyptian warden like the butt of many, many jokes.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, like that video that I had sent you.
Speaker 1:Yes, where he like, uh, what's the term oleolate?
Speaker 3: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 and there's a lot of, but when it happened I just laughed because it came out of nowhere right before, literally right before he dies, right right right, like like there's scenes from this movie that like I don't remember, so like I didn't remember that one, so like, yeah, like when I popped up like dude, I'm laughing, I'm like dude, that was absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 1:I don't even think I can make that noise on camera. I know, yeah, I can't, I'd have to like, really like, practice it. I'm not going to do it here on the podcast for the the sake of your ears, um, but yeah, that was reaching in my ears that was something that was a choice.
Speaker 1:Uh, one thing, rich, you said, um, that looked really good, was the actual uh mummy, mummy himself, because it kind of starts with like a practical model in the coffin and then it's mostly cgi, uh, mixed or superimposed onto the, the actor's body, which is really cutting edge. You know, at the time this is 1999 again, and cgi was at this point less than a decade old. You know in in actual practice, you know on screen practice. So, yeah, no, I think that they they did a really good job for what they had, and I'm sure this you know I haven't looked into it, but I'm sure that this movie pioneered certain techniques that carried on into future movies and series, kind of like Pirates of the Caribbean came a couple years after this point and they did something very similar with their skeleton crew, not the Star Wars skeleton crew, the actual skeleton crew of the Black Pearl. It was very similar-ish to that kind of CGI that they incorporated with Imhotep which, yeah, again, it looked great and he was actually pretty scary.
Speaker 1:I know as an adult it not like a very scary movie, but like as a kid, this, this, this, uh, this shook me right, right, like like this is.
Speaker 3:This is like an adventure, like rom-com, with like horror elements, kind of like sprinkled into it. I'm going to be honest with you. I remember seeing this as a kid and those scarabs scared me, dude, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Let's just talk about those scarabs.
Speaker 3:The scarabs frightened me.
Speaker 1:There was literally no need for them to make the dung beetle as scary as it is in this movie. For those of you who have not bothered to look this up, if you go to Egypt, you will not be eaten alive by scarab beetles. They do not care about you. They are not flesh-eating. They literally just pick up poop and make balls out of it.
Speaker 3:That's their life goal. So if you go into a lost Egyptian city and you find these jewel scarabs in the wall, you can ululate in peace.
Speaker 1:I don't know about that. I think that is still considered tomb raiding and all that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess so, but you don't have to worry about being eaten by by scarabs that is correct.
Speaker 1: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:uh, rich they frightened me. That was definitely, for me, the the worst part of the movie.
Speaker 1:Seeing it under the skin, that was something.
Speaker 3:That's a crazy effect, though, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, that was terrible.
Speaker 3:You don't see that too often.
Speaker 2:Just absolutely awful, I mean really well done. Really that was. And I didn't know that they wouldn't attack me. So maybe now I will go to Egypt. It was off my list before, but maybe it'll be back on. I'm still not going to australia, you won't. There's nothing you can say to convince me. But uh, I think egypt is a safe place now they're.
Speaker 3:We're gonna kidnap you and just like drop you be a parachute over australia night absolute nightmare scenario right in the right, in the center of the outback yeah, right in the center, in the desert, yeah, you're gonna be uh, fighting for your life, but yeah, no, they, they.
Speaker 1: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 and then, like, come up with like the worst bug of all time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I do like the little nod to you know, to Indiana Jones. I mean I hope, right, it's gotta be, it could be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I actually don't know. You know, uh, and then yeah, and then even there's there, isn't there one where one of the characters dislikes rats?
Speaker 2:oh, it's uh his father yeah, right, so you know, there always seems to be some sort of uh disliked vermin. I'm not sure if there's well-liked vermin, to be honest, uh, except for home alone 2, uh, where the lady the pigeon lady liked the pigeons. But other than that, you don't really sky vermin, yeah, the sky vermin, you don't really. Other than that you don't really see, uh, you don't. You don't really see vermin celebrated.
Speaker 1:So there, was that one like series of movies where, uh, that family adopted a rat? Or a mouse, stewart little stewart little, yeah, wait wait, I thought you were.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going with Harry Potter. I'm like he's talking about Scabbers.
Speaker 1:I'm like Scabbers is a killer. That actually really could have worked, but yeah, no, I was actually talking about Stuart Little.
Speaker 2:It's a fun fact is, I was teaching in downtown Brooklyn and one of my students because I was wearing a plaid shirt and jeans and I happened to be of paler complexion than that student said why are you dressed as stewart little today? And I I fell back onto my chair laughing because you can't even get angry, you can't even get I don't, guys. Just I know you may not be able to see me.
Speaker 1:I don't actually look like a white mouse, all right, so but I wish, I wish you guys could see this podcast because I'm. My backdrop today is the Great Pyramids of Giza.
Speaker 3:My head is like right on the Great Pyramid itself, the back of a dollar bill. It does kind of look like that I'm super opposed on the Pyramid of Khufu right now guys all we have to do is just like get a screenshot and throw some, like you know, dollar signs on there, man yeah, we should um, but yeah, it's dude.
Speaker 3:You know the the biggest thing that I was thinking about this movie, like while watching this movie, is that from time to time we do, but we don't get movies like this ever really anymore. I know, uh, the closest that that I could say in recent time that I've seen I don't know if there have been any others, but like dungeons and dragons that's why I brought it up genuinely like a fun like movie and like you know there was, there was action there, there was like comedy there, there was, like you know, this whole, like a magical aspect to it.
Speaker 3:Um, there was like creepiness to it also, you know, because of the red wizards, but you know, like that, that's movies like this, like I just I don't know what it is like. I I believe that you know, was it? This movie didn't do the best on rotten tomatoes, it's like a 60. But like for me, the way that I see it, is that like a movie doesn't have to be this crazy certified fresh film for you to actually like it and enjoy it. And you know, it kind of got me back thinking back on like movies, like, like man, like you.
Speaker 3:This is when you think of a summer 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 just fun to watch man. And it doesn't matter if it, if it scores a 15 or or a hundred percent of rotten tomatoes, you still had a good time. You know, like the the story. I guess sometimes you don't always have to have the most compelling story to enjoy yourself at the movies yeah, and I totally agree with that.
Speaker 1:and not only is it a fun time, it's well constructed, right, like. Almost every shot in this is pleasing to look at, like there are no stale shots. There's a lot of dynamic camera work in this movie. It was very creative with its use of CGI tracking, you know, like even the. I was thinking about like how they needed to um prepare for that scene where the guy had the you know the scarab beetle going up his body, like he needed to know exactly where that bug was going to be, you know, superimposed onto his body or in his body. You know, while he was acting and the, the camera followed like all the way up his body. Eventually it went into his brain and he basically crashed out. But little stuff like that is so well done and we don't see a lot of that nowadays. We see a lot more still frame stuff, not a lot of dynamic angles or anything like that and was really impressed um the.
Speaker 1:The movie flowed really well, it was edited really nicely and the music was great. Like this. This, this movie specifically has such pleasant music to accompany it that, like it brings me back to my childhood, you know it, it just transports me and I think that's the great thing about like, uh, good scores, you know they have the ability to um, you know, take you back to like that feeling of when you first watched it right and, and I feel like it, it just it went well with the, the vibe of the film, and and I feel like that's the kind of score that you would have gotten with, maybe, indiana Jones, if it wasn't scored by John Williams.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, exactly, I like the. Yes, I like that. Especially, it had a very Hollywood Egyptian vibe. We obviously don't know what ancient Egyptian music sounded like, but, um you know, hollywood has given it a, a sound, and this definitely is that sound? It's like that sound to a T.
Speaker 3:Right. It's so funny because, like, if you hear that sound, you know that they're like trying to um, give you the like an ancient Egyptian vibe. Even though you know exactly what you said, we don't know what it is that they used. Hollywood has gotten that sound so ingrained into our brain that you know what it? Is, and Western same thing too. There's a vibe that different eras 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:Certain things like that, like Hollywood has definitely manipulated the public consciousness towards you know, consciousness towards you know, if, if you were to read the frankenstein novel and then look at the original you know, universal monster frankenstein, they look nothing alike. Those, those two characters are just complete like that is a complete, completely different look, even like, uh, vikings there's no record of them ever having hats with horns on them, but that was a Hollywood thing that you know. Everyone now just believes Vikings had horns on their head and you see that even in, like how to train your dragon and stuff. So, yeah, it's, and like with with the music like this, you, you hear it all the time in like Egyptian stuff, so, but it's pleasant, it's really, it's really fun to listen to and it transports you into this adventure, which I really like. What did you guys think of the backstory of Imhotep and what his ultimate goal was? I'll throw it over to you, rich.
Speaker 2:So it was just, he was just basically trying to get with. I can't remember her name, but the pharaoh's concubine, if I'm correct right, pharaoh's daughter, I believe was it her daughter?
Speaker 3:was it the daughter or was it the mistress?
Speaker 2:oh, maybe it was the mistress I, I think it was the mistress was like, and it was like nobody lays a hand on her, but that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's okay, you're right. You're right, you're right.
Speaker 2:So, uh, you know, I, I was a little confused about what was going on at the beginning and I was like, oh snap, you know, uh, because I, I was like swerve, didn't see that coming m night shamalan showing up at the beginning. I didn't think that you know. So it's, I'm saying that you know, kind of tongue-in-cheek part of it's, like obviously I didn't, I'm not going to see it coming because I don't, I don't. There's no motivation to know why she so quickly turns on him. You know, it's, it's, it's. It is a little bit odd, but you know what one does for love. I mean, you know some people push small children out of the windows of a tower while they're sleeping with their sister and some just plot to kill the pharaoh. You know, sleeping with their sister, and some just plot to kill the Pharaoh. You know, but you know it, it does establish in some way, you know, if you, if you in a, in a certain retelling, this could be a love, a tale of enduring love, like this could be Titanic.
Speaker 1:You know, in some ways, because it was filmed by James Cameron Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause his love for her is, I mean, you know, transcendent. If you will, it really is. He never wants to let go, you know.
Speaker 1:Love it. Yeah, what about you, anthony? What are your thoughts on Imhotep and Anak Sanamun?
Speaker 3:You know there is that whole like love aspect and I know that he wants to, you know, kind of like be with her, but then there's like that whole like aspect of like immortality that he's going for. So, like you know, love isn't a hundred percent like the thing, you know. I mean, yeah sure, he wants to like be with her like forever, but he also wants to like live forever too and uh, kind of like rule the world. So there there's, there's definitely, 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 seen before. You know it's like very similar. Like there there's a little bit of a trope kind of going on there, but I guess it was fresh enough that I didn't feel bored with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what struck me re-watching these as an adult is the three named characters in the ancient Egypt arc Imhotep Anaksanam and, uh, pharaoh seti. The first are all actual real life people, or like they were real life people at some point, but none of them ever met each other. Uh, because they all lived at different times, like vastly different times. So, uh, I I did a little digging and I was because I was trying to like figure out exactly how much time, like apart these individuals were the world power for, like for the longest period on our planet. As far as we know, it was like 2 000 years or uh, from. Yeah, so, like there's the, and they split it up into kingdoms. So it's the old kingdom, which is the, the oldest, most ancient kingdom, which is where the, the great pyramids, were created. Then there was the middle kingdom, which is not represented in this movie at all, and then there's the New Kingdom, which you know ends with the Hellenistic pharaohs you know Cleopatra's among them.
Speaker 1:In the New Kingdom we have Seti I, and one of the dates that the film gives us is 1290 BC, which is the start of his reign, the study of the first reign. So they did look up this character and then they sent him to. They killed him immediately. So he started his reign in 1290. I guess in this universe he dies in 1290. But like he lasts in that role for 20 years. So if they wanted to get their timeline right they could have had Imhotep kill Seti I around 1271 BC.
Speaker 2:So anyway.
Speaker 1:Oh, and Anaxanamun is from a century before Seti I, so she was an actual figure, um. But emotep is one of the earliest known figures in all of like egyptian history and it's interesting that they chose to use him because he is credited um with. He's credited as the architect of the very first pyramid. At least as far as they're able to date ancient history, they believe that the Pyramid of Djoser is the first pyramid and it's credited as being created by Imhotep in 26, 2600 something BC. So this is 1300 plus years prior to the time period of the mummy. So they're they're a couple millennia off, uh, with Imhotep as as a character. But, uh, I, I still appreciate that they just like picked and you know they, they like, I want this guy or this pharaoh, uh but it's interesting like around they shopped around.
Speaker 1:Why seti the first like that? That's. That's an interesting one, because seti the first is the father of the, the most popular pharaoh in history, which is rameses the great. It's, it's the. It's the pharaoh that's most commonly misconstrued as the pharaoh in the Bible. Most people believe that Ramesses the Great was the pharaoh in the Bible, but there's no actual proof of that and according to Bible record, the exodus happened a couple hundred years before Ramesses was even born. So it doesn't match up, but it is interesting that Ramesses the Great was the most popular pharaoh and Seti I was his father. So I'm guessing they tried to use Ramesses and they just didn't want any connection to Moses and the Book of Exodus. So they cut that out. But then they added the, the 10 plagues of Egypt. Anyway, I I was like this movie. Just you know it, it had its cake and it ate it too, hey you know like what, what's, what's some?
Speaker 3:uh, you know, uh, film gluttony every once in a while. You know what's a little film gluttony every once in a while.
Speaker 1:What's a little film gluttony every once in a while. Speaking of the 10 plagues, I really liked Jonathan randomly, whenever there was a plague he'd be like, and the water turned to blood, he would just quote the scripture. And darkness fell upon the land of Egypt, and it's just like. If it's not blatant enough, here's here's like a quote that you might have heard from church also I thought it was weird where, uh, how is it that?
Speaker 2:like how many of them were there? Like nobody noticed that they had cups of blood, like until they drank it.
Speaker 1:Uh, I mean you're in a bar, right, so you're probably not. You probably already assume you know what's in your drink. Is you know your drink?
Speaker 2:okay, so something different? Okay, all right, okay, because they all had it like, right like it's. Didn't they all take it from the fountain? Am I? Am I misremembering? It's like they all put their cups to the fountain and, and they had it was no, I think they just showed. They showed the fountain turn from water to blood there you go, yeah, yeah no, I had this thing, they were actually served.
Speaker 3: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 were drinking.
Speaker 2:It's like a like church for me. You know me and the catholics. Every on sundays, trans transestabulation, it was actually changing the transfiguration.
Speaker 1:yeah, basically, uh, but it was. It was literal blood for these individuals. Actually, though, like in the scriptures, I don't think it said every liquid turned to blood, just water. You know what you need, you need water. So I don't know if the drinks, like the whiskey, would have turned, but it is, I argue.
Speaker 2:When my wife says I'm not hydrating enough, I argue that beer and coffee are made from water, so I like that.
Speaker 1:Actually, I like that a lot. Yeah, anthony, do you like that? Do you like that logic?
Speaker 3:I guess it's I, you know.
Speaker 2:You know, I did want to say because, before I forget it, I just I do. You guys were commenting earlier about how we don't see a lot of these movies. You know, and I think part of it. I just I do, you, you come. You guys were commenting earlier about how we don't see a lot of these movies. You know, and I think part of it's. I mean, I don't think stuff like rotten tomatoes necessarily helps, you know.
Speaker 1:I remember when.
Speaker 2: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 also because the tickets are more expensive, so it's double it's, it's it's knowing the reviews and knowing how much you're gonna spend, but it's just, I was okay with going to see a movie. That was not amazing I could. I didn't walk out and be like I want my money back or my time was wasted. It was like okay, cool, like I passed the time and that was pretty. You know, that was mildly. I saw the spawn movie twice in theaters, like that. That was not a great movie by any stretch and I I remember going like willfully back the second time. I was like yeah why not?
Speaker 2:why, not what else do I gotta do? And and part of it was that you didn't have everything at your disposal, right Like? I'm not going to go see a movie now that I'm not sure about, because I could just rewatch the Lord of the Rings trilogy and then probably stream that movie that I didn't go see in seven days. You know it's going to be, and I'm not even. I'm not talking illegally, I'm talking completely legally. So I think that companies are taking fewer chances on making these like these rom-com action movies. I mean, I remember like big trouble in little china when I was a little kid, I, I loved oh yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know I I'd seen that movie.
Speaker 2: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't have to be the best thing ever. I mean, like nobody goes to a sly stallone movie and goes like, hey, I'm looking for good cinema, 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:you talking, talking about Stop, or my Mom Will Shoot with Estelle Getty A perfect example of a movie that is not great but it's still so fun that you can't help but watch. It is the first Mortal Kombat movie I don't know if you've ever seen it, dakota but like oh, it's so good it's like so, so like the movie. It's not a great movie, you know like you're not talking about the mortal kombat recently.
Speaker 3:No, like no, I'm talking about like 90s mortal kombat, okay, yeah, okay, um, so, but the thing is is that it pretty much follows the story of mortal kombat, like you, of Mortal Kombat, like you know, it's like you know, humans defending earth realm from being um taken over, and so, like it, it gets that right, at least it does respect the source material. But, like, when you watch it you'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 and like there's just just so much kind of going on. It's like, dude, are you like for real? And then you have kind of like this, a little bit of like crappy cgi on it, but like you still, you know you forgive it because you're having a good time watching it yeah, listen, somebody cast jean-claude van damme as an american military man guile for the street fighter movie.
Speaker 2:All right, that was. That was one of the most ridiculous casting choices ever. All right, I mean, raul julia basically died so we could have street fighter. All right, that movie is is equal. But we're just not taking these chances anymore. Everyone takes themselves that. They're everyone's playing it safe and I, I, this movie, the whole franchise, honestly, like I act, I was happy that there was. I ended up watching the other ones. It's, you know, uh, it's really fun. I mean, the third one is kind of ridiculous. They do decide like, hey, you know what, maybe we're, we're overdoing the Egypt thing. Do you think that there's mummies in China? And then that's kind of the third one.
Speaker 1:Give me your ranking of the three, the three movies, if you can, oh shoot.
Speaker 3:One, two, three, like I mean really it's got to be one, two, three. I mean for me it is.
Speaker 2:I'm sure the rock kind of like raises that bar a little bit, even with like the worst cgi you've ever seen yeah, I mean it's pretty uh, the the the rock cgi and the second one the scorpion king, I mean, and that is it's.
Speaker 1:It's legendarily bad, like it's. It's like people talk about that scene as like.
Speaker 3:Remember that yeah, it was I don't even think video game, like graphics were that bad. No, like you, maybe had a couple that looked that bad. But like, if you're being like serious, I mean, when did that come out? Was it 2002, 2000, yeah, like around that time. And we had final fantasy 10 that came out at n01 and that looked way better than than that scorpion king did it was it's.
Speaker 2:It's so bad that actually I might almost I almost okay. I have a weird affinity when the third movie in a franchise is kind of awful and completely not with the rest of it right, like there's a charm to those movies that I kind of enjoy. Like we're hanging on to the last vestiges of this franchise and trying to squeeze it dry we're, we're, we gotta see this through to the bitter end like the turtles movies.
Speaker 2:Right, like suddenly it's like one, two and then we're gonna go back to ancient japan, right, like what? Uh, you talking about guys. You know the home alone, home alone one. Home alone two, great home alone, three, with that weird new kid no, not having it, but kind of loved it. All right, this kind of was the same. You have the sun, the they. You know there's a son grown up. They've replaced Evelyn.
Speaker 3:I don't know why, see, see, like that, put me out, like automatically, like they had 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:They like, they put glasses on her and they're like she's a librarian and I'm like evelyn'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 kind of nerdy. I've seen those teen movies, I know what it's like. I bought her. I didn't like the new actress as Evelyn.
Speaker 3:I did not buy that she was working in a library. Well, the OG, she sold it. They did kind of give her the look, but she also had like kind of like that, that knowledge and she, she, she, very much so seemed to be like a nerd in egyptology, you know. So hey, but but she sold it like yeah, that third one bro that one just doesn't exist.
Speaker 1:That one doesn't exist. I'm gonna be honest, I don't even remember the third one. The only thing I remember is that there's a scene where, like, abominable, snowmen are playing football let me that.
Speaker 2:Let's see, I'm gonna tell you that's way better. That's way better than when they're like the beginning is essentially okay, essentially we're retired, wow, our son is gone, we don't talk to him anymore and we don't really like being around each other anymore. All right, and she, it, it's. And then they're like wait adventure where we can risk our lives again and then like it suddenly like literally gets their, like their, their mojo flowing and uh, they, I think they even get like oh, like kind of sexy timey because they're excited. It is so bad. I actually implore all of you out there, all right, despite what you're hearing, you need to see it for yourself, all right. Jet lee's in the movie jet lee Li.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, isn't he like the mummy emperor?
Speaker 2:or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but Jet Li being in the movie can't save it alive, he turns into lava, he turns into water. That movie doesn't exist, that movie just I thought he was very adamant about this. If I had a choice between that movie and Baby Shark, just throw in Baby Shark, I'm just.
Speaker 2:Dude, I always wondered what did the Terracotta Army do to get stuck down there? And then we get to find out in this movie. All right, I learned.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, we knew that they were supposed to protect the Emperor's tomb. I knew that. But I didn't need a crappy mummy movie to see it played out. But other than that, we're kind of getting sidetracked. We're over an hour. Let's reel it back in to this first mummy movie. There is a love story kind of like put into this movie. We've kind of skirted along it a little bit. Like what are your guys thoughts on on that?
Speaker 1:like kind of that romance between, uh, rick and evelyn I personally really find uh the two actors to have a lot of chemistry uh, rachel weiss and brendan fraser. So every scene that they're in on screen just works. I don't know what it is, but it just works like from the moment they meet and he is about to be killed, so he's like wild and crazy and like he kisses her, like uh, you know randomly um that that interaction between the two characters is magnetic, just like the, the look that each other gives, that each other it's, it's, it's fantastic um, and it continues throughout the movie in just really fun and unique ways, uh, as as they pit more and more stuff uh against them. Um, and I really like like their brother Jonathan, not Jarnathan, jonathan, yeah yeah, no, I like his character too.
Speaker 3:No, I agree, I agree with you. There is like some really good like chemistry on screen. You can see it Like it doesn't feel forced, it feels very organic. You can tell that like even like the casting like as a whole like worked very well. They kind of like uh, played off of of each other. So, yeah, no, no, I, I definitely agree with you. It was. It was like it never, was like a moment when you saw them to those two on the screen yeah, uh, what do you think rich?
Speaker 2:I thought they were, they were great together. I mean, honestly, it's their relationship, the believability of their chemistry is actually ultimately what makes me dislike the third one so much because the actress changes and then I mean almost, in, almost appropriately, their, their, their marriage is kind of loveless and there's no spark and it's like, yeah, because it's not the same woman. Come on brandon, you can't. Come on rick, like that's a great 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 off really well. Uh, just, their dialogue doesn't feel forced, it doesn't feel stilted, it doesn't feel it.
Speaker 1:It, it all feels very natural there's a scene where they uh, they head back I think it's to Cairo. After they awaken, the mummy and Rick is adamant about we got to get out of here. We're getting on the next plane and he's shoving random things into her suitcase and she's very adamant. No, we have to stay. We open this can of worms. We have to close it. And she's taking stuff out of the suitcase and it's a whole minute and a half scene of them. He's putting stuff in and she's going around and replacing it in other spots and it's so well done. The acting is so fantastic and neither of the characters even look at each other in that scene until the very end Because they're so busy with what they're doing.
Speaker 2:And it's almost like abedin costello type of humor where like yeah, you know what I'm saying like it's just like goldie hawn do this with kurt russell and and like bird on a wire and stuff like that, like this 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 an attractive guy and a a uh, you know quick-witted lady who had good chemistry and they were just fun on screen together, you know, and that's yeah you get.
Speaker 2: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 kind of this is sacrilegious, right, but I love superhero movies, but I also liked when you just watched a movie that was in the real 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:Speaking about the real world, but really isn't so often. In this movie they show the Great Pyramids right next to a big city or right next to this city.
Speaker 1:They show it next to Thebes. Thebes is like 500 miles away from the Great Pyramids In the beginning. I think the first shot right after the big universal globe goes around is ancient Egypt city of Thebes. Shot right after the big uh, you know universal globe goes, goes around, um is like ancient egypt city of thieves and you know the great pyramids are like literally right behind it, nowhere near that like it's like yeah, yeah, no, no.
Speaker 3:I I find that funny that you say that, because it's literally like a stone's throw away. Yes, like major cities. I'm like I'm pretty sure that they're like and they did that a lot.
Speaker 1:They did that a lot throughout the the movie, like whenever there was like an establishing shot of like we have to make sure that this looks like egypt pyramids, pyramids pyramids.
Speaker 3:Just drop them in the background. How are they gonna know that they're?
Speaker 1:in egypt. Funny enough, they filmed in morocco, so maybe they did need to.
Speaker 3:Uh, they did need those pyramids for establishing we're in morocco, but we need we really need to be in egypt oh yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, I know I agree with you, uh, also with um jonathan. Jonathan is very much so like the comic relief, but he's not the only one. Like, everybody has like their moments. You know, rick, evelyn, they all have like, but like they're funny in their own way. You know, like in like, like they're, it's like not out of character for them when they have 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 benny yeah, like probably the best character.
Speaker 1:Just maybe not the best character, but like such a fun character, especially on rewatch, like I quote benny and uh and rick all the time in my in 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 all the horses and Benny goes, or and Rick goes. Hey, benny, looks like you're on the wrong side of the river.
Speaker 3:Dude. Yeah, that, that that part was so funny, like it was so like childlike, but like it was hilarious, like it worked so well in that moment and it definitely gives them their like relationship yeah, yeah, no, that's good.
Speaker 1:Um, I even like, just like, the first time we meet benny and he's like, he's on rick o'connell's side in whatever battle they're facing at Hamunaptra, which is a fictional Egyptian place it doesn't exist. He's totally on board. He's just like. I forget what he says, but it's something like I'll be with you till the end, or something like that, and then you just see him running off, and that's every scene, every scene.
Speaker 3:That was so funny. Yeah, after like the, the officer like kind of runs off.
Speaker 1:Oh let's talk about language a little bit. Um, I thought that that was like an interesting um like thing that they had benny incorporate into his character. Um, he carries a bunch of necklaces with different, you know, religious symbols. He's got a cross, he's got the star of david, he's got a buddha, he's got hindu symbols, he's got a whole bunch of uh symbols that he has attached to his neck almost 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 through different religions. And it's not until, you know, like, he brings up the Star of David and he starts speaking in Hebrew that the that Imhotep like recognizes oh, it's the language of the slaves. I really like that scene because I I feel like the actor did a really good job of mimicking the intonations of each you know, like spoken word in that, like you know, I'm I'm afraid I'm praying speech. You know, I don't know all of those languages, obviously right, but like right it didn't sound anglicized, you know.
Speaker 1:It didn't sound uh, like something 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, like like. In smallville there's an episode where um lana is like possessed by the, the spirit of, like some witch or something that speaks latin, and it's like the most english sounding latin ever.
Speaker 3:It's the worst. I hate that one. Yes, it's, it's crazy it's anyway.
Speaker 1:um, I hate that kind of stuff, but when I see stuff like this where, like, they clearly gave this guy an acting coach or he just knows these languages and it's like an actual, like polygl or whatever, which is actually pretty impressive on that character's part.
Speaker 3:This man knows a lot of languages like. Chinese, hebrew, I forget the other languages. I know he was like I think he had pulled up the Islamic symbol too. I think he did.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, no, it was really impressive on the actor's part and the the character'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 do anything to get by, including learning other languages and praying to other gods, you know, or other versions of a god. So, yeah, I thought that that was really really well done.
Speaker 1:Um, and the ancient egypt that they had. Um, emotep and anaxanamun speak. Obviously, I don't know ancient egypt, I don't read hieroglyphs or anything like that, but I did look it up. They, uh, they did a really good job of, you know, using real hieroglyphs and enunciations of hieroglyphs and, uh, they, they tried their best to incorporate ancient egypt, like speech, into, uh, the movie. So when they're speaking, it's not modern day england or it's not modern day egyptian, it's actually ancient egypt Egyptian that they kind of modeled after a Coptic, which is a newer form of ancient Egyptian, like closer to, like Jesus time. They, they use the Coptic language. So so that it has cause. We don't know what ancient Egypt sounded like, you know, we barely know what ancient English sounded like, but by using a more modern version of that and incorporating that into how you would read those words, um, that's how they came up with their ancient egypt and I think they did a really good job.
Speaker 2:I think the actors like killed it actually there was, I thought the even um, just when they were. I think they were it was actually, I thought it was arabic, I mean, I don't know, I used to teach at a school where kids spoke arabic and they kept saying yelling, uh, yalla, which was kind of a hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, so that actually kind of pulled me into it, right it was like oh yeah, yalla I remember that one because uh, that was one of the few words I would learn with the kids.
Speaker 2:It was like yalla, yalla yola, hurry up, get to class. So I thought that was pretty cool. I actually as much as I love all the acting. What kind of astounded me was my wife randomly was like you know, I just could never get behind Brendan Fraser. He just looks like kind of dumb.
Speaker 3:And this is somebody who.
Speaker 2:She loves the National Treasure movies, right, Just loves them just okay, and then? Also loves like all the fast and furious. Like loves vin diesel and I'm like you love vin diesel and nick cage, but you're like brendan fraser that guy looks dumb like that's a step.
Speaker 1:That's a step too far, even for me.
Speaker 2:I'm just but I thought fraser's great I, I thought they the casting was really good. You know they just top to bottom that it was really well executed and uh it's, it's sad that there was there was drop off, especially by the end because it just had so much uh promise to be. Uh, you know you could have had like, uh, I think you could have had a couple more. I wouldn't, I wouldn't mind to see a return to e I would not mind that either.
Speaker 1:I think now they'd probably be in there in like the 1950s or 60s, just because of the age of the of the actors involved. But yeah, I, I would. I would like to see that for sure. Um Guys, what are we doing next week? Are you guys interested in continuing not necessarily the Mummy, but continuing in ancient Egypt?
Speaker 2:Sure, Are we going to Agrabah? Where are we?
Speaker 1:about no, no. So sad note, the actor Val Kilmer passed within the past 24 hours, so one of my first movies where I experienced him as an actor was the Prince of Egypt, where he actually plays the voice of God when speaking to Moses. Would you guys be interested in doing prince of egypt?
Speaker 2:let's get her done yeah, we can't.
Speaker 3:I think my my first experience with him was batman it might have been batman or prince of egypt.
Speaker 1:I I don't remember what I saw first as a kid, but yeah, I think mine was probably willow that might. Yeah, Cause that that would be before that Very old. Oh you, you, you put your doubt yourself down too often on this podcast.
Speaker 3: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:I feel like I'm like a mummy under wraps in a sarcophagus.
Speaker 1:Well, hopefully someone resurrects you soon.
Speaker 2:I think that Pete Alonzo is going to be doing that on Friday afternoon Nice.
Speaker 3:But yes, let's wind this thing down, wrap it up. We are running like wild hyenas right now, even though that that's Africa, uh.
Speaker 1:Egypt is in Africa, Well yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3: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 running around in Egypt, yeah, but yeah. So last minute thoughts.
Speaker 1:Good movie. I'm biased towards it because I grew up with it, but yeah, I love everything about this, even the anachronisms that I brought up before, where I was kind of complaining. It's still fun, it's still a good movie. I still love it, even despite all that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I thought it was a really good time. It's not going to be my top tier, like Honor Among Thieves. I'm not sure if I don't know if we can watch a movie that's going to be better than Honor Among Thieves.
Speaker 1:Anthony, we got to find a movie that's better than Honor Among Thieves that he has not seen it's thrown down the gauntlet.
Speaker 3:I mean, like I, you're saying that, but then like, there you have the existence of the lord of the rings well, no, that's yeah, but like it's a movie that he hasn't seen, that's yeah okay let's be clear uh, whenever you guys want, sir, I, I I re-watched that franchise just for s's and g's.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, on a sunday, all right, uh, so no, but so we, we already did those.
Speaker 3:The next one I mean for us like we'd have to cover is like the hobbit, the lord of the rings.
Speaker 2:We already did like that extensively the hobbit's the best one, that there's, the best that was made yeah, sure, yeah sure you, you know I'm gonna 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:The elf, yeah all right, we're, we're like going uh off the rails guys next week for episode 116.
Speaker 1:Um, it has been decided that we're covering the Prince of Egypt. It's an animated movie by DreamWorks. Val Kilmer plays a pretty significant role. So, yeah, it'll be a little Val Kilmer send-off next week, guys. But yeah, thank you so much for listening to us here for our episode 115. And if you haven't already already, be sure to give us a five-star juicy review. If you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to click into the show notes down below and we'll see you later, guys make sure it's juicier than emotep bye y'all.
Speaker 3:Death is only the beginning.
