The Mummy : Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Theaters)

mummy_tomb_of_the_dragon_emperor_ver4After watching Brendan Fraser’s sub par performance in Journey to the center of the Earth, you can only imagine my apprehension when screening The Mummy:Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Although I had my doubts about this movie, being such a huge fan of the first two installments, I felt obligated to continue my journey with the O’Connell’s on another wild adventure set in the Middle Kingdom.

Without question, Tomb was the most inferior film out of the otherwise illustrious franchise. The film wasn’t a total loss, (decent CGI, a few corny jokes, and of course Jet Li) but I felt that many of the elements that made the first two films such huge successes were absent in the third. Its biggest problem? Its horrible cast selection.

Lets begin with Alex O’Connell. What the heck were they thinking? Not only did the guy look totally out of character (he looked 25 while his parents looked 30), his performance was just outright pitiful. It was colorless and hardly felt anywhere close to the performance that Freddie Boath brought to the table in the Mummy Returns.

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War (DVD)

warWhen you put two of Hollywood’s most charismatic action stars in a film together, your bound to end up with a great action movie. This film fit the bill perfectly, and I enjoyed it up until the very end.

Jet Li plays his role as the assassin Roque flawlessly. Since his performance in Lethal Weapon 4 as Wang Si Ku, I always thought he was the perfect bad guy. It is clear in his demeanor that he means business, and his powerful presence is felt the instant you see him appear on the screen. Jason Statham stars as FBI agent Crawford who is consumed by vengeance after the murder of his partner. I thought that the complexity of his character was decently developed and he handled it without a hitch.

The storyline was also well written. It was pretty complex for an action film and it kept me guessing until the final moments. The producers definitely had the right idea and ended the movie with a interesting twist, but I thought it was executed poorly. War ended so abruptly that it left me disappointed. I felt that there was just too many questions left unanswered.

War definitely was a solid action movie. Although I would have liked to see Li and Statham use more of their martial arts in the film instead of guns and knives, I still was impressed with their performances. The storyline was good, but the ending could have been so much better. The fact that the film was performed with live stunts rather than so much CGI was also a huge plus.

Synopsis:

After his partner Tom Wynne and family are killed apparently by the infamous and elusive assassin Rogue, FBI agent Jack Crawford becomes obsessed with revenge as his world unravels into a vortex of guilt and betrayal. Rogue eventually resurfaces to settle a score of his own, setting off a bloody crime war between Asian mob rivals Chang of the Triad’s and Yakuza boss Shiro. When Jack and Rogue finally come face to face, the ultimate truth of their pasts will be revealed.

Unleashed Unrated (DVD)

As with all Jet Li films, the action sequences in unleashed were really good. He is hard hitting and no nonsense. I thought the movie was decent. Again, the fight scenes were really good but it tried too hard to provide a bit of dramatics to the mix. I wasn’t feeling it at all. This was definately not one of Jet Li’s best films. I still think Romeo Must Die was his big American hit.

Synopsis:

A man treated like a dog and raised as a fighting machine his entire life, ends up in a coma and is taken in the care of good people, but his sinister owner is looking to retrieve his most prized possession: a non stop human weapon triggered by the collar leashed on his neck.