The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

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Movie Details

• Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama
• Release Date: 2008-08-01 Nationwide
• Running Time: 114 min.
• Director: Rob Cohen
• Cast: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Russell Wong, Liam Cunningham, Luke Ford, Isabella Leong, Michelle Yeoh
• Producer: Bob Ducsay, Sean Daniel, Stephen Sommers
• Writer: Miles Millar, Alfred Gough
• Distributor: Universal Pictures
• Official Site: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Official Site

If Stephen Sommers's 1999 remake of The Mummy didn't achieve its obvious goal of topping Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was close enough for this then-13-year-old boy. Endless chases, funny quips, breathless pacing—good movie. One sequel and dismal spin-off later, Sommers has been replaced by Rob Cohen, he of Dragonheart directorial fame. A prologue introduces Emperor Han (Jet Li), who, having conquered everything else, wants to conquer death, and seeks out witch Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) to help him do so. Instead, Zi curses Han, whereupon he promptly melts into a chocolate-like substance. Cut to the present: 1946 this time, some 13 years after the last installment. Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn O'Connell (Maria Bello, subbing for a now-too-respectable Rachel Weisz) are suffocating in their adventureless Oxfordshire life. Meanwhile, son Alex (Luke Ford) has run off to China, where he discovers the, uh, tomb of the Dragon Emperor. When Rick and Evelyn show up in China on a mission, they find their estranged son and then save the world. Best not to inquire too deeply into this Mummy: Whereas Sommers chose cheerful extravagance, Cohen's enterprise is joylessly efficient, pushing the family around from one locale to the next—inevitably too late to stop whatever it is they were there for in the first place—until the final confrontation. Strange how dreary it all is, and how tired Fraser seems.