OMG! Indy and the Crystal Skulls! OMG! WOW! ***SPOILERS***

Gary Sax wrote:

Barnes mentioning the out of touch thing with Lucas and Spielberg hit on something I had been thinking about the movie in retrospect. I think that Lucas and Spielberg are old. I think they are too old to make this kind of film now.

Not old. Just too much ingrained in the Hollywood establishment. Too rigid in their thinking.

BillN

I liked the Mummy.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Better than the mummy? Fuck off.

Agree on both points.

Three things I hate about THE MUMMY and that series (I cut SCORPION KING some slack- it wasn't as bad as the others):

1) I hate smirky, post-everything "in on the joke" genre movies that are too cynical about themselves and their audiences for their own good. Brendan Fraser's performance has this whole "Hey, I know this is shit" tone to it that I hate.

2) Stephen Sommers is every bit as shitty a director as Uwe Boll, he just has a bigger budget.

3) Everything in the movies is loud, glossy, and overblown. And not in the good ways.

My pal Dan said that the main thing he didn't like about CRYSTAL SKULL was that it was too much like THE MUMMY. And he's kind of right- similar pace, similar effects, a bunch of bungling characters fumbling through an adventure...

All that being said, my wife is doing a job next week that's some kind of tie-in trailer/commercial for THE MUMMY 3. I didn't even know there was another on the way.

I'll go fuck off now.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Three things I hate about THE MUMMY and that series (I cut SCORPION KING some slack- it wasn't as bad as the others):

You bag the very creative and pulpish mummy flicks but give a pass to that boring snoozefest? WTF?

1) I hate smirky, post-everything "in on the joke" genre movies that are too cynical about themselves and their audiences for their own good. Brendan Fraser's performance has this whole "Hey, I know this is shit" tone to it that I hate.

Examples please.
I think he had charisma for the role, and played it more than serious enough. I don't recall anyu bit he 'over camped it'.

2) Stephen Sommers is every bit as shitty a director as Uwe Boll, he just has a bigger budget.

Give me a break. Sommer's weakness is, especially in later films he gets carried away with excess but he can stage a great action sequence - I'd put up most of the Mummy's action sequences against Indy 4's anytime. He also has a deft hand and creating good pacing and creating humor beats. Compare his flicks to the similar but blander 'Sky Captain' flick - Sommers knows how to craft a pulp adventure.

3) Everything in the movies is loud, glossy, and overblown. And not in the good ways.

Van helsing I will pay you. But the original mummy? Bullshit, it was great fun, and never got as overblown as Indy 4s fucking idiotic ending.

My pal Dan said that the main thing he didn't like about CRYSTAL SKULL was that it was too much like THE MUMMY. And he's kind of right- similar pace, similar effects, a bunch of bungling characters fumbling through an adventure...

It seemed to rip off ideas from the Mummy but didn't have the style nor craft behind it - and yes I do realize I'm saying Sommers did a better job the the Burg. Guess burg just cant do lighthearted fun anymore.

All that being said, my wife is doing a job next week that's some kind of tie-in trailer/commercial for THE MUMMY 3. I didn't even know there was another on the way.

I think Brendan F is the only returning actor. Not expecting much, but I still think it wont be as dumb as indy.

To Hell with a Mummy 3, I'd rather have a Scorpion King 2.

(And my wife, who thought The Rock was "incredibly hot" in Scorpion King, did not write this.)

--Mike L.

I saw it over the weekend and I enjoyed it. It wasn't a great movie but that's not what I was expecting to see. Nor was it a steam pile of excrement.

Michael Barnes wrote:

That was one plot point I really liked- and it was something actually very Lovecraftian. The whole thing with him going crazy, locked up in a South American asylum and scribbling crazy talk on the walls...

And they didn't even do much with it. Jones' old scientist buddy's slow descent into madness is slowly, ever so slowly, exposed, until finally they encounter him and reveal - John Hurt's best Jar Jar Binks impression. "Get help, whatever your name is!" (Hurt comes back with russians) "Help!". "Thanks whatever your character's name is..." Ford-scowl.

I am going through the same stages as I did for the prequels. I walked out of the theater for each prequel saying "It was good! Really!" within a few weeks I have altered my opinion (pray I don't alter it any further... couldn't help myself) and within a few years I can't even watch them anymore. This newest indy movie wasn't as ad as the prequels, but that's like saying it didn't smell as bad as rotting garbage piled on a busted sewermain on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter while a grease-trap is emptied next door.

mikelawson wrote:

To Hell with a Mummy 3, I'd rather have a Scorpion King 2.

(And my wife, who thought The Rock was "incredibly hot" in Scorpion King, did not write this.)

--Mike L.

They are making another Scorpion King. The Rock will not be returning. It will be a prequel, to a prequel, to a sequel, to a remake.

Personally, I like both Mummy movies more than the Scorpion King, and the first more than the second. I have low hopes for the third one, but maybe that's why it wont disapoint me as much as Indy 4. If you think about, could they possibly have pleased anyone when the movie was compared to the originals? That kind of thing has happened. Who could have imagined Batman as it is today right after seeing Batman and Robin? But it wasn't likely. I shouldn't have got my hopes up, but I did.

I don't even see why y'all compare The Mummy movies to the Scorpion King. Except for the Scorpion King character they have little in common. Better to compare SK to Conan the Barbarian, which it fails miserably against, but still much better than the swarm of sword-wielding barbarian movies that CtB spawned in the '80s.

mikelawson wrote:

To Hell with a Mummy 3, I'd rather have a Scorpion King 2.

I'll second MikeL's sentiment.

(And my wife, who thought The Rock was "incredibly hot" in Scorpion King, did not write this.)

--Mike L.

I think Kelly Hu is incredibly hot in SK.

Haven't seen Indiana J yet. Given the hot weather we're having already, this week might be a good time to check out the theater's AC and catch a movie to boot.

BillN

BigLizard wrote:

Haven't seen Indiana J yet. Given the hot weather we're having already, this week might be a good time to check out the theater's AC and catch a movie to boot.

BillN

That's what we did today (our AC is broken, and it's like a hundred degrees out). We saw Zohan. It was ok. Sandler is a bit too full of himself, and a bit too self-righteous, but it was better than Click.

Frank Darabont's rejected script is now on the web. I'm about a third of the way through it so far. A lot of it actually made it to the big screen (though it could have all been stuff that Lucas had him shoe-horn in) but I think it would have made for a better movie.

For one thing, no Mutt. This focuses much more on the guy we paid to see, not The Crazy Adventures of Indy and the Swashbuckling Greaser. For another, the movie doesn't start off in Area 51 so there is some mystery behind what the Crystal Skull could be. Anyways, enjoy (or don't, because there's still an airborne refrigerator):

www.pdfscreenplays.net/pdfscripts/screen...0of%20the%20Gods.pdf

EDIT: Looks like it got taken down. I should have saved it.

I was a little over half way through it. I definitely think it would have been the better movie.