Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

The best ‘Mummy’ yet

The “Mummy” franchise hasn’t consisted of great movies. They’re popcorn flicks with razzle-dazzle special effects, quirky humor and Brendan Fraser’s endearing mix of goofiness and machismo.

For the first “Mummy” film in seven years, director Rob Cohen (“XXX,” “The Fast and the Furious”) amps up the action and keeps everything moving. The result is possibly the most fun “Mummy” yet.

In “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” adventurer Rick O’Connell (Fraser) and wife Evelyn (Maria Bello of “A History of Violence”) have retired to an English country manor in the 1940s.

However, they’re not ready for rocking chairs just yet. The couple jumps at the chance to deliver an ancient diamond to Shanghai. But the priceless jewel is tied into the mystery of the evil Dragon Emperor (Jet Li), who was cursed to spend eternity in suspended animation along with his 10,000-strong army.

If the emperor wakes from his curse, he will have terrifying supernatural powers and seek to take over the world.

Cohen’s flair for action sequences charges everything with a fresh, thrilling urgency.

There is a smashing chase between a car and a headless horse in Shanghai on Chinese New Year’s. Then comes a swooping airplane ride complete with an airsick yak thrown in for laughs.

The movie’s climactic battle is impressive, as the emperor’s army of terra cotta soldiers do battle with an opposing army consisting of the walking dead.

Cohen even pops up, Hitchcock-style, during the final sequence, as a dancer on a nightclub floor.

Not everything is smooth sailing, however, as Cohen seems less self-assured with his cast. Jet Li is seemingly wasted, as it is hard to tell where the actor ends and the CGI begins.

Bello, who subs for Rachel Weisz, lacks the warmth and humor that Weisz brought to the earlier films.

The movie also doesn’t say much about a career in Hollywood for guys entering middle age. Fraser’s character is saddled with a college-age son, as if the filmmakers were ready to put Fraser out to pasture. Even worse: Fraser is a youthful 39 in real life, but the bland actor cast as his son, Luke Ford, was born in 1981. I can buy evil emperors that turn into three-headed dragons, but I don’t believe Fraser as the father of a man in his mid-20s for one minute.

Rated PG-13 for violence.