¶ Episode Introduction and Initial Confusion
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 ?
I watched the whole franchise Did I mess up guys Did .
I do something wrong . I watched the whole franchise .
So I'm going to be very upset if that's what I was supposed to do .
Dakota .
I'm looking at your face . Oh , my goodness .
I'm looking at your face to read you because I'm like , yeah , this man is just messing around , right ?
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 ?
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
I had seen it . I saw it . Watched
¶ Hosts Share Weekly Updates
that one . I had seen it . I saw it around the time that it had come out . It's been a while .
Wow , you must feel so good about yourself . I do . You haven't seen that movie , I do .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
Yeah , it is . I mean , are you finding it a ?
challenging job at this point , or uh , yeah , there , there is . There there challenges to it .
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 . 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 .
So nice man yeah .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
You did mention it .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 . 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 .
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 .
Oh , yeah , tell us about that .
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 .
My workday ends at 3.05 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
Listen , here's the thing .
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 ?
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 ?
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 ?
before they actually cancel it .
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 .
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 . 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 . 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 . 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 .
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 .
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 ?
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 .
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
¶ Diving Into The Mummy (1999)
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 .
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 ?
yes , let's hop into the mummy , let's hop in um really quickly .
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 ?
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 .
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 .
No .
Yes , was this a first for you , roach ?
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 .
It just feels like a tv show like that .
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 ?
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 .
You watch , you watch the whole franchise . Did you jump into the spinoff Scorpion King movie with Dwayne the Rock Johnson ?
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 .
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 . 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 .
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 . 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 .
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 .
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 .
He's more of a a literal kind of tomb Raider than you know .
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 .
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 . 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
¶ Historical Inaccuracies and Creative Liberties
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 ?
you know , to be fair , a bewitched was way before you also yeah , yeah , no , yeah , they were .
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 ?
man , bro , like the way that americans are portrayed as , like you know , these caricatures , man , like where these gunslinging like cowboys .
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 ?
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 .
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 . 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 .
No , actually they definitely make the Egyptian warden like the butt of many , many jokes .
Oh yeah , yeah , like that video that I had sent you .
Yes , where he like , uh , what's the term oleolate ?
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
Let's just talk about those scarabs .
The scarabs frightened me .
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 .
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 .
I don't know about that . I think that is still considered tomb raiding and all that .
Yeah , I guess so , but you don't have to worry about being eaten by by scarabs that is correct .
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 ?
uh , rich they frightened me . That was definitely , for me , the the worst part of the movie .
Seeing it under the skin , that was something .
That's a crazy effect , though , yeah .
Oh , that was terrible .
You don't see that too often .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
Yeah , I don't know .
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 ? 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 .
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 .
I thought you were going with Harry Potter . I'm like he's talking about Scabbers .
I'm like Scabbers is a killer . That actually really could have worked , but yeah , no , I was actually talking about Stuart Little .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 . 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 . 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 .
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
¶ Chemistry Between Rick and Evelyn
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 . 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 . 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 .
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 .
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 .
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 ?
was it the daughter or was it the mistress ?
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 .
Yeah , that's okay , you're right . You're right , you're right .
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 .
You know , in some ways , because it was filmed by James Cameron Sure .
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 .
Love it . Yeah , what about you , anthony ? What are your thoughts on Imhotep and Anak Sanamun ?
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 .
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 .
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 .
So anyway .
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 . 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
¶ Benny's Character and Language Elements
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 ?
uh , you know , uh , film gluttony every once in a while . You know what's a little film gluttony every once in a while .
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 ?
like how many of them were there ? Like nobody noticed that they had cups of blood , like until they drank it .
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 ?
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
When my wife says I'm not hydrating enough , I argue that beer and coffee are made from water , so I like that .
Actually , I like that a lot . Yeah , anthony , do you like that ? Do you like that logic ?
I guess it's I , you know .
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 .
I remember when .
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 ? 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 .
Yeah , you know I I'd seen that movie .
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 ?
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 .
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 .
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 .
Give me your ranking of the three , the three movies , if you can , oh shoot .
One , two , three , like I mean really it's got to be one , two , three . I mean for me it is .
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 .
It's legendarily bad , like it's . It's like people talk about that scene as like .
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 .
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 . 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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
Oh yeah , isn't he like the mummy emperor ?
or something .
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 .
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 .
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 ?
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 .
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 ?
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 .
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 .
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 . 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 .
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 . 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 .
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 .
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 .
Just drop them in the background . How are they gonna know that they're ?
in egypt . Funny enough , they filmed in morocco , so maybe they did need to .
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 . Um , yeah , I know I agree with you , uh , also with um jonathan . Jonathan is very much so like the
¶ Comparing The Mummy Films and Wrap Up
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
That was so funny . Yeah , after like the , the officer like kind of runs off .
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 .
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 .
It's the worst . I hate that one . Yes , it's , it's crazy it's anyway .
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 .
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 .
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 . 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 .
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 . 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 .
And this is somebody who .
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 .
That's a step too far , even for me .
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 .
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 ?
Sure , Are we going to Agrabah ? Where are we ?
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 ?
let's get her done yeah , we can't .
I think my my first experience with him was batman it might have been batman or prince of egypt .
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 .
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 .
I feel like I'm like a mummy under wraps in a sarcophagus .
Well , hopefully someone resurrects you soon .
I think that Pete Alonzo is going to be doing that on Friday afternoon Nice .
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 .
Egypt is in Africa , Well yeah , you're right .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
Uh , you know , on a sunday , all right , uh , so no , but so we , we already did those .
The next one I mean for us like we'd have to cover is like the hobbit , the lord of the rings .
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 .
The elf , yeah all right , we're , we're like going uh off the rails guys next week for episode 116 . 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 .
Death is only the beginning .