Good Deals: Hercules and Xena, Buy 1 Get 1 Free

DeepDiscount.com is having one of their Buy 1 Get 1 Free sales on TV box sets. What caught my eye for action/fantasy fans is the all the box sets for Hercules and Xena are included in this sale.

The Hercules season sets are $17.99 each (except for the first season, which is $11.99). The price includes shipping, and you can choose another season set free. The result is that you can get season sets for the insane price of $9.00 each.

The Xena season sets are more expensive, at $29.99 each. This price includes shipping as well. As with the Hercules deal, you get another season set free, reducing the total cost to $15 per season set.

I rarely watch television (Lost is the only series I watch; I’m currently working my way through the second season on DVD), but I’ve seen random episodes of both Hercules and Xena, and always thought it would be fun to watch some more. Both series get solid fan reviews.

I went ahead and purchased the six seasons of Hercules, for a total cost of just under $54. Nice price for a ton of entertainment. The first season also comes with the five Hercules made-for-TV movies, so at some point some of those movies may make a review here.

The sale runs to Wednesday, February 21, 2007. Enjoy!

Up Next: Pan’s Labyrinth

Sliding out tonight to catch Pan’s Labyrinth before it ends its theatrical run. Friends have said this is one to catch at the theater, and I don’t want to miss it. I hope to have a review up sometime over the weekend.

Review: The Mummy Returns

Year: 2001
Director: Stephen Sommers
Starring: Brenda Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah
Kaboom Review Action Movie Rating: 74

Plot
Rick O’Connell and family attempt to stop the reincarnated Mummy from reviving and then defeating the long-dead Scorpion King in order to gain control over his vast army.

Quick Review
Where The Mummy stayed within its boundaries excellently, The Mummy Returns at times tries to do too much, and loses a bit of the charm of the original. However, The Mummy Returns manages to back down just enough from these errors to remain a solid complement to the sequel.

Full Review
The Mummy Returns, sequel to The Mummy, was given the go-ahead for production on the same day that the Mummy was released. It hit screens two years later, with the main cast back from the Mummy.

We gave an 82-rating and a Bronze Explosion Award to The Mummy, and in many ways The Mummy Returns has the same flavor as the original: there is a ton of fast-paced action, occasional comic relief tossed in to break the tension, and a decent story set in a backdrop of early 20th-century Egypt. But unlike the original effort, The Mummy Returns often tries too hard to outdo The Mummy, and more often than not, adding more has resulted in less.

Much of the excellence of both of these movies comes from the actors’ abilities to play their roles with gusto. With the cast of the original movie intact, the sequel continues right where The Mummy left off. Brendan Fraser carries the lead role well, although at times he and the other actors seem to exaggerate the endearing qualities of their characters. Rachel Weisz, playing Rick O’Connell’s wife Evie, is more confident here, and she does a fine job portraying the growth of her character. Interestingly, she has also blossomed into a more alluring woman in this movie. Oded Fehr does a fine job in his role as a desert raider. As in The Mummy, he and Fraser boost the movie’s Hunk score. On the villain side, Arnold Vosloo does another excellent job as the mummy. Surprisingly, Patricia Velasquez, as the mummy’s lover and co-villain, didn’t impress me as much as she did in the first movie, both with regards to overall beauty and acting ability. She comes off flat in her role. Still, the Babe score for this movie benefits greatly from her presence.

But the biggest addition to the cast is a perfect example of how adding more to this movie ends up with giving us less. For some bizarre reason, the producers got struck with “Temple of Doomitis” and added Freddie Boath to the cast as Alex O’Connnell, the young son of Rick and Evie. Maybe this was done for marketing purposes, who knows, but anyone who has watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom can tell you this: It is bad idea to add young children to action movie sequels. Don’t get me wrong, I love kids—but not in action movies. They generally can’t act yet; they usually damage the premise by defeating adults in ways that are hardly plausible; directors feel compelled to portray them as cute and resourceful, which invariably ends up coming across as cloying and annoying; and they always get caught. All of these things happen in The Mummy Returns, and the movie is weaker because of it.

Despite this weakness, however, the cast on the whole does an excellent job, and is bolstered by ample support. The script is effective, and at times manages to effectively make fun of itself. The plot works, and the story stays within its premise. The pace is excellent; fine editing keeps most scenes to effective lengths. However, a couple of scenes (the mummy guard battle and the jungle approach to the temple) carry on a bit too long.

Action-wise, the movie is a treat. There are some top-notch scenes in the movie, and the scale is well beyond that of the original movie. To highlight just a few: rock mummy guards chase a bus through London; ferocious pygmies ambush the mummy’s troops in the jungle; and an army of desert raiders battle the digitally created canine warriors of the army of Anubis. Special effects and stunts are top notch, and in most cases blend nicely with the action.

As with the cast, however, The Mummy Returns at times tries to do too much with its action sequences. At these times, the movie comes precariously close to jumping the shark. There is a battle in the London Museum where our heroes rip apart a much larger enemy force, mainly thanks to the enemies brilliantly standing in neat lines in the open while fighting. In another scene, the mummy creates a massive tidal wave to stop our heroes. Visually, the scene is well done, but the attempted escape from the tidal wave shakes the foundations of the movie’s premise. While the ending of the movie is quite good, it gets weakened by its last scene, which once again seems a bit over the top.

All in all, where The Mummy stayed within its boundaries excellently, The Mummy Returns at times tries to do too much, and loses a bit of the charm of the original. However, The Mummy Returns manages to back down just enough from these errors to remain a solid complement to the sequel.

Movie Fact: Painful Filming
According to IMDB, Brendan Fraser tore a spinal disk, cracked a rib, and injured his knees during production. Ouch.

Related Reviews
The Mummy, Scorpion King

Purchasing Info
The Mummy Collector’s Set is the most economical way to buy this movie.

Score
Pace: 75
Plot: 78
Action: 88
Consistent Premise: 50
Script/Quotes: 52
Characters: 73
Acting: 60
Villain: 74
Body Count: 70
Time to First Dead Body: Quick
Babes: 63
Hunks: 80
Explosions: 30
Special Effects: 89
Stunts: 60
Ending: 56

Overall: 74 (Satisfying, yet a bit off from the original)

Trailer Impressions: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I took a peek today at the second trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the upcoming computer animated film from Warner Brothers. My first impression is that the animation in the film appears to be top notch. The city looks dark and grimy, the monsters ominous and evil, and the turtles engaging yet powerful. Nicely done. The regular citizens have a softer, rounded touch to them that reminded me of The Incredibles. Movement looks fluid and well choreographed. Visually, this film looks to be a treat.

Elsewhere, I wasn’t impressed. Much of the humor in the film seems aimed at 5-year-olds. Burping? That’s a highlight you want to emphasize in a trailer? Yikes. The voice acting, from the little pieces I heard, seems surprisingly weak. And the story involves a planetary alignment that occurs once every 3,000 years. How original.

I’m guessing this one will end up in the middle, with the fantastic animation dragged down by a childish script, unoriginal story, and uninspiring voice acting.

Prediction: 52 (Average)

Up Next: The Mummy Returns

Late December, we gave The Mummy a Kaboom Review Bronze Explosion Award for its fast pace, great story, and excellent special effects. It currently sits tied for second place in our review list, with 82 points. In an effort to review all three of the movies in this series, I watched The Mummy Returns last night. I hope to have the review up sometime later this week.

← Previous Page — Next Page →