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A look at the MUMMY RETURNS premiere!
Hey folks, Harry here.... so ya lost out on your Ebay bid to go to the World Premiere of THE MUMMY RETURNS... You've been licking you wounded macho inner hunter dude wounds, and pondering what might have been... Well, ponder no longer, Craig attended and gives us a breakdown on how the event went... Did it suck, rule or stagnate? Did the lovely Rachel wrap her beautiful arms around our spy and go home with him? Read about it all... below....
Heya Harry,
I don't have the kind of movie industry connections that y'all have, so I
haven't had a reason to contribute anything before. However, last night I
had the opportunity to attend the premier of the Mummy Returns at the
Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. It certainly was a fun night for
me, and I thought you might like some feedback. I'll try to be brief
(although I can be a wordy bastard) and to make it entertaining. Of course
please edit as you see fit.
My long-time friend Lance is a USC film school graduate and now teaches
Film and Television in the Bay Area, and as an alumni he gets the
occasional invites to premiers that are fund raisers for the film
school. Having never followed up on any of these invites (they're pretty
expensive), he got a wild hair and decided to invite (and pay for!) myself,
my wife, and another friend to attend The Mummy Returns premier. Needless
to say we jumped at the opportunity!
We hit the road from San Jose CA at 7:00 AM Sunday morning - the day of the
premier. By about 2:30 PM we reached a friend's house not too far from
Universal Studios, unloaded the car, put on what we assumed were
appropriate clothes for a premier (what does one wear to such an event?)
and headed for Universal.
We arrived a couple hours before the event, as included with the premier
was a pass to check out Universal's new mummy-themed attraction called "The
Mummy Returns - Chamber of Doom", which turned out to be a modern version
of the old "dark rides" that you would find at places like Coney Island in
the early 1900's... and I mean that in an affectionate way. It's basically
a walk-through "haunted house" (or in this case, Egyptian tomb) with lots
of things that pop out and scare you, or blow air on you, etc. Genuinely
fun in an unpretentious, almost nostalgic sort of way. What can I
say: mummies, mummies, and more mummies. There were a couple parts that
were obviously not finished - I can only assume they will be so by the time
the attraction opens. At one point I touched the wall and noticed that the
paint was fresh & still tacky, so this must have been a relatively early
preview.
Ok, this a movie site, so we'll move on... before too long it was time to
head to the amphitheater.
None of us were sure what to expect: on one hand you think of the cliche
red carpet and movie stars, but on the other hand the ticket package said
something about arriving early to watch the stars arrive on the
jumbotron... so we were thinking that they might just herd us in and give
the "public" a different premier experience. As it turned out this was
mostly not the case.
It's a kick in the pants to get to walk through the folks who are curious
about what's going on, show your tix, and walk past the guards and on down
the red carpet. For a moment, I suppose I succumbed to shallowness and
savored a little "heh heh - yep, we're going in there... yessirree Bob,
with these here tickets". In any case, I quickly became grounded again
while watching the Hollywood-types do their no-touchy cheek-kissy
ritualistic greetings. It's a bit odd when such superficiality slaps you
in the face, and you're thinking, "Wow, they really do that... and they
really mean it, too."
So on up the big red carpet - past the lady quickly pouring a gallon of
what smelled like "Pine Sol" into a fetid gutter filled with dumpster
drippings - to where the movie star-types work the line. I don't get to
see too many celebs, so it was a kick to see some up close - we spotted Rob
Schneider (comedian dude), Michael Clarke Duncan, Judson Scott (cool
messiah dude who recently took a bullet to the cranium on "The X-Files"),
the main blonde ILM FXs dude who appears a lot on the extra making-of short
on The Mummy dvd (sorry, rented that one so don't have a name), and from
the night's main flick Patricia Velazquez and Arnold Vosloo.
Also of note were a couple of live camels and some slinky faux Egyptian
bathing beauty babes decorating the opposite side of the meet-n-greet line
- a spectacle gloriously fantastic and utterly artificial as only Hollywood
or Las Vegas can contrive. And Harry, there were two total eye-candy
nothing-to-do-with-the-movie hotties in what looked like Egyptian bikinis &
heels posing for the press. I specifically tried to get a shot of them for
you, but in my attempts at not looking like a dufus, the shot didn't come
out. I didn't shoot too many outside in line, then when I got inside it
turned out that cameras were not allowed there, so I don't have many
digital photos on hand.
So in we go, find our seats (pretty good ones) and watch a digital
projection of some more of the schmoozing going on outside. At some point
Brendan Fraser shows up, along with The Rock... and the schmoozing
continues outside for 40 minutes past "doors closing" time. Eventually the
lights dim and the flick begins.
I believe that there have already been a couple reviews on AICN, so I'll
keep mine as brief as my gabbiness will allow.
I only saw "The Mummy" last week for the first time on dvd (having a
toddler and no convenient baby sitting somewhat removes you from the
movie-viewing public). I basically enjoyed the film in much the same way
that I enjoyed the "Chamber of Doom" attraction: to me it's just a fun
action flick with good action and good characters. I particularly liked
the fact that the weasely toady of Imhotep has some likable characteristics
along with his despisable ones. In a nutshell, I thought the interesting
characters and good action turned the basically one dimensional story line
into a very enjoyable flick (using Harry terminology, I believe).
So how does "The Mummy Returns" compare? I'm going to try to for the most
part avoid spoilers here.
I don't think a whole lot has been added to the characters... there are
certainly new revelations made regarding the nature of the O'Connell's
(yes, they're now married with a kid) relationship to the whole
Imhotep/mummy/ancient Egyptian cosmic story line, but for the most part all
of the returning characters don't grow or evolve much. Also, the few new
characters aren't quite as interesting as in the previous movie.
However, what the characters do a *lot* of is reacting - this movie is for
the most part non-stop action and also for the most part really good
action. There are some really great fight scenes, one of which (the one
involving a London double-decker bus) reaches up to the level of maybe "The
Road Warrior" or the fight at Marion's bar in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" -
great fun and pretty unpredictable to my tiny brain.
Now, this movie is in no way on the level of either of the previously
mentioned classics. Really, a pretty good description (if you can call it
that) is to take the original movie, turn down the character development a
few notches, and crank up the action level and size of the production way
the hell up. I think the product is a worthy sequel - people who liked the
original and, *importantly*, those who don't get hung up on plot quibbles
such as "I didn't think the jet engine was really used at all (if even
invented yet) in 1933", or "If those guys are trying to be clandestine,
then why are they wearing their bad guy bright red turbans and complete
desert outfits in foggy old London?" - if you can just let go of such plot
or physics problems, then this is a fun movie you'll probably really
enjoy. I just winced occasionally and had a great time. The plot is an
adequate skeleton to hang the meat of the action on (har har).
A couple final notes on the movie: I think they did a pretty good job of
really making a bloodless movie. Sure, a few body parts/complete bodies
are stripped of flesh or emaciated before our eyes, but by golly there's
not a lot of bloodshed! Also, I personally thought the visual effects
varied wildly from the obvious image manipulation to very high quality. A
little distracting to me, but then again the amphitheater's movie screen
was friggin' enormous, so maybe that made the effects more apparent. Who
knows?
I do know that I have never seen a movie at concert volume before. Jeez,
when are sound folks going to learn that there comes a point where louder
is not better. Afterwards I overheard a guy nearby me saying to someone
that he had read the script, and that he still couldn't tell what people
were saying half the time.
After the film, we headed out to the party in the parking lot, which was a
kick. I'm not much of a party person, but there were all kinds of little
events set up to entertain. Complimentary photos were taken of folks in
front of a double-decker London bus, some of the cars from the film, and
between a couple of the mummy warriors in front of the "spear engraving"
from the Scorpion King's temple. There was another photo we didn't check
out due to the length of the line. We also met Judson Scott (very friendly
and polite) and Arnold Vosloo, who was very patiently and attentively
saying hello to everyone who asked to meet him and posing for photos with
them - also very nice.
One final note: I thought it odd at one point when I realized at a moment
of hugging my wife, that I had not seen anyone else present that night
openly showing affection to a loved one. The Hollywood crowd - just kinda
odd, I guess.
Thanks for reading this far - and my condolences.
Craig
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+ Expand All
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just wondering
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Because "by golly" it sure sounds like it, "y'all." Thanks for the review though, very cool.
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There's nothing wrong with the name Lance. However, I am curious if the millions..(and millions) of The Rock's fans are going to attend the film. I am betting that they will. There seems to be a large female following of The Rock, thanks in no small part to his physical presence and his charisma. But I hope he doesn't go the way of Hulk Hogan and start making crappy movies.
Hey Harry, have you ever seen Rock and Rule? If you have then you will get this...now that was an opening act to remember.
StDharma, patron saint of beef jerky. -
I suppose people have to find something insulting to say about the people writing in or what they've written about to make themselves feel important. Sad, really. About the cost question, our tickets were $250 each, but I believe we got a special price and the individual ticket price when first available was more like $500 or $1000... I didn't pay for 'em so I can't remember. Contact USC Film School and you may be able to get on their mailing list for future premiere invitations... I don't know what the criteria is, but Lance is a USC Film School grad so he gets them all the time. These are fundraisers for the USC Film & Television program.
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If so, where was he? I mean, cool, Arnold Vosloo and Patricia Valesquez, but where are Weisz and Fraser and Fehr? Sounds like a pretty fun night, even sans big stars, though. I am really looking forward to this movie.
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1-Jealous:hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage. 2-Envy: painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage. 3-Puberty:the condition of being or the period of becoming first capable of reproducing sexually marked by maturing of the genital organs, development of secondary sex characteristics, and in the human and in higher primates by the first occurrence of menstruation in the female. 4-Geek: a person often of an intellectual bent who is disapproved of. 5-Jerk:an annoyingly stupid or foolish person. 6-Asshole:a stupid, incompetent, or detestable person. You guys never fail to disappoint. Four talkbacks and two of them are insulting this guy who was cool enough to spend HIS time telling us about an experience in HIS life. No thank yous. No, hey that's neat. Just a bunch of morons with nothing better to do than spend there time TRYING (and failing) to be witty. You insulted the guys name. HIS REAL NAME! FUCK!! This site is going down hill, it's readers are.
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No, the site ISN'T going down hill, just the people Talking Balk...ridiculous.
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Lance is our friend that invited us to go to the premiere (and paid for the tix!!! VERY nice guy!!) and Craig is my husband who spent 3 HOURS (right after we got home from our 7-hour road trip back from LA) writing the review and cleaning up 3 photos of the event and party that ended up not being used. Just FYI.
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Jaka, you're absolutely right. Sometimes I wonder if some of these folks are even out of middle school - then I realize they're probably in their 20's or even older. I mean, it's one thing to be cynical and absolutely another thing to be a petty asshole. I come here to read what my peers have to say about cinema, not personal attacks on the writers of these articles. (not only that, but half of the posts are incoherent anyway) Are these talkbackers trying to impress other readers? Are they writing stream of consciousness? Are they socially retarded? Petty negativity like this really digraces the entire site - grow up people.
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Well, I totally agree with above talkbacker. But then I was just a total ass to dolphin558 over on Moriarty's Mummy Returns review talkback. So now I'm the prick. But really, I was ATTEMPTING to be funny. Which I have been told I'm not very good at. There are just two things that really urk(sp?) me...and tend to make me angry. One, personal attacks on the innocent and non-present. Something I have dealt with a lot. And even bigger than that, god (lower case g please) being used as an excuse to do, or NOT do something. And as an excuse to lecture or "preach". Religion, or lack there of, is a personal thing. I mean, if was a movie about religion, maybe. But in an AICN talkback about The Mummy Returns...geez. Give me a break already.
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i honestly couldn't tell you how many times i've read a talk back message with the subject of "you're a fucking moron, harry" or something along those lines. why should this dude recieve better treatment? this dude knew his shit would be criticized when he wrote it, that's why they put up a talk back section. everyone is entitled to their own opinion. hey mister, you're drinking a candle.
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May 01, 2001 12:05:12 PM CDT
No, people should stay on the subject and not personally insult
by jaka
I don't think people should lighten up at all. I think people should use their intelligence and manners to show how "cool" they are rather than insults. This site is about movies. The talk backs are about movies. Not about religion (see Moriarty's premier talk back)or tearing people apart for ABSOLUTELY NO reason. It's not OK that people do it to Harry (uhum..ortodolphin558). If you choose to disagree with his opinion about a movie, great. Then give your opinion in an intelligent, thought provoking response. Don't just call him a fat fuck. How does that relate to a movie review/scoop/story? Answer: it doesn't.
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The private screening hosted by Oded Fehr was on Monday night. It was the event that tickets were sold on eBay for. You can read a report on the event at http://www.digitalmediafx.com/News2001/May/050101.html#1
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after all i'm being cricized for poking fun at the guys vocabulary. did i not say "thanks for the review, very cool?" i appreciate it, after all it's the mummy returns and i'm looking forward to seeing it. and i posted some reviews for sundance a couple months ago and received some talkbacks about my reviews. did i get mad? fuck no - it's nothing to get mad about. if george bush watched jay leno and heard half the things that jay says about him do you think he'd look down on himself? fuck no, jay is just poking fun at him since he's the president - there's nothing wrong with that and i don't think bush would jump off the top of the white house due to the frusteration of having fun poked at him. haven't any of you gone to a comedy club and had a comedian look your way and start ripping on you? what do you do - storm out of there in outrage? no, because it's harmless. i dunno, maybe i'm just over-reacting because me and jesus seemed to inspire a rather crazy talkback when it's not like we said "FUCK THIS REVIEWER HE BLOWS." that's just me tho - and i, along with jesus i'm sure, would like to apologize for getting carried away with our humor.
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Hey guys, by no means do I mean we can't rib the writers (and other talkbackers *bless their spelling*) in a playful way sometimes - this is aint-it-cool-news for Jebus' sake! But really, it's these guys who really have nothing AT ALL WORTHWHILE to say i.e., "Harry is a fat fuck!", "Moriarty is a 'fucken' retard!", "This guy has no business having not been aborted" (all subject lines I've seen btw), etc... I mean, really. It's not only a waste of cyberspace but a waste of time for people trying to plow through bullshit looking for bits of insight. Most talkbackers are really enthusiastic and sometimes fucking hilarious, but I would never post a comment to a scooper or Harry, Moriarty etc. that I wouldn't say to their faces. Now, George Lucas on the other hand I would call (and I do, often) a fat greasy hole. Hell, I'd say it to his face. I mean, Jar-Jar is a crime against humanity.
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that's exactly what i'm talkin about. shit, sorry if some of u don't like mine or jesus's sense of humor but i'm just someone who likes to poke fun at shit. i don't mean to be offensive and i sure as shit ain't the one that's going to tell a reviewer and/or scooper to go fuck themselves. lets just have some good harmless fun, after all - look around this site (i.e. harry's animation in the top left).
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Yep, I'm pretty fucking neurotic.
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I can't wait to watch this!! They say that this one surpasses the original. Well its true that movies just get better and better. I heard that its like literally NON-STOP ACTION. I mean crazy action!! Is it me, or did I just see some Matrix Style wire-fu in the trailer. But anyways, for all the off-topic talk backers...you guys crack me up for getting worked up over someone's name. I've met a guy named Lance. Trading insults back and forth is just pathetic....I can see it already, you guys just pressing the refresh button every 15 seconds to wait for a response. Get a life! PEACE!!!
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