I waited… because of all the negative reviews… and I waited a little longer to finally see “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”, the 3rd movie chronologically in this franchise, unless you count the two prequels, which get worse as you go further back… needless to say this franchise should have stopped at “The Mummy Returns” (2001)… because this was predictable, formulaic, more corny, and missing the great cast members that left.

I wish I didn’t have to add disclaimers, but in case you didn’t know I loved the first two movies in this franchise… because the characters were great and the villains were great and the stories were good… but this one became more of a plug and play formula of the first two that just became overly predictable and disappointing.
 I always try not to “believe the hype”… or the opposite… but this movie really fell short of the expectations started by the first two “Mummy” movies.

Brendan Fraser is right on again as Rick O’Connell and John Hannah is good again as Rick’s brother-in-law Jonathan, and Michelle Yeoh adds credibility as one of the good guys, but the rest of the cast is shaky at best.

Maria Bello is a good actress, but she dyed her hair brown and spent the entire movie trying to make you forget she was replacing Rachael Weisz, who played “Evy” in the first two movies.

This is a great of example of what happens when an integral cast member doesn’t return in a sequel, but the producers re-cast the same character.  In this case, your lead actress is replaced, with some attempted trickery like you wouldn’t notice.

Another franchise that loses luster for replacing an integral character is “Terminator” when John Connor is played by 3 different actors (4 if you count the FOX TV show)…. in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991) Edward Furlong plays the young John Connor, in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” (2003) its Nick Stahl playing John, and in this summer’s “Terminator Salvation”, it will be Christian Bale playing the lead.  Yes, there’s an age difference, but all the actors are so different… aging is one thing, but when people look and act different, its a problem.

Off the top of my head, only 2 movie franchises have successfully replaced an integral character with a different actor… (more…)

“Tropic Thunder” was the only movie earning more than $10 million for the Labor Day Weekend

The previous weekend, 4 movies made more than $10 million, this past weekend, it was just “Tropic Thunder”… but as I mentioned last week… its only dominating the weak August offerings in the wake of “The Dark Knight”’s success…

“Tropic Thunder” was first for the 3rd weekend….  Vin Diesel’s “Babylon A.D.” was 2nd, but had the lowest per screen average of the top 5 movies, so its likely to fall next week… my pick for a possible acting nomination “Traitor” showed up in 5th place… “Disaster Movie” debuted in 7th…  and for the 2nd week in a row, a new movie - “College” – failed to make the top 10 (last week it was “The Rocker” in 13th place).

Top 10 Weekend Box Office list this week (actual results):

1. “Tropic Thunder” - $11.51 million
(3rd week at #1, lost 29% from last week)

2. “Babylon A.D.” - $9.56 million (1st week)

3. “The Dark Knight” – $8.61 million (total gross: $502.28 million)
(7th week, was #4 last week, lost 18% of its audience from last week)

4. “The House Bunny” - $8.30 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

5. “Traitor” - $7.80 million (1st week) (more…)