Casual Cognition

Title: Mummy 3 – The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ( 2008 )
Director: Rob Cohen
Genre: Adventure, Action, Fantasy
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Maria Bello, Luke Ford

Rick O’Connel and his family fight to stop the cruel Emperor Han of the Qin Dynasty who can transmogrify. He is raised back with the help of Eye of Shangrila and he tries to make himself and his army immortal. The Emperor should be stopped before he crosses the Great Wall.

Brendan Fraser plays the role of Rick O’Connell while John Hannah continue to be Jonathan. Maria Bello performs as Evelyn, Luke as Alex, Jet Li as The Dragon Emperor Han. Michelle Yeoh, the crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon star, plays a key role.

The picturization is good in this movie. The back drop and the sets do justice to a story set at Shanghai in 1947.  The screenplay is good and fast. The action scenes are picturised nicely and the background score is good.  The graphics was not too great but it was good enough not to cause any distraction. The scene where the two armies ram through each other and the shape-shifted emperor runs through the opponents has been done nicely.  Scenes involving Yeti are also good. The dialogues as a whole was ok; those of Jonathan were good and rib tickling.

“You people are Mummy-magnets”
“I hate Mummies. They do not play fair”

After an enthralling “The Mummy” and a gripping “The Mummy Returns” the latest part is not so heady. The plot seems to be too ordinary and one can guess easily what is going to come up in the next scene. The chemistry between Brendan and Maria is a little lower than that of Brendan and Rachel in the first two parts. It was not so effective. The role of the villain lacks weight. Jet Li comes with a over-did make-up for majority of the movie and he hardly shows his martial art skills. The climax where O’Connells fight Emperor Han could have been prolonged a little bit. The camera was also too close for this scene most of the time that one could not see the grandeur with which Jet Li fights. The things that you see are his legs/hands. The same is the case where Jet Li takes on Michelle Yeoh.

The movie is not so exciting as the previous two parts but it could be watched once. Watching in theater might be better as it can be easily boring to watch it on a DVD. It does not equal the first two parts definitely. The movie ends with an hint that a sequel to this movie set in Peru is most likely.

“Meet the Spartans” is a spoof of the movie “300″.  I would not recommend this movie to anyone. This is totally a dumb movie and easily the worst movie I have ever seen. The jokes are very bad and immature. The crew has “tried” to make this movie a humorous one, but failed miserably.

Most of the scenes are very offensive and sick. I bloody wasted my one hour seeing this crap.

A totally tasteless movie!!

“I’m getting bored, where can we go?”

“Movie?”

“Where?”

“Sathyam?”

“Which movie?”

“Doesn’t really matter!!”

One can commonly come across this conversation buzzing around in the streets of Chennai. Get the picture? Yes, it’s about the one and only Sathyam Multiplex situated in the heart of the city. I am one of those thousands of fans who watch movies not for the Director or actor or producers but just for the experience of watching a movie at The Sathyam Cinemas.

Sathyam Multiplex is located next to the Anna Salai and a five minutes drive from Spencer Plaza, another well-known hangout place in Chennai. The first time I ever went to this theatre was about 5 years ago to watch “Pirates of the Caribbean”. I would say, I was so enthralled by the theatre’s interior and the experience that I would keep coming back. Since then, I have watched hundreds of movies.

I am not going to be boring describing my experience on watching movies here. Rather I would jolt down few things I like about this theatre:

• No-smoking
• Hi-tech design. (All those lights, chandeliers, ceiling design, wall hangings, hoardings, LCDs .. Even the rest room is carefully designed and decorated)
• Awesome Sound effects: High class DTS. This one aspect in which The Sathyam Cinemas can proudly boast of. This is the best in the city.
• RDX – Digital projectors. Each costing about 30 lakhs.
• Gorgeous seating with a ample legroom (Except Studio-5)
• Parking Space: It has got one of the largest parking areas
• Booking Convenience: It has about 6 counters and smiling employees at the counter. Open from 08.30 AM to 10:00 pm. Apart from there is online booking, which allows you to even pick the seat you want. www.thecinema.in
• Couple seatings in the balcony
• Range of food items available (Served to your seat)
• Play area for children below4 years

To top it all, recently National Anthem is being played before every show. A bit of patriotism.

There are various schemes like Blind Date, Pure Cinema and Saffron. Also you have a prepaid card FUEL to book tickets.

One thing I always tell people asking me for a place to visit in Chennai is “Go to Sathyam for any movie. You will enjoy”.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.sathyamcinemas.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sathyam_Cinemas

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/03/15/stories/2008031550981200.htm