Episode 33

Gilbert talks about the films made by filmmaker Stephen Sommers.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to Governor's All About the Media Podcast. Thank you uh for coming out in this uh next episode of the season. We are in our spooky season right now. So I thought I guess give you more of a horror-esque episode, though it's not really um horror itself. It has it's horror-esque, horror adjacent, not full-on horror. Those will be coming up for the next two episodes. Trust me, I uh those are gonna be some pretty interesting episodes that I'm pretty sure y'all wouldn't think of. So I want to talk about a filmmaker that you don't hear much of today, and that's just mostly because you don't hear much of his well, I don't know if he's ever made a lot of uh movies recently. So one of the filmmakers I want to talk about is a guy named Steven Summers. The name might not sound familiar, but what his movies are familiar to the majority of the audience. Uh Steven Summers is known for directing two films. He also directs another film. He's directed more than three films, but three of these movies are kind of like his most famous ones. So the first one I'm gonna talk about is Mummy with uh Brendan Fraser and uh Rachel Vice. So I want to do is this is more of like a tribute to Steven Summers. He's not dead or anything, he's just more of an underappreciative uh filmmaker. And like I said, these um these films that I'm gonna talk about, they're not really horror films. They're more horror Jason or horror-esque, but they're not really like horror itself, especially what was I gonna say, the um the second film isn't really horror. I'm gonna talk about a little bit more the second film. I'm not gonna go over the details of the plot of these films just because they're what's the word? Like, I don't these are like films that pretty much we already know if you haven't seen them, if not. What I really want to talk about is just more of like the aspects of the film and you know stuff like that. So the first one definitely gonna talk about is the mummy. The mummy, if you don't know, is a remake of the 1932 uh film that starred Boris Boris Karloff. Boris Karloff, as we all know, played um Frankenstein and Frankenstein. He was the monster, or he didn't play Frankenstein, he played Frankenstein's monster, uh, just to get that corrected. So what I really enjoyed about this film is that it brings nostalgia to me because I saw this film when I was really, really young. I think I was like maybe six or seven years old. Some parts of it did freak the hell out of me, especially uh Emochep when he was zombified, not mummified really, technically, but um how I got familiar with the mummy was how a lot of people might have, or maybe I'm just the only one, but the first thing I ever saw was the mummy, the animated series. And if y'all didn't know, there was a mummy animated series back then. It didn't last that very long, it wasn't very popular. But that film, well, not the film, but the series is how I already knew about Alex, the son of Rick O'Connor. But of course, Alex isn't introduced until the second film. The first film is um, I mean, people really enjoyed the first film. Again, it's an instant classic, it's full of adventure, horror. Some of a lot of it has to do with horror. So it kind of does fit well with the spooky season that we're having this year. Comedy, especially from John Hannah romance, because uh back then, you know, Brandon Fraser used to be a heartthrob. And, you know, all the girls wanted to be was Brandon Fraser at the time. Same thing with like DiCaprio and anybody else. That was a teenage heartthrob back then. The film itself, I mean, I re-watched them recently. They're out like the special effects are dating themselves badly, I might say, but it still has that like very cool feeling of like action, adventure, horror, comedy, romance, all the all in one. And Stephen Summers really did an amazing job trying to balance it all together, especially because like Rachel Vise and Brandon Fraser have that chemistry. Give me a second. There you go. Yeah, there was that chemistry between uh Rachel Vise and Brandon Fraser, Odet Fair, who played um Ar Death Bay, um badass, instant badass, right there. Uh John Hannah, who played uh Neil Jonathan, really cool guy. Then of course, uh I can never get the dude's name. Give me a second, y'all. But I think so. Arnold Vaselou, who played the mummy, and uh Patricia Velasquez, who played uh what was it? Uh Anox and a moon. I mean, for Arnold Vaslou to s only have what like 20 minutes of screen time in like his full appearance, because majority of it has to be motion catcher CGI because he's playing like a very zombified mummy. Well, mummies are technically zombies. I mean, given it was the original one. The original one, which I looked up, I mean, he was a mummy. He wasn't like that cryptic mummy as was the Steven Summers film. And I found out that like Emotep uh used an alias called Artist Bay, which is obviously gonna be a separate character that Old Ed Fer would eventually play. Hook cast is great, but I mean what can I say? Yes, it spooked me uh not not a lot as a kid, but some of the stuff um did kind of creep me out as a kid. Again, emotep, the way he's just like rotten and decayed and stuff like that. And then the kills, the kills is what got me the most. Like, especially like this one scene where like this guy, Emotep in a gust of wind blows through the window, and you see the silhouette of the guy in his soul getting sucked out. For those who don't know the context, in case you haven't seen the film, by the way, if you haven't seen the film, what's wrong with you? But in in case y'all didn't know, the like the people who were, you know, plotted to be killed in this film, or who were written to be killed in this film, the only way for them to die in this film was through a plot device. I mean, I I don't talk about this that much, but a plot device is basically what carries the movie forward. And the plot device was uncovering this chest that had the um the urns that carried Onoxenamun's um organs. For those who don't know, if you don't know anything about ancient Egypt, during the mummification process, the high priest would take their organs out and then put them in these jars. And it's also funny, like I'm gonna be a little like uh graphic here, because like how they get the brains out is they get a like a hook, put it through the nose, and then like just poke through there, and then the brain will come out through the nose. Like it's gross. And if you're eating on the road or drinking on the road hearing this, I'm sorry, but it's it like you've learned about the modification process through school, at least when I was in school. Nowadays, I don't know how the education the education system works, but I don't want to go into there. But give me a second. Um but yeah, no, the the film against spook me with all the kills. I mean, these characters, I mean, they're not dumb characters, but it well, I mean, I guess you can say they're dumb characters because it's basically saying whoever opens this uh this box or this chest is doomed to be consumed by the creature. Because if you don't know, like how like this whole mummification process, emotep the villain goes through, is something called the Hyundai, which uh it means it's supposed to be a forbidden um it's a supposed to be a forbidden mum mummification curse. And because it's so like horrific and you know something they shouldn't do, like the magis and descendants of the magis have kept guard of the temple that emotip is buried for thousands of years in case somebody ever tried to one day resurrect emotip, either purposefully or by accident, which is obviously where the magi and artist be come in. But yeah, it said whoever should open the chest will be consumed because then only the only way for emote to be powerful is he had to consume those who open the chests that contain the Book of the Dead and you know the urns that carry the Nox and a Moon's organs. And then obviously we got Benny, who is like the a big double crosser. The actor will, I forgot the actor's name, I don't feel like looking up, looking him up now, but he'll eventually come in another Stephen Summers movie that I'll eventually talk about later on this episode. But if you know, you know. But if you don't, uh you'll eventually find out later. I just gotta remind myself it's played the same guy who's playing this character, played Benny. But anyway, I just want to talk about more of like the filmmaking process because filmmaking took place in like Morocco, I think it was like Morocco, and I think maybe some other parts of the Middle East, and as well as a set, some set studios that I think London, I'm not too sure. But there was just so much happening. Heat, bugs, snakes. If he got bit by anything, chances are the only way to survive is losing a limb. And obviously that's uh that's a no-option right there. There were so many plots or so many directors who came on to uh the film to the film and came up with some ideas. Like I think Joe Dante, who did um Gremlins, uh came up with something. I heard some director like made like a very risque kind of uh mummy film, but what I found out was when Steven Summers pitched the idea to the studio, they enjoyed the idea so much that they were like, yeah, we're gonna do it and we want you to direct it. Like it was literally on the spot they enjoyed it. And I'm glad they did. I mean, he had a vision, it got executed pretty well. Like I said, the effects are outdated now, as they I don't know how well they looked back then. I don't remember it being too outdated back then. All I know is that they got the actors on that they were looking for, especially because I think Rachel, this was Rachel Vise's very, very first film role, or at least early film roles, because she wasn't that well experienced. What we do know, obviously, Brendan Fraser was very kind of famous already at the time, um, given he's done a couple of other films at that time. I think that same year he did Guns and Guns. I think the same year he did uh Gods and Monsters with what was it, Ian McKellen. I think he did Gods and Monsters the same year, if not the year prior, but he's also but before that, he also did uh Georgia the Jungle and Ceno Man. I think he did like a Huh Man. It was like a uh it was a movie where he was young and he was a boy at a Jewish school, and I think he was gay. I don't remember um the full plot points, but yeah, no, Brandon Fraser was already famous at that point. Uh I don't think John Hannah was. Rachel Vice obviously wasn't, and neither was Odin Fair, Arnold Vosloo, Patricia Velasquez. Pretty much anybody that wasn't Brandon Fraser was already famous. Brandon Fraser was the face. And now look what he's come to. Him and Rachel Vice are both Oscar-winning actors. Rachel Weiss, in case y'all didn't know, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for a movie called um The Constant Garner. I had to think about it. The Constant Garner. Uh, she won Best Supporting Actress in 2006. And then, if y'all didn't know, recently Brendan Fraser won the Best Actor Award for The Well. Yeah, that was a heck of a year because we didn't know if he was actually going to win or not. It was between him and Austin Butler, and the Academy chose Brendan Fraser, which I'm very glad they did because The Well was a pretty good movie. Don't eat and watch the well at the same time. I should let you know that because that's uh you feel dirty. Um, let's put it like that. You you feel dirty if you're eating and watching the well at the exact same time. But like I said, look where they were look where they've gotten now. I mean, I don't hear much about Odesfair or Oreth Fair. And I know John Hanna came out, I think what was it, just the first episode of um The Last of Us. Patricia Velasquez, I know, did um I'm trying to think. She did the Cursor La Llorona, the uh conjuring version. I don't know what else Arnold Vozilo did, but I mean one of these days I really want to meet some of these folks at a convention. I mean, I'll hopefully sooner rather than later, in case uh I I can tell people this. In 2026, I do plan on ending my uh my convention years. I've started since 2016 and I'm ending in 2026. Reason being is because it they're getting a lot more expensive. And as much as I love to meet like every celebrity I can, sometimes the money is not going to be worth it. Sometimes you're not you're not gonna get the money. And uh to my point being, 2026, from 2016 to 2026, a good tenure run. Yeah, that was that's what I'm planning on doing. I'm planning on stopping at that time. And the other reason being is because like I'm almost 30 now. I think it's time I need to focus on myself, actually start a family or actually get into a relationship, find someone, and then if that person, if she's the right one for me, yeah, start a family and stuff like that. So that's kind of why I'm ending my, I guess, tenure on conventions. So much as I love to continue. It's something I have to think about. So I'm gonna I'm gonna miss it. But to my point, I hope at least some of these folks from the mummy come to San Antonio or Dallas or Austin, maybe not Austin, but San Antonio, Dallas, Corpus Christi, Houston, anywhere to the point where I can travel and go see them would be very interesting. Celebrity Evangelist, I keep forgetting your name, sorry. I'm still calling you out. We got to do an episode together because I think you're a very interesting person that I want to have this conversation with. But to my point, again, these are actors that you know I remember growing up with. The action is really great, especially like if you see the scene where Rick is fighting all these momified priests, and then you look at the behind the scenes, all that was choreographed so well. Because if you watch it, you can obviously tell that he was actually just filming himself swinging the sword around. But it looks so choreographed well that like you were able to see the right moments where the VFX artists were able to add in like all the the mummies, the priest mummies. And yeah, no, this was uh yeah, you look at the behind the scenes, it's the it doesn't even look dumb because when you look at like movies previex, like the actors just look dumb, just like holding stuff or swinging stuff around. No, like literally Brennan Fraser still looks like he's fighting things, like he's fighting a ghost, but and he's winning the fight against a ghost or something invisible. But no, it's still a classic, guys. The horror is there, you know, from Ebontep being this mummified zombie, especially the scene where like he takes the eyes out of this one dude and puts it in his skull, even though that's the obviously we don't we don't see it, we just see the aftermath. I know there was a big I'm trying to think of the word. So the eyes that emotep took, like the guy that the eyes from the guy that emotep took, the guy wore glasses. So technically, technically, emotep took some bad eyes. Um, let's put it like that. He's having a hard time seeing at this point, but yeah, that's it. I liked it. Fight scenes, as I mentioned, are really cool. I'm just like talking just to make some time, but no, it's I enjoyed it. The comedy, obviously, there from John Hanna, even Brandon Fraser, um, the scene with the cats. That's always something that gets to me. You know, I respect the VFX artist for doing what they did with this one, specifically with this one, and once we get to the other film, um, and I think you already know what I'm about to talk about when I get to the other film, but the VFX artist is very like did so well with this one. No, especially because like Arnold Vaslow uh stayed two weeks after production was over so that they can get the movements he needed for the special effects when they need to do the zombified ammo tap. But no, I love this movie, it's really cool. Like I said, the horror is there, especially for you know, around this time. It's not scary. As I always said, like a scary movie, what's trying to scare you? It's horror, Jason. People don't realize that people's like this movie wasn't scary. And another thing I need to add on to that, it's not a scary movie, it's a horror movie. There's a whole lot of difference, and you are too arrogant to understand why. Or maybe I'm just being a jackass and saying it like this, but all right, and uh we're back. So let's talk about the mummy returns, which is how I kind of got introduced to Alex. Like I said, I saw the Mummy the Animated series before I ever saw the Mummies, but they merged the Mummy the Animated Ser the Animated Series, merged the two movies together, but or at least like some plot details, but you know, had this whole different story that's way different from the two movies. But that's how I knew about Alex. So when I saw the first film, Alex, where's the where's his son? And then I mean, obviously I was a little kid then. So when I watched, you know, the two together, I understand a lot more. I mean, especially as time goes by. But the mummy, the animated series, the horror aspect does drift away a little bit. There's only like maybe two scenes that like have horror in it, especially one that it's kind of like a uh uh not a drawback, a callback to um Jurassic World. You'll understand what I mean later. So, but along with the Mummy Returns, there is another film that's related to this film. It's not horror whatsoever, but I do want to talk about it because Steven Summers did not direct it, but he was involved in it was the Scorpion King. I heard about the Scorpion King, I heard about the Mummy Returns at the exact same time. They didn't come out the exact same year, I don't think. But I know I think the Scorpion King, the Scorpion King came out a year after the Mummy Returns, if I'm not mistaken. So I saw the Mummy Returns, and I think when we used to rent out um Blockbuster, yeah, I was alive during the time of Blockbuster, um, and Hollywood Studios. If you've ever heard of Hollywood Studios, it's just like Blockbuster, also a dead um store. But I think when I like when we rented it and when I saw, I think we've seen like the promos to The Scorpion King because they're played by the same actor, um The Rock. Uh back when Dwayne Johnson was known as The Rock, and I'm recording this around the same weekend that the Smashing Machine came out. I haven't seen the Smashing Machine yet. I don't know if I am going to like soon. Maybe I'll watch it this year. I don't know if I'm ever actually gonna watch it this year. Because some say it's like good, some say it's so so, some say like, oh, this is Dwayne Johnson's like best performance, and some say this is just Dwayne Johnson still being Dwayne Johnson. Like, if I ever do talk about it, it might be like next year, not next season, but like next year when I'm gonna be talking about award seasons, because the Smashing Machine is like predicted to give Dwayne Johnson an Oscar nomination for best actor. Again, I don't know, I haven't seen the movie. If I watch the movie, I'll mention it like later on. Um, it's within the season, probably not when I watch the movie now. But if I do like it, then I'll add it to because I plan I do plan on making like a top 10 best films of 2025, but that's gonna be recorded and released on January because some films are coming out in like Christmas time, and it's like I want to watch those films. Like, I have no access to um what's the word? Uh film festivals and all that. So it's like I don't get that opportunity like most people do. So that's why I was like, I guess like I'm gonna have to wait till Christmas time to watch them and then do a recording and then release them in January, but still. But it does come a long way from Dwayne Johnson being the Scorpion King to where he is now. But this one, like I said, the horror aspect isn't really there in the the Mummy Returns. And the Mummy Returns, there's only like two scenes that are like somewhat scary. The first one is basically like they just raised Emotef from the dead, and now he needs he needs to do what he usually does to be whole again, and that's to like suck out the souls of its victims. And he does, and they do so, but like emotefs like men do so by tricking these thieves into opening the chest, like we said in the first film. If you open the chest, um you're now targeted by emotef to take it for your soul to be sucked. And this is the only time we've seen like how it goes, how like the soul sucking goes, because if we think about it, if you watch the the first film, you don't see it aside from the silhouette of that one shot. You don't see like the soul sucking of the the emotef. You see it just in that one little scene. That's kind of like a little horror there, especially when you see his face, how different it looks. Obviously, now it's it has a different feel because it's CGI that's doesn't age anymore or doesn't really age well now. But the rest of this movie is just like action, adventure, very, very old school film. And the the other thing I do want to mention though is that like bracelet of Anubis, which is you know the plot device, the scene that uh Alex is is Alex uh Rick's son is he puts it on and he can't take it off. But in the animated show, it's a whole different thing, it's a whole different bracelet. And apparently that bracelet has a lot more power than um than what the bracelet of Anubis does. Because I think the bracelet of Anubis can only show you where you can find the Scorpion King's pyramid or home or whatever. Because the basis is basically like it's the year of the Scorpion King, and he will be risen again in his army of Anubis, which his army is basically. Like jackals. I was gonna say dogs, but they're jackals, which is what Anubis is often referred to as. Even though in most adaptations, he's actually not looking like a jackal. He's actually a human or he looks like a human. But I will say though that that fight scene between the magiis and the the army of Anubis is really cool. Give me a second, y'all? Like I was gonna say, that fight scene is really cool, especially when like they took down the first wave of Anubis' army without even I don't think anybody died. I've watched that movie like a couple of times in my life. I don't think anyone has ever died in that in that fight except the army of Anubis. And then they see a bigger army and they're like, yeah, we're gonna die. And they're like, you know what? We're gonna go down swinging, we're gonna go down fighting. Obviously, like the army was destroyed when Rick O'Connell killed the Scorpion King. But let's now talk about what I know all you guys are here for. Yes, the CGI of Dwayne Johnson as the Scorpion King and as a Scorpion Man monster. Yes, that that is unforgivable. I'll I'll admit it. It's unforgivable. It looks cartoonish, it looks like a video game. I will say that one last bit of horror they have in there was when um the scorpion king like rips apart the curator, and then yeah, like that's the last bit of horror right there. Because, like I said, it it's unforgivable that I can't really say it, that Dan CGI of the Scorpion King is an unforgivable sin. And I've known about unforgivable sins. What makes this like I know why they did it and they thought it it would be clever. The thing is that it would have been easier if they just like had Dwayne Johnson come back as just looking like himself, or even just like a giant scorpion. I mean, regard the giant scorpion would still look fake. It would have looked like that giant um spider in uh Stephen King's it, the very, very first one, the 1990 version. And that the other thing that drives me a little bit, because even when I first saw this film, I wasn't a huge fan of it. Emil Teb isn't really much of a bad guy as he was in the first film. In this one, he's more just power hungry to take the Scorpion King's army. Because the thing is, if you kill the Scorpion King, I think out of greed or whatever, you gain the army of Anubis. And if you kill the Scorpion King just to make sure you put an end to his reign, then the army of Anubis will eventually fall with him. Patricia Velasquez also comes back, but she's different from how she looked in the first film. Because in the first film, she played Anox and a moon and she's covered in the Egyptian makeup. Now she's different. Uh, she does she plays supposedly Anox and a moon reincarnated, or at least a direct descendant. I don't remember. I think she said reincarnated, and like she eventually, like, I guess, kills the soul of the person, of like the reincarnated person, so that the soul of anxiety moon comes back. It's hard to explain that. And even if you watch the film, you really can't make no sense of it either. I think it also has to do with like the books, because there's the book of the dead and then there's a book of the living. And I always think it's funny how they say like the book of the dead brings back life, and the book of the living takes life away. Direct quote from the movie, by the way. But yeah, the only thing I'm missing is scarabs because man, the first film had a lot of scarabs. This one only had like one scarab scene. I thought there was another one at the end, but it wasn't. If you don't remember, like a Nox and a Moon falls into a batch of scorpions and is consumed by them. I always thought those were the scarabs. They weren't, those were scorpions. Either way, you're falling into a pit of scorpions, you are dead. And that is a fate worse than anything I've ever seen in that movie. Even worse than having you're so sucked out. But and like I said, the um the other horror aspect of this film that kind of like calls back to Jurassic Park is um, what was it? These are they're called doobies or whatever, which is based which it which um if you don't know anything about like voodoo ritual and stuff like that, they're like short little people. And if you remember, they're like killing like these people like in this long grass. So if you remember from Jurassic World, the scene with the Raptors where they say don't go into the long grass, and then you just see the attack, that's where the callback comes from. And obviously, like emotef is like full of like ego. He's like, Oh, they're not gonna attack me because I am very powerful. Yeah, and then eventually he takes his gets his powers taken away from him. Again, you all should see these films, but that like again, there's not a lot of horror in the in this film specifically. There's more into the first one because of you know the zombie emotep, which is predominantly half of the first film. This one, like emotep in its full form, is like the almost the entire film as zombie emotep is literally like the um, I would say like only 10 minutes of the film, uh like screen time, pretty much what I mean. Not like the first 10 minutes of the film, but maybe less than that, technically. But I do, I do really doesn't matter. I still like the film, regardless of the CGI Dwayne Johnson. Always think it's cool how um when Rick O'Connell stabs um he stabs the Scorpion King and he tells them, go to hell and take your friends with you. And then you see like the end of Emotep where because of that blast, he's he's dragged into hell, even though he's trying to get an Octoon to save him. Like, no, he he he just gives up as like it's like he sets his fate, he gets dragged into hell. So I kind of wish they brought him back, but what what else could they do with him, you know? I know there was a third film. We're not talking about that third film, because the third film, and by the way, if y'all didn't know there was a third film, there's a reason y'all never heard of it. The third film came out in like what 2008 or 2009, more bad CGI. It's not even a mummy in the third film. The third film is basically I don't even think Steven Summers directed the third film. I think I think they took it away from him. So, in case y'all didn't know, there yes, there was a third film called The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It's a Chinese mummy, which I didn't even think was possible because I don't think there's mummies in China, but he wasn't really like mummified, he was more of like cursed in clay. Let's put it this way like it was cursed to live in clay for thousands of years. So give me a second. Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Come on. I think this is the first film I ever saw was Michelle Y'all too. If y'all want to, it's on Prime for $3.79, but yeah, no, I yeah, no, it has Steven Summers has ness no involvement with this film. Oh, well he produced it, but I mean I'm not gonna talk about it uh entirely because it's not I mean, yeah, no, it's it's not it just doesn't feel like a mummy movie, let's put it like that. Like, it just doesn't feel right. Not only that, Rachel Vise isn't in this movie in the third film, she's uh I don't know why she's not there. They've replaced her with uh Melissa Leo, not Melissa Leo, I forgot her name. I don't even think it matters anymore, to be honest with you. Maria Bella, that's who it is. But still, I mean you can't call it the mummy and not have Rachel Vice part of the team. That's just not no. And it's that because like because like it's in China now and not in Egypt, we don't get any oldette fair. I love O Dead Fair. Like I said, he's a lot more badass in the second film than it was in the first film. And I'm not saying he wasn't he was bad in the first film, I'm saying he has a lot more to do in the in this film rather than just giving warnings in the first film. Oh man. If they do a fourth film, they gotta bring Steven Summers back to direct it, put more horror aspects in this fourth film, because the third film has no horror in it. And then, yeah, bring back obviously Brandon Fraser. If Brandon Fraser wants to do it, he's gonna have to get himself into shape first because yeah, he sports uh a dad bot. I mean, unless he unless Rick O'Connell can purposefully like not really Rick O'Connell, but like Brandon Fraser can actually do a full-on action film in a dad bot when he's close to 60. I'm all for it. But yeah, they need to do that. Bring the bring back Rachel Vice, bring back Oda's fair. Don't even bring back um Alex. I didn't enjoy Alex, the the Alex they had in the in the third film. They just make it seem like you know, Alex is off on his own adventures or something like that, and they just don't want to get him involved. And obviously John Hanna, keep him in the in the series, but yeah, and then lower the CGF. That's all I want. But yeah, it's really the first two that are kind of horror. And like I said, the second film introduced a Scorpion King. Now, when I was little, I never really tried to like put the two to two together. Yes, I can tell that they were played by the same person. The reason why I never put the two to two together is just one, I was just really, really young. But as I got older, it never made sense to me because I seen the Scorpion King like when I was young in theaters. And um, what was I gonna say? Yeah, you know one, I really enjoyed the Scorpion King. I watched it now and I was like, dang, it's like Dwayne Johnson wasn't that good of an actor. I know some people say he's not a good actor now. I'm like, he he could be a good actor now. I mean again, I gotta see the smashing machine to see how he really is, because I don't base things, review things based on what people say. I'll I'll admit it now. I mean, people really, really love one battle after another, and I enjoyed one battle after another. I just wasn't a bit an overwhelming fan as a lot of people are. I still prefer sinners over one battle after another, especially for that film to win best uh picture next year, even though hopefully Paul Thomas Anderson does get his dues with this film because the writing was good, but we're not talking about those. But to back to my point being when I watched The Scorpion King, yeah, Julian Johnson, you could tell that this was Julian Johnson's first time acting. But you know, there were some first-time performances that you wouldn't even believe in. But yeah, uh, there's that. Yeah, there's a lot of cringe moments within that first film that I just didn't remember. Like up until now, I don't think I haven't seen the sort the Scorpion King in maybe like way over a decade, maybe almost two decades. I don't know. Like I've seen the Mummy series more than I've seen The Scorpion King. But when I watch The Scorpion King now, it's like I don't remember too much of the cringe that was involved in that in that film. Steven Summers, yes, has a lot to do with it. Um, because he was the producer and he created the idea of the Scorpion King. I will what I was gonna talk about was is that like the movie The Scorpion King makes him the good guy. Like he's the hero. I'm trying to remember his name right now, so give me a second. If I could think about it, Matthias, there you go. In the film, he's not really called the Scorpion King, he's called Matthias, and he's not Egyptian, he's Arcadian. So I'm just remembering this now, by the way. Um, when I rewatched it, I didn't know he was not Egyptian, he's Arcadian. I don't remember his name though, so Matthias was yeah. I was like, how are they the same person? And I knew there were sequels that came out, like there were Scorpion King sequels. I've never seen any of them. So I'm just I'm so maybe, and I was like, oh I guess maybe like some of the sequels like they they probably show Matthias, you know, go down this line and becoming an evil scorpion king. Up until recently, I found this out. So the scorpion king and the mummy returns, which is the villain, and the scorpion king in the scorpion king are uh two different characters played by the same actor. Uh the scorpion king, which is supposed to be obviously the prequel, is actually the grandfather of the scorpion king from the mummy returns. So Dwayne Johnson's playing two different generations of a character. So he's playing Matthias I, which is how he's labeled as in this film and I think in all the other films too. And then he plays Matthias the third, the grandson in the Scorpion King that for you know the Mummy Returns. In all in all fairness, that could work. That does work. I think they just never really like thought like, oh wait, we made this character a good guy, so now we gotta like make him a bad guy pretty soon. And I guess they never did. Like I said, I've never seen the sequels to the films, so I mean, I guess we could, I don't know. Maybe one day I'll watch him, but I don't think you can watch him anywhere unless I think you gotta order them. Yeah. And uh we're back. Yeah. So Steven Summers did another film called Van Helsing, which I think a couple of years ago, maybe I don't know, maybe like five years ago, I I found out that he was a set he was a director of um Van Helsing. Um, we briefly talked about Van Helsing before a long time ago when we did that, you know, that gossip horror films uh thing where Hitson and I we were talking about Nosferatu and the Wolfman. Van Helsing is obviously uh I know like you look at the reviews of those films and you're like, they're not the best. I still get nostalgia when I watch that film. Like I said, that film came out when I was like really, really young. So I was like, I didn't know anything about critics or reviews or stuff like that. I just knew it was a movie that I wanted to see. And I saw it on a bootleg. If y'all don't know what I mean, bootleg is um it's something that's sh that's not really uh legal. Um basically, like you can get a movie for cheap because somebody filmed it in the theater, burnt it on a CD, and it's selling them. That's what it was. I remember like I mean, I grew up in San Antonio, y'all. Like you get those a lot here to so that I remember seeing, and then I remember getting the DVD, or actually my grandma got me the DVD. I think my grandma got me the DVD, I don't remember, but I still get uh some enjoyment out of it. You know, I didn't know that the uh Van Helsing is a character from Dracula, because I mean at that point I didn't know that there were books. I didn't know Dracula, Frankenstein. I think that was it, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which is in the film. I didn't know there were books. If I did, I mean, I mean, I didn't again, like I said, the I was really, really young when those films came out. But when I watched it, yes, like now the CGI is really, really bad, especially with Dracula and the Wolfman. The Wolfman is even worse. Um there's a lot of cringe when it comes to uh the uh the brides of Frank uh not the brides of Frankenstein, but the brides of Dracula. Like I I get it, there's there's a lot to hate, but there's a lot to get a good kick out of. I mean, some really, really good action scenes. Hugh Jackman, you can't go wrong. That's Wolverine, y'all. I mean, I guess because as I got older, I was like trying to figure out the plot, like how Dracula knew who Van Helsing was, because this isn't um Abraham Van Helsing, as in the books and all the other medium. This is Gabriel Van Helsing, and apparently the plot is basically because if you know the plot, you know the plot. The plot is basically that Van Helsing has to go and aid the Romanis, the last living descendants of a Romani tribe. Or, I mean, y'all hear the words Romanis, but that's a correct term. And I'm not a PC person, but like you Romani's is the uh correct term instead of calling them gypsies. But you can say gypsies, you can say romanis. I prefer to use the word romanis. But he's he's helping the the last descendants of a Romani uh tribe to kill Dracula, and they've been trying to do that for hundreds of years, and there's nothing that can kill Dracula, no stick to the heart, no crucifix, no holy water, no burning him alive, none of that. That's pretty much what they're trying to do. And Van Helsing has a goal which is to end all things like unnatural to the world. And the thing is that he doesn't remember who he is, and most likely he's hundreds of years old, actually over a thousand years old, and that's because like the backstory is basically that Van Helsing is the archangel Gabriel who fell and was obviously fighting the Romans, the Constantine Empire, all that stuff. And then there was a point where I think he fought uh Dracula when he was young. And when he killed Dracula, I think the the story goes is that he has God to take away his memories, and he has no memory of any life he knows he's lived longer than he than most men have. I think it was called like the Knights of the Round Order or something like that, or the Round Table or the Order, I don't remember, where like they work for the Vatican, and their job is to exterminate all things supernatural, not like the show supernatural, but like all things that are unnatural. And at one point he was tasked to kill Frankenstein's monster because Frankenstein's monster is not human. However, Van Helsing can sense evil, and he sees that there's no evil in Frankenstein's monster, at least in this universe, because in you know, in the actual universe of Frankenstein, yeah, the monster is pretty evil, but also, like we said, a tragedy, which is why I enjoy the book so much. The issue is that, like, like I said, it does leave a lot to um unwind and like, well, what's there? There should be more to explain and stuff like that. We had to wait until there's a thing called fan service to actually for people to actually know the full story. And the fan service didn't happen until like 10 years, even 15 years long after that. But uh, I know there was a uh prequel animated show or animated movie that was like what 20 minutes long called um the what was it, the London file or the London case, where he's fighting Jack D. Ripper, but it turns out to be uh Mr. Hyde, which is what leads up to Van Helsing, the first like film. Or I'm sorry, like when because there's a scene where he's in Paris and he goes up against Mr. Hyde, and then eventually, once Mr. Hyde falls off the the Notre Dame Bell Tower, I guess that's also making him the hunchback, uh, he turns back into Jekyll and dies. And then people call Van Helsing a murderer because he has no morals on who should live or die, or not really morals on who should live or die. It's just more like I guess like his idea is just more of just to kill them rather than to bring them to the order or whatever. I mean, there's a lot to this that doesn't make sense. I still get a kick out of it, like I said. I do like the chemistry between him and Kate, Kate Beggins, I think that's who it was. And then I forgot his name, his name, uh, the actor's name, but his name is Carl, and uh he's played by the same guy from The Lord of the Rings who played Volmir. I love this character so much. He's like another Jonathan, if you think about it. It's just that I mean to this day I've always been mixed on the ending of the film because the ending of the film was he kills the girl he loves. Because if y'all don't know or don't remember, and y'all or y'all do remember, uh Van Helsing becomes a werewolf at the end of the movie in order to kill Dracula. Well, I mean, that's not why he became a werewolf. He became a werewolf because he got bit by one uh who happens to be uh Anna's sister. That's the Kay Begendale's uh character. But he kills the Anna, like his love interest, even though they've only known each other for what, like a day or two? Actually, maybe longer, because of the whole travel scene trying to get uh Frankenstein's monster from Transylvania to Rome. I don't know how long of a journey that takes with a horse, but I don't know. But like when he kills her, I mean he's cured, she cures him in time before like right when he kills her. And he's just like full of regret knowing that he just killed the woman he loves. And again, I've always been mixed on that. Like she made a sacrifice, but even then I was like, I have no feelings towards it either. I mean, is it's weird. I said that I get a kick out of this film. I never said I get emotionally invested in it. That's the other thing I do have to recommend. I never got emotionally invested in it even as a kid. I just watched it because I thought it looked cool. And again, even watching this like all these years later, I still don't get emotionally invested in it, which is again why there's a very low rotten tomato score. Yeah. There is something I do want to add on to this, and it has nothing to do with Steven Summers, by the way. It kind of relates to Van Helsing because I was also watching his film and I figured I might as well just talk about it now. It was a movie called The League of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This is the first film I ever saw that had Sean Connery in it. Sean Connery, as we all know, played James Bond, and as well as uh Indiana Jones' father, is basically like just like the same thing where you have like Frankenstein, not Frankenstein, but you have like Dr. Jekylko, Mr. High, Dracula, The Invisible Man, all this into one film, The Phantom The Opera, I think Sherlock Holmes, the picture of Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer. I've never read anything by Mark Twain, just letting y'all know that. But yeah, there's oh uh Captain Nemo, not the fish. I mean, like from Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In case y'all don't want to know, in case y'all y'all don't know what this one is about, because I don't think anybody ever talks about this. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is basically like Gothic Avengers where you have Mina Harker from Dracula, who's now a vampire. Captain Nemo from uh 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the Mysterious Island, The Invisible Man who's called Rodney Skinner instead of John Griffin, Tom Sawyer, who's an FBI agent, I believe, or a special agent, or whatever kind of agent, instead of, I guess what, a farm boy. I've never seen, I mean, I've never seen, I've never read Mark Twain's um Tom Sawyer, so I don't really know. You got Dorian Gray, and then I forgot what uh oh yeah, you got Dr. Jacko, Mr. Hyde. I forgot what Sean Connery's character's name was. I didn't know if that was like like his official character or if it's um a character from a book or a novel. I don't remember. And then you got a villain who's called the Phantom, supposed to be like the Phantom of the Opera. And then you got Professor Moriarty, who's the villain of um Sherlock Holmes. Um, so that's pretty much what it all is together. There is like I guess you could say there are horror aspects of this film. Really, when I saw this film a long time ago, because we used to own it, my family and I used to own this film. Like I said, we I didn't know anything about critics and reviews and stuff like that. So I just watched it because I thought it again, I thought it looked cool. And um I don't know why I would watch it. Like there were some some scare factors when I was as a kid, especially with Mina Harker, because she was a uh a vampire, and just seeing her like suck the blood out of that one dude that tried to like hold her hostage, and then uh when you see Dorian Gray turn to a skeleton from seeing his image, because in case you have never read the um the book The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the story basically goes is that what was it gonna say? Dorian had this picture that was painted by a guy named Basil, and because Dorian was like this, he was a pretty boy, pretty much wow, but he was a pretty boy, and Basil was like, I gotta paint you. And then as he painted it, I think it was Basil or somebody said that go take a good look at that picture of you now, Dorian, because eventually you're going to age, and that's what you're never gonna look like again. So I guess he made a deal with a demon or something. It's not really implied, but he just says like it's like I wish to forever be young and not change. So basically, like I don't know what happened. This picture changes every time Dorian does something sinful. And it came to the point where like the picture doesn't it's like this ugly looking thing. And because of all the sin that Dorian has brought on him, it came to the point where Dorian couldn't even look at that picture anymore. And he couldn't even and he feels like what he was on the inside. So he stabs that picture, knowing that when he stabbed the picture, he ended up stabbing himself. And when he stabs himself, Dorian dies, but he also becomes a picture. Like what the picture looked like, like the ugliness, it uh he turned into that ugliness, and then the ugliness that was in the picture turns into Dorian Gray. So that's something they did they recreated in um in the movie. Like when I was a kid, that used to freak me out because he looks at the picture and he decrypts into skeleton, and then the skeleton that was in the picture becomes Dorian. Now when I look at that, I laugh because it was bad CGI. I guess that's another thing. The CGI is very, very dated in this one. I mean like super dated. Like you could see the molecules and the special effects. That's what I mean. Because it's like when I saw it, I was like, man, everything feels rushed. It's like I don't remember feeling this rush. I remember feeling like the movie was long, but it's like when you're a kid, like sense of time is very, very different. But I still have some enjoyment. Again, I wasn't really emotionally invested in this one. Um, I know this was supposed to be like a Steven Summers episode, but this film has nothing to do with Steven Summers. I just kind of needed an excuse to talk about this, even though because it correlates to this film and then the Van Helsing kind of like are kind of the same thing where you get all these book characters of people's famous books, like horror books or even adventure books, and you just put into one. I would say this that not the special effects, but some of the action is pretty cool, especially like you see the scene where uh Mr. High like stays this boat. He says the Nautilus. If y'all don't know what the Nautilus is, that's the boat from Joel Burns' novels. And yeah, it looked pretty cool, but I mean, between the two, I mean Van Helsing was a lot more better. Maybe they could do it, because I never they could redo one of those two, maybe both of them, who knows? Because I never understood the ending to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. There's so many things I missed, and they they they leave a lot of things unanswered. Same thing with Van Helsing, which is now I have the complaints about, but I mean, who knows? But yeah, that's uh my episode about Steven Summers. Um, this is a very short episode. I mean, it's an hour and about to be an hour and three minutes while recorded, so this thing might drop to like, I don't know, 50 50 minutes, 45 minutes, edit it down. But yeah, I thank you so much for this one. We're gonna try to do a little bit more like horror-esque Halloween-themed episodes for this season, mostly because it's October, and I do want to see what I can get on Halloween, so who knows? But anyway, y'all, thank you for having uh me. I mean, thank y'all for listening. Have a good night, day, morning. Whenever you're listening to this, thank y'all so much. Uh hey guys, just a quick thing. I just noticed this not long after I finished recording this, I'm making another recording the day after. But I forgot to mention a couple of things. The actor plays Benny and the mummy plays Igor and Van Helsing. And uh speaking of you know Van Helsing as well as uh the mummy, both have really great scores. I prefer I think Van Helsing score over the uh the mummy score just because of that like guitar riff and stuff like that. And it's funny enough because like Van Helsing is like the first time I've ever heard of um the sign of the cross when you would see Van Helsing do the sign of the cross. That was like the first time I ever heard of that. And my friend who introduced me to this movie at the time uh told me what it stood for. But yeah, those were a couple of things I forgot to mention when I was recording the episode. So as I'm saying earlier, good or have a good night, day, morning, whenever you're listening to this. Thank you very much. Hi, if you like our content and want to get more content, please follow us on Instagram at Tough Love Pictures, along with our YouTube under Tough Love Pictures.