The pre-release info I got was that it was supposed to be in The Mummy vein. Now, I think it was nowhere as successful, but I never had any impression it was supposed to be anything other than a riff on august cheese that had gone before.

If I had heard that, I think I might have enjoyed the movie much more. I do like cheese, if I'm in the mood for it.

That being said, I don't think that movies should have to rely on pre-release info on how they are to be watched for the movie to be appreciated in the spirit intended. In an ideal world, the clues for how to watch should be able to be picked up from the first several minutes of the movie itself.

But weren't the first few minutes cheesy? I know I went into it in a different frame, but I thought the B&W extremely cheesy, and by the time they were also ripping James Bond, the cheese was set.

I'm not sure why I didn't pick up on the cheese right away. I think that what happened to me is that the style of the film fell into some equivalent of the "Uncanny Valley" where it hit just the wrong balance of seriousness and silliness for me to either take it seriously or sit back and enjoy the silly.

I did enjoy the whole Vatican as secret-service idea, lots.

I got that iot was cheesy, but it wasn't cheesy enough, IMO. It seemed that the CGI stuff was meant to be impressive (even when they really weren't) rather than cool and fun and so all the fight scenes changed the tone of the movie. In the Mummy, the tone of the film was consistently light throughout. When Brendan Fraser's character was being all earnest and noble we could kinda laugh at the over-the-topness at the same time that we were genuinely rooting for him. In this film, the whole brother subplot never seemed to have any ironic distance.

I did enjoy the whole Vatican as secret-service idea, lots.

Then did you ever see 'Hudson Hawk'? Most people I know have mixed feelings about it, but I love it.

Somebody shoulda cast Lauren Bacall and Charlotte Rambling as mother-daughter in something. They've got the same colt-lean body, the same slanty-eyed, husky-voiced, smoldering sexuality.

With Eliza Dusku as Charlotte's daughter. Because it's more than a two-generation thing.

Oh, I agree that Van Helsing didn't achieve anywhere near as well as The Mummy -- it was much more confused -- too much in it. I also think the heart didn't lie in the right place, with our protagonist.

hee!! Real Genius is on Comedy Central. i love this movie.

Hee:

"The Polar Express," a holiday fable featuring a computer-animated Tom Hanks as the train conductor, fell two places to No. 4 with $15.2 million, taking its total to $51 million after 12 days. The film cost a reported $270 million to make and market, prompting much speculation about its chances of turning a profit.

Oh, my God. Everyone should go see "Sideways" RIGHT NOW if you're lucky enough to have it play nearby. What a weird, funny, lovely, wise little film. It's sort of a spiritual cousin to Curtis Hanson's "Wonder Boys" (which I love), with more acute an ache in its center. I walked out of the theater with watery eyes, a bad case of over-identification with its sad-sack protagonist, and craving for that perfect bottle of Pinot Noir, nevermind I know next to nothing about wine.