The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Making the farcical tenor of the recent Indiana Jones film feel like a paragon of dramatic and archaeological integrity, this phoned-in action threequel doesn’t even have the good grace to deliver on its title and feature any mummies (‘Reanimated Clay Statue’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it).

An increasingly tired-looking Brendan Fraser dusts off the boots and bomber jacket as Rick ‘Ricochet’ O’Connell, this time heading to China with thrillseeking missus Evy (Maria Bello) to deliver an artefact to a museum, only to be ambushed by a tyrannical general who wants to resurrect the long-dead Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) to, well… who knows why? John Hannah reprises his role as stock babbling twit while newcomer Luke Ford – an eminently slappable 1970s waxwork of Matt Damon – crops up as Rick’s annoyingly impetuous son Alex.

Creating the sense that one eye seems to have been on the film’s potential for computer-game spin-offs, with the other on the prospect of interactive museum tie-ins, Rob Cohen’s pallid direction, combined with a script packed with groan-worthy quips and dimestore mysticism, merely drags the characters from point A to point B. The humour, fun and B-movie self-depreciation of the first two chapters are also woefully absent.