Back in 1999, Brendan Frasier wowed audiences with his action thrill ride "The Mummy." Then in 2001 he returned (with the same script) for "The Mummy Returns." If you notice a bit of sarcasm, it is because I do not understand the success of these films. They do not know if they want to be action, comedy or horror. Instead, they are amalgams of all three, filled with lame jokes, bad CG action scenes and absolutely no horror.

But audiences love these films so much, Universal studios brighten theatre screens with a third installment of this popular franchise. To compare these films with the Indiana Jones franchise (excluding the last installment, that one doesn’t count) baffles me. So, is the latest Mummy film better than the previous two, and can this one be compared to Indiana Jones?

No.

The film begins with a power hungry Emperor Han (Jet Li, who builds the Great Wall of China in what it looks to be about five years; we notice this because he grows a goatee) whois cursed by a sorceress and made into stone while his army is turned into terra cotta statues. So if you want to be technical, there are no actual mummies in this one, just terra cotta statue things that break when you hit them with a sword. They are buried in the Earth and forgotten about, until our hero’s son Alex O’ Connell (trying to step out of the shadow of his famous father) unearths them.

Our dashing hero Rick O’Connell (Frasier) is in retirement with his beautiful wife Evelyn, (this time played by the talented Maria Bello). They are bored with their retirement and want some action. So they are recruited to help Alex with his find, and wouldn’t you know it, Jonathan, Evelyn’s brother, is in China as well. Of course, Emperor Han is resurrected and the wackiness begins.

There is a horse carriage chasing a car, three yetis going up against machine guns and missile launchers, and an epic battle scene against terra cotta statue men and a skeleton army. Jet Li (who takes up about 12 minutes of screen time) turns into a dragon and a giant beastly ape creature (when he was the fire-breathing dragon, why did he not destroy his enemies with a breath of his fire, but instead he runs away?)

Needless to say, I have had more entertaining nightmares. The skeleton army scene has the same jokes as the 1992 film "Army of Darkness," and please tell me what damage arrows are going to do to an army of skeletons; probably not much.But it is a Mummy movie and I guess I am nit picking. The one good thing I can say about this movie is, they know their core audience and they do not do any changes to the main characters. They are the characters the core audience knows and loves, and that is saying a lot after George Lucas tried to get new fans by ruining the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises.

And it is a good, imaginative film to bring some older kids to. But for this reviewer, I found it dull and lifeless. One out of four stars.

Judd Apatow and his team are back for the fourth time this year ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "Drillbit Taylor" and "Step Brothers") with "The Pineapple Express" a stoner buddy comedy mixing Cheech and Chong and "48 Hours."

The film stars Seth Rogen ("Knocked Up," "Superbad") and James Franco (The Spiderman films) as two stoners who are being hunted by murderous drug dealers and crooked cops after Rogen witnesses a murder while getting stoned in his car. The marijuana that he is smoking is called the pineapple express and is only sold by one dealer (Franco). After leaving the joint at the scene of the crime, the drug dealers know who sold it and the hunt begins. They are then thrust into a series of misadventures while being constantly stoned.

For as clichéd as the plot may be, Rogen and Franco make a hilarious paring as two hapless losers who get into the most over the top situations, and Danny McBride ("The Foot Fist Way") is surprisingly hilarious as a double-crossing dealer.

But be warned, there is heavy drug content in the film as well as graphic violence and constant profanity, but that is the point. Rogen (who co-wrote the script) takes things constantly to the next level that you can’t take the film seriously, which is a good thing. Apatow and his crew can easily be compared to the writing teams of Dan Aykroyd and Harlod Ramis, who also used most of the same actors like Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and John Belushi - and that is a big honor being that they were the last group of comedians who turned out some classic comedies ("Ghostbusters," "Caddyshack," " The Blues Brothers," "Animal House").

Not all from Apatow’s production company are classics, but for every Drillbit Taylor there is a Superbad and that is not bad at all.

Three out of four stars.