It's beginning to look like August.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | 1:36 PM

"[D]id I mention the Abominable Snowmen, who help Rick, Evelyn and Alex combat Li's revived baddie and, after kicking one of the emperor's many minions over a Himalayan gateway, victoriously raise their arms like an NFL referee signaling that a field goal is good?"
--Slant's Nick Schager on "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," "making the first two Mummy films seem like The Godfather I and II."

"The blame...should rest at the feet of Paul W.S. Anderson. His direction is horrible, with the exception of a couple of admittedly stellar shots the car race scenes are actually kind of cluttered and boring, several normally solid bit players turn in career worst performances and the Anderson-written script is laughably, horribly bad. We like to joke about plot holes big enough to drive a truck through but this film has plot holes that people LITERALLY drive actual trucks through with nobody so much as batting an eyelash."
--Todd Brown at Twitch on "Death Race": "This, people, is a Very Bad Film."

"Sometimes I think I am living in a nightmare. All about me, standards are collapsing, manners are evaporating, people show no respect for themselves. I am not a moralistic nut. I'm proud of the X-rated movie I once wrote. I like vulgarity if it's funny or serves a purpose. But what is going on here?"
--Roger Ebert on "Step Brothers" and the sadness of the long-term film critic.

[Photo: "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," Universal Pictures, 2008]