Before Oscars, Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser did the underrated Mummy 3

The 95th Academy Awards ceremony is coming up in a week, which still leaves curious film fans a little time to catch up on the nominees — most of them are available to stream by now. The nominees, as always, are a collection of very serious stories. If you need a break from watching graphically gruesome trench warfare in Netflix’s All Quiet on The Western FrontBrendan Gleeson performingatively performs self-mutilation in The Banshees from Inisherin, or rich people projectile vomiting en masse in Triangle of Sadness, here’s a palate cleanser for you.

Brendan Fraser’s role as a mournful actor is strongly favored to win this year’s Best Actor Oscar. WhaleWhile Michelle Yeoh is the overwhelming favorite to win Best Actress, Everything at once. Why not spend a few hours watching the film that they made together? 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon EmperorIt’s readily accessible on streaming services.

Universal Pictures Photo

Granted, you won’t get to see Yeoh tenderly caressing Jamie Lee Curtis’ face while wearing floppy, disturbing hot-dog-finger gloves. Or Fraser symbolically taking on other people’s sins in another Darren Aronofsky Biblical metaphor. Dragon Emperor is the kind of movie that didn’t even merit the Oscars’ attention back in 2008, before the Best Picture category was expanded to gin up public interest in the awards by making room at the top of the nominee list for mega-hits like James Cameron’s Avatar. It was Tragically overlooked understandably overlooked by the Academy, but it’s still a pretty fun time today.

And it’s even more enjoyable in the light of the interactions Yeoh and Fraser have had together on the awards circuit: Fraser tearfully hugging Yeoh at the Critics Choice AwardsYeoh hauling Fraser into the Everything Everywhere group photo at the SAG Awards, the two of them gushing over each other’s projects on the A24 podcast after both ceremonies. (Yeoh tells Darren Aronofsky that she would like to hug Fraser for bringing him back to acting.

Photo: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Champagne Collet & OBC Wines

The third movie in the popular Mummy franchise didn’t do as well at the box office as the previous two, but it was still a respectable $400 million hit, and it plays as lighter and much more meta than The Mummy The Mummy Returns. Fraser is back as floppy-haired international adventurer Rick O’Connell, though Maria Bello steps in to replace Rachel Weisz as his wife Evelyn. Alex, their adult son (Luke Ford), kicks off undead action by uncovering an ancient Chinese Emperor (Jet Li) who was cursed by the immortal sorceress Zi Yuan. When a handful of devoted cultists resurrect the emperor, Zi Yuan and her equally immortal daughter Lin (Isabella Leong) join forces with the O’Connells to stop him.

One really disappointing aspect of Dragon EmperorIt is remarkable that Yeoh (and Fraser) barely get any screen time. As a martial artist and magic wielder, Zi Yuan spends most of the movie on mystical projects, while Rick spends his time racing around with guns, swords, and improvised weapons, fighting cultists and trying to keep them from accomplishing various tasks on their way to reviving the emperor, breaking Zi Yuan’s curse on him, and reviving his immense CGI army of terra-cotta soldiers. On their recent A24 podcast appearance, Fraser and Yeoh really don’t have any joint memories of the film to share — apart from both talking about how exciting it was to work with Jet Li, and what a sweetheart he is in real life.

Universal Pictures

Fans of action-thrillers with a mildly silly feel, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean Movie 1, will be pleased to know that this movie is available. Raiders of the Lost Ark……………?, and, most importantly, the first two Mummy films. Tomb of Dragon EmperorThis is an undiscovered gem. It’s fast-paced and amiable, full of family banter and big, high-energy chases and fights, courtesy of The Fast and Furious XXX director Rob Cohen. Fraser, in his charmant and boyish action-star fashion is completely onboard. (It’s never really plausible that Alex is Rick’s son; Fraser is only about 13 years older than Luke Ford, and looks a lot younger when he’s grinning his way through yet another Errol Flynn-style stunt.)

Yeoh gets to show off her acting skills as well as her martial arts skills in this movie, with her side plot revolving around her close, supportive relationship with Lin, and with Lin’s father in the opening flashback sequence. It’s only a small echo of what Yeoh gets to do as a character in You can have everything at onceOr Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but it’s still more dimension than she gets in a lot of her fighting movies.

Perhaps the best and most unique thing about it is its charm. Dragon EmperorIt is the marriage between Rick, Evelyn. The couple has clearly reached the stage of being bored and openly sexually disappointed. between world-hopping and mummy-fighting adventures, and who wind up seeing this latest jaunt as more of a get-your-groove-back couple’s outing than a save-the-world crisis. Mummy’s first movie was a horror film that dealt with the terror of having to deal with an undead creature, its supernatural minions and other terrifying situations. At this stage, it was all about the charismatic, star-studded cast getting out for some weapons-focused, noisy exercise. It’s a cheerful, upbeat time-waster — for Fraser and Yeoh as much as for the rest of us.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon EmperorAvailable for rent or purchase, it is now streaming on Hulu & Tubi. Amazon, VuduOther digital platforms.