Watched the U.S.A.'s 2009 Inkheart (1:45:43). Produced ten years after The Mummy (1999), it may have been an attempt to revive Brendan Fraser's unique popularity. In this movie he is Mortimer Folchart, a silvertongue, a person with abilities to read aloud from a book and summon characters forth. More than a half-hour through the movie, however, we still do not know what is going on and what is at stake for the protagonists. When we finally do, there is too much discussion and bickering rather than real action. And how corny is a plot in which the climax is comprised of the reading of pages from a book?

The production is flawed in many ways. Most of the book references are fairy tales, and one wonders why there are no real classics among them. Jennifer Connelly is a mere extra who seems to have been allotted only one shooting day. Andy Serkis was still difficult for me to appreciate because he remains a ham; moreover, in this movie, he looks like Mr. Bean. The rest of the cast could just as well have been drawn from B-grade talent portfolios. The screenplay and dialogue are sophomoric and as embarrassing as that of another movie flop, Dungeons 'N' Dragons, except that the special effects in this one are a lot better.

Finally, the ultimate sin: Brendan Fraser looks tired, uninspired, and aging. He has no swashbuckling scenes as in The Mummy series and no sexy semi-nudity as in Encino Man.