Guardians of the Tomb (2018) starring Kelsey Grammer, Kellan Lutz, Shane Jacobson, Bingbig Li

This Chinese/Australian co-productions is also known as The Nest, Tomb of the Mummy and 7 Guardians of the Tomb. My copy is Guardians of the Tomb so I'm going to run with that.

I saw the trailer for this a couple of years back and thought that looks like a fun romp.

I kept an eye out for it but never found it.  Then I tune into FBI:Most Wanted and see Kellan Lutz and remembered he was in this.  So I bit the bullet and bought a copy.

The beginning is a little middled with flashbacks and references that don't quite make sense but most thing things were explained/resolved by the end of the film.

The movie opens with a shadow puppet story of a Chinese delegation meeting with Australian Aborgines.

Then we jump to the present day when two researchers discover a tunnel in China. They had been sent on the mission by Mason (Grammer),, a wealthy industrialist. 

Mason then seeks out Jai (Li) who is the sister of one of the researchers.  We dscover that there is history with Mason and the researchers are now missing. The pair set out to the last known location where they meet the rest of the team including Jack Ridley (Lutz) and Gary (Shane Jacobson). Ridley is a first responder with a tragic history that he won't talk about.

The team heads towards the GPS signal from the missing team but have to take cover from a sandstorm in a deserted house.  All the occupants are dead except for a teenage girl and a heap of spiders.  The team heads into the basement which is an access point to the tunnels.

The team loses members to spider bites, one of whom takes a swan dive into a lava pool covered in spiders. 

We discover that the spiders are funnel web spiders that had been imported to China by the delegation at the start of the movie at the behest of the Emperor.  These spiders had been bred to be more aggressive and poisonous - because that's what you do for poisonous spiders - to have them produce a enzyme that prolongs the life of the Emperor. 

The spider's eventually escaped and killed the Emperor in his tomb which is in the tunnels that the expedition is in now.

This is a solid B movie, with no real surprises.  Mason is the bad guy (because the wealthy industrialist is always the villian) .  Ridley reveals his tragic backstory to bolster the troops when all seems lost. 


In enjoyed the hell out of this movie it really put me in mind of Congo (another movie/novel I'll have to revisit soon) with a lashing of Arachnaphobia and a pinch of Indiana Jones/The Mummy. 

For me Shane Jacobson's Gary stole the movie with his Aussie attiude and comebacks "these are 2017 spiders they follow each other on instagram"  were a highlight,  I don't know if his lines were scripted or if he improvised them but he stole every scene.

If there was one downside it was the last few seconds -  it seemed like they tried introduce a twist/sequel hook in that wasn't needed and really just raised more questions and detracted from the movie.

Overall, I'd say watch this.