Overall Rating
  Awesome: 24.57%
Worth A Look: 27.16%
Average: 26.29%
Pretty Bad: 12.93%
Total Crap: 9.05%
12 reviews, 160 user ratings
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Mummy, The (1999) |
by Ryan Arthur
"Puns involving mommy and mummy will get you smacked."

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Very Raiders-y. Decent effects, shoddy story. It's a really expensive B-movie.Jonathon and Evelyn (John Hannah and Rachel Weisz) are a brother and sister who find a map to what may be Hamunaptra, the City Of The Dead in 1920's Egypt. They head off with would-be explorer/treasure hunter Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) leading them to the fabled city and it's hidden treasure - he's already been there and been turned away by a band of men defending it.
When the travellers (and various other hunters) get there, they unknowingly release Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), the mummy of the title. Imhotep had been the high preist to the Emperor Seti, and had an affair with Seti's concubine. Seti condemned Imhotep to the worst possible torture: he's mummified alive (wasn't that a cartoon?), then stuffed into a sarcophogus, where flesh eating beetles devour him alive. Yucky.
Problem is, Imhotep, if disturbed or freed, will arise "a walking disease," and release the 10 proverbial plagues upon Egypt (it's like Prince Of Egypt, only without the singing).
Evelyn, clutz that she is, reads from the book of the dead and releases the mummy, and all sorts of stuff ensues. Imhotep slowly reconstitutes himself, using organs and innards swiped from (don't ask) other treasure hunters, and pursues Evelyn, whom he believes to be the decendant of the concubine. He'll sacrifice her and bring the concubine back to life. Unless, of course, dashing Rick can stop him/it.
The Mummy tries. Oh, how it tries. We're thrown in head first with an opening sequence that sets everything up for us, and we're thinking it's all going to be action and adventure and maybe even a little romance, and that'll be right cool.
But it can't really hold onto it from there on out.
Primarily, there are elements of cornball humor and lame one-liners. The character of Beni (Kevin J. O'Conner) is essentially a villain, but is also pure comic relief. I found him quite grating. The action sequences are fine, but they're short circuited by out of place humor (script courtesy of Stephen Sommers, the guy responsible for last year's Deep Rising). Even Fraser didn't bother me, and I'm really not a fan of his work. But when we don't have an action sequence or a final battle or whatever, the film drags. The humor can't save it. If Anaconda, The Relic and Congo were your kind of film, then The Mummy's for you. Well-known critic Roger Ebert likes all four of 'em. I don't.
In the end, The Mummy has just enough to hold your attention. You probably won't check your watch during the film, but you probably won't be lining up to see it again, either.Not bad, but not good. It's Indiana Jones lite.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=439&reviewer=7 originally posted: 05/11/99 14:52:51
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USA 07-May-1999 (PG-13) DVD: 29-Nov-2005
UK N/A
Australia 24-Jun-1999 (M)
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