Search

The Mummy

1999, Movie, PG-13, 120 mins

The Mummy: Review

MUMMY, THE
starstarstarstar
A mummy movie for the video-game generation, this boys' own adventure deals decisively with the conceptual absurdity that undermines many older variations on the theme: Since reanimated mummies shuffle along at the speed of your arthritic grandpa, why didn't all those terrified Egyptologists, treasure hunters and reincarnations of long-dead Egyptian princesses just run a little faster? This new mummy, Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo, assisted by extensive computer-generated effects), is no schlub in moldering bandages: He's a rag-clad Terminator who turns himself into a sandstorm, visits the plagues of Egypt upon his enemies, commands flesh-eating scarab beetles and regains human form by sucking the very life from those who desecrated his tomb. Why a 3000-year-old Egyptian priest would summon up plagues originally visited upon Pharaoh by the God of the Israelites is a bit puzzling, but hey — he's spent a long time seething in that sarcophagus, so who knows what he's been thinking? Boris Karloff's gloomy Imhotep (in the 1932 original) may have been a more elegant creation, but this year's model kicks some serious ass. The movie's other stroke of inspiration is to graft the mummy onto a RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK-style adventure in which a charming American adventurer (Brendan Fraser) and a lovely lady Egyptologist (Rachel Weisz) go searching for the legendary Egyptian city of the dead and find themselves battling hoards of baddies at regular intervals. The razzle-dazzle factor is high, and many viewers won't mind that it's all rather hollow, formulaic stuff any more than they'll be troubled by the offhanded treatment of Arabs as buffoons, exotics and verminous riff-raff (it's one thing to set a movie in 1926, and another to appropriate the era's insidious racism). In all, it's the quintessential summer movie: noisy, spectacular and disposable. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
Advertisement

Shop

The Mummy Returns (Widescreen Collector's Edition)
Buy The Mummy Returns (Widescreen Collector's Edition) from Amazon.com
From Universal Pictures (DVD)
Average Customer Review: nostarnostarnostarhalfstarstar
Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy New: $11.49 (as of 2:20 AM EST - more info)
The Mummy (Widescreen Collector's Edition)
Buy The Mummy (Widescreen Collector's Edition) from Amazon.com
From Universal Pictures (DVD)
Average Customer Review: nostarnostarnostarnostarstar
Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy New: $10.49 (as of 2:20 AM EST - more info)

more The Mummy products

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. Dancing with the Stars
  2. The Game
  3. NCIS
  4. American Idol
  5. Wife Swap
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Carrie Prejean
  2. Jennifer Lopez
  3. Susan Boyle
  4. Sammy Sosa
  5. Donald Trump
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. A Christmas Carol
  2. This Is It
  3. Men Who Stare At Goats
  4. The Fourth Kind
  5. Paranormal Activity
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Dancing With The Stars
  2. Saturday Night Live
  3. V
  4. Desperate Housewives
  5. NCIS
more top videos