# Mummy, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Eugene Novikov

    The Mummy (1999)
    Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
    http://www.ultimate-movie.com
    Member: Online Film Critics Society

    *** out of ****

Starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah. Rated PG-13.

I cherish energy in a movie. I cherish genuine wit even in the most unlikely places. I cherish escapist fare that truly deserves that name - - a movie that makes even the most critical of viewers forget it's own faults (as well as the viewer's own troubles, if only for two hours), sit back and enjoy. The Mummy is a movie I cherish.

The Mummy, believe it or not, is actually a remake of a 1932 horror film of the same name and starring Boris Karloff. It is not a horror flick. It's about a super-cool adventurer named O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) who leads a young librarian (Rachel Weisz) and her brother (John Hannah) in search of a forbidden Egyptian city. When they find it (quite easily, I might add), the librarian screws up. She reads from a forbidden book and that, you see, wakes up The Mummy (Aaron Vosloo), who has been stuck in a tomb for thousands of years, has been given the powers to bring horrible plagues on Egypt and needs human flesh and blood to regenerate.

>From the moment The Mummy awakens, director Stephen Sommers's (Deep Rising) film goes into hyperdrive. It becomes a non-stop tirade of special effects, action scenes and jokes. Damned if it doesn't work. Throughout, The Mummy maintains a contageous sort of glee, a sense of almost self-ridiculing facetiousness. It is the kind of movie where when someone asks someone else what to do because the boat has been sabotaged and is burning down, the other person responds "Stay here, I'll get help" and jumps overboard. It's the kind of movie where the main characters are constantly in jeopardy and yet the movie almost tells us "Don't worry about them, look at that awesome wall of sand!"

Most of The Mummy is utter nonsense. Not only does the plot not make sense, but the movie doesn't even make any attempts to justify it. This is not a plot movie. All that matters is how the characters try to escape their situation -- not even whether they escape, but how they go about doing it. It's an excuse to showcase some eye-popping imagery, but it's also a hell of a lot of fun.

The performances from Vosloo, Weisz and Fraser are barely worth mentioning because they don't matter. I'm sure that their performances are satisfactory, but if Stephen Sommers and his screenwriters could have gotten rid of characters all together, they probably would have, so the wall of sand could be the official star of the movie. The only performance that bears any significance in The Mummy is that of John Hannah -- the script has some ingeniously funny scenes reserved for him, some of them eliciting applause from the audience (myself included).

There is a lot in this movie to hate. Cinematically, it's a piece of crap. However, no human should be bored. Most should be greatly entertained.

You have to get yourself in the right state of mind to enjoy this picture. Don't look at it as a movie; view it rather as an outrageously entertaining theme park ride. If you're not willing to strap yourself in and drop your cinematic pretentions at the door -- don't go. ©1999 Eugene Novikov ‰

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