The Mummy (1999)

Starring - Brendan Fraser; Rachel Weisz; John Hannah; Arnold Voslo & Kevin J. O'Connor Director - Stephen Sommers MPAA - Rated PG-13 for pervasive adventure violence and some partial nudity. Brendan Fraser stars in this remake of the 1930's Boris Karloff classic. This new mummy is not only a tribute to the original but it is very blatantly paying homage to Raiders Of The Lost Ark as well. Brendan Fraser is no Indiana Jones, but he comes pretty darn close. I'll admit right off the bat that I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of The Mummy. I figured on a few nifty special effects and not a whole lot else. I was in for quite the surprise. The Mummy is a whole lot of fun, and will probably rank as one of my favorite movies of the year. Fraser plays a former soldier turned fortune hunter who, in no small way, resembles a certain character that Harrison Ford made famous - although, Fraser's character doesn't have a bullwhip. Rick O'Connell (Fraser) is one of the few people who has ever seen the Lost City of the Dead in Egypt. It is reported to contain an immense treasure and volumes of great knowledge. He is hired by a librarian (Rachel Weisz) and her brother (John Hannah) to take them to the city so that they can try to find its hidden treasures. Once there they run into a bit more than they bargained for. They inadvertently bring back to life a mummy which has been sealed in the ancient city along with a very bad curse. Basically, once this mummy gets reawakened he isn't a real nice guy. And once he gets up to full strength he will be able to control the world. By the way, the way he gains strength is to replace the long rotted parts of his body with new flesh from living victims. The mummy has as his command the power to create plagues of biblical proportion, such as locusts, making the water turn to blood and fireballs falling from the sky. All and all, he isn't the sort of fellow that you want to be enemies with. The plot of the movie is a little on the popcorn side of things. It is your typical light summer fare. This is not a difficult movie to follow, yet on the other hand there are enough spills, thrills and one-liners to keep the audience thoroughly entertained throughout the movie. I was not really expecting a whole lot in either the dialogue or acting portions of this movie. On both counts I was happily wrong. This isn't Oscar-caliber dialogue mind you, but it is witty and often pretty funny. I found most of it was designed to give the movie that Indiana Jones feel. Even in the worst of situations, someone seemingly had a wisecrack. The acting was very impressive. Brendan Fraser has never really been in a movie that ever really impressed the heck out of me. This time he did. Fraser comes off as a young Harrison Ford in this movie. He might not have quite as much talent as Ford, but he certainly has the charisma and screen presence to make up for it. Quite honestly, he is no slouch in the talent department either. Rachel Weisz does a fine job as the take charge librarian who eventually falls for Fraser's character. The actor who I enjoyed the most was John Hannah as Weisz's somewhat roguish brother. His character was pure comic relief, and Hannah delivered all the way. Arnold Voslo was also good playing the mummy; although his scenes were somewhat limited because of the nature of his character. The reason Voslo's scenes were limited was the fact that for a good portion of the movie, the mummy was purely a computer generated character. He was more or less a walking skeleton with a little rotting flesh on him. Although there was more and more meat on him as the movie progressed and the body count mounted. The CGI Mummy was probably the most impressive CGI character that I have ever seen in a movie. I would say it will be a long time before the effects were surpassed if it weren't for the fact that Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace wasn't being released a week and a half after this film. The mummy itself wasn't the only impressive computer generated horror in this film. Special effects wizards also used computers to generate a very impressive killer windstorm as well as the mummy's undead henchmen. One of the neatest touches was the CGI flesh eating beetles -- I'll say no more. If, when you think of The Mummy, you picture a slow moving creature wrapped in gauze chasing people at speeds approaching 1/4 of a mile per hour, you are in for a shock. This new Mummy is slick, scary and a whole lot of fun. The Mummy might not go down as a "classic" like the original (although it wouldn't surprise me if it did), but it will provide you with one of the most enjoyable movie experiences that you are likely to see in a summer film. 9/10 Reviewed May 10, 1999 by Joe Chamberlain