The Mummy [M]

3000 years ago in Ancient Egypt, a priest named Imhotep was mummified, buried alive, and cursed as punishment for the ultimate blasphemy. Now, centuries later a group of explorers searching for the legendary lost city of Hamunaptra have uncovered Imhopet’s grave and unwittingly unearthed the terror that accompanies the curse: with Imhotep’s resurrection, all the plagues of Egypt will be brought upon the world. It falls to the great but crass explorer, Rick and his colleagues; the clever and beautiful Evelyn and her blundering brother Jonathan to kill the undead Mummy before he can cover the earth in terror. 

I’d almost forgotten that I owned these movies. I recently found them in my brother’s room and thought, “oh it’d be good to see them again.” I had completely forgotten how much I LOVE this movie! It’s perfect! The perfect blend of action, romance, comedy, suspense, and stomach-squirm-inducing violence and gore. Brilliant for a Saturday night in with a pizza, that’d be my ideal way of watching this movie. It’s great! 

3000 years ago in Ancient Egypt, a priest named Imhotep was mummified, buried alive, and cursed as the punishment for the ultimate blasphemy. Now, centuries later a group of explorers have uncovered Imhotep’s grave and unwittingly unearthed the terror that accompanies the curse: with Imhotep’s resurrection, all the plagues of Egypt will be brought upon the world. It falls to the great but crass explorer, Rick and his colleagues; the clever and beautiful Evelyn and her blundering brother Jonathan, to destroy the undead Mummy before he can cover the earth in terror. 

This, right here, is a classic action movie! Everything in it is balanced to a tee! 

The story is complicated, but at the same time easy to follow, mainly because you actually have the characters take the time to verbally tell the audience what’s going on. I find that that’s really important in a movie, particularly one where it’s critical to remember little details and stuff. If there isn’t at least one scene where the characters take a break from the action and have a discussion about what’s going on, the audience just loses the plot. 

The special effects and the Egyptian sets were just breathtaking, with the added balance of a few more gruesome scenes that will appeal to those in the audience who don’t mind the odd bit of discomfort; watch out for the scenes where the people are attacked or devoured by scarab beetles, I squirmed but you might find it tasty. 

Featuring memorable performances from Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Kevin J. O’Connor, Oded Fehr, Jonathan Hyde, Erick Avari, and Bernard Fox, The Mummy is a fantastic movie that’s packed with rollicking action, special effects, romance, adventure, curses, violence, gore, and comedy. It’s a great one to come back to once in a while and I am very proud to have it in my collection.