The Mummy
Don't touch that mouse - this one will be over before you know it - "The Mummy" written and directed by Stephen Sommers, with Brendan Fraser, Stephen Dunham, John Hannah, Jonathan Hyde, Arnold Vosloo and Rachel Weisz. MPAA: Rated PG-13 for violence and some partial nudity that I, quite frankly, didn't notice. Runtime 91 minutes.
Easy to tell that summer's just around the cinematic corner. The Mummy is one the first of this year's crop of "summer" moovies, and keeping that in mind, I'll go on record as saying that for a family-ish big-screen popcorn wahoo wowee extravaganza, it succeeds pretty well.
The basic plot:
Your standard Mummy's Curse scenario. A mummy is entombed in ancient Thebes with a curse that whomever revives him can expect nasty things to happen. Brendan Fraser plays Rick O'Connell, a French Legionnaire who accidentally stumbles onto, or into, the ancient Egyptian city of The Dead, consequently succeeds in waking the mummy, and finds himself smack dab in the middle of deep mummy trouble. From here on out, it's homage to "Raiders", with dark secret pharaonic protection societies, flesh-eating scarabs and a host of plagues, all brought down by the mummy in residence, Imhotep, (Arnold Vosloo) The High Priest of Osiris, from deep inside the gold-encrusted bowels of the buried city. It would be sooo easy to associate the phrase "gold-encrusted bowels with Adam Sandler's career trajectory, so I'll just keep moovin'.
Doe-eyed librarian, polyglot and accidental egyptologist Evelyn Carnarvon, (Rachel Weisz) fleshes out the innocent contrast to all the mayhem, as well as giving Rick O'Conell something to think about besides killing already-dead Egyptians.
If you're expecting to see Brendon Fraser (Encino Man, Gods and Monsters) topple Harrison Ford from the throne of latter-day swashbuckling adventure heroes, you're barking up the wrong bullwhip. Brendan Fraser with a gun is like Mother Teresa in a halter top. It just doesn't seem right somehow. But credit for trying, and allowances for the rest of the cast, who often don't seem to know whether they're to play it straight, or go for the laugh. The result is a little Saturday morning cartoony and tongue in cheek with lots of special effects added to bring the long-dead, spooky minions to life. In other words, it was fun to watch, once you knew where they were going with it.
Awesome special effects from Industrial Light and Magic, Vision Crew and Cinesite create some pretty creepy and seamlessly believable realities, including the aforementioned scarabs, plagues of flies and locusts, screaming anthropomorphic sandstorms and mummified guards marching in lock step while doing Imhotep's dirty work. Don't arrive late, or you'll miss the moovie's recreation of the city of Thebes, shown as the intro, as it might have looked 3,000 years ago. Pretty cool use of the fx.
This might be a little creepy for smaller kids, but for the rest of kids, it was plenty of fun.
I gave "The Mummy" two and a half cows.
Easy to tell that summer's just around the cinematic corner. The Mummy is one the first of this year's crop of "summer" moovies, and keeping that in mind, I'll go on record as saying that for a family-ish big-screen popcorn wahoo wowee extravaganza, it succeeds pretty well.
The basic plot:
Your standard Mummy's Curse scenario. A mummy is entombed in ancient Thebes with a curse that whomever revives him can expect nasty things to happen. Brendan Fraser plays Rick O'Connell, a French Legionnaire who accidentally stumbles onto, or into, the ancient Egyptian city of The Dead, consequently succeeds in waking the mummy, and finds himself smack dab in the middle of deep mummy trouble. From here on out, it's homage to "Raiders", with dark secret pharaonic protection societies, flesh-eating scarabs and a host of plagues, all brought down by the mummy in residence, Imhotep, (Arnold Vosloo) The High Priest of Osiris, from deep inside the gold-encrusted bowels of the buried city. It would be sooo easy to associate the phrase "gold-encrusted bowels with Adam Sandler's career trajectory, so I'll just keep moovin'.
Doe-eyed librarian, polyglot and accidental egyptologist Evelyn Carnarvon, (Rachel Weisz) fleshes out the innocent contrast to all the mayhem, as well as giving Rick O'Conell something to think about besides killing already-dead Egyptians.
If you're expecting to see Brendon Fraser (Encino Man, Gods and Monsters) topple Harrison Ford from the throne of latter-day swashbuckling adventure heroes, you're barking up the wrong bullwhip. Brendan Fraser with a gun is like Mother Teresa in a halter top. It just doesn't seem right somehow. But credit for trying, and allowances for the rest of the cast, who often don't seem to know whether they're to play it straight, or go for the laugh. The result is a little Saturday morning cartoony and tongue in cheek with lots of special effects added to bring the long-dead, spooky minions to life. In other words, it was fun to watch, once you knew where they were going with it.
Awesome special effects from Industrial Light and Magic, Vision Crew and Cinesite create some pretty creepy and seamlessly believable realities, including the aforementioned scarabs, plagues of flies and locusts, screaming anthropomorphic sandstorms and mummified guards marching in lock step while doing Imhotep's dirty work. Don't arrive late, or you'll miss the moovie's recreation of the city of Thebes, shown as the intro, as it might have looked 3,000 years ago. Pretty cool use of the fx.
This might be a little creepy for smaller kids, but for the rest of kids, it was plenty of fun.
I gave "The Mummy" two and a half cows.
