Welcome to the Galactic Theater, where we'll explore the works of master manipulators of light waves, examine the themes brought to play, and critique the final products of months of hard work.

This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the movie.

That said, on to the review!

For the living, death is a bereavement, a separation from loved ones. It is a time of grief and pain, not soon forgotten. But for the dead...is it truly the end? And what if the dead don't know that they've died? What if they're clinging--for good or ill--to the life they left behind?

In 1290 B.C., a priest dared to touch his pharaoh's queen, and dared to kill his pharaoh, and dared to attempt to resurrect the queen when she was executed for her role in the pharaoh's death. The pharaoh's guard stopped him, however, leaving her soul lost in the afterlife and his soul trapped and bound to his body as they cursed him to endure neverending torment and suffering. They mummified him alive, buried him beneath the statue of Anubis, and abandoned the City of the Dead, Hamunaptra. And for century upon century the Bedouin have guarded the city, preventing any from approaching who might inadvertantly awaken and release the cursed, undead priest. But greed can be a powerful lure, and the stories of Hamunaptra include tales of wondrous wealth and treasure, and it was only a matter of time before treasure hunters began seeking the city's fabled fortune.

Now, it is 1926, and Hamunaptra--long believed to be merely a legend--has reentered the waking world in the form of a map that falls into the hands of Jonathan Carnahan and his sister, Evelyn. Following the trail of the map, they track down Rick O'Connell, an American who claims to have actually been at Hamunaptra three years earlier. After arranging for his release from prison, they begin their journey, only to discover that they are not the only ones heading for the City of the Dead. An acquaintance of Rick's, Beni, was with Rick when they discovered the city, and now bargains that knowledge for income. In a race for the city, the two groups, Beni's and Rick's, tear across the desert on horseback and camelback to get to the city first. Ultimately, it doesn't matter which group arrives first, because while the Bedouin do their best to decimate the treasure seekers, everyone falls prey to the mistakes created by the sins of greed and pride: four of the other party dare to remove the Book of the Dead from its shrouded wrapping, but it is Evelyn, Rick, and Jonathan who uncover a mummy that seems to still be rotting, and it is Evelyn who dares to open the Book of the Dead and, amazingly, reads its Egyptian hieroglyphics aloud.

Now awakened and with a curse to fulfill, the mummy--the cursed priest Im-Ho-Tep--begins its rampage of death and destruction across Cairo. This is no ordinary mummy: able to transform himself into sand, able to command the elements themselves, he is an immortal foe determined to resurrect his long-dead lover, and not shy about killing those that get in his way. Now it is a race against time and the end of the world for Jonathan, Rick, and Evelyn, because unless they can find the fabled Book of Amon-Ra--which was supposed to be where the Book of the Dead was found--there is no way for them to stop Im-Ho-Tep, and if they can't stop him, then they have nothing to look forward to but a long and endless night of evil and death!

Okay, so what should I say? Aside from the fact that this was purportedly a remake of an earlier movie starring Boris Karloff, this was more or less your run-of-the-mill monster movie. On the other hand, the excellent special effects, mixed with the history and mythology of Egypt, did a great deal towards distancing this movie from the black-and-white original.

Brendan Fraser, playing as Rick O'Connell, comes across as everything an American expatriate mercenary could be: loud, occasionally crude, and blunt, yet with all the charm and romantic fascination that people have noted in Americans since the founding of the nation. Seeing him play opposite Rachel Weisz (Evelyn) was a treat, since we have his American ways clashing almost repeatedly with her refined, European/classical manners. Then again, we also have John Hannah playing Evelyn's brother, who turns those same manners on their ear and puts Fraser's crudeness and bluntness among the most refined compared to his own indiscreet ways. Seeing the three working together, however, made for entertaining personality conflicts even as they almost perfectly complimented each other.

Arnold Vosloo plays Im-Ho-Tep, and if you think he's an unknown, you may be surprised to learn that he isn't actually all that new to the screen. He's played in the second and third Darkman movies as Darkman, and has held other roles in such movies as 1492: Conquest of Paradise and Zeus and Roxanne. He is, to paraphrase my anime-watching partner, cute, has a great body, and looks good in the wraparound (she, by the way, wishes it had been more sheer; I would have preferred more traditional regalia for an Egyptian priest). Considering that most of his parts were delivered in what I assume to be classical Egyptian, he did a good job of coming across as the vengeful, obsessive priest from three millenia in the past. I think he did an even better job of making the Mummy "real" as a person and not simply some shambling undead thing.

I couldn't possibly end this review without mentioning all the humor in this movie. It's a horror movie, true, with a rather gruesome beginning, but every instance of humor--from the moment Beni vows to stand by Rick then turns and hides to the faulty translation that Beni delivers and the Evelyn corrects--is amazingly appropriate to the scene, and entirely fitting with the overall story. That's not to say that there weren't a lot of nasty, violent scenes--the rain of fire, the zombie mob, the fighting skeletal warriors--to make this a perfectly horrendous and horror-filled movie. The humor, rather, perfectly alleviates what might be almost oppressive by tempering it with quick, brief asides entirely fitting with the characters that defuse to a limited extent that overbearing seriousness.

The Mummy is perhaps one of the best horror movies I've seen in recent years. It isn't one of those slash-and-gore movies that involve a lot of high-pitched screaming from girls as they run from knife- or dagger- or just sharp-bladed-weapons-wielding bloodthirsty maniacs. It is a truly amazing movie built up in the fashion of Karloff, Lugosi, and Chaney, only modernized with color and special effects. With the humor and romance thrown in, it rivals anything the older movies had and capitalizes on them.

Interested in buying this video? You can! Just follow the link to order the VHS version or the DVD version. You can also visit the Stellar Video Store for other titles.

You are the th visitor to this page since October 16, 2000.

Back Home Sign Guestbook View Guestbook

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page