Average Rating: 
Rating:  - UNIVERSAL SCORES WITH THIS RETELLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In 1925, a group of explorers led by adventurer Rick O'Connell, discover the ruins of the ancient egyptian city Hamunaptura, and unwillingly awake the cursed priest Imhotep (who was cursed for killing the pharoah and trying to raise his love Anck-su-namun from the dead). Now the mummy not only wants to raise his girlfriend again, but he also unleashes the 10 plagues in un atempt to take over the world! Now only Rick, librarian Evelyn, her brother Jonathan, a mysterious warrior, and a group of american cowboys to save the day and destroy the creature. But first they'll have to face: thousands of flesh eating scarub beetles, a hord of Imhotep's slaves, undead worriors, mummified priests, locusts, flies, and of corse the mummy himself who needs the flesh of his tombs desecrators to fully rgenerate himself! Gory as this might sound, the movie is acually mild on blood and guts, but uses action and comedy to retell the classic horror story. Director Stephen Sommers handles this with the ut-most caution, trying to make it family friendly, but somewhat chilling without creating a sense of camp or stupidity. The acting is genuine for once, and Jerry Goldsmiths epic score is a glory to behold. This is un exellent film. Very entertaining, and not very complicated.
Rating: - It's not your father's Mummy!
This is an excellent DVD edition! The 2-disc set is loaded with bonus material! The movie is in widescreen format on disc 1 and full-frame format on disc 2, so you have a choice in viewing it. And there's not just one, but three commentaries on the movie-- one by director Sommers and editor Ducsay, one by star Brendan Fraser, and one by co-stars Arnold (Imhotep)Vosloo, Oded (Ardeth Bay) Fehr, and Kevin J. (Beni) O'Connor. The behind-the-scenes stuff is fascinating, including the feature on building a better mummy, production notes, deleted scenes, photo gallery, and some very interesting and educational background information on ancient Egypt--its gods, kings, customs, mummies, artifacts, and even a map of the region. And there's the customary movie trailers, cast & crew bios, chapter index, and a main menu which is written in hieroglyphics until you select an item, then it's transformed into English--cute! The image quality is great and the surround sound quality is awesome!There are also some DVD-ROM features that look interesting, but I don't have a DVD-ROM drive on my PC, so I can't check them out. There's a trailer for the video game, though, and it looks like a fun game, with action and movement like Laura Croft in Tomb Raider. The movie itself is an action-packed adventure yarn in the Indiana Jones tradition. Brendan Fraser gives a stalwart performance as the two-fisted, two-pistol-packin' hero, always ready for a fight or a quip, who joins would-be Egyptologist Rachel Weisz ('Evie') and her inept brother on an expedition to find the city of the dead, Hamunaptra, and the vast treasure of the Pharaohs. Patricia Velazquez as Anck Su Namun, the Pharaoh's mistress, is one of the treasures, a knock-out in her body makeup costume! What they find, of course, is the tomb of Imhotep, the mummy, whom they carelessly resurrect, with all his supernatural powers and his evil intentions. It's here that the special effects take over, and they're pretty outstanding as Imhotep literally puts himself together by using body parts of his victims! It's quite a departure from the early Universal mummy movies and the later Hammer franchise, and it gives the mummy a more horrific element! He doesn't just kill you, he cannibalizes you! But despite the gruesomeness of this premise, the movie has very little gore in it, hence its PG-13 rating. The special mummy effects are really impressive, but it's the darn cockroaches (Scarabs) that are really scary! All in all, this DVD set does live up to its claim of being the ultimate edition. I recommend it to all collectors and mummy fans!
Rating: - The Motherload of Fun!
When it comes to movie genres, horror is in my top five,probably after science fiction. However, the remake of the Mummy isnot a horror in the traditional sense. Most people associate modern horror with gore-laden special effects, forgetting that true fear comes from the unknown and urgency developed from carefully built up suspense. The 1999 remake of the Mummy isn't a horror film, unlike perhaps the Sixth Sense-which I wouldn't show my nieces or nephews, but the Mummy is just good clean fun. We are treated to a great ensemble of actors, breath taking sets and funky special effects, thanks to Industrial Light and Magic. The film also doesn't take itself at all seriously, making you laugh just as surely as you will thrill to the action sequences. The film opens with a stunning view of Thebes-city of the Seti the First where we see the sphinx under construction (okay, so they missed by a few hundred miles on that one!). Anck-su-namun, the Pharaoh's untouchable mistress is continuing her affair with Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo)-a priest of probably Anubis. Getting caught in the act by Seti, they kill him just as the Medjai (who were actually the Egyptian police force) break down the doors. Anck-su-namun then kills herself as Imhotep escapes after promising to resurrect her. He and his priests steal Anck-su-namun's body and take it to Hamunaptra where he attempts to do that, but all is lost when the Medjai storm the sarneche where her body was being prepared. Imhotep is mummified alive for his crimes-cursed to spend an eternity undead locked within a sarcophagus, being eaten by nasty little scarab beetles. Brendan Fraser stars as Rick O'Connell, a down on his luck Legionaire who led his garrison to the legendary city of Hamunaptra-the city of the dead in 1923 (Note: the city didn't really exist and is based possibly on the Necropolis of Egypt). They find the city, oh yes, but they also find hundreds a Tuareg warriors bent on killing everyone to prevent them from find the evil that dwells beneath the sand. O'Connell escapes after being chased too close to the statue of Anubis where Imhotep is buried and a small sand storm that whips up around the statue that frightens off his attackers, allowing O'Connell to escape with his life. The next time we see him it's three years later and he's about to be hanged for having a very good time. It is in Cairo where we meet Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz), a beautiful and befuddled librarian desperate to prove herself an archaeologist to the sexist old-boy network in England. Rachel delivers a beautiful performance of the slightly nerdy expert of Egyptology. We also meet her lush brother, Jonathan Carnahan (John Hannah), who has stolen a puzzle box key from O'Connell that has a map to the fabled city of Hamunaptra. The two rush to find Rick after Evelyn's boss 'accidentally' burns the map in a candle flame. They find him at the Cairo Prison where Evelyn must bargain with sleazy warden for O'Connell's life by promising him 25% of the riches they find in the fabled city. From there the adventure of a life time comes to life as O'Connell reluctantly agrees to lead Evelyn and her brother, and the sleazy warden, across the desert sands to the ancient city. They also have a run in with the 'bloody Americans', who are out to plunder Hamunaptra's riches, and the two groups must work together in order to survive-first by an attack by the Medjai, then after finding the Book of the Dead, Evelyn incants a spell that kind of...sort of...brings Imhotep back to life, whose sarcophagus they found earlier that day. The Americans steal Anck-su-namun's canopic jars-the vessels that stored her organs after they were removed. As the mummy comes back to life, it becomes a race to escape back to Cairo, followed by Imhotep who begins to kill the American thieves one at a time for their crime, using their life essence to rejuvenate himself in the process. Imhotep also develops a crush on Evelyn, who he plans to sacrifice so that Anck-su-namun many live again. The Mummy, start to finish, is a wild romp that doesn't take itself too seriously. Thanks mostly to the interplay between the main characters who play off each other magically. It doesn't set out solely to scare, but does offer up some genuinely creepy moments. With exemplary production values-be they sets, effects or costumes, The Mummy delivers heaps of action, laughs and adventure of a type akin to Raiders of the Lost Ark, a fine pedigree to follow. But the Mummy also harkens back to a time when movies were made with a certain eye to quality-there is nothing in the film that made me lose my suspension of disbelief, because it is a solidly written yarn. It has unforgettable moments, be it O'Connell's back stabbing friend Beni as he runs through a collection of holy symbols and prayers in attempt to stave off the advancing mummy. Or Rick and Evelyn's budding romance and the interplay that captures these pleasantly goofy characters wonderfully. The Mummy stands out as my favorite action film of 1999-beating out the Phantom Menace and the Matrix by a fair margin. The other bit of good news, besides this gem of a movie, is that they are making a sequel, and one can only hope that it is every bit as good as the first. This is an excellent film and can easily take a place next to some of the best action films of all time-like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Die Hard, The Terminator, Big Trouble in Little China, and Aliens. It delivers at every turn-excitement, adventure, a few scares, and romance. Great fun and I highly recommend the letter boxed version over the pan-and-scan so that viewers can see everything. END
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