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 tephen Sommers' "The Mummy" was so good and
(most important of all) so profitable that they not only made a sequel, but they
made a prequel out of a minor character. In its truest form, "The
Mummy" is an old-fashioned adventure movie, filled with fluff romance,
outrageous action sequences, and humor that straddle the line between lowbrow
and, well, slightly above lowbrow.
"The Mummy" stars Brendan Fraser as Rick
O'Connell, an American who, as the film opens, is part of a French Legion unit
that is about to be slaughtered by a secret society of Egyptian warriors. It
seems the Legionnaires have found a lost city that is purported to contain vast
fortunes as well as the evil corpse of a mummy name Imhotep, a long-dead
Egyptian mystic who desires to rule the world. O'Connell survives the slaughter
only to be recruited into the services of lovely Evie (Rachel Weisz), a spunky
archaeologist and her clumsy brother Jonathan (John Hannah). The trio goes after
the lost city using O'Connell as a guide, but that's when things really start to
hit the fan...
To say that "The Mummy" is nothing close to being
complex is an understatement. For all of its attempts to interweave a historical
and epic-scale story about Imhotep (the mummy in question) and his quest for
global domination, the movie's real storyline is a simple retread of any James
Bond movie. Along the way, the mummy decides Evie is the reincarnation of his
long lost love, which means O'Connell (who has by now already fallen heads over
heels in love with the lovely lady, and vice versa) must get her back, which
leads to a final showdown between man and mummy. It ain't brain surgery, that's
for sure.
What "The Mummy" does well is engineer terrific
action set pieces, including (but definitely not limited to) a string of
mummy-vs-humans battles, humans-vs-insects battles, and toward the end,
humans-vs-a-giant-sandstorm. Oh yes, "The Mummy" is one of those
movies where, after having finished watching, you can assuredly say that you
won't be asking for your money back. This is a fun film, filled to the brim with
over-the-top comedy and heroics.
Despite the fact that their romance is possible only in the
movies, Fraser and Weisz manage to become quite the couple. Both actors are
clearly in on the joke and never tries to take the film for anything other a
wild period romp through the desert and early 20th century Egypt.
Comedy is courtesy of John Hannah, as the less talented sibling, and Kevin J.
O'Connor as Beni, a cowardly worm that would betray his mom for a buck.
The one thing "The Mummy" isn't is scary. There
are no scares to be had, unless one counts an army of invading beetles or a
mummy in the process of resurrection. I don't, because these scenes are more
likely to induce a reaction of, "Wow, that's cool" because of the
special effects involved. Which is to say the film isn't scary at all, and
calling it anything other than a Fantasy Action Movie is stretching things a
bit.
For what it is, "The Mummy" delivers everything
it promises. A better time at the movies I haven't had in a while.
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