With a new telling of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise, we felt it was a good time to re-visit the 1999 version.
From Stephen Sommers, who also directed another one of our favourite films, Deep Rising, this film starred Brendan Fraser, in his first real action hero role, having been known for comedies such as Encino/California Man; Blast from the Past and George of the Jungle as well as serious roles, in films such as School Ties and most notably Gods and Monsters.
Brendan plays Rick O’Connell, who is saved from death when Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) and her brother, Jonathan (John Hannah) learn he can show them the mysterious location of Hamunaptra, known as the City of the Dead but believed to be full of hidden treasure.
Rick then finds himself with them, in a race to beat a rival set of treasure hunters led by his former colleague, Beni (Kevin J O’Connor)
Both teams find themselves warned of approaching the city by Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) leader of the Medjai. Who we learn our the Pharaoh Seti’s bodyguards.
Their job is to stop Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), who had a love affair with Seti’s wife Anck-Su-Namun (Patricia Velasquez) returning.
After their crime had been found, Anck-Su-Namun killed herself and Imhotep had planned to resurrect her but was discovered and mummified, with the Medjai stopping any moves on the City of the dead for fear he could return if words are read aloud from the book of the dead.
Of course, those words are read aloud and Imhotep rises, bringing with him the 10 plagues to attack Egypt. He also sees Evelyn as a perfect vessel to resurrect Anck-Su-Sanum.
What follows is a film that is just as enjoyable as an Indiana Jones films. Full of great action sequences, comedy and even some horror, but also special effects and CGI which have not aged too badly.
We revisited this film, with plans to see the new version starring Tom Cruise and we really had forgotten how much we had enjoyed it, this is in part due to the fact that it was followed by a sequel, The Mummy Returns, which is mainly remembered for some incredibly bad CGI during Dwayne Johnson’s Scorpion King sequence, although not enough to stop a spin-off film being made, which also had 3 direct to DVD sequels.
The Mummy also had an animated series but the franchise came to a halt after a 3rd film, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was nowhere near as successful.
If you like a good action adventure film, The Mummy is definitely one you should seek out or revisit if you have not seen it for a while as we were pleasantly surprised how much we enjoyed it again
You can find the Mummy at Amazon here or as a trilogy box set here:
You can find the trailer here:
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