Movie of the Week: The Mummy (1999)

   

 

    Movie of the Week (8/11/13-8/17/13): In 1932 a classic horror picture known as The Mummy was released to the world and frightened many people. Of course that was a different time period and different movie because in 1999 the remake of that movie was released. However, this picture was not near as dark as the original in fact they turned it into more of an action adventure film from director Stephen Sommers, which it is. But, that does not mean that this new take is a terrible film because it is quite fun to watch, although it does have its flaws, like any film.
    The film focuses on an American who helps a librarian on a dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra, along with her brother and a couple other folks who are interested in the gold there. There, they run into another group of people who are also looking to dig in the city. Eventually they each end up causing trouble and read from a book that they shouldn't have and wake a mummy from the dead. From there on chaos is unleashed and they rush to put the mummy, Imhotep, back to where he came from, although Imhotep has other plans.
    The first thing I would like to discuss would be the cast, of course, which really was not that bad and overall I liked the casting. Brendan Fraser stars as Rick O'Connell, the American escort, and gives us probably his best performance, followed by the sequel, although not so much in the third unfortunately. So, I liked him in this movie and this role, I thought he was a good pick. Next is Rachel Weisz who plays the librarian, Evy Carnahan, who mainly gives us a funny performance early on, but by the end turns very serious. So, I liked her development. John Hannah plays her brother Jonathan, who is there for the comedic relief. We also have Arnold Vosloo who plays Imhotep, who gives us an "okay" performance at times, for some reason, I felt he wasn't always into his character, but other times he was great, I was mixed on him. One of my favorite characters in the film was Rick's sidekick, if you would, Ardeth Bay played by Oded Fehr. For some reason, I liked his character and we get a good performance from Bay.
    What set the film apart and what made it good and worth the watch is the visual effects, editing, and sound editing. Visually this film is great, we get all kinds of effects when it comes to the mummy scenes especially towards the end. A giant wall of sand with a face in it sets it apart along with the effects on the half dead Imhotep. The film also sounded great, you'll know the scenes I'm talking about when you see them, they are mainly the fight scenes and the scenes when the mummy uses his powers to do some weird stuff. With that weird stuff comes some very interesting sounds that got it nominated for an Oscar.
    Finally, what hurt the film a little was the screenplay, at times it felt thin and I wasn't interested in a couple of the characters because there wasn't much on them. And one is rather annoying, trust me, you'll know when you see him. Although they were minor characters when they died, I didn't care for them that much. I just felt that a little more background and development on some of the characters would have helped. But, the film was thrilling at times and we get enough development with the two main characters that it works fine overall. So, this is a good remake with good lead acting, visual effects, sound editing, and at times a weak script, but overall good development between the two leads. This is a good, not great, film!                                                                                                   3/4 Stars