Review of The Mummy (1999) by Kenneth E — 14 Oct 2014

This film injects new life into the 1932 Universal monster movie starring Boris Karloff, which had been sitting untouched in the annals of cinematic history like a predynastic period artifact. While the older "classic" Mummy movie was lacking in action, this version makes up for it with enough swashbuckling joy to make Indiana Jones blush. Bredan Fraser makes a splendid action hero, able to deliver both punches and wisecracks. Rachel Weisz, in turn, breaths new life into the leading lady, though I'm disappointed filmmakers never used the original film's plot twist of her being the reincarnated maiden from Egyptian history.

This film was made during a very exciting time in cinematic history. In 1999, films like "Matrix," "Stuart Little," and of course, "Phantom Menace," were pushing the limits of what is visually possible. The title character in this film is a mummy who talks, breaths, and fights, but is also literally falling apart, and has a transparent head that could not be pulled off even during Karloff's most extravigant makeovers. Scenes of severed mummy arms cruising across floors, or mummies scaling catacomb walls like bugs had never been seen before; "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Lord of the Rings" seem a little less original after viewing this film.

The downside of this 1999 "Mummy" remake is that the action is often taken too far; the swashbucking takes much of the original's dramatic tense moments away. While Boris Karloff's 1932 film is sparse and lacking in many areas, it did contain a creep factor that this film never came close to achieving, despite the beetles crawling inside dead corpses' mouths. In short, this movie is good but overstuffed. There is way too much happening at times for its own good.