The Mummy Review
by Susan Granger (Ssg722 AT aol DOT com)May 6th, 1999
http://www.speakers-podium.com/susangranger.
Susan Granger's review of "THE MUMMY" (Universal Pictures)
Forget the guy wrapped in gauze bandages emerging from a tomb. That's the old "Mummy" with Boris Karloff (1932). This new version combines a monster thriller with a sense of humor and a dollop of romance in an exotic setting, plus lots and lots of special effects. Perhaps having learned from the disasters of "Mary Reilly" and "Frankenstein," writer/director Stephen Sommers ("Deep Rising") has turned a low-budget horror movie into a big-budget adventure, set in Cairo in 1925. The Mummy's story begins when the priest Imhotep murders the Pharaoh for his gorgeous mistress. When she then dies, he attempts to summon the deepest, darkest evil entities to bring her back to life. Caught in this treacherous act, he's mummified alive with his tongue cut out so he cannot scream. 3,000 years pass before he's resurrected and regenerated by a French Foreign Legionnaire (Brendan Fraser), a librarian/Egyptologist (Rachel Weisz), and her greedy, ne'er-do-well brother (John Hannah), who arrive to plunder The City of the Dead. The wrathful Mummy (Arnold Vosloo) retaliates by releasing the seven Biblical plagues on humanity. He's the Terminator Mummy in this hokey story which has the tone and feel of the '90s. While Brendan Fraser ("George of the Jungle," "Encino Man") capitalizes on his charming, self-deprecating goofiness - muttering, "We are in serious trouble" - he's no Indiana Jones. In fact, the real "star" is the CGI wizard. It's terrifying to see a scarab burrowing under someone's skin and moving up the arm; it's amazing to watch people turning into boil-covered zombies; and it's awesome to witness the "wall of sand" in the desert. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Mummy" is a scary, spooky 6. With a PG-13 rating, it's the first of the big summer popcorn pictures.
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