The Mummy Year: 1999 Director: Stephen Sommers Written by: Stephen Sommers Threat: Mummy Weapon of Choice: Scarab Beetles Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
The Mummy Returns

Rish Outfield's reviews
So far, this is the best Horror film of 1999. "Horror film?" you say, "But I read it was Action-Adventure" (or the much more useless moniker, "Thriller"). Yes, Universal Pictures will lie to you and call it all sorts of cutsie names, but Dimension Films has nothing on this one. It's horror with a capital H. Great movie, by the way.
I've told you before, a pleasant surprise is often pleasanter than an unpleasant surprise. Such was the case with The Mummy. I mean, who knew? It was a remake of the 1930's Universal Horror film, but with updated digital effects, and features Indiana Jones' younger, more reckless cousin, Rick O'Connell. The villain was frightening (I would personally like a jaw that opened up that far to release locusts), powerful, interesting-looking, and truly despisable where Boris Karloff's original was not (although, Imhotep's motives weren't that evil, and it was all for love, I wonder why we didn't like him more).
Baby-faced Rachel Weisz was lovely, but she had something else, some kind of inner glow, that royally stole the show. I think Dr. Evil would call it "a certain I-don't-know-what." John Hannah is great, as usual. And who would've thought I would EVER like Brendan Fraser?
It showcased great Industrial Light & Magic special effects, that were one of the best three of the year. It was very funny, fast-paced, smart, and entertaining. Writer/Director Stephen Sommers is one to watch.
Best Scare: Probably the beetles. Yiiick.
I'd Recommend It To: Most movie fans. I loved it and was very satisfied. Maybe you will too.
Note: I didn't see this when it first came out. I was bothered by the trailers and the fact that nobody seemed bothered that Raiders of the Lost Ark was being so shamelessly ripped off. But everybody else I knew went to it, and my boss at work said that it was . . . blasphemy! . . . better than The Phantom Menace, which came out a couple of weeks before this did.
So, the night it opened at the second-run theater, I rushed off to see it (did we see this together, tyranist?), and really, really enjoyed it. More than anything, the film was fun. And you know what? It was WAY better than Phantom Menace!

The tyranist's thoughts
Seeing this movie and how it was sold to the public has brought all of the 'is it horror' issues back to the surface for me. Up front, I want to say that we would not review it if we did not think that it was horror. Universal worked very hard to sell this movie to the public as an adventurous special effects extravaganza. Once you see it though, you cannot deny that the heart of this movie is horror. I have talked with a number of people that have tried to tell me how this isn't horror and I kind of feel like they are being fleeced by Universal. Horror has a stigma in the industry that makes it somewhat of an outcast. Basically, the only thing worse in a studios eyes is porn (of course, there are quite a few movies that blur that line as well). My favorite example is Silence of the Lambs. The movie is so clearly a horror movie (it is even based on a horror novel) and yet people refuse to admit it because the movie is well-loved and respected. Somehow calling it horror would nullify everyone's admiration for the film. Well, it just isn't so. Look at Psycho and Frankenstein. Both are on the AFI's top 100 list along with Silence of the Lambs and I don't know anyone who would argue very hard that they aren't horror. What it comes down to is that I am pissed off that horror is treated the way it is. The Mummy had some tremendous horror in it, but it was downplayed a little and the public thinks that they are free.
On the review side of things, this is a fantastic movie. It evokes a lot of emotion and is totally worth seeing. Even fans of the old Universal picture will likely enjoy this one.

Total Skulls: 12

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?