Strange movie

Rating: 4/10 (22 July 1999)

I do have some difficulty taking a monstrous mummy seriously (partly because the word "mummy" sounds a little like "mommie"). It looks like the actors and the director also find that difficult. At least the expression on the Americans just before they were sucked dry didn't express much horror and panic.
I cannot figure out whether this movie is intended as a horror movie or a bizarre comedy. It proved impossible to be both.
The special effects are well done technically, although the dissolving flesh of the mummy doesn't look like a part of him, but more like - well computer graphics. I believe that special effects should be rather to subtle than to exaggerated as they are here. In fact i find the oldstyle double exposures etc. much more frightening (because they look dreamlike). On the other hand the sinking crashed aeroplane is hilarious.
The movie also contains a lot of "factual" errors that annoys me slightly. Why would Egyptian soldiers - even mummified ones, wear the crown of Lower Egypt? That would be heresy. And how is it possible to see the pyramids of Giza from the city of Thebes/Luxor? Or do I mistake the pyramids? Did the old Egyptians really use such strange weapons? I have a vague feeling that some of the sculptures, reliefs etc. are slightly wrong. The Egyptian sets simply don't look Egyptian.
And is a scarab really flesheating and is it so big (no).
But anyway - if one does not take it seriously it is still worth seeing. I have seen far worse movies than this.