Raiders of the Mummy's Tomb

Rating: 7/10 (13 May 2013)

It's not easy to separate the adventures of the blandly named "Rick" and the true movie adventurer Indiana Jones, but since Indy hadn't an excellent adventure since 1989 (and probably never will again,) this will do.
The Mummy was actually a really fun ride. And that's all it is. Don't look for depth, for any amount of seriousness or even memorable characters – aside from the mostly absent title character, that is. Despite my first paragraph, it's best to avoid thinking of the superior Dr. Jones serials and just have fun. And, sure, it's silly – sometimes overly inane and the movie was way too convoluted; SEE: the opening novel-sized narration shots to set-up the background story. Oh, and some of the special effects not only don't hold up today, but were questionable back in 1999.
AGAIN it's just a thrill adventure that requires you to leave your brain at the door. For, it has all the elements of old westerns, romantic slapstick of decades past and the horror elements of the original Mummy films of the 1930s.
Adventurer Rick stumbles upon the city of the dead and years following, is taken in by a librarian and her brother to retrieve old books and other artifacts. None of them truly believe the old Egyptian myths of the undead being able to be resurrected and, of course, that's what's about to happen.
"The Mummy," or High Priest Imhotep, does come back (eeeeventually – it really does take the movie a long time to (re)introduce the title character) and besides completely restoring his body to flesh and inadvertently causing Biblical plagues, his main mission is to also bring back his lovely adulteress.
Reluctantly, Rick and the Gang vow to stop him because of some "legend" that hell would be on Earth. Actually, I think that was just to cause more tension in the film because other than words, that didn't seem like it would happen.
Nevertheless, park your brain, let loose, laugh a lot, avoid the normal criticism people like me would normally write about and you'll have a good time. Rick is absolutely no Indy and the movie is certainly no Raiders, but since there were only two (out of four) solid Indiana Jones flicks, this is a good companion piece.