Good mix of humor, chemistry, and special effects

Rating: Null/10 (9 May 1999)

THE MUMMY is what results when filmmakers take care to provide a good balance of acting, personal appeal, and movie magic. The special effects are excellent, but they never overwhelm the human aspects, such as the heartstopping pulchritude of British beauty Rachel Weisz or the chemistry that evolves between her and leading man Brendan Fraser. The minor characters are also very well handled. While the plot is fairly straight-lined, there are some pretty good lines. For instance, when a polyglot would-be victim importunes the ancient Egyptian monster in a variety of languages, brandishing the corresponding religious symbol of each, the mummy ignores all until he gets to Hebrew. "Ah, the language of the slaves," he says, sparing the man's life, "You may be useful."
Kids, don't try to pick up too much Egyptian history from this tale. The script has the 13th century BCE pharaoh Seti I contemporaneous with the 27th century figure, Imhotep, and the Great Pyramids are shown in Thebes, over 300 miles south of where they actually are, in Gizeh.