Change of Setting!

Rating: 7/10 (23 April 2019)

There's no doubt the movie business can be an unpredictable affair at times. In 1998 Stephen Sommers wrote and directed a disaster/monster feature with fairly rich comic undertones to it. It was called Deep Rising and it tanked (despite this writer liking it) fairly spectacularly, though it has gone on over the years to achieve a degree of cult status.
Now for some writer.directors that commercial failure may have represented the kiss of death. But in this case, not for Stephen Sommers. A year later Universal Pictures almost doubled his budget from Deep Rising and let him go and make what was almost the same sort of film again. Go figure. At any rate their intuition proved to be correct. Sommers remake of The Mummy, turning it from a horror film into a tongue-in-cheek action adventure proved this time to be a commercial master stroke and franchise starter. Sommers and Universal had an international hit on their hands.
What changed? Superficially heaps, but intrinsically, not a great deal. Both films deal with monsters, The Mummy less mysteriously. The obvious differences are the settings. Deep Rising is water-bound; largely set on a disaster-afflicted cruise liner amidst a storm tossed ocean. Being set in the burning sands of the Eygptian desert (with Morocco substituting), The Mummy does appear worlds apart.
But really Sommers just cleverly tinkers with his Deep Rising template, refines a few odds and ends and voila! ... finds out he has a hit on his hands.
The Mummy ramps up the humour quotient and eases back a little on the gore/horror elements of Deep Rising. Kevin J. O'Connor moves from being a comic side kick in DR to being a comic villain in TM. John Hannah, comfortably fits into the comical shoes of Jonathan Carnahan, the new bumbling side kick. Arguably the main reason for the The Mummy's success lies in the lead pairing of Brendon Fraser and Rachel Weisz. They have real onscreen chemistry and Weisz, as airy, but also feisty and smart librarian Evelyn Carnahan, proves she has the comedic talents to match those, we already knew of Fraser. Unlike Deep Rising, where the leads didn't meet up till the second half, Sommers wisely ensures this time that Fraser and Weisz team up early in the film, so we can all more fully enjoy those rom-com sparks flying.
About the only character actually keeping a straight face and playing an orthodox but very convincing villain, is South African stage actor Arnold Vosloo who is Imhotep, The Mummy, aided in his role with some well executed CGI. effects.
The Mummy is fast-paced from beginning to end, provides plenty of thrills, spills and laughs along the way, along with more than a touch of romance. It's lot of fun, quite charming and never pretentious. But ultimately, it reminded me of the fine movie lines that exist between hits and misses.