Oh, for Indiana Jones 4

Rating: 5/10 (15 May 1999)

This is a very loose remake of the great horror classic of 1932, which was more of a romance (the mummy was brought to life by his love for his woman) and was aided by a wonderfully poignant performance by Boris Karloff as a long-dead priest who returns to life and falls in love with the modern reincarnation of the woman he died for. The 1932 was slack-paced, and the chills there were the result of the slow reincarnation of the mummy.
Maybe that worked on audiences in 1932, but apparently today's audiences want less romance, more shocks and more special effects. Or maybe, today's filmmakers just lack the vision and imagination to do what filmmakers of yore, like Karl Freund and Alfred Hitchcock, were able to do.
The kid in me loves all-stops-out adventure movies with nifty special effects, especially when there is a treasure at the end of the journey.
Unfortunately, this remake of the 1932 Boris Karloff horror-flick doesn't deliver on it's wonderful premise. There is really nothing to say in favor of this movie: the script is predictable, the characters low-rent and shallow knock-offs of Indiana Jones and his RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK colleagues, and the acting is nothing special.
Only the special effects are notable for their quality, especially the raging sandstorms that take on human features and the flesh-eating scarab beetles which crawl under your flesh and scurry about like demonic hockey pucks.