Surprisingly engaging F/X movie.

Rating: 8/10 (7 May 1999)

When I saw the advertisements for the remake of "The Mummy," I could do little more than roll my eyes. I am a fan of the original, mainly because of Boris Karloff's portrayal of Im-Ho-Tep, back from the dead to resurrect the woman he loved. All this remake seemed to be was a bunch of silly special effects thrown together to catch a few of the pre-"Star Wars" summer movie dollars.
Well, it does have a lot of silly effects. Unabashedly silly, and hilarious. Not too mention the movie is exciting, engaging and all around a great action-adventure movie.
Brendon Fraser is great as a two-gun American treasure hunter leading an expedition to the ancient City of the Dead in search of a golden book. Of course, through the course of events, all hell breaks loose. The story from that point, with some interesting diversions, follows the original rather closely, although with nowhere near the sexual tension.

Although a great monster for the movie, Im-Ho-Tep in the original was a well-drawn character. Arnold Vosloo comes nowhere near the performance of Boris Karloff, and is in fact more like Gary Oldman's portrayal of Dracula in several cases. Still, when he can raise sandstorms and skeleton armies, I guess no one would ask him how he feels about his lot in life... or death.