Good big budget fantasy/adventure/horror film.

Rating: 7/10 (11 October 2006)

The Mummy is set during 1926 & tells the tale of wannabe Egyptian archaeologist Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) & her brother Jonathan (John Hannah) who steals a rare Egyptian artifact from soon-to-be hanged American soldier Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) that Evelyn believes came from the lost city of Hamunaptra, dubbed the city of the dead. In a bid to discover the whereabouts of Hamunaptra Evelyn & Jonathan manage to save Rick who promises to take them to Hamunaptra & indeed does. Once there they find the ominous sounding book of the dead & after Evelyn foolishly reads some of the ancient incantations the mummifies remains of an evil high priest named Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) come to life. Imhotep then sets about resurrecting his ancient love Anck Su Namun (Patricia Velasquez) & spreading his evil throughout the world...
Written & directed by Stephen Sommers this is a big budget remake of the black and white version of The Mummy (1932) & I actually much prefer this film over the original. The script is very different to the original & in reality only the central Imhotep character & the title remain, while the original was pretty slow going horror this is a big fast & furious overblown action adventure that's as comparable to an Indiana Jones film as it is to any horror film. There's plenty of action, fights, shoot-outs, CGI special effects & huge set pieces. It's a very enjoyable ride & the film provides good entertainment, I though it was perhaps a little slow at times as it's almost an hour before Imhotep is resurrected & that side of the film kicks in. The film never takes itself seriously which is fine I suppose but I thought there was maybe a bit too much family orientated comedy relief. If your looking for big budget action & CGI effects then you could do a lot worse than The Mummy.
Director Sommers does a decent enough job, there's plenty of flashy special effects & camera trickery. The action scenes are well shot as are the horror elements although it was clearly aimed at a fairly young audience.
With a supposed budget of about $80,000,000 The Mummy is as well made as you would expect & has that Hollywood polish to it. According to the IMDb the Nile scenes were shot in Surrey in England! Not that you'd ever know it unless you were told... The acting was OK although I thought Kevin J. O'Conor as Benni became very annoying.
The Mummy is a good big budget action adventure that will entertain most. A bit shallow & maybe there's not a whole lot to it but it's good fun, definitely worth a watch & I can't really see anyone not enjoying it to some extent. Followed by the even better The Mummy Returns (2001).