Great action film.

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2006)

The Mummy tells the story of a treasure hunter who teams up with a librarian/archaeologist and her brother so they can travel to the City of the Dead in Egypt so she can find the golden Book of the Living. Along the way, they come into conflict with a larger team who are hunting treasure. Both teams discover the Book of the Dead, and when the librarian reads from it, she unknowingly raises a mummy from its tomb. Now the mummy wants to use her as a sacrifice to raise his lover from the grave, and the treasure hunter must face the mummy to protect her. This is a loose remake of the 1932 horror classic, only instead of a horror, they've turned it into an exciting action film, and it's great.
The Mummy is visually stunning as well as a well written and well acted film. It shows what ancient Egypt really looked like, and the sets are really great. The ancient Egyptian sets are probably the most realistic of any film. This movie is really well written and well paced. It has a great blend of action and comedy, which I like in a movie. The special effects are nearly flawless, especially in the scene where a giant wall of sand is chasing after a small bi-plane. The reason this movie is so good is because it manages to take a story that's been done before, re-imagine it, and make it an exciting action movie that never loses pace or slows down.
The acting is really good as well. Brandon Fraser does really good as the treasure hunter who will stop at nothing to kill the mummy. Rachel Weisz is very good in her breakout role as the librarian. John Hannah is hilarious as her bumbling brother.
Overall, this is a great action movie that makes me anxious to see if Universal can remake some more of their classics with an action twist.
8/10