Loosen the knot and let me go.......

Rating: 6/10 (6 June 2015)

In ancient Egypt, high priest Imhotep started a relationship with Anck Su Namun, Pharaoh Seti's Mistress. When Seti finds, Imhotep and Namun kill him, but can't escape the guards.
Anck Su Namun commits suicide, while Imhotep is mummified alive in Hamunaptra, the city of the Dead.
More than thirty-six centuries later, adventurer Rick leads Egyptologist Evelyn and her brother Jonathan to Hamunaptra. While Jonathan is keen on finding the legendary Egyptian treasures, Evelyn wants to search for the Book of the Living, which would clarify historical knowledge about ancient Egyptian.
Unfortunately, they and a rival group of Americans free Imhotep's mummy from his eternal prison.
With the ancient priest on the loose, they face not only a dangerous enemy, but also a massive threat to today's world.
Imhotep wants to bring Anck Su Namun back to life by using Evelyn's body, but he also wants to rid the world of disbelieving crowds of democracy supporters to be able to enforce his dictatorship......
By fusing horror and action on a grand scale, Sommers had a massive franchise on his hands. 1999 was an effects heavy summer for movies also. We had Episode I, The Matrix, Wild Wild West, and this.
Now, whilst the three other movies are remembered more for various reasons, this has since been a bit of a forgotten oddity, and seeing it nearly sixteen years later, its clear as to why.
Not only did the film try to reboot the old Universal horrors of the early twentieth century, it also pseudo tried to be the new Indiana Jones, and this is the film gravest mistake.
Fraser is great as O' Connell, but at times he just becomes too cocky for his own good and comes across as a bit of a moron. The comedy elements are there, Hannah is particularly hammy as the comedy sidekick, but a lot of the humour is very ethnically based, especially when Djalli is in the frame.
The effects were pretty groundbreaking at the time, and the film was all about spectacle, rather than narrative, but alas, the effects have aged as badly as the titular creature, and you realise again that the actual movies narrative is based around the next special effect set piece Sommers has to give us.
But it's still a lot of fun, the three leads have wonderful chemistry together, Vosloo is great as the villain, and despite it being fifteen minutes too long, it's a fun ride.