Take a Horror archetype and add all the new tricks

Rating: 10/10 (30 April 2001)

This 1999 "remake" was a winning summer blockbuster due to its appealing non-stop plot and special effects. Although its timeline seems a bit confused (was it 3000 years ago or 3000 BC?), this Hollywood formula flick takes elements from successful films of the 80's and 90's and goes full tilt with them. The idea of taking and updating a Horror Film archetype has diverged in multiple directions with the Vampire/Dracula but the Mummy as fearsome archetype of the undead was never quite on such a level of the imaginative for studio projects. The popularity of "Indiana Jones" however explains a lot of what this movie was also reviving for mainstream audiences. The plot here however is designed for elementary school level archaeologists who like to pilfer each other's unsystematically gathered artifacts. The fatal "scarabs" also owe a lot to the "Alien" who gets "under the skin" rather literally. The heroine is quite differently a pawn of the hypnotic Imhotep; this script goes far afield from the reincarnation themes of the classic "Mummy" film of the 1930's. Evelyn/"Evie" seems to be a "liberated" librarian who also triggers the magical rejuvenation of the cadaver-mummy who's still rather "gross" just out of his sarcophagus-prison. Imhotep has an Achilles heel that is novel and interesting but the scope of his substantial powers evoke the Ark and Old Testament themes of the first Indiana Jones movie that Spielberg and Lucas collaborated on. The makeup seems to move us away from the entombment sequence of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and toward the horrific extremes of decay and skin metamorphisizing. The lost city seems rather easily found by outsiders for having been lost with its precious treasures that are quite as unimportant as in Disney's film "Aladdin." The film has some fun humor lines thrown by a minor character who's quite able to steal scenes of all sorts. Whenever I see that character on screen, however, I remember him from the 80's winner: "Four Weddings and A Funeral." All in all, THE MUMMY (1999) is a wild ride with a happy ending for a "triangle" that's about as unconventional as might be, given the original movie's premise about the ancient lovers' plight. Watch it with a full box of popcorn and look away if necessary (which is really quite at a minimum)!