Painful.

Rating: 2/10 (8 August 2000)

The first few minutes were enticing; exotic costumes, language, and sets weaved nicely together to create a plausibly depicted ancient Egypt. But then *flash!* Three thousand years later...
We're treated to shameless silliness as a bunch of slapstick, clever-line-dropping, cut-from-movie-dough characters annoy us through a cartoonish exploration of an ancient city and the accidental awakening of an (ooh) fearsome mummy.
We're treated to numerous repeated, forehead-slapping devices like roaring matches between the beefcake hero and the poorly-computer-animated undead; the endless supply of hapless, gutless, yelping sidekick characters; the ditzy, studious, utterly incomprehensible female lead.
Perhaps worst, we're treated to a faux-1920s setting populated by unapologizingly 1990s dialogue ("Like I've never heard that before!") among other blatant anachronisms. Why not just set it in the present, I wonder? Oh yeah, Indiana Jones.
The best summary, I suppose, is given by the beefcake hero: "Save the damsel in distress, kill the bad guy, save the world." At least the movie has a sense of humor about its own lack of depth.