Great swashbuckling fun Indiana-style

Rating: 10/10 (26 April 2000)

OK I know, we've seen it all before - no originality prizes obviously, but what an exciting movie this is! Much has been said on this Indiana Jones 'borrowing', but one must overlook the problems this movie obviously has.

However the point of a review is to do just that, so...Brendan Fraser is, it has to be said, no Harrison Ford. The quick wit is just not there, and that is how everyone could relate to Indiana Jones above all his fantastical heroics. Rachel Weisz is a wonderful actress wasted in this movie with bad casting and a bad script. John Hannah, also a very accomplished artiste, is similarly thrown away, with a character that mummification could perhaps be too soft to apply! Jerry Goldsmith's score is very Jerry Goldsmith. One wonders whether such a mature musician is trying to do too much these days, and it is films like this that suffer slightly, with the air of 'composing over breakfast' about it. The main theme is very nice, but a bit too similar to that of Dreamworks' PRINCE OF EGYPT, released a year earlier.
But enough! This movie works on the lowest, but most comfortable of levels. The effects are astonishing (sadly suffering on the small screen, although this is excused by the amazing array of extra features on the DVD version). The script is bad, but hilarious in places ("There is a curse on this chest" - "Curse my ass..!"), and Arnold Vosloo plays a very convincing 3000-year old villain. A must for all action fans, and especially for those who want to re-live that day when we saw RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK for the first time!