The Mummy

Rating: 5/10 (23 June 2005)

I assume this is a remake of the Boris Karloff or Christopher Lee films, with a clone of Indiana Jones and some familiar faces, from director Stephen Sommers. The film begins with the love story between High Priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) and Anck Su Namun (Patricia Velasquez) broken by murder of the Egyptian king, and their deaths. Then it is 1923, Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) fighting in the French Foreign Legion along with treacherous Beni Gabor (Kevin J. O'Connor) is hired by Egyptologist Evelyn "Evie" Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) and her brother Jonathan (John Hannah) to lead them to the city of Hamunaptra after finding an ancient map and key. They get there, along with another team, including Dr. Allen Chamberlain (Titanic's Jonathan Hyde), Mr. Henderson (Stephen Dunham), Mr. Daniels (Corey Johnson) and Mr. Burns (Tuc Watkins). The bad news is that after reading part of the "treasure", The Book of the Dead, "Evie" releases the Mummy of Imhotep, and he will not stop till he has all jars containing the organs of his love, and from the people who have them getting their energy (skin). When he gets all his skin and jars, he is now the ultimate curse on the world, and unless Rick, Jonathan and knowledgeable Medjai Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) can stop him, he will sacrifice Evie to bring his love back to life. Also starring Erick Avari as Dr. Terrence Bey, Omid Djalili as Warden and Titanic's Bernard Fox as Captain Winston Havlock. The story may be cheesy, but the special effects, including the Mummy, the scarabs and the curses on Egypt are cool. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Sound, and it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Special Visual Effects. Rachel Weisz was number 18 on The 50 Greatest British Actresses. Worth watching!