Ridiculously entertaining

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2001)

The Mummy Returns is so preposterous and ludicrous that I actually enjoyed it. No logic, no tension, the complete antithesis of what is called "art", but lots of silliness, corny one-liners, and fake (albeit quite eye-pleasing) background. It seems to rip off every movie I can think of, heck, it even rips off The Phantom Menace, that timeless classic. I mean how low can one gets? But it sure was good, clean mindless entertainment, on par with Gladiator. So hey, if the Academy continues to be as dumb... All the "horror" elements in the movie made me laugh; OK, almost everything made me laugh, even the fatal stabbing scene. The combat scenes are of two kinds, one-on-one and mass battle. The latter are interesting only in their preparation stages when the two armies set up; the former are not much better save the fight between the two Egyptian princesses during the flashback: it is good only because it is a direct rip-off of Crouching Tiger (the fight in the training room), even the moves are the same (they even switched weapons half-way through!), not as awe-inspiring, or as well done or shot of course. In conclusion, if you enjoyed watching the first one, don't miss this one: you'll laugh twice as much and for longer periods too, and that alone is worth the price of admission.