Product: The Mummy Returns [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 2.0
Leaves mummies spinning in their graves
Writer/director Stephen Sommers would seem to aspire to the entertainment achievements of Steven Spielberg. It's too bad that he didn't see the value of curbing his many misplaced flights of fantasy in order to fashion a more coherent and enjoyable story. The only thing he left out was the digital kitchen sink. This film is a stylistic mish-mash. Most of the movie takes place in 1931, but parts of it suggest a 19th century Jules Verne epic and a 50's Steve Reeves movie, while the rest--albeit more appropriately--resembles an updated Hope and Crosby road picture. (Of course, probably most of its target audience never heard of Verne, Reeves, Hope, or Crosby.) Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz still have some appealing chemistry, but it's diluted by the overblown action. Oded Fehr underplays his Ardeth Bey character to good effect, but his efforts are largely upstaged by the excessive silliness and the overwrought special effects. In the end, Sommers gets most of the blame for indulging his every whim, instead of exercising a bit of restraint for the sake of a more focused film. "Indiana Jones" quality it's certainly not, but it might have been more satisfying if placed in wiser directorial hands.