Product: The Mummy Returns [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 4.0
Stupid Fun
It still puzzles me why people were calling "The Mummy" a surprise hit. Why? They advertised the film right, they made it fun, they got actors that didn't have huge price tags attached to their names, and made really cool special effects. That signals to me a "hit." What really surprises me is that "The Mummy Returns" turned out to be the giant hit that it was. Sure, it made a ton of money opening weekend due to the success of the previous film, but movies make money on good word-of-mouth and repeat viewers. When I saw this movie for the first time, I figured it would have neither of these factors going for it. Why, you ask? Because, compared to the first film, "The Mummy Returns" is just dumb fun.I loved the character development and the story line from the first film (which can be compared to "Raiders Of The Lost Ark"). However, "The Mummy Returns" can be compared to "Temple Of Doom," in that neither spend an appropriate time on story development and focus mainly on action, as well as new characters that just show up with little explanation. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie, but it's just surprising that so many others did as well.Here's my main point about "The Mummy Returns:" things happen and you just have to go with the flow, rather than ask questions every five minutes. How do Rick and Evelyn have a kid? Well, it's ten years or so after their first bout with the Mummy, they're married, live in a luxurious mansion they bought with the sack of valuables they carried off at the end of the first movie, and the bad guys are now after the famous O'Connell family of explorers. Why is the Mummy coming back? Just another one of your average bad guys wanting to rule the world schemes. How can there be so many Magi warriors? They apparently live all over the desert in tribes, plus it's also a movie about mummies coming back from the dead, so nothing is to be taken too seriously. And that is the most important thing, not to take anything too seriously with "The Mummy Returns."Some personal highlights in my viewing experience were: pop-culture references to both "Titanic" and "Dr. Strangelove" within the movie, the Pigmy Mummies, the complete cheese-factor of the CG Rock/Scorpion King, and the zany fun that I had watching "The Mummy Returns." This was definitely a worthy follow-up, not the one I expected, not serious at all, but worthy to add to your adventure films collection.