Product: The Mummy Returns [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 4.0
The most hilarious spoof to come down the pike in years!
I have to wonder what was going through Stephen Sommers' mind when he started writing this movie. Certainly it must have been something perverse, because Sommers pulled an amazing fast one; he got Universal to lay out a fortune to make a spoof of big-budget, effects-laden action flicks.Of course, Sommers does deliver the thrills. If you want to see this as a straight action movie, go right ahead, it's certainly quite enjoyable that way. One of the things I like about Sommers' satire is that you can take it or leave it, a very generous thing for a director to do. But the cinemaphile in me gets a charge over the fact that Sommers is mocking every convention in the blockbuster with this flick.It's pretty hard to miss. Sommers visually refers to just about every major epic/blockbuster, especially if they had to do with deserts. There's the obvious "Indiana Jones" jokes, but there's also "Lawrence of Arabia", "Star Wars", "Titanic", "E.T.", "The Seven Samurai", and a whole bunch more. About the only one he missed was "Cleopatra" and I suspect I'll catch that one when I see it again. He also drops in other pop culture touchstones; that blimp looks suspiciously like a certain dirigible from MAD Magazine, for example.Then there's Sommers' take on the formula. He blows absolutely everything up to ridiculous size. I don't want to blow any plot points, so I won't offer any examples, but one viewing should make it obvious.And then there's that wonderfully godawful big special effect at the end. I imagine the only reason Sommers didn't take out every third frame to make the motion jerky was because he didn't have the time; otherwise, it's a hilarious nod to Ray Harryhausen (only, of course, not as realistic.)If you want straight action, this will be most satisfying. But as a rip-roaring spoof, it's even better.