In the DVD extras, please don't miss the behind the scenes look at the battle between the mummy army and Rick as he saves Evelyn. The chorography involved in the scene is amazing, since there is no one there for Brendan Fraser to play against. It's an unbelievable solo dance that worked perfectly once the CG monsters were added later. You just have to see it to understand how improbably, stunningly good it is.
I can't believe it is ten years since I purchased this DVD! - Vivek Gupta -
I bought this DVD 10 years ago and still enjoy it today as much as I did back then. This is a movie that has a lot of fun characters going for it and even with some of the silliness it makes it an entertaining movie to watch. This dvd was a good quality transfer that scales well with modern DVD players that handle the upscaling of the resolution. If you're looking for something entertaining to watch that provides action/comedy and haven't seen this, now is the time.
Wrap it up and stick it back in the sarcophagus. - William Sommerwerck - Renton, WA USA
The original "Mummy" with Boris Karloff was not so much a horror film (though it had horrific elements) as a drama about a dead Egyptian trying to bring his belovéd back to life. Karloff's performance is typical of his work, with strong characterization and a refusal to overplay. Karloff was at his most menacing when he was at his most subtle. *
Universal's attempt to reboot the "Mummy" franchise (the original series having produced some of the most God-awful films I've ever seen) is a major misfire. Stephen Sommers talks of "honoring" the earlier films, but he dishonors the original with a "remake" that isn't remotely as good.
Rudely stated, Sommers has no idea of how to make an effective horror and/or action film. You can't expect to frighten the audience with a persistently tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top tone. This tone is set at the beginning when Rachel Weisz knocks over a dozen huge bookcases, and never recovers. (The film, not Weisz.) It's there merely for the sake of a laugh, and has nothing to do with Weisz's character (who is /not/ portrayed in the rest of the film as clumsy or ineffective). There's nothing wrong with humor as a tension-breaker -- but it has to be /earned/, by actually /establishing/ tension in the first place. This problem could, in principle, be fixed with a rewrite -- but not when the director is also the writer.
What's far worse is that Sommers has no understanding of "pace" or "focus". If you want to genuinely thrill the audience, you have to at least /occaisionally/ slow down so that you can build up again. A roller coaster that's /always/ fast is no fun. Whatever "The Mummy" is, it's /not/ a roller-coaster ride.
Like too many films, "The Mummy" moves at a persistently brisk -- and ultimately boring -- speed. This results in Sommers glossing over moments that ought to have the audience on the edge of its collective seat. For example, when Weisz opens the Black Book and reads the invocation that inadvertently reanimates Imhotep, IT IS NO DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER MOMENT IN THE FILM, when it /should/ be played up for all it's worth. You can't do this without preparing the audience, and that isn't possible when you're rushing along. I've never directed a movie, but I know /exactly/ how to do this -- with the appropriate dialog, camera angles, use of close-ups, music, etc., because I've seen it done many times by infintitely-better directors. **
Sommers rips off Ray Harryhausen, but apparently has never bothered to study Harryhausen's films. RH believed in the "slow build", both in the film as a whole, and within sequences. In "Jason and the Argonauts", seven skeletons pop out of the ground to wreak havoc. Harryhausen slowly /builds/ the scene -- and ratchets up the tension -- until it explodes. In "The Mummy"'s comparable scene, with priest mummies popping out of the ground, there is no tension and release. They just pop out.
Stephen Sommers is an incompetent director, the 0M gross of this film notwithstanding. "The Mummy" is a film to be watched once, as an object lesson in how /not/ to make such films, then put aside.
* When asked if he was bothered at being typecast, William Henry Pratt replied that it assured him of a paycheck. He earned that paycheck with performances he never needed to apologize for. Who says that because you're starring in a horror film, you're not obliged to act well? Pratt did.
** Hitchcock comes to mind. In "Psycho"'s shower scene, Mrs Bates doesn't just pop in and knife Marion -- the sequence /builds/ to the murder. Similarly, the scene in which Marion's sister enters the fruit cellar, walks over to Mrs Bates, and puts her hand on the old woman's shoulder, has a terrific payoff that /the entire film/ has been building up to.
Great Movie!! - W. M. Bell - Little Rock, AR
Its just too bad that they will never be this good again until they start writing script that are better (and make sense) and bring back Rachel Weisz. She and Fraser MAKE THESE MOVIES.
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