Customer Reviews
An OK remake of a classic horror film 
2008-05-03
When it comes to remakes of classic films, I usually just don't bother. However, the 1999 version of "The Mummy" is a remake in the loosest of terms. The only thing that the two stories really have in common are the central plot points of a priest of ancient Egypt who has been executed for commiting the blasphemy of attempting to raise the dead, the priest being brought back to life in the 1920's, and the priest (the mummy) then seeing a 20th century girl as the physical likeness of the Egyptian girl for which he was buried alive thousands of years before. Everything else has been changed to appeal to modern audiences and give license to the special effects team, including the fact that the hero in this story is a ne'er do well versus the English gentleman who is the protagonist in the 1932 film. Here the mummy pursues the girl with supernatural physical powers he has been given upon his resurrection. In the 1932 film the mummy and the modern girl have a psychic connection since it is implied she actually is the reincarnated princess that he loved thousands of years before.
Of course, this movie has Imhotep receiving all of these special powers upon his resurrection so many cool special effects can be demonstrated, but I was left wondering - If the threat of his resurrection is left hanging over the heads of the Pharoah's bodyguards and their descendents for all eternity, wouldn't it have been smarter just to kill him in the first place and bypass the living death to which they sentenced him?
Since so much of the plot has been changed, this movie actually does work as a combination adventure film and screwball comedy versus the horror film for which it was named. Nothing beats the original, though, in my humble opinion.
New 2-disc Deluxe Edition due out on July 8th, 2008 2008-04-28
There was already a 2-disc "Ultimate" Edition of The Mummy back in 2001, but it's no longer available. The upcoming release of The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor has prompted Universal to release a new edition of The Mummy with the major special features from the Ultimate Edition plus a few new ones. It will be only in widescreen (the Ultimate Edition had both wide and full).
The Mummy is a peculiar movie, an Indiana Jonesish adventure originally intended as a low-budget remake of a 1932 horror film called The Mummy (also being released in a new Special Edition) that got spun in several directions before Brendan Fraser and huge special effects were settled on. Fraser plays an adventurer with the French Foreign Legion in 1920s Egypt who gets into serious trouble with, among other beings, a mummy (sort of) with terrible powers. Rachel Weisz plays the beautiful Egyptologist who both causes trouble and solves it. Fraser isn't ideally suited to a Harrison Ford-type role, his natural center of gravity tending more to the comic, but it's hard not to like him. The movie is less scary than just fun, if you don't insist on everything making sense.
Here are the new special features:
-- "An Army To Rule The World Part 1" featurette
-- "Unraveling The Legacy Of The Mummy" featurette
-- a digital copy of the movie
-- a sneak peak at The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
These are the features taken from the Ultimate Edition:
-- three audio commentaries:
. . . director Stephen Sommers and editor Bob Ducsay
. . . star Brendan Fraser
. . . actors Oded Fehr, Kevin J. O'Connor, Arnold Vostoo
-- "Building A Better Mummy," documentary about the making of the film (49:45)
-- "Visual And Special Effects Formation," on how the special effects were done
-- "Egyptology 101," text about aspects of Egyptian history
-- "Pharaoh Lineage," text on the history of the Egyptian Pharaohs
-- comparison of the storyboards and the movie (three brief snippets)
-- photo montage
-- theatrical trailer
The sequel, The Mummy Returns, is also being released in a 2-disc Deluxe Edition, also on July 8th; it's here.
