Movie Review #49: The Mummy (1999)

I am planning to see Pacific Rim either this weekend or sometime next week. Until then, here's this to tide you over.

The Mummy is about a group of people on an archeological dig to find the lost city of Hamunaptra. But while there, they accidentally awaken a mummy.

The Mummy is a movie that I watched when I was growing up. It is actually very similar to Raiders of the Lost Ark in many ways.

• It has a likable hero.
• It has the element of adventure.
• It has action and well-made visuals.
• It has humor.
• It has a gorgeous love interest.
• It has a wise-cracking, sarcastic sidekick.

The elements aren't delivered as well as they were in Raiders, but it is still well done for what it set out to do. Even though I have been comparing this to Raiders of the Lost Ark an awful lot, I am not comparing the two films on which is better. I'm just saying that there are multiple similarities between the two. But if I had to say which film is better I would have to go with Raiders because it is one of my all time favorite films.

One thing that The Mummy does very well is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It is self aware of the fact that it is pretty silly. There's even a time when a character made a remark about something that happened and said something like, "That seems to happen a lot around here." The movie knows what it is. Like in the Expendables 2, it can both poke fun at itself while still being an entertaining action movie.

Another thing I should mention is the mummy. That mummy freaked me out as a kid. There are also some things that will freak out younger kids like that one guy who got his eyes gouged out and his tongue ripped out. Freaky stuff man.

Final Report: Even though it borrows heavily from Indiana Jones, The Mummy is over-the-top silly fun.