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Bram Stoker's Legend Of The Mummy [1997]


RRP: £5.99
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NOT BAD BUT NOT BRILLIANT EITHER
Review date: 2007-11-02 Rating: 6 out of 10


Robert Wyatt, (Eric Lutes) a budding art historian, is called by Margaret Trelawny, (Amy Locane) his ex, to her father's house to help her with a mystery. Once he gets there, the staff isn't receptive to him, and treat him as an outsider. When strange events begin happening around the mansion, Robert seeks out her father's old accomplice, John Corbeck, (Louis Gossett Jr.) And brings him back to the house. He believes that Margaret's father has come under the spell of Egyptian Queen Tera, one of the most powerful queens. When they find that Tera has taken possession of Margaret, Robert and Corbeck race to stop her from enacting an ancient curse.

The Good News: The film is based upon a novel by Bram Stoker, and in fact has been done before as the film "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb," too which there are certain similar characteristics. The fact that the evil being is called Queen Tera, the possessed woman called Margaret, the born-on-the-day-of-discovery angle, a ruby-bedecked ring as a means of possession, and the ailing father all pretty much the same between the films. This allows for some familiarity between the stories and that increases some entertainment if we know a little bit about what's going on in the film. The film does have some nice sequences. One of the best is an attack on a rainy night outside a phone-booth. It sets up the attack beautifully with an earlier attack, and here is the final payoff. It goes out in a pretty grand fashion that features some nice suspense to ago along with the payoff. The resurrection sequence at the end is nicely realized, and the way it plays out provides some nice moments.

The Bad News: The mummy sub-genre has had relatively little success in the mainstream, mainly because the myth surrounding it is one that's always been a hard one to film properly. It's always been a hard one to get down, and here the pattern continues. The familiarity with the other film raises the concern over where or not this can be a remake or not, and the debate is a tricky one as both sides have valid arguments. The fact that this is billed as a mummy movie is also a misprint. True, there is a mummy in the film, but there is no shambling corpse wrapped in bandages after people who desecrated it's tomb. It's more of a supernatural film that features a mummy as the source of a curse. There is such a slow pace to this that it can be maddening for something to happen. The deaths are OK, but fall into a rhythm that is pretty far apart. Apart from the deaths, there is really not that much action to speak of, so it's incredibly slow and a long time occurs before anything happens.

The Final Verdict: Mummy films traditionally aren't all that spectacular, and this one follows the pattern, with a slow pace, not a lot of action, underwhelming deaths, and a mummy that takes forever to get on screen. It's not a total loss, but it's not all that spectacular either. Exercise caution before giving this a shot.


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Reviews


Murder She Wrote meets the Mummy!
Review date: 2000-08-29 Rating: 2 out of 10

This has to be the most amateurish 'budgeted' film I have ever seen. It has no plot worthy of the name, some of the most crass dialogue I have ever heard and the worst acting this side of Ed Wood....For those who don't know this is the third film to be based on the Bram Stoker story 'The Jewel of Seven Stars', and it is a timely reminder of actually just how good those other two films are. This one lumbers dismally on, in search of a plot and a ending worthy of the name. When our hero first meets the maid with the crap English accent she starts fantasising about sex - what the hell is that about?

The film builds slowly and with little excitement or direction to a dismal climax that shows how little idea the perpetrators of this rubbish of drama and tension. The end is as dismal and disappointing as the rest of this sorry mess. Don't get me wrong, as a lover of the genre I'm glad I bought it, but it is total crap. Give me Valerie Leon and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb anytime!

Avoid this unless you really can't help yourself!

Excellent Film - BUY IT NOW
Review date: 2000-07-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is a fantastic film. Great Script. Written buy pure genious. The way the film is shot gives the viewer a creepy kind of feeling down thier spine. This film is historically acurate also. I think a great deal of effort went into producing this. Just goes to show that small budgets can make great films!

Brainless entertainment
Review date: 2000-06-16 Rating: 6 out of 10

Ok it's not the Brendon Fraser movie packed with expensive CGI fx--but even that was just an Indiana Jones rip off. This Mummy stars direct-to-video king Louis Gossett Jr and has drop-dead gorgeous Amy Locane as the eye candy (so who cares if she can't act?). No great fx here, but it's passably entertaining when you're in the mood for something silly.

Rubbish!
Review date: 2000-06-14 Rating: 2 out of 10

If Mystery Science Theatre 3000 ever makes a come-back this will be the first movie they use. The Director must have been taking the ****!

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Louis Gossett Jr.
Lloyd Bochner
Eric Lutes
Mark Lindsay Chapman
Amy Locane

Creators:
Louis Gossett Jr. (Primary Contributor)
Amy Locane (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Prism Leisure
Manufacturer: Prism Leisure
EAN: 5017889595010
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Full Screen, PAL,
Release date: 2002-10-14
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 95 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1997
Language: English (Original Language)

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