It's not supposed to be Monty Python in terms of laughs, but what I liked about the characters was their mischeviousness. Especially Jonathan and O'Connell towards the prison guard. Little bits of humour make such a difference to a film. This takes it away from the 'indiana jones' theme it has been compared with. It's not all action/adventure/romance. There are times when I found myself sniggering away.

The cast have a total chemistry brought on I think by the playfulness of their characters. Every single person excells in their part. The imigary used in the film is breathtaking. The scenes of Ancient Egypt look like everything is bathed in gold and this captures everything I imagine the old kingdom to be like. Prosperous-but still has that mythical side to it. That's where the Mummy come in. The Mummy is the high priest Ihmotep who had a love affair with the Phaoroh's mistress. Ihmotep kills the pharoh but is eventually caught and mummified alove. He has a curse placed upin him that if he should ever be awoken her will bring the 10 plagues of egypt upon the earth.

Well, this is what happens and it's up to Rick O'Connell, a rougish army office and Evie and Jonathan, (brother and sister but also librarian and missionary)to save the day. They elist the help of the cheif Medji (decendents of pharoh's body guards) to help send Ihmotep to the underworld.

The film is well known for it's incedible effects and I was amazed. The face appearing out of the sand was fantastic and in my opinion quite spooky.

This film is worth the money. It's got everything: action, adventure, romance (but thankfully it's not laden with it), humour and is good for some basic egyptian history (at least you'll know what Anubis looks like by the end of the film!) Get the film....it's great!

Special mention to Benny from the film. He's a firm favourite with me and my pals. "You came back from the desert with a new friend, didn't you Benny?"

Gripping!
Review date: 2004-05-31 Rating: 10 out of 10

The ultimate point of 'The Mummy' is simply to entertain the audience and keep them gripped and on the edge of their seat right up until the grisley end, and after watching it i can say that it certainly did just that, and very well i might add.

This type of film is just my sort of thing. A really 'out there' storyline, a tough-ish hero (and also in the case heroess), loads and loads of really super special effects, and hundreds of nasty bad guys (in the case mummies) getting their hollow, rotting heads blown clean off.

When Egyptian librarian, Evelyn finds an old map hidden in an ancient arifact, along with her drunken brother Jonathon, she goes in search of its owner and comes across the big and tough Rick O'Connell, who agrees to take them to the 'lost city' on the map if they will resue him from prison and stop him being hanged.

They do so and soon find themselves deep in the sand dunes of Egypt; more specifically, the 'ost city'. Here they find vast caverns of gold and riches, along with an 'undead' mummy and an ancient curse which threatens the whole of man-kind. Evelyn manages to unleash this curse upon the world when she acidentially read from 'the book of the dead', and brings back to life Imhotep, who suffered the worst punishment; having his tongue cut out, wrapped in bandages, put into a sarcophagus, and then covered with scarabs. All of this because he had an affair with the pharos wife and killed the pharo himself.

Anyway, now he is freed, Imhotep has muge power and kills people and sucks the life out of them in order for him to re-generate, and thus be able to bring back to life the Pharos wife, so that they can be together again. Thankfully though, Evelyn knows how to kill him. They must find the golden book, somwhere in the lost city, and read the passage from it, thus making Imhotep mortal again, and therefore able to be killed.

I know that some people say that the special effects in this film are not that good, and ok, in the odd places there not one hundred percent, but come on, apart from a few places, they are pretty amazing really. For example when Imhoteps face is sort of half mummy half human, i found that incredible, and i still am amazed at how they did it.

However don't be fooled. This film is not about re-creating ancient Egypt accurately, Its about making an entertaining film, so don't worry if its not like it is in the text books, just accept it for what it is and enjoy it.

With a good supporting cast, some great directing, loads of special effects, and of course a beautiful woman, this film for me is definately five star, and i highly recommend it to everyone. You might not want to keep watching it, but for the few times that you do watch it you will be gripped from start to finish.

A wild and entertaining romp in the desert
Review date: 2004-05-06 Rating: 8 out of 10

1999's The Mummy is the equivalent of a B movie produced on an epic scale. It's only real aim is to entertain, and it certainly does that. The campy nature of the dialogue works because the filmmakers have no shame: what, you say we've already used up our quota of clichés and really cheesy jokes? Well, find more of them. And get me some stereotypical Egyptians – we're not making this movie without some stereotypical Egyptian comic relief. If you're going to go, go for broke, I always say. The special effects also make things interesting. Some of them are quite good, but every so often you will see something that just looks rather silly – but that's okay. Hey, they already dropped a ton of money on special effects; you can't expect everything to be perfect. Those of us fascinated by ancient Egypt pretty much will ourselves to be drawn into the story: after all, this thing starts out as a mission to find the legendary city of Hamunaptra, aka the City of the Dead, complete with nifty little codices, hieroglyphics, and ancient books. Then of course you have the mummy; this guy is not content to just sneak around and say Boo in an effort to frighten everyone he meets; no, good old Imhotep has the plagues of Egypt as his calling card, and he possesses supernatural powers that make him all but invulnerable.

I know this story raises questions in the mind of the viewer. Take, for example, the whole curse thing inflicted upon Imhotep. I have to admit he had it coming; messing around with the Pharaoh's mistress, even when she is as attractive as Anck Su Namun, is a bad idea; murdering the pharaoh himself probably crosses the line into the land of major boo-boo. What do you do to a high priest who has committed such sins? Chop off his tongue – okay, I'm with you on that one; wrap him in mummy bandages and throw him in a sarcophagus – right, that will work; throw a bucket full of scarabs on him that will consume his flesh, then bury him alive – that does sound like a good plan. But there's a catch; if he ever happens to be reanimated, he'll have super-powers. That is when you have to start questioning ancient Egyptian judgment. I would have just chopped the guy into pieces and made sure he could not have made it to an afterlife.

Well, adventurer Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) and the sister-brother team of Evelyn the librarian of ancient Egyptian history and Jonathon the alcoholic find and open Imhotep's sarcophagus. Evelyn then proceeds to read aloud from the Book of the Dead she just "borrowed" from a trio of American treasure hunters and brings Imhotep back to life. Much chasing, fighting, killing, and general mayhem ensue. All poor Imhotep wants to do is to reanimate the corpse of his beloved Anck Su Namun; most men can't even remember their wife's birthday, but this guy, after 3000 years, still thinks only of his special lady. Doesn't that just make you feel warm all over?

Don't expect to learn anything about Egypt in this film; The Mummy plays fast and loose with internal logic, so it certainly isn't out to recreate ancient Egypt in a realistic fashion. Just sit back, laugh when you're supposed to, and let The Mummy entertain you. Personally, I'm fascinated with actress Rachel Weisz. She just has a rare, hypnotic radiance to her that grows and grows as the movie progresses.

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