The Mummy (1999)
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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its original release, and to prepare for this week's "Lee Cronin's The Mummy", I loved going back to one of my all-time favorite comedy horror thrillers from 1999, THE MUMMY.
What an absolute box office thrill ride and mega-hit this was back in '99. Brendan Fraser became a superstar in his first big screen action role as the Indiana Jones-like American adventurer Rick O'Connell, serving up big laughs and action in equal doses.
This is Universal throwing a big budget at Writer/Director Stephen Sommers best screenplay. Paying homage to the movie monster film legacy of these wrapped up Egyptian terrors, Sommers crafts a fun, break neck pace from the opening scenes to the finale.
Rachel Weisz (My Cousin Rachel) is a perfect heroine with bite, Evelyn. An English librarian and expert in all things ancient Egypt, she's pulled into a new dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra by her carefree and clumsy brother Jonathan (John Hannah from "Four Weddings and a Funeral").
The new dig uncovers a deep tomb belonging to Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) who we've already met in the impressive opening prologue. Imhotep was caught with the Pharoah's main squeeze and sentenced to a tortured afterlife buried very deep in a hidden tomb.
Oops, looks like someone's about to ignore all the hieroglyphic warnings and open it back up!
O'Connell arrives on scene and manages to survive long enough for Evelyn to bail him out of prison and have him join her team. It seems like half the world is after the secrets buried in the legend of Imhotep and the movie tees everything up perfectly.
With the scary fun of "Raiders" and the edgy horrors and gore levels of "Poltergeist", THE MUMMY serves up a winning formula, set to a legendary music score by Jerry Goldsmith (Poltergeist, Patton, Planet of the Apes) that's been often imitated by never equaled.
Fraser is the film's core, a non-stop adventurer with a wit as quick as his draw. I lost count of how many times I laughed, seeing the film for at least the 12th time. It holds up beautifully, especially in long sequences where rival groups are attempting to decipher the secret passages and warnings below ground.
Once Imhotep is released, the film really hits its stride.
Vosloo is fantastic as the ancient bad dude, and the filmmakers broke new special effects ground as Imhotep literally sucks the life out of many victims to reclaim his human form. Those 25 year old Industrial Light and Magic effects still hold up as plenty of fun today.
Oded Fehr (The Blacklist, 24: Legacy) is excellent as Ardeth Bay, the modern leader of an ancient group trying to stop Imhotep from escaping his sealed sarcophagus. (Ardeth Bay:Death by Ra. Coincidence?)
Bernard Fox, who was in every notable TV series of the 60's and 70's, is a renaissance blast as Winston Havelock, a pilot who flies Rick in his biplane as that legendary Imhotep dust storm chases them across the sands. It's a now classic scene in a film full of them.
Looking for some plagues falling from the heavens? How about some flesh eating scarabs that put piranha to shame? Giant pyramids and tombs crumbling around you? Car chases through mobs of zombies? Massive battles on horseback in the middle of the desert? This one's got them all and never takes its foot of the gas. Those are real rats and locusts on our actors, by the way.
Sommers has said the morning after the Friday premiere, Universal execs called him and said "we need another one!". This film is credited with establishing the first weekend of May as the start of the summer season for Hollywood blockbusters.
Earning $417 million at the box office against its $80 million budget, THE MUMMY was followed in 2001 by "The Mummy Returns" an even bigger hit and in 2008 by "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor".
2026 saw announcements that Fraser, Weisz and Vosloo are all returning for a NEW Mummy film hitting theaters in 2028! Can I get in line now?
The original, THE MUMMY gets an A+, Fraser has said it's his favorite film he ever made and it remains one of my all-time favorites, just outside my Top 100.
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