Movie Review – The Mummy (1999)

Back in 1999, Universal Pictures released The Mummy, a movie remake that loosely followed 1932′s classic monster movie of the same name.  While not as horrifying as the 1932 original film, the 1999 remake of The Mummy was an exciting and imaginative adventure movie.

The Mummy proved to be a hit with the theater audience, and the film earned over $400 million in worldwide revenue.  This film would produce two sequels to the theaters along with a hit thrill ride, “Revenge of the Mummy,” in the Universal Studios theme parks.

Set in Egypt in both the 1290s BC as well as the 1920s AD, The Mummy stars Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Arnold Vosloo in the lead roles.  The Mummy was written and directed by Stephen Sommers, and music legend Jerry Goldsmith provided the film’s score.

The Mummy begins in 1290 BC as Anck-su-Namun (Patricia Velásquez), the mistress of Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I, has an affair with the high priest, Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo).  When Pharaoh Seti I discovers the affair, Anck-su-Namun and Imhotep kill the pharaoh.  Imhotep escapes from the palace as Seti’s guards enter the room.  Anck-su-Namun tells Imhotep to resurrect her before she kills herself in front of Seti’s guards, the Medjai.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

Imhotep steals Anck-su-Namun’s corpse and takes it deep in the desert to Hamunaptra, the city of the dead.  Imhotep and his priests begin the resurrection ceremony, but the Medjai stop him before it can be completed.  As severe punishment, Imhotep’s priests are mummified alive, a horrific procedure.  Imhotep’s punishment is even worse as he endures the Hom Dai – his tongue is removed, and he’s buried alive and consumed by flesh-eating scarab beetles.  The Hom Dai ritual makes Imhotep immortal so that he can suffer from his wounds for all eternity.  His body is buried beneath a statue of Anubis, and his tomb is guarded by several generations of Medjai.  If Imhotep is ever released from his tomb, then the immortality granted to him by the Hom Dai ritual will allow him to unleash untold destruction.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

Transitioning to 1923, we see the French Foreign Legion defending the ancient ruins of Hamunaptra from an attacking army.  When the Foreign Legion’s captain flees the scene, Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser), an American serving with the legion, is in command of the troops.  O’Connell’s friend Beni Gabor (Kevin J. O’Conner) also flees the scene just as they come under attack.  The French Foreign Legion is defeated and O’Connell is forced back to some ruins.  Just as he’s about to be executed, the sand around him comes alive, scaring away the enemy troops.  O’Connell also flees, heading into the desert.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

Jumping forward three years, Egyptologist Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) receives an ancient box from her brother, Jonathan (John Hannah), at the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo.  When opened, the box was discovered to contain an ancient map to the lost city of Hamunaptra.  Evelyn shows the map to Dr. Bey at the museum, and he accidentally burns it when it’s placed too close to a candle.  Jonathan tells Evelyn that he got the box from an American adventurer named Rick O’Connell, and the two of them set out to meet him.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

Rick O’Connell is currently in prison and sentenced to be hanged.  Evelyn asks him about the map, and Rick tells her that his unit in the Foreign Legion was at Hamunaptra, and he still remembers where to find it in the desert.  He makes a deal to take her there if she can free him from jail.  Just as he’s being hanged, Evelyn makes a deal with Warden Gad Hassan (Omid Djalili) to bring him along on their expedition (along with a profit of whatever they find).  O’Connell is cut free, and the group beings their journey to Hamunaptra.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

They begin their journey on a boat ride down the Nile River.  On the boat, O’Connell runs into his old army buddy, Beni.  Beni informs Rick that he’s also escorting a group of American adventurers to Hamunaptra.  Rick tosses Beni overboard just before a group of Medjai attack the ship.  A massive battle ensues and the ship catches fire, forcing everybody to jump overboard.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

O’Connell’s and Beni’s groups meet again in the desert, and both expeditions make their way to Hamunaptra.  The groups separate again and start digging for treasure.  Rick’s group makes it underground, and Evelyn shows them an ancient Egyptian mirror trick to use sunlight to light the chamber.  She’s on a hunt for the Book of Amun-Ra, a book that can supposedly take away life.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

In a separate chamber, the American explorers discover a vault, but when opening it, an ancient booby trap severely injures several of the workers.  In a different tunnel, Rick is digging and his group discovers an ancient tomb.  While this is happening, Gad Hassan is off exploring by himself.  He discovers a wall painting and several blue scarab beetles, believed to be treasure.  One of the scarabs hits the ground and “awakens,” burrowing itself into Gad’s foot and climbing up the inside of his body into his skull.  Gad goes insane and runs full speed into a wall, killing himself.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

That night in camp, the Medjai attack both groups of explorers.  Rick O’Connell ends the fight, but their leader, Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr), warns the groups against disturbing the evil buried underneath the sand.  The Medjai leave, but both groups shrug off the warning.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

The groups return to their respective finds.  It turns out that the American explorers discovered the black Book of the Dead along with a collection of jars containing Anck-su-Namun’s organs.  Dr. Chamberlain reads an engraving staying that all who open the box are cursed if Imhotep walks again.  Beni runs away fearing the curse as each American takes a jar as part of their treasure hunt.  Evelyn uses the ancient box that Jonathan gave her as a key to unlock the tomb that they discovered.  The tomb opens and out pops the grotesque remains of Imhotep.  Rick and Jonathan note that the mummy still looks rather “juicy.”

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

That night in camp, Evelyn “borrows” the Book of the Dead from Dr. Chamberlain and unlocks it with her key.  As she reads a page aloud, suddenly the mummy of Imhotep comes back to life.  His awakening causes an immediate plague of locusts.  Everybody from both camps seeks refuge underground, but they split and members become lost.  One of the Americans has his eyes and tongue removed by the mummy.  Evelyn gets trapped with the mummy (who can now look and talk), but she’s rescued by Rick and Jonathan.  All of them but Beni are able to flee from the mummy.  He gets trapped and agrees to help Imhotep return to power in favor of some treasure.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

Back in Cairo, Rick wants to flee the city while Evelyn tries to figure out how to stop the mummy before he regains his full powers.  While Evelyn is researching the problem, Beni helps Imhotep find and kill the other American adventurers who had jars of Anck-su-Namun.  After one of the killings, Imhotep demonstrates his power by making water turn to blood and causing an intense meteor shower.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

Back at the Museum of Antiquities, the group is surprised when they see Ardeth Bay with Dr. Bey.  Dr. Bey reveals to be a member of the Medjai, and Evelyn tells them that Imhotep called her Anck-su-Namun back in Hamunaptra.  They surmise that Imhotep is going to resurrect Anck-su-Namun by using Evelyn as a sacrifice.  Evelyn hypothesises that if the Book of the Dead brought Imhotep back to life, then the Book of Amun-Ra, the book she was originally seeking, can take away his life.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

An army of slaves brainwashed by Imhotep discovers the group as Evelyn is translating material and discovering the location of the Book of Amun-Ra.  They escape to the streets, but it’s a battle as more and more slaves attack the group.  The group is eventually cornered, and Evelyn willing becomes Imhotep’s prisoner if he’ll spare the life of her friends.  Of course Imhotep goes back on his word, but Rick, Jonathan and Ardeth are able to escape through the sewers.  Dr. Bey sacrifices himself to the slave army to buy time for the guys to escape.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

Imhotep takes Beni and Evelyn back into the desert to Hamunaptra.  Rick, Jonathan and Ardeth fly out there with the help of Winston, and old World War 1 pilot.  As they arrive, Imhotep conjures a massive wall of sand and uses it to crash the biplane.  Winston is killed in the crash, but the other three survive.  The guys make their way through more chambers in the buried remains of Hamunaptra and stumble upon a massive treasure room.  While in the room, mummies crawl out of the ground and attack the group of men.  Ardeth volunteers to sacrifice himself to stop some of the mummies.  Rick and Jonathan fight their way to another chamber where Rick uses dynamite to finally stop the mummies.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

While the group is escaping the mummies, Imhotep has Evelyn tied to an alter and prepares to commit the ritual that’ll bring Anck-su-Namun back to life.  Just as Imhotep is about to stab Evelyn with a dagger, Jonathan announces to her that he found the Book of Amun-Ra.  Imhotep sees him and tries to grab him, allowing Rick to jump in there and save Evelyn.

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

O’Connell battles more mummies and then eventually fights Imhotep himself.  Just as Imhotep is about to kill Rick, Evelyn reads from the Book of Amun-Ra and causes Imhotep to lose his immortality.  Rick stabs him, and as he dies, Imhotep says that, “Death is only the beginning.”

The Mummy (1999) – (c) Universal Pictures

Beni, meanwhile, had found the treasure room and was shuttling treasure outside to waiting camels as the Rick, Ardeth and Jonathan were fighting the mummies and saving Evelyn.  Beni accidentally triggeres a booby trap as the gang is fleeing, and he becomes trapped in the treasure room.  We see his torch extinguish as a massive swarm of scarab beetles approaches his body.  Rick, Evelyn and Jonathan escape, and outside is a bunch of treasure and some waiting camels.  Ardeth surprises them, letting them know that he also escaped.  Rick, Evelyn and Jonathan ride off into the sunset carrying Beni’s treasure.

And that ends 1999 action-adventure movie, The Mummy.

As a whole, this version of The Mummy is a pretty good movie.  It’s not outstanding or great, but it’s just an all-around decent film.

The best parts of The Mummy were the underground chambers in Hamunaptra.  The sets looked nice and creepy, the music set the mood perfectly (really great stuff by the late Jerry Goldsmith), and Egyptian tombs are just plain cool.  Throw in the 1920s time period and there you go.  That battle segment with the French Foreign Legion was pretty slick, too.

For me, many of the scenes in Cairo seemed a bit corny and cheesy.  While The Mummy tries to take itself seriously in the tombs, it’s almost like the movie is making fun of itself for Rick’s encounters with Imhotep above ground.  The film goes even more into the comedic angle when Rick uses a sword to fight all of the “dirt” mummies near the end of the movie.  Mummies that easily crumble to dust?  Really?

It’s almost too bad that The Mummy is more of an adventure-comedy film rather than an adventure-horror movie.  It would have been great if we could have actually seen Imhotep commit evil acts or show his true powers.  Yes, he has control of a slave army and can summon mummies, but we really don’t see him do anything really evil to make him a scary villain.  You see the dead bodies of his victims, but when looking at Imhotep, there’s no shiver or feeling of dread.  He’s just another body on screen.  That sequence where he creates a wall of sand to bring down the aircraft carrying Rick and friends?  Pure cheese.

When The Mummy was released, I remembered people making a big fuss about the special effects and the “lifelike” computer animation for Imhotep when he was still in the form of the mummy.  Back in 1999 those effects looked pretty neat.  From the mummy to a few other scenes, the computer animation was good.  Thirteen years later (has it really been that long since this movie was released?) with our significant advances in computer animation, it’s obvious that those same special effects don’t look anywhere near as good as today’s standards.  But that’s just the result of technology advancing to new stages.

As it was stated earlier, the success of The Mummy inspired the creation of two movie sequels along with the “Revenge of the Mummy” thrill ride in the Universal Studios theme parks.

At Universal Studios Florida, Revenge of the Mummy is housed in the old Kongfrontation building in the New York section of the theme park.  The interior of the building is themed to an ancient Egyptian tomb.  Riders board mine train-like cars that take us even deeper into the tomb.  A guy tries to warn us that it’s a trap, but Imhotep appears and silences the guy.  We go around a turn and find ourselves in the treasure room.  Imhotep’s face appears and basically gives us the option of choosing treasure or death.  For the death part a bunch of warrior mummies pop out on both sides of the track.  The ride vehicles duck underneath a falling wall and stop in a room where a bunch of scarab beetles come pouring out of a wall.  The vehicles go backwards down a short drop before stopping again.  We make a 180 degree turn and begin climbing a hill.  Imhotep’s face appears and says “Your souls are mine!” as we launch up the hill.  Revenge of the Mummy turns into a roller coaster ride as the cars zip up and down small hills and around bends before finally stopping at the unloading station.

But we’re not really finished.  The unloading station is a fake.  Imhotep appears in the control booth and the ceiling ignites and burns over our heads.  The ride vehicles go down a short drop and around a few more bends before the Medjai symbol appears, stopping Imhotep’s power.  We pass underneath a video screen where Brendan Fraser welcomes us back.  He asks somebody off-camera for a cup of coffee and then panics when a mummy’s hand gives him a cup.  After that it’s the real unload station and obligatory exit through the gift shop.

The Mummy (1999) – movie trailer

While The Mummy isn’t an award-winning film, it is fun when you sit back, turn off your brain and just enjoy the movie.  Don’t over-analyze the film or you’ll probably hate it.  The Mummy has some great action segments, mummies (like zombies) are great movie villains, and the film’s soundtrack is terrific.

Imhotep – “Death is only the beginning.”