One of the big Adventure movies of the past two years was ‘The Mummy’. It managed to combine the action adventure of ‘Raider of the Lost Ark’ and add to it with a twist of humour from the leading man Brendan Fraser. The Glamour and ‘love interest’ was provided by the gorgeous Rachel Weisz and well… you know the rest. It was such a rip roaring success commercially that The Mummy somehow RETURNS.
This sequel to the Mummy, takes up the story some 10 years on. Adventurer Rick O’Connell (Fraser) is now married to his English rose archeologist Evie (Weisz) and they have a pesky brat son, named Alex. They now live in London, but Evie has terminal ‘wanderlust’, so they are usually on one ‘dig’ or other. Still around is Evie’s brother Jonathan (John Hannah) and he’s is just useless as he ever was!
Now that sort of sets the scene for you – but a newcomer to the cast is WWF Wrestler ‘The Rock’. If you are a bit bleary eyed during the opening 10 minutes of the film, you’ll miss him. He played the ‘Scorpion King’ and certainly looks the part
Basically although the storyline is different and the setting marginally so, The Mummy’s Return is without a doubt, just that. The return of the successful money-spinning formula of non-stop action and brilliant special effects. The effects in particular and the superb computerised graphics make the cast of thousands seem like a veritable cast of MILLIONS at times. The above-mentioned opening scenes featuring the Scorpion King, sees two armies line up and battling one another and you’d swear there were hundreds of thousands of ‘extras’ involved. It really is mind boggling stuff and cracking entertainment.
Anyway back to a little bit more of the plot! On a dig, Evie discovers the bracelet of Anubis, which legend says controls his army led by the Scorpion King. Alex puts on the bracelet out of curiosity and sets in motion a chain reaction that will bring his armies to life. Meanwhile, Imhotep (remember him, Arnold Vosloo) has been resurrected from his grave by Melee, the reicarnation of Anch Sun Amun. They kidnap Alex so that he can lead them to the pyramid oasis where the army is sleeping and when the Scorpion King awakes Imhotep will kill him to take his power and his immortality.
Well, that’s his infernal plan and it’s up to our intrepid heroes to thwart his evil ways. Setting up a desperate race against time for the O’Connells to find the oasis and save the world from an unspeakable fate before it’s too late as well as saving their son.
The End
Well that’s the basis of the story, but it matters not that you can surely guess that Rick and the gang will get there in the end. It’s the way they do it that is the key to the tremendous success of this film and it’s predecessor. I cannot believe that we will not be seeing ‘Mummy 3’ in the next year or so.
The film, almost two hours long, absolutely flies by, with a fast pace, plenty of on screen effects to keep you on the edger of your seats. Then, a quick one liner from Rick, played superbly again by Fraser, defuses the tension. All the best points from ‘Raiders’, Romancing the Stone’ etc, plus a real dash of humour and fantastic special effects – a real Winner!
One pf the most enjoyable family films this year. As always feel free to leave any comments about my opinion
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Production Year: 2000 - Horror - Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Carmen Electra, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, James Van Der Beek, Keenen Ivory Wayans
Advantages: brilliant acting, great special effects, tonnes of special features, cheap Disadvantages: feels as if special effects are prioty over acting, storyline wasn't as good
Aug 9th, 2001
very helpful by (94%):
helpful by (6%):
