07/08/06....
Just to say am back!!, I am also having a baby in several weeks so expect lots of ba...
07/08/06....
Just to say am back!!, I am also having a baby in several weeks so expect lots of baby reviews!! Anna xx
Member since:27.07.2001
Reviews:79
Members who trust:223
Well this is a film that I have actually wanted to see for ages, but somehow never got round to. So when I was flicking through Sky last night and saw it was now on Box Office, there was no excuse….
Most of you will have seen the Mummy, it was a superb film, action packed and something very fresh, and I guessed one of the reasons that I had put off watching this for so long was the worry that it would be nowhere as good.
I often find sequels a let down and often find they can not keep up the standard or viewing quality, so did The Mummy Return manage to achieve this or not?
THE STORY ¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•
Well being an oldish film I will boldly tell you something of the story, well not all of it, but enough to give you the idea….
8 years have passed supposedly since the last adventures of the O’Connell’s, Rick and Evie now have an 8 year old son called Alex and reside in a grand mansion in good old London.
Of course they still cannot resist their Egyptian travels and the latest venture involves them bringing home a large cask complete with a gold bracelet belonging to the new sinister force “The Scorpion King”.
Meanwhile in The British Museum, our old friend “Imhotep” is being given a makeover, yes he’s back, courtesy of a band of rogues and his old Egyptian bit on the side Ancksunamen, a lovely female not! However at this point she is only the shell of his lover and it is not till later on she is returned fully to her former glory, so watch out!.
Of course nothing runs smoothly in the O’Connel household and it is not long before
their son Alex finds the Scorpion King’s bracelet stuck on his arm, unfortunately Imhotep and his lovely lady friend also have designs on it.
The outcome of this is a mad chase through London; the O’Connell’s in a Double Decker bus driven by Evies dumb brother Johnathan, whilst being pursued by a host of Imhoteps evil wall climbing skeletal warriors….
Without giving too much more away the family end up back in Egypt not only to save their son but also the world from the evil forces of the undead…
Egypt this time is the setting for the lair of The Scorpion King (played by WWF ‘s The Rock), this guy makes old Imhotep look like a pussy cat, he has been frozen in time for thousands of years only to be accidentally released, his power and strength are such a force that even Imhotep couldn’t compete.
As if this wasn’t enough the Scorpion King has plenty of sidekicks, his army of thousands of Anubis canine warriers for one and the carnivorous pigmy mummies that lurk everywhere in the undergrowth, (these actually look like a meaner version of gremlins,hehe).
The O’Connell’s and their old trusty desert warrior pal Ardeth Bay have certainly got their work cut out this time with not one but 3 of the un-dead creatures to combat.
So that’s the basic idea of the film, but how good was it?
VERDICT TIME ¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•
Well this film actually started off pretty slowly, I also felt that there were a lot of odd flaws in the actual plot, possibly they were to pad the film out to make it more interesting, or to add a bit of variety but still seemed odd to me, here are three that puzzled me slightly..
1.As I said this is supposed to be 8 years later in 1933, and indeed they have their 8 year old Alex to back this claim up, but,Evie and Rick do not look a day older than they did in the first film, and come on 8 years is a long time!
2.Evie is the second mystery and indeed the third, but this one first, suddenly she starts having flashbacks to her previous life and surprise surprise she actually was one of them.
Yes an Egyptian, but not any Egyptian, in fact the daughter of the Pharaoh who should have married good old Ancksunamen no less and even in their previous life there was no love lost between them. Very strange there was nothing mentioned in this respect in the first film, but like I said it adds meat to the sandwich so to speak.3. As I said Evie again, with the help of these flashbacks, she somehow has transformed from meek, polite, almost prudish Evie into bold mean fighting machine, a total character change personality wise for this lady, but why?
Well those are my “what, why, how’s”, now back to the film.
Lots more special effects and camera trickery, improved computer generated beasties and the old favourites too.
This ensures that whatever you think of the film overall you will be impressed with the effort they put into making it look as realistic as possible.
Performance wise, no Oscar winning performances here I’m afraid but credit where credit's due they are all good actors, then again any film with Brendan in has to be worth watching as he’s certainly easy on the eye, for the males out there I expect most of you will find Rachel pretty pleasing too!.
The humour is integrated throughout courtesy of Evie’s brother Johnathan and also courtesy of the mad air ship pilot Izzy Buttons, this adds a light relief to the film, making it less serious or heavy.
However If I had to give an award for actor of the film it would go to Imhotep, this guy is superb and fits his role perfectly, whoever chose him certainly got it right!
The Rock, hmm, I guess he was added to create more interest, but his role certainly isn’t over demanding by any means, in fact very disappointing, I believe there is even a spin off from this called “The Scorpion King”, this one I very much doubt I will bother to see!
CONCLUSION ¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•¤•
This films great for an evening in, easy to follow with plenty of swashbuckling action throughout.
However there is a tinge of disappointment from me, why?
Well for me it is far too similar to the first film, actually a scrambled re make more or less.
Apart from the Scorpion King and the O'Connell's son not a lot had changed, there were the same characters, the same creatures and the same outcome more or less, but this one didn’t seem to even build the suspense half as much as the first and was actually quite predictable from early on.
This films certainly not the best I have seen this year by any means but it’s good fun overall and extremely well made.
But don’t let me put you off, I still recommend you give it a view, if you did like the first then you will certainly enjoy watching this one,!
So if you have Sky check it out on Box Office now….
CAST ¤•¤•¤•
Brendan Fraser - Richard 'Rick' O'Connell Rachel Weisz -Evelyn 'Evie'CarnahanO'Connell/Princess Nefertiri John Hannah - Jonathan Carnahan Arnold Vosloo - Lord Imhotep Oded Fehr - Ardeth Bay Dwayne Johnson - The Scorpion King Freddie Boath - Alexander 'Alex' O'Connell Patricia Velazquez - Meela Nais/Anck-su-namun Alun Armstrong - Baltus Hafez, the British Museum Curator Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje - Lock-Nah Shaun Parkes -Izzy Buttons Bruce Byron - Red Joe Dixon (III) - Jacques Tom Fisher (I) - Spivey Aharon Ipalé - Pharaoh Seti I
Film certification 12, Running time 130 minutes
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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
Oooooh,not for me..I'm a real scardy cat lol,
cheers
jane
BeeHappy 09.11.2002 18:28
We just love this film, it is very rare for a sequel to be as good as the first but in this case thought it was excellent, have bought on DVD to watch over and over again, love the effects superb.......
blackedeyed 03.10.2002 22:46
Good op ana
The first mummy film was better, but the Scorpian king is god fun. The Rock is very good in it.
Tony
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
very helpful by (100%):
