RETRO REVIEW: The Mummy is the Last Great Adventure Film of the 20th Century and Brendan Fraser's Best Film - CBR
Stephen Sommers' The Mummy (1999) begins in 1290 BC. Courtesy of Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr), voiceover sets the scene: "Thebes, City of the Living. Crown jewel of Pharaoh Seti I. Home of Imhotep, Pharaoh's high priest, keeper of the dead; birthplace of Anck-su-Namun, Pharaoh's mistress." As it turns out, Anck-su-Namun (Patricia Velasquez) is also the object of affection of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) -- which is strictly verboten. A smudge in the mistress' gold body paint tells the Pharaoh that Anck-su-Namun has been tarnished. Moments later, Imhotep and Anck-su-Nanum kill the Pharoah. Imhotep absconds into the night, promising to resurrect Anck-su-Namun as she stays to face the wrath of the guards, the Medjai.
Later, in Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead -- where most of The Mummy's action will occur -- Imhotep and his loyal subjects, fanatical cultists who worship the Book of the Dead, attempt to revivify Anck-Su-Namun. But the Medjai, hip to the goings-on, ambush Imhotep and his followers, mummifying the whole lot and sending Anck-su-Namun's spirit back into a viscous black puddle of damnation. Oh, and the guards also subject Imhotep to the Hom-Dai, a cursed ritual that involves cutting out his tongue, placing his writhing body in a sarcophagus, and, as a cherry on top, covering his body in scarabs. It's genuinely horrific stuff, but it makes for a great backstory to the last great adventure film of the '90s.
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Just one final nudge further, and it's now 1926. Rick is in a Cairo prison, due for hanging. Meanwhile, ditzy British librarian Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) does her best vocal imitation of Robin Hood: Men in Tights' Amy Yasbeck while knocking down domino rows of shockingly unsteady bookshelves. Evelyn, or Evie, for all of her clumsiness, is a self-styled Egyptologist with a particular interest in artifacts, which will figure heavily into the narrative. On the other hand, Evie's brother, Jonathan (John Hannah), has just filched an artifact that assures the duo of the City of the Dead's existence, leading them to Rick.
The Mummy is Full of Elaborate Deaths but Retains a Solid PG-13 Rating
Despite the numerously grotesque death sequences in The Mummy, it's a surprisingly bloodless film
What strikes one watching The Mummy, whether it's the first or thousandth time, is that the introduction -- from Thebes to Hamunaptra to Cairo and back to Hamunaptra -- is surefooted and handily precise. The details are written as if carved into stone tablets, immaculate in conveying precisely what we, the viewers, need to know while urging the plot forward. The tried-and-true mechanics that govern The Mummy's storytelling most overtly aim to capture the cinematic adventures of Indiana Jones, and they are familiar but never tedious. Fraser and Weisz lead the charge, with Hannah and Kevin J. O'Connor -- who plays Beni Gabor, the duplicitous, fez-wearing guide leading the competing group of archaeologists to Hamunaptra -- providing ample humor to lubricate the already dangerously slick story. What keeps the film from slipping into forgettability is that no adventure film seems to have as much fun as The Mummy.
And what a joy it is to see all of the ways supernatural forces can kill a person. Vosloo's Imhotep, previously divvied amongst canopic jars and rendered into bug excrement, is awakened, as monsters are wont to do, and embarks on a rampage to find a surrogate for Anck-su-Namun. Along the way, Imhotep harvests organs to restore his flesh, twirls into sandstorms for fast transit or more malevolent purposes, and leads an undead army of sickle-wielding goons. As for the fully human players, they're subjected to the aforementioned organ harvesting, suffocation by sand, subdermal scarab incursions, and much more besides. But what makes it all so palatable, other than the pleasure of watching dangerous adventures from the safe vantage of the screen, is that the violence, though cartoonish, is never needlessly gory. The terror comes in the form of surprise, invention, and the apparent sense that the filmmakers wanted to give the audience their money's worth. Although there are numerous deaths, often immensely painful ones, this isn't a gory film by any means.
