The Mummy
There are two movies that serve as the high water mark for action or horror camp, the films against which all others must be judged. The first is Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II, and the second is Starship Troopers. Both of these films were fantastically entertaining, the plots soaked in irony, goofball humor, and acting so over the top it's practically upside down. In the best tradition of Taoist philosophy, the two films play their weaknesses as strengths - instead of striving for credibility, they elevate the ridiculosity level so high, push their tongues so far into their cheeks, that all the viewer can do is laugh helplessly. You can't mock these films - they're too busy mocking themselves.
Against these golden benchmarks, The Mummy understandably falls a bit short. Still, it's much better than you might expect given the previews. Don't come here looking for heart-pounding action - while there are fight scenes and wild special effects galore, the tension level is about as frantic as Steven Wright narrating a PBS pledge drive. You always know exactly who is going to die and when, although how is a coin toss.
Imohotep is an Egyptian priest who, 3000 years ago, did the nasty with the King's mistress and was sentenced to the worst punishment they could muster: buried alive with two bushels of flesh-eating scarab beetles. The problem with burying someone like this is that it apparently gives the victim the power to rise from the dead and rain down plagues and death upon the earth.
Which naturally, he does. In the search for ancient gold, a scrappy band of treasure hunters storms into the underground city and triggers Imohotep's resurrection. The mummy storms around after them, trying to rebuild himself with their internal organs. Ick. While too silly to be frightening (except for the Gotcha! scares), The Mummy can get a bit gory at times. But if you're the kind of person who likes a good horror flick, it's certainly nothing you haven't seen before.
Brendan Frasier has earned my respect, as he is surprisingly excellent as Rick O'Connell, the unflappable leader of the merry band of tomb-raiders. He plays the role completely straightfaced, greeting skeleton warriors, fountains of blood and various undead creepiness with a shrug and a "been there, done that" look. He provides the film's extravagant sequences with a deadpan center, and takes more than a few pages from the Indiana Jones book of cool when swinging swords and one-liners.
While occasionally falling into the realm of stupid Schwartzenegger pre-destruction comments, much of the dialogue is self-conscious parody and therefore often genuinely funny. The special effects are rather impressive as well, though obviously computer-generated and not quite as seamless as that of, say, The Matrix. But it works as eye candy, which is exactly what this movie is all about.
The Mummy's biggest flaw is that it's about 20 minutes too long; my patience started to wear a bit during the final sequences. Still, until that point, it was above-average lowbrow entertainment that should definitely appeal to anyone with a honed sense of camp and no concern for Art. It's good fun, which is more than I can say about any film I've seen in the past few weeks. While you're waiting for the backlog of Star Wars fanatics to trickle down so you can see The Phantom Menace, yank that cloth wrapping and give The Mummy a whirl.
- Jared O'Connor
MOVIES
All Content © 1997, 1998, 1999 Jared O'Connor and Michael Baker