The Mummy (1999)

Getting back to the films of 1999, I turn to The Mummy, directed by Stephen Sommers, which was one of the big hits of the summer. It is a remake of sorts of the 1932 version, with basically the same premise but much, much, much more action.

The film begins with a prologue in which Imhotep, high priest to the Pharaoh, dallies with his queen. He is mummified and buried alive in a sarcophagus with flesh-eating scarabs. Flash forward to the 1920s, when an Egyptologist (Rachel Weisz) teams with a ne'er-do-well adventurer (Brendan Fraser) to find the lost City of the Dead, and in doing so, revive Imhotep, who is not happy.

There have been several versions of this tale (one a few years ago with Tom Cruise bombed) but this one was successful enough to spawn two sequels and a prequel. It is certainly not great cinema, but it is fun. What makes the film work is that it offers exactly what it promises--action scene after action scene. When things start to lull a bit, boom! Something attacks, or beetles scamper by the thousands.

Like other mummy films, and perhaps even more so, The Mummy of 1999 highlights the hubris of Westerners coming in and digging up ancient burial sites. Weisz, who plays a winsome character with great integrity, nonetheless goofs by reading from the text that reanimates Imhotep. There is a group of Egyptians who are tasked with keeping the city a secret and Imhotep from awakening, and they are rightly pissed with these interlopers. Every version of The Mummy I've seen has some of this anti-imperialism attitude.

The Mummy is the perfect example of what is called a popcorn movie. It doesn't require a lot of thinking, though there are many smart characters (and a few dumb ones) and recalls Raiders Of The Lost Ark and the serials that inspired it.