Four or five times the charm with this perennial DVD release, the upcoming new ‘Mummy’ pic provides the perfect excuse to slap on a few new features, a free movie ticket and call it the day. There’s a lot of bang for the buck here, though, for those who didn’t pick up the ‘Ultimate Edition’ a few years back.
The epitome of the 90s blockbuster, Stephen Sommers offers up a B-movie take on the classic 1932 Universal Horror pic of the same name with intentions clearly more aimed at the Indiana Jones serial variety than the atmospheric mood of the original.
At the time of its release in 1999, I remember many a film geek being disappointed that Sommers didn’t make it more of a horror film than the family-safe adventure film it ended up being.
Yet, I always appreciated the bombastic, glorified direction Sommers took – I remember sitting in the theater with my girlfriend (now wife…thanks Stephen!) giddy at the prospect that we could have a good time without relying on the postmodern annoyances of films like ‘Scream’.
I even remember the preacher of my wife’s church sitting in the front row and chowing down on popcorn with a huge smile on his face throughout the film without one concern that someone might recognize and judge him. Regardless of what you may think about the moral ambiguities, there’s something to be said for a film designed to entertain everybody – nobody gets excluded.
Fresh off the box-office bomb ‘Deep Rising’ - a cult favorite of mine that has Treat Williams face off against a giant sea monster aboard an abandoned cruise ship – Stephen Sommers got afforded an impressive budget to bring his vision of ‘The Mummy’ alive which starts off with a fun prologue (and homage to the original) that sets up the High Priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) as a corpse to be reckoned with.
In love with the pharaoh’s concubine Anck Su Namun (Patricia Velasquez), Imhotep finds himself the victim of the worst Egyptian torture at the time, a mummification process so horrendous that it barely be hinted at in the feature (my suspicions lie with the PG-13 rating however) and if Imhotep is ever liberated, his malevolent power will unleash the 10 plagues. Not a good idea then.
We cut to the 1920s some months later…where we find our square-jawed hero Rick O’Connell in the foreign legion fighting against black-garbed natives led by Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) with the backdrop of Hamanaptra, the city of the dead where Imhotep was buried. Ardeth Bay wants to make sure Imhotep stays buried but Rick won’t be thwarted for long.
A close call comes in the form of a noose in Cairo, however, for deserting the legion but he’s quickly rescued by a bumbling librarian Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) who learns of Rick through her gauche brother Jonathan (John Hannah) who lifted an octagonal key from Rick which might mean immeasurable treasures in Hamanaptra. With the three departing on the Nile for the legendary site, they get some competition with some American cowboys and Ardeth Bay who will continue to stop at nothing.
Needless to say, once everybody shows up, we get a handful of perfect victims for our ‘mummy’ who sets out to rectify his decomposition by acquiring what he needs – eyes, tongue, teeth, etc. – from his victims.
From here the action is pretty much non-stop and leaves little time to scrutinize some of the more silly transgressions. We also get some fun special f/x sequences in the form of a few plagues and large, nasty bugs quick to consume anybody that gets in their path.
It’s a well-made, gloriously silly crowd pleaser that is the very definition of check your brain at the door and enjoy the ride. Brendan Fraser is well cast as the buffoonish hero even if a little more edge wouldn’t have hurt. Weisz adds some gorgeous bumbling charm to the pic and John Hannah and Kevin J. O’Conner provide the hit-and-miss comic relief.
The film is presented in 2.35: 1 anamorphic widescreen and this is one great-looking transfer for standard def – very sharp. We get a nice Dolby Digital 5. 1 track but the DTS track that was on the ‘Ultimate Edition’ a few years back has been dropped.
This 2-Disc deluxe edition is almost exhausting with the amount of extras included. First up is three commentaries, the first from Stephen Sommers and editor Bob Ducsay which was on the original ‘Collector’s Edition’ DVD release in 1999. Next up is a commentary from Brendan Fraser only and a third track with actors Oded Fehr, Kevin J. O’Connor and Arnold Vosloo.
These two tracks made the ‘Ultimate Edition’ cut. A few Deleted Scenes round out the extras on disc one.
One of the few new additions is the Sneak Peek at the upcoming ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’. A quick three minutes, there’s not much there. Numerous featurettes are next with ‘An Army to Rule the World Part 1’, ‘Unraveling the Legacy of the Mummy’ which looks at the history of Universal horror films, ‘Visual and Special Effects Formation’, ‘Building a Better Mummy’, an almost hour-long doc on the flick (I remember this from the ‘Collector’s Edition’ and it’s a well-made piece), ‘A Storyboard to Screen Comparison’ and a ‘Photograph Montage’.
A few interactive features are ‘Egyptology’ which provides info on the titular country and its culture, Gods and so on and ‘Pharaoh Lineage’ which covers info on the history of Pharaohs.
We get a theatrical trailer and lastly a now commonplace digital copy of the movie. I’m not quite sure the merit of a digital copy but I suppose it can’t hurt? And don’t forget the free movie ticket to ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’! Worth up to $7.50, you better hope you’re catching a matinee in Iowa if you don’t want anything to come out of pocket.
So, yep, we get a third major release of this film on DVD but for newcomers that never got around to picking up a previous version, there’s not too much wrong with this release. A bounty of extras and a great transfer, the only concern might be the lack of a DTS audio track that was on the ‘Ultimate Edition’. The movie remains as fun and mindless as ever.
The Mummy (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, this version of the DVD is not available in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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