| THE
MUMMY RETURNS (DVD) |
 2001
- USA
Director: Stephen Sommers
- Movie reviewed by Tom
Anyway, the plot is kind of confusing where the Indiana Jones family finds the evil bracelet of the Scorpion King. Of course the kid tries it on and it locks on his arm and won't come off until 7 days later when the curse becomes really nasty and destroys the world. The boy gets kidnapped, they chase all over Egypt looking for their son while running from the un-dead and the once-crusty priest Imhotep (played again by Arnold Vosloo from the first movie), who returns to life after being encouraged to bust out of a block of amber or some kind of semi-clear blob. I found the movie to be extremely predictable and kind of boring. I don't know how they did it, but somehow this movie was dull even though it was about 90% action and ass-kicking. Rachel Weisz had some of the better fight scenes where she was beating on Imhotep's mistress. I guess she was channeling the ancient pharaoh's daughter since it kept flashing back and forth from the past and present. The special effects in the movie were OK, but not great. I kind of liked how they made the whole desert appear to be covered with what seemed to be millions of soldiers with pointy sticks—but up close it looked pretty bad. The background scenes with the matte paintings of the temples were very obviously just paintings. Things that really bothered me:
Imhotep is DEAD! Don't come back again.... DVD NOTES - by LindaNow, I'm the first to agree with Tom that The Mummy Returns was an astonishingly crappy movie... even for an admitted popcorn flick. But the joys of DVD allow the makers of the film to add so much self-congratulatory doo-dads that you are almost convinced that the flick is not only good, but perfectly enjoyable. The Mummy Returns DVD is chock-full-o-goodies: There is everything from outtakes, to a "making of" mini-documentary about the special effects, to an interview with The Rock (and a sneak peek at his upcoming tie-in movie The Scorpion King), plus even a music video by Live (I didn't even realize there was a song in the movie. Huh.). There was also something mysteriously titled "A Special Message from Oded Fehr" which I got all excited about, thinking it was a little special-somethin' just for me, that Oded finally found a way to contact me through the miracles of technology... but in fact it was just a little segment of Oded pitching for a children's cancer fund or some other such worthy cause. Damn. But the best parts of the DVD are the commentary tracks, and a special hidden feature that I'll get to in a second. The commentary is by the director (who, strangely, often refers to himself in the third person) and the producer. This is really how the movie should be watched, as the comments are twice as entertaining as the film itself. They reveal tidbits like how they agreed that the hot-air balloon in the canyon scene was completely ridiculous (but they thought it worked nonetheless), and how Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velazquez did 75% of the stunt work in their famous bikini-and-gold-clad swordfight scene. Commentary like this is a treat to learn about some of the behind-the-scenes tricks of Hollywood blockbusters. But the best part of the whole DVD is this bizarre vaguely "hidden" gem. In the bonus feature called "Egyptology 201," scroll through the text pages until you come upon an image of a scorpion (or some critter like that). When it highlights and you click on it, you are suddenly taken to this baffling 5-minute documentary about how a real "doctor" mummified a dead man's body in 1994, using the authentic traditional Egyptian methods (including original tools!). This segment was not only gross and creepy, but extremely fascinating. Freakin' fantastic! Aaaahh... the joys of DVDs! |
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Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evie (Rachel Weisz) return
once again to kick some dried up mummy asses. This
time they are married and have a kid who is about 8
years old. They are a family of archaeologists who are
digging around in Egypt searching for the remains of the
Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson / The Rock). In the movie
trailers they make a big deal about The Rock in the
movie, but if you are going to see this movie just for
that reason, you could leave after the first 5 minutes.
He does come back later as a pasty-looking computer
generated image. Couldn't they have just used his real
face and computer enhanced the body?
