You can’t tell
me this movie wasn’t one of the best things that happened in 1999. The acting
was amazing—Brendan Fraser was at his best, and the comedy in this movie was
perfectly timed. Every time a joke was thrown, the movie splattered it all over
the screen, making you laugh hard.
The movie had everything: the stereotype of underestimating a woman’s ability
to lead, a memorable supporting cast, and an awesome bad guy in Imhotep.
The movie’s plot
starts when O’Connell (Fraser) and his men are surrounded by the Medjai at an
ancient burial site in Egypt. The men chasing them are the protectors of that
site, determined to stop anyone from digging there and unleashing the curse of
Imhotep.
O’Connell escapes but is eventually caught and placed in a Cairo prison.
In Egypt, Evie
(Weisz) is a librarian. She and her brother are more interested in fame and are
searching for the burial site to find the Book of the Dead. Her brother finds a
map to that site, which comes with an odd-looking key he stole from someone who
got it from O’Connell.
They break O’Connell out of prison, and the hunt for the city of Hamunaptra
begins.
In the city lies
Imhotep, a high priest of the Pharaoh who, in 1290 BC, had an affair with
Anck-su-Namun, the mistress of Pharaoh Seti I.
When the Pharaoh finds out, Imhotep and Anck-su-Namun assassinate him. Imhotep
flees, while Anck-su-Namun commits suicide so that Imhotep can resurrect her.
Imhotep tries to bring her back but is stopped by Seti’s bodyguards, the
Medjai. Imhotep is sentenced to suffer the Hom Dai, the worst of Egyptian
curses—buried alive with flesh-eating scarab beetles. His burial site is kept
under surveillance by the Medjai to prevent his return.
My favorite
thing in the movie is the chemistry between the cast. The dynamic between
Brendan Fraser’s Rick O’Connell and Rachel Weisz’s Evie on screen was
miraculous.
Then there’s John Hannah’s character, Jonathan. His chemistry with everyone
else was like finding a needle in a haystack—it’s not something you see in
every movie. His character was all over the place, making things great. He was
the leader of the comedic relief, the guy picking pockets, and the way he
blended in with Imhotep’s followers at one point in the movie is a masterpiece
scene.
Then there’s
Beni, the guy we all love to hate, but his survival instinct is something we
all wish we had. This was a movie with many characters, all delivering A+
performances. The movie was a commercial success for Universal, and they went
on to make two more sequels: The
Mummy Returns (2001) and The
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), before attempting a
remake in 2017.
For me, there
hasn’t been a mummy movie this good, this frightening, and this exciting.
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