The Mummy (1999)

The Mummy (1999)

7/10

Starring

Brendan Fraser

Rachael Weisz

John Hannah

Directed by Stephen Sommers

You cannot tell me this movie was not just one of the best things that happened in the year 1999. The acting was amazing, Brendan Fraser was at his best and the comedy in this movie were well timed. Every time a joke was thrown the movie splatted it all over the screen making you laugh hard.

The movie had everything, the stereotype of looking down on a woman’s ability to lead, the memorable supporting cast and an awesome bad guy, in Imhotep.

The movie plot starts when O’Connell (Fraser) and his men were surrounded by the Medjai at an ancient burial site in Egypt. The men after them were the protectors of that site not wanting anyone to go digging there and bring back the curse of Imhotep.

O’Connell escapes and he is caught and place in prison in Cairo.

In Egypt Evie (Weisz) was a librarian, she and her brother were more interested in being known and were looking for the burial site to find the book of the dead. Her brother found a map to that site which came with an odd looking sought of key, which he stole from someone who got it from O’Connell.

They got O’Connell out of prison and they began a hunt for the city of Hamunaptra.

In the city was buried Imhotep a high priest of Pharaoh, who in 1290 BC had an affair with Anck-su-Namun, the mistress of Pharaoh Seti I.

When Pharaoh found out, Imhotep and Anck-su-Namun assassinate him and Imhotep flees, while Anck-su-Namun commits suicide so that Imhotep could resurrect her.

Imhotep tries, but was 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 Imhotep's return.

My favorite thing in the movie is the chemistry between the cast. The one between Brendan Fraser’s character Rick O'Connell and Rachael Weisz’s, Evie on screen was miraculous.

Now then there is the John Hannah's character Jonathan, his chemistry with everyone else was something like a needle in the haystack, it is nothing something you see in every movie. His character was all over the place making things great, he was the leader of the comedic relief. He was the guy picking-pockets and the way he blended in with the followers of Imhotep, at one time in the movie is a masterpiece scene.

Then there is Beni, the one guy we all love to hate, but his survival instinct we all wish we had. This was a movie with many characters all giving out A+ performances. The movie was a commercial success for Universal and they went ahead to make two more sequels The Mummy Returns (2001) and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), before trying a remake in 2017.

For me, there has not been a mummy movie this good, this frightening and this exciting.