Long time when Star Wars Episode I was ruling the movie theaters, there was another film that was another excellent action adventure movie but also one of those films that I had to beg my parents to watch it because my friends at school have all seen it and I wanted to desperately because I was trying to find other ways to trash talk them but they all failed miserably. Anyway, The Mummy was another one of those films from my childhood that I was a huge fan of besides the Star Wars films and the Indiana Jones films and Harrison Ford movies as well. So, The Mummy really one of those first action-adventure movies in my grade school years where I was loving every minute of it and to watch it know it still ages like fine wine, and most importantly this was the go-to Brendan Fraser film I still point to and say that this was his greatest movie.
The Mummy is a rousing, suspenseful and horrifying epic about an expedition of treasure-seeking explorers in the Sahara Dessert in 1925. Stumbling upon an ancient tomb, the hunters unwittingly set loose a 3,000-year-old legacy of terror, which is embodied in the vengeful reincarnation of an Egyptian priest who had been sentenced to an eternity as one of the living dead.
Having been reminded a month or two back about the re-release of The Mummy hitting theaters for its 25th Anniversary release it really in a sense reminded me about how much I loved that movie and that I really needed to go back and watch the 1999 version of the film. The development to the Mummy's remake has gone long back to the 1980's and even the early nineties to maybe 97, and after the disappointing box office of Babe: Pig in the City new Chair Stacey Snider distributed packets detailing the studio's holdings to make a long story short Snider was basically trying to do anything to keep Universal a float even if it means remaking classic films. So, this granted up and coming writer and director Stephen Sommers an opportunity to pitch his idea of The Mummy for years. Instead of just making a straight up horror movie, Sommers decided he wanted to turn the story into a romantic action-adventure epic with a few horror elements for which really is the most genius idea you can really do when it comes to a former monster movie. I remember my first Brendan Fraser film long before The Mummy was Blast from the Past for which is about a man/child who stayed with his parents for a long time in a bomb shelter and went up to the modernized California and fell in love with Alicia Silverstone, and when The Mummy came along I will always say this till the day I die that Brendan Fraser will always be Rick O'Connell because of his performance in the Mummy and it was interesting because before Fraser, actors like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, love birds Affleck and Damon were approached for the roles and to think about that I was like thank you I would never witness that well besides Tom Cruise in a latter Mummy film but that doesn't count in fact don't watch that movie at all. But really what makes Fraser's performance legendary is because it reminds me of a modern day Indiana Jones, an adventurer who is completely in over his head but is fully capable of fighting but most importantly has a compassionate heart and really when you pair him with up and coming actress Rachel Weisz whose both intelligent and beautiful at the same time hell both of their chemistry together were amazing to watch on screen. Speaking of Rachel Weisz, this was another one of those films that just so happens to be my first movie of hers and really that's most certainly a movie worth remembering at a young age because she was funny and beautiful at the same time and that's a guarantee because I remember when she comes out in this Egyptian princess outfit I at a young age was really wishing that I was O'Connell right now. Now both Fraser and Rachel Weisz were both excellent together in the movie no doubt, but if I had to pick an important actor, in the entire movie is the lead Mummy Arnold Vosloo who deep down is not all a villain but more of a tragic character, and sure his character does terrible things but really he's a 3,000 year old Mummy who wanted to bring back his dead girlfriend so they can live forever which is what every man wanted even if it means doing terrible things though let’s not forget that he was cursed, buried alive as well as being eaten alive by flesh eating Scarabs and a young man when you first see that scene when he's about to be closed in his casket forever and all the scarabs begin eating him you thought that's the coolest thing, now watching it you think how bad of a way to go, especially dying like that. Like Star Wars Episode I, The Mummy still ages well, even with the mediocre visual effects now looking back I somewhat wonder why my parents were iffy at first when it comes to watching the movie but I think I can imagine why because of its horror elements but also a half-naked woman who was wearing what I assume to be paint and well her hair covering her knockers which no doubt that was a gorgeous woman aka Patricia Vaslasquez who at the time was beautiful and especially when you watch the second movie does a great job playing a manipulative woman whose also The Mummy's girlfriend so, in all fairness I could understand my parents being iffy about watching the movie and when my Aunt talking to my mom on how great the movie was I still to this day am grateful for my aunt calming my parents down. Even in the year 2024, The Mummy still stands as one of the top greatest Action/Adventure films of all time and deserves to be seen by a generation whose films have really gone downhill in terms of quality so, really the film itself is available to stream on Peacock upon which I'm planning on getting a subscription for after I'm done with a road trip to Disney World but for all of you I would most certainly and highly recommend having yourselves and your kids sit down and watch one of the greatest action adventure films of all time in the late 90's.
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