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Norman Osborne looks at Universal's THE MUMMY
Alright... thus far on THE MUMMY we had the test screening that wound up with a couple of good responses here at AICN and a couple of negatives over at Dark Horizons. At that screening there were virtually zero visual effects shots finished... but now... there are... and here's a review of that... And as such he had a lot of fun with the film... seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and does some favorable comparisons with certain godly-geekishly-cool movies... Enjoy
While on a break from plotting Peter Parker's doom I attended a screening of
The Mummy last week at Universal Citywalk, so here's my review:
Plot in a nutshell: In ancient Egypt a man (played by the guy who was Lance's
right hand man in Hard Target and took over the Darkman films) has the
ultimate curse put on him after he's caught having an affair with the Pharoh's
bride (a hottie whose barely there outfit had the guys in the crowd cheering).
He is buried alive, never to be released from his eternal torture, yadda yadda
yadda...
Okay, so the movie takes place in 1925 and involves a group of people (led by
Brendan Fraser) who are attempting to uncover a mythical lost city in Egypt
and unfotunately in the process end up freeing mister curse, AKA The Mummy.
Chaos and wackiness ensues.
Sorry, I get bored with the plot explanation. On to my review:
It's a fun movie. It's a B movie in tone. Which to me can be the best types
of theater experiences. Did you see Deep Rising? (same director). Did you
enjoy it? I did. I thought it was a fun, very intentionally campy, tounge in
cheek movie. Well, this is more of the same. Many will find this movie
"stupid." There's no arguing it's silly. But if you can enjoy that purposely
camp tone, you'll like this. Stephen Sommers (I believe that's the directors
name) is a hair away from going all the way over the top like Army of
Darkness, which may have been safer then what he does here which is lots of
silliness, but not SO silly that everyone knows it's suppossed to be I think.
Speaking of Army, this movie echos it at one point near the end. In fact at
certain points many films came to mind based on moments in the movie. Night of
the Living Dead for one. Certainly, the movie The Mummy will be compared to
the most is Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that's not far off. It's a
supernatural action adventure set in the early part of this century, involving
archelogical (sp?) digs gone wrong (dont ya hate when that happens?) And it
all was very fun. It really is a lot of action adventure/horror elements
thrown together in one screwball, silly package. But as I warned, for many it
will just come off as dumb because of it's tone.
The effects are wonderful. Lots of them weren't complete, but the ones that
were kicked ass. The Movieview guy made sure to say that "George Lucas'
Industrial Light and Magic" were working on the FX before the film started,
throwing in King George's name as extra backup I guess.
The acting is all fine. Everyone's fairly over the top, fitting the tone.
Kevin J. O'Conner who played Joey in Deep Rising is back as a similar, though
more evil character. Upon seeing him my roomate and I both went "JO-EY!" (if
you've seen Deep Rising, especially the last scene, you should get that).
And you gotta love when a movie set in 1925 throws in it's hero using two
guns John Woo style (this is the first scene we see Fraser in). The guns of
course only hold six bullets, so what does he do, but drop them and take two
more guns off his belt and continue shooting.
Well I gotta go make some more pumpkin bombs. Till next time...
-NORMAN OSBORN
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I just wanted to say that i'm actually looking forward to this movie. B-type flicks are my thing. Y'know, gratuitous violence, one-liners and such. And i'm glad to see that someone else out there understood that "Deep Rising" was toungue-in-cheek. People take movie waaayy too seriously these days. Kudos to you, m'man!
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Jerry Goldsmith, too? You know that's gonna be some cool music!
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Okay, straight to the experts...you guys. I remeber seeing a movie on a Saturday afternoon on TV in the 70's when I was a kid. The plot is something like this: while building a subway (?) extension beneath a city, workers find alien like bodies (almost cricket like) an investigation shows that they are some how related to Satan. At the end of the movie a giant fire erupts over the city and the flames take the form of Satan's face. I was scared to death. Any one know the name of it? I would be eternally grateful! Thanks.
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You're thinking of Quartermass and the Pit (Different name in the states...Fifty Million Years to Earth?) Excellent movie with some nice sci-fi concepts, I've been looking for the other Quartermass movies but have been unsuccesfull.
Oh, and it wasn't Satan, they were martians...evil martians (are there any other kind?) -
ET was a nice alien. The guy in The Day The Earth Stood Still was nice, Man was the one that was a bit too jumpy. As far as the Mummy goes, I'll definately be THERE the day it opens, NOT at SW:TPM, unless something unforseen takes place. And now that I know Deep Rising is the same kind of movie, I might actually rent it. When seeing the commercials it looked like a badly made, serious action flick. Anyhow, since the report from the set of The Mummy, I believe here onsite, it's been my first choice for the Big Weekend in May. Sounded like some quality work went into the making. Reading that report affected me that much! WooHoo!
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DEEP RISING was crap. Maybe it's just me, but I failed to pinpoint even the slightest shred of redeeming camp value. I liked Famke and the fx, but it was basically a shameless rip off of other (and considerably better) claustrophobic "trapped with a hideous monster" escapist flicks. Just for the record, can anyone tell me how a mutated octopus creature that is roughly the size of a TREX could conveniently ooze its way onto a luxury cruise ship without sinking it in the process? All right, enough DEEP SHIT, let's talk MUMMY. My anticipation for the project has decreased substantially in the last few weeks. If the film is as hammy as the reviewer makes it sound, a RAIDERS comparison is blasphemous. RAIDERS had a lot of fun moments (to label it camp would be pushing it) but Spielberg knew the best way to make the material work was to ultimately shape his vision into a kick ass roller coaster ride with grim undertones. I seriously doubt that anything in THE MUMMY will even be comparable to lets say the ark scene in RAIDERS when all the nazis get incinerated by the ghastly, menacing spirits. If Sommers made RAIDERS he probably would've supplied the spectors with a barrage of groan inducing one liners.
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Alllow me to fill in the brackets by adding that the guy who plays the mummy is no less than South African born actor...Arnold Vosloo. Arnold has been a big dissapointment for all of us here in SA, who had high hops for him when he packed his bags for the oh so green hills of Hollywood.
For those of you who dont know the lovely Charlize Theron (star of Devils Advocate, and the upcoming Astronauts wife) is also from South Africa. And I think its fair to say that she has in her short career already made far more of an impact than our very own Arnie.
So much for male star power.
By the way I think we should all hold thumbs for this movie, it sounds like it could be a worthwile addition to the genre -
Alllow me to fill in the brackets by adding that the guy who plays the mummy is no less than South African born actor...Arnold Vosloo. Arnold has been a big dissapointment for all of us here in SA, who had high hops for him when he packed his bags for the oh so green hills of Hollywood.
For those of you who dont know the lovely Charlize Theron (star of Devils Advocate, and the upcoming Astronauts wife) is also from South Africa. And I think its fair to say that she has in her short career already made far more of an impact than our very own Arnie.
So much for male star power.
By the way I think we should all hold thumbs for this movie, it sounds like it could be a worthwile addition to the genre -
I loved Deep Rising, I'm just mad that I waited 'till it was on video (damned bad advertising) and I FINALLY saw the Mummy trailer on the big screen the second time I saw Wing Commander last night so I can't wait for this one either.
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ANYTHING with Treat Williams is "certainly enjoyable - in a stupid sort of way". DIDNT YOU GUYS SEE "DEAD HEAT" with Treat Williams and Joe Piscapo? That movie was LAME spelled S-T-U-P-I-D but it was FUNNY as hell!! Joe Piscapo on returning from the dead: "I'd love to come back as the seat on a girls bike" man thats a kick-ass line!! Now onto the "Mummy", from the trailer (which is all I have to go on) it LOOKS like a serious action adventure film and I think a lot of people will feel disapointed when they see it. Kinda like I felt "let down" after seeing "Armageddon" (I was expecting "The Right Stuff II") The trailer is the only thing we have to go on and if the movie betrays us, a lot of people will be pissed off.
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I didn't mind DEEP RISING, it was an enjoyable time waster, but I saw it for free and with very low expectations. With THE MUMMY, I've been expecting a decent RAIDERS clone. Maybe I should temper my enthusiasm to expect something more along the lines of DEEP RISING.
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"there's nothing wrong with the occaisonal dumb film."--you. OCCAISONAL?!?!? Where have you been? EVERY movie (well ok, just 94%) is DUMB!! Even the movie that try to "grab a bag of oscars" are DUMB!! Look at Saving Private Ryan!! Dumb dumb DUMB! Why do you think that that is the huge fave over THE THIN RED LINE? Because the THIN RED LINE requires multiple viewings to get--something that the DUMB academy cant handle; therefore they go for the big DUMB movies that grab at your throat like TITANIC and SPR! Why is SPR dumb? Well the cemetary sequences are so fucking transparent only a fool would fall for them. "If I show a slow motion shot of the American flag waving and then a close-up of an old man's eyes beginning to water, people will bawl their eyes out, call me a genious, and give me a dozen oscars!"--spielberg. DUMB! God, Americans are such fucking saps for anything thats DUMB and sentimental! I wish Spielberg made SPR more realistic. Thats right, the "most realistic war movie ever" was just Hollywood crap in my opinion. True, the battle scenes were brilliant, but everything else was Hollywood bullshit. I wish Roberto Rossellinni (sp?) could have been reserected to direct all of the non-battle scenes. That was a guy who knew how to do realism. WWII didnt have close-ups of movie stars faces! God, how can anyone believe the "realism" of war when all of a sudden Tom Hanks' big mug is on screen? Tom Hanks is a movie star! He wasnt in WWII! True realism uses unknown actors and since the script for SPR SUCKED, they shouldve just made the film 100% realist and used all unknowns and had no close-ups (only American films are so in love with facial close-ups because only American studios are controlled by actors instead of producers/filmmakers). Another reason why SPR is DUMB: How can Matt Damon flashback the entire movie is he was only present for the very end of it?! It reminds me of JAWS 4: THE REVENGE when Mrs Brody has flashbacks of shark attacks that she was not present to witness. DUMB DUMB DUMB! Why didnt anyone else notice this gigantic flaw in story plausibilty?! God, by shamelessly trying to pull every emotional string possible, Spielberg destroyed his own story's credibilty. But no one cares. Because everyone's too DUMB to notice!! DUMB DUMB DUMB!!! HOW CAN YOU SAY THERE ARENT ENOUGH DUMB MOVIES BEING MADE?! EVERY MOVIE (well ok, just about 94%) IS DUMB!!! AND IM FUCKING SICK OF IT!! I want a smart movie that actually attempts to make the audience think! DUMB DUMB DUMB! WHY IS EVERYTHING IS SO DUMB? Now Im repeating myself but how in Gods name can you honestly suggest that there arent enough DUMB movies being made?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!? People like you discourage me so much. I wonder if my career as a filmmaker is doomed because my films will probably be thought of as "weird" or "innassessable"(sp!) just because people are too DUMB to put more than two fucking seconds of thought into any movie and if they dont "get it" the first time, watching it again is totally out of the question! I just read Heart of Darkness and oh man did it kick ass. But i admit, the first time i read it i didnt get it. so i read it again and oh man did it kick ass. Film is like that too but people are too DUMB to give film the same analytical chance that they give other art forms. Who am i kidding? No one analyzes art anymore... DUMB DUMB DUMB!!! How can you want more DUMB movies!! AHHHHHHH!! Im tweaking!!! I need a breather or i might bust a nut-
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I was at the same screening - I got booted from my seat in favor of Edgar Bronfman Jr. (who seemed to enjoy all the hoots and hollers from the rambunctious test audience). It exceeded my expectations in a big way - great fun and perfect summer fare. Who needs another installment of "Indiana Jones" anyhow? Really loved the "sand wave" and the scarab beetles that, quite literally, get under your skin. Fantastic special effects. Can't wait to see the final version.
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Felt compelled to reply to the SPR question, also posed by William Goldman in the latest Premiere, "How can Matt Damon flashback the entire movie is he was only present for the very end of it?!" Is there anything in the film that says Ryan is flashing back on things he witnessed first-hand? Isn't it quite possible that Ed "Kookie" Burns or Jeremy Davies could have filled him in later on all the sh*t they went through to find him?
Besides, NO single character was present for all the events shown in the film, just as most flashbacks take some liberties with true character viewpoint. In "Out Of Sight", for example, when Jennifer Lopez has the dream about Clooney taking the bath, there's no way she could know the exact floor plan of Buddy's apartment. Or, to pick a bigger narrative glitch, since nobody's in the room when Kane dies, how does anyone know his last word was "Rosebud"? If Ryan's voice was narrating the film, I'd find this a much bigger structural flaw.
And "WWII didnt have close-ups of movie stars faces!" may be one of the single dumbest sentences I've ever read. It didn't actually have close-ups of anyone's faces. It was, in fact, a war. -
This is cool. I'm glad there are other people out there who enjoyed DEEP RISING. It was a fun movie that didn't take itself too seriously. And that's the point. While all of L'Auteur's points are right on, he does suffer from the problem of expecting every film to be High Art. He doesn't understand that some flicks are just suppossed to be Fun. Hence, he lacks an ability to apprecite them. I hate stupidity in film just as much as he, but when a film establishs the fact that it wants to be entertaining in a tounge-in-cheek kinda way, I have no problem with it. DEEP RISING is such a flick, and it looks like THE MUMMY will be the same. I also thought THE AVENGERS was in the same mold, but apparently I'm the only person on the planet who enjoyed that one. I guess being a hard core anlgophile helps. As for SPR, it's not going to win best picture for it's Dumb screenplay, we all know it's going to win for the impressionistic battle scenes. Just as TITANIC won because it's an old-fashioned Hollywood epic with breakthrough SFX. If you really want to see who had the better over-all film, look at who wins the Screenplay awards. Those are always a better guide to quality.
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Well, he's got the buff spikes chillin' on top of his melon, obviously bro, and--dude, he's checking her cheeks! oh oh!--and he's got his own personal holding company full of fundage, bro, that he weases off of me. He has 18-inch bi's--mine are only 4--plus he walks like this [struts in a manly fashion]. The nugs fully lose it.
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You aint the only one. I also liked The Avengers. It was a weird and campy twist to the spy genre. So what if it wasn't as good the tv series, atleast it was way way better than snake eyes, soldier, apt pupil, practical magic, wing commander, at first sight, 54,etc...
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Sorry I spelled your name wrong. P.S. I hope The Mummy has tonnes of gratuitous nudity, especially that first scene in the beginning (the affair).
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The movie medium was supposedly meant to only entice my pretentiousness. I'm too intelligent for all, oh excuse me 94%, of movies these days. So intelligent that I'd rather watch more commentary tracks and read film study text books "then" learn proper use of grammar and spelling "to". That way, I can parrot off random bits of movie analyzations, that are straight from said textbooks and commentary tracks, to impress you all and make myself feel better to compensate for my insecurities. "Your" all idiots for liking such movies that can be (gasp) fun. Meanwhile, I'll just continue to sit here and swear my allegiance to only those filmmakers that are now considered safe to like without losing credibility.
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First, let me say hi to Betsy, the NRG clipboard lady I accosted when I went to the screening. "Can I be in the focus group?" I begged. "Shhhh!!" she said, looking away, as if I'd uttered an incantation that would rise the dead. "We don't say those words around here. How do you know about focus groups?" The next fifteen minutes found me trying to convince this soul-sold woman that I'd never heard of the internet and that I wanted to provide the kind of happy lowest-common-denominator input that would help the MUMMY sell more movie tickets. As the curtains rose on the screening, I was certain I would witness one of the BIG THREE of 1999. The introduction was kickass, I'll grant them that. And the battle sequence that followed, though ungraceful, was certainly the only jaw-dropping piece of cinema I've seen this year save the Ep1 trailer. But come the closing of the curtain, I left without blowing a kiss to Betsy and her focus group. This film wasn't worth saving. The only thing that makes it comparable to RAIDERS are the nostalgia-pandering wipe transitions and the cool CGI recreations of 1925 Cairo. But this film is far from a classic. It's all camp. No amount of research tinkering could make it a better film--it's lost. DEEP RISING indeed. Who wants to see more of this shite when our filmmakers could rise beyond it? Or is that artistic transcendance reserved only for directors that own special effects houses and make WWII/holocaust movies? Robert K S
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Some movies are turned into "I'm cool because I say it sucks like everyone else" flicks, and I usually don't jump on that bandwagon. The Avengers cold have been better (like having a tighter story), but it was a great adaption and fairly entertaining - if you're used to it's style. Soldier wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either. Worth one watch. Had fun with the DVD's director commentary (I rented it - and those director commentaries rock). I just saw Wing Commander today, and I was suprised. It wasn't that bad, in fact it was good (I think). It was definetly better then Lost in Space, which did way better then WC is doing. I think in a few years people with open minds who see WC once or twice will realize it was pretty good - like watching a videogame my ass. That thing wasn't all effects and explosions, it was shot on $30m, and actually had realistic character interaction. A couple stupid lines, nothing incredibly original (like Star Wars was), a little predictiblity, but that can describe tons of movies.
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If you're going to maintain that 94% of all Hollywood movies are *ahem* DUMB, you might want to make sure that said post expressing that sentiment is not akin to the ramblings of a thirteen year old who just discovered the "auteur" theory. I've long since wondered why someone would adopt such a monicker and then proceed to ramble nearly incoherently on the subject at hand. This is not to say the person in question didn't make valid remarks (even though I've read them before, and offered up by different journalists,) but their point is, in my opinion, nullified when the messenger can't express it intellegently. As for THE MUMMY, I meant to say earlier that I'm still anticipating it (almost solely on f/x work alone,) but I think we should do the film a favor, as others have suggested, and stop building it up as a worthy companion piece to the Indiana Jones Trilogy. Meet it at its own campy level, and I doubt it will disappoint.
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I am under the impression that people have the ability to like fun, dumb movies like Snake Eyes, or Practical Magic, and like arthouse films like Your Friends and Neighbors, or Buffalo '66. I thought Buffalo 66 was one of the greatest films ever made, it was arthouse and you really had to watch, but I also like the contrived and campy Snake Eyes, it WAS an enjoyable film. So to debate one way or the other is stupid, because it's like the Elvis vs. Beatles scene in Pulp Fiction, you can like dumb/funny movies and you can like arthouse movies, but you can't like them both equally, and no one is to be blamed for liking one more than the other. People have differant preferances to what they like, and they like what they like, they're not dumb for making that descision. I personally, think the Avengers was the biggest mistake WB's could have made at the time they made it, but I don't think anyone is stupid for liking it, and I know several people who did like it. I know A LOT of people who hated Buffalo '66, but they aren't dumb, and I would hope they wouldn't think I was dumb for liking it.
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I too enjoy the best of both worlds (arthouse and campy films) and I'm a happier man for it. I don't judge people's opinions (although sometimes I want to...badly) and I hope I won't be judged either. Besides, even if only "6%" of all films are good, then, for me, they make up for all the lameass ones!
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I believe it was Pauline Kael who said, "The movies produce great art so seldom, that if you can't also appreciate great trash, you are in the wrong business." I'm mangling the wording, but that's the general idea.
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Good Lord....
Well, seeing as you need to obsess on all things DUMB, I've got a great example of that! The letter you decided to post is a GREAT example.
Christ man, take a pill and relax...that heart attack you're working on will hold off for a few more years.
Oh...it'd be productive to actually GET A LIFE!
Love ya man!
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:::laughing ass off::: Y'know, this just cracks me up. No one enjoys movies for what they are anymore. Just movies. An escape from everyday life (nomatter how bad the film, it gives you some time away from reallity). I'm not sure if i want to post anything anymore. Everyone's too critical. It IS funny to watch you all go at it, though. Look at yourselves. Like a munch of monkeys criticizing a banana. "Hmmm, too yellow". "No, too green". "Too mushy". "No, too hard". Just EAT it, digest it, and shit that sucker out!!! LOL I swear, you people crack me up! :D
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Unless Universal pulls their heads out of their collective asses they are going to go the way of Carolco and Orion. I liked Deep Rising. I thought it was fun and over the top, but I expected nothing from it going in. Not the same with The Mummy. Universal's marketing machine is pushing this to be a serious horror/adventure film in an Indiana Jones vein, when apparently it's a slapstick pseudo-spoof of the genre. Does anyone honestly want to see this? Do we REALLY need another special effects driven movie that is dumb as hell? I was psyched for this and now I barely give a shit. It reminds me of "The 5th Element". Super serious ads hooked you into seeing a wacky mess of a film. I liked "Element" overall, I just wish I'd known going in what to expect.
I hope I'm wrong about The Mummy, and those ads rock, but I think Universal has a huge bomb on their hands. Make that ANOTHER huge bomb.
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