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Moriarty examines THE MUMMY
Well, I've just acquired my tickets to see this movie next Tuesday, so I'll be giving you a look at it from my eyes then, but for now.... It's Moriarty's eyes you'll have to gaze with... Don't worry if everything seems a bit atmospheric, if the world seems a bit darker... It's just the vision of an evil genius... go with it.... flow with it... Succumb to the Professor's will....
Hey, Head Geek...
"Moriarty" here.
Summer is finally here again, and I don't just mean
for the first time since last year.
When I was young, summer movies were something
special. Or at least they seemed it. I was spoiled,
though. I was seven when the first STAR WARS was
released. I had SUPERMAN after that, then EMPIRE
STRIKES BACK, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, TIME BANDITS,
SUPERMAN II, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, EXCALIBUR -- all of
these priming me for what I consider the last great
summer movie summer, 1982.
America was in love with E.T. that summer, but I
preferred POLTERGEIST. More importantly, the two
films I loved most that summer bombed. THE THING and
BLADE RUNNER were critical disasters and financial
failures, and I was dumbfounded. America didn't get
Steve Martin's brilliant DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID,
but they sure did like FIREFOX with Clint Eastwood. I
felt lost. It was the first time the movies I loved
hadn't ruled the box office. My tastes took a radical
step away from the mainstream. At the same time,
Hollywood lost me on the "obvious" hits. There have
been plenty of great summer movies since -- don't get
me wrong. ALIENS, THE FIFTH ELEMENT, JURASSIC PARK,
THE FLY, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, BATMAN RETURNS,
THE ABYSS, T2, and plenty of others. There just
hasn't been a summer that seemed to come together for
everyone, where everytime you went to the movies, it
seemed to work.
Well, for the first time since '82, I'm getting the
feeling that summer is really here. I mean, MATRIX is
by any rational definition a "summer movie," even if
it was a March release. I've seen and thoroughly
enjoyed AUSTIN POWERS 2, BIG DADDY, THE BLAIR WITCH
PROJECT, IRON GIANT, and AMERICAN PIE among others,
and I've still got EYES WIDE SHUT, THE HAUNTING, RUN
LOLA RUN (which I will be reviewing very soon), LIMBO,
SUMMER OF SAM, PRINCESS MONONOKE, MYSTERY MEN, and THE
FIGHT CLUB to look forward to. Based on what I've
seen so far, we are finishing up the decade on a high
note in every way. Even the weaker pictures like
TARZAN are better than average. With a strong lineup
like this in the wings, summer has to get off to a
strong start. Yes, THE PHANTOM MENACE is just around
the corner, but I ain't waiting. I want my summer
NOW!
Thank God for THE MUMMY.
I have recently begun a mass brainwashing campaign. I
sent harmless looking flyers out to producers all over
town, each of them actually an elaborate hypothermal
hypnosis card that bends the mind of the recipient to
my will. Thanks to this approach, my phone rang last
week, and I heard the voice of Sean Daniel, producer
of THE MUMMY. Mumbling, "Im-ho-tep... Im-ho-tep..."
between words, he managed to say something about a
screening of his film... first showing of the locked
print... Wednesday night... and then a theater name.
Not wanting to push him too hard on his first call in,
I used the sleep word on Daniel. My line went dead,
and I started making arrangements.
One week later, my henchmen and I slipped into the
theater with no problems, settling in for what I hoped
was going to be an entertaining Saturday afternoon
matinee type film, the kind I loved so much at the age
of 12. From the moment the Universal logo gave way to
the blinding sun, pulling back to reveal an Egypt as
elaborate as anything PRINCE OF EGYPT showed us, as
perfect as any shots of Naboo I've seen so far, I was
hooked. I not only got exactly what I wanted, I was
genuinely surprised by my reaction.
As the movie's rousing psuedo-LAWRENCE OF ARABIA setup
plays out, I felt the years melt away, and I was 12
again, looking up at the big screen, not thinking
about all the rumors about the film or the script
drafts I read or the FX tests I saw or the stories
Harry told me about the set or all the recent shuffle
at Universal or any of the rest of the crap, the
baggage that any of us who deal in this stuff every
day carry into a screening. It was summer. The movie
in front of me was a real, old-fashioned summer movie,
making no apologies for entertaining me.
Writer/director Stephen Sommers aims for the back wall
of the stadium with this one, and I'd say he finally
puts it all together in a way that guarantees him a
step up to the A-list.
This film has such an
infectious, willing sense of fun that only the most
hardened, jaded gorehound, grousing about the PG-13 is
going to leave unsatisfied on some level.
Brendan Fraser is having a very good run of films
right now. This is his first major picture since GODS
& MONSTERS (I wouldn't count BLAST FROM THE PAST as
major), and he plays the dashing adventurer with an
easy, lived-in charm. He doesn't oversell it at any
point, and the movie is so much better for it. Some
actors would have hammed this up and tried to play it
as a comedy. Fraser stays perfectly grounded from
moment to moment, and he sets a tone that the rest of
the cast match note for note. Rachel Weisz is the
kind of actress who I've seen and known of for a
while, but who's never really made an impression on
me... well... certain scenes in STEALING BEAUTY
notwithstanding. Here, she's a worthy successor to
the mold that Karen Allen set in RAIDERS, which no one
else was able to play again. She's adorable, but she
can handle herself and is no screamer. Weisz never
once plays this in helpless mode, and it makes her
immensely likable. It also helps that Sommers doesn't
make her the bumbling bookworm her first scene
implies. Her brother, played by FOUR WEDDINGS AND A
FUNERAL's John Hannah, is the film's most consistently
rewarding comic presence. He's the slightly drunken,
slightly shady brother who sets the whole thing in
motion, but Hannah's no klutz, either. When it's time
for THE MUMMY to be serious, it's serious. When it's
time for the characters to try and be smart, they do.
You actually want these characters to live not because
they are the "good guys," but because you like them.
They win your rooting interest over the course of the
film.
Conversely, the film's villains are played ably by
Arnold Vosloo, Kevin J. O'Connor, and a shitload of
groovy ILM special effects. Nick Dudman did a fair
amount of live-action mummy work that really sells the
illusion of the title creatures, but make no mistake
-- ILM's work here is as subtly groundbreaking as the
big guns they're rolling out later this month. CGI
makeup may not be perfect yet, but it's pretty damn
cool, and there are some really inventive moments
involving it in the film (watch for Vosloo's scarab
snack -- tasty) that add a visual snap to the picture
that pushes it into geek heaven. Yes, you've seen
some great stuff in the trailers. There's plenty more
of it in the film. Vosloo provides an interesting
human center to the fireworks, with his almost-chubby
frame and his Billy Zane eyes. I liked his presence
in the picture, and the fact that he doesn't speak
English (subtitles, folks) is very, very cool. Thank
you for not having a 4,000 year old creature of evil
take an afternoon to watch TV or listen to a radio and
somehow "absorb" our language. Thank you for just
having the common sense to treat your own concept with
enough respect to ground it in reality whenever
possible. I liked the moment where the sniveling
Benny (imagine if Sapito from RAIDERS had survived for
the whole movie, always trying to screw Indy in any
way possible) accidentally stumbles across a way of
talking to the resurrected Imhotep. O'Connor is
turning into Sommers' mascot after doing this and DEEP
RISING back to back, and I liked him here more than I
have before in anything. He's like a live action Ren,
complete with the fez.
The story is simple, well-told, and never works too
hard to overwhelm. The scares are serious, but not
too severe for younger genre fans, who are going to go
absolutely nuts for this movie. I would imagine that
any of us who love the old Harryhausen films are going
to be enjoying this film long after this summer.
There's a great last sequence involving some
reanimated Egyptian soldiers that is just stunning.
Fraser's interaction with them is seamless, and the
actual creature animation is handled with real wit and
style. It's nice that ILM didn't just farm this film
out to trainees while the "real" guys worked on STAR
WARS. Adrian Biddle's photography is as lush as his
work for Ridley Scott, and Jerry Goldsmith's score is
appropriately exciting, even if I can't hum a note of
it right now due to the fact that "Duel of the Fates"
is stuck in my head. DAMN YOU, JOHN WILLIAMS, FOR
BEING SO TALENTED!
What can I say to sum up? Guys, sit back and enjoy it
all. There's so much money to go around this summer,
and the studios are working hard. Yes... there's
going to be a few WILD WILD WESTs and DEEP BLUE SEAs
we don't want to step in, but for the most part it
looks like one of those magical harmonious times when
all is right, and we benefit. To my mind, that's a
good thing. Maybe that's what we need right now.
Stephen Sommers tapped into that pure joy that came
from seeing a movie when you were young, when it was
all so big, so easy, so much fun. Tap into a bit of
it yourself next weekend. Hell, if you want to
splurge, try ELECTION as a perfect counterpoint, a
small film that's nothing but character, executed as
perfectly in its own way as THE MUMMY is.
Right now, I have to go figure out how I'm going to
get into a press screening of STAR WARS. Until
then...
"Moriarty" out.
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+ Expand All
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I've been telling people to go see this ever since I read about the first test screening some months back on this sight. But the only negative word I have ever heard has been the fact that this is a "typical summer crap fest" (and that comment came from the more intelligent and eloquently spoken crowd). Now I can equate it to the Indiana Jones franchise in a sense that people can understand and appreciate. I'm happy that my former employer has finally written and released something that they carefully tested and re-did until perfection (unlike, say, "Kull: The Conqueror"). Go see this film. Go see "Idle Hands". Have a fun summer and don't wait ever moment standing in line for Episode 1, because you know that someone had already bought your seat out and is willing to scalp it to you for $100 anyway. One last thing: I live here in L.A. and feel WAY out of the loop on advance screenings. If Moriarty, LaneMeyers or any of you other people trapped in entertainment hell will me could just send me a little info. on press screenings and the what-not, I'd appreciate it. (Try "mulder@mediaone.net-- usually works better.)
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If this movie is as good as he toots it up, this will probably be the best year for movies in a LONG time. Aside from a new Star Wars, Kubrick's swan song this year is shaping up well. Kudos to M. for his detailed and interesting review.
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Moriarty if you don't know why BLADERUNNER was a critical flop,i'll tell you,it's BORING!.It's so slow,weird and there's too much irrelevant talking.If there had been 2 flying car chases,one in the middle and one at the end,then it would have been a worldwide hit.The MUMMY is better than the 2 INDY sequels,cos they're both crap!.And since when is JURASSIC PARK good,it's one of the most dissappointing movies i've seen.Mind you,it's better than a 4 hour SCORSESE MOVIE,Full of nonstop voiceovers.BRING ON DEAD is gonna be crap.DINO is gonna be 6hours of voiceovers,the same applies to GANGS OF NEW YORK,talk about repeating yourself.SCORSESE must be forced to RETIRE!!!!!!.
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Thanks, M, for not giving away the film with your review. It's seems that of late, the vast majority of "reviews" that I've seen are actually "book reports." "Here's my review: This happens in the film, then that happens in the film, and, surprise, at the end everybody dies!" That's not a fuckin' review. That's a "Cliff's Notes" cheat sheet. So thanks to Moriarty for painting an abstract representation of the film, conveying the tone, mood, and over-all quality of the movie, without painting a detailed portrait, enumerating characters, plot twists, and dialogue. Keep 'em coming, M!
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The evil genius is soooo right about 1982, and especially about Blade Runner, The Thing and Poltergeist. I had so much fun that summer I'm still dizzy.
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...to M. for a great review and bombay for a 16 year olds perspective on movies!
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Moriarty, do you know when you are going to test screen END OF DAYS? And please, try not to rip that film apart until you've seen it. EOD could surprise you, just like THE MUMMY. Also, do you know if Universal will play the END OF DAYS teaser trailer over THE MUMMY next week Friday?
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Apr 29, 1999 12:58:40 PM CDT
WHO WOULD WIN IN A FIGHT BETWEEN ROCKY AND THE MUMMY? MY GUESS..
by janedoe33
Oh-la-la!!! I saw the trailer for this big fat movie. When that Mummy is coming right at Brendan Frasier and he's shooting at it, and yet the Mummy doesn't stop walking....oh man, did that scare the kaka outta me! Look out Brendan! Look out for that damn Mummy! One thing that might detract from the film's integrity: throughout the second half of the movie the Mummy is wearing a "I Love Doritos" T-shirt. Come on! That's just blatant product placement! Doritos didn't even exist when the film takes place! Come on!
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PLEASE tell me that you did not compare any of the Indiana Jones movies with The Mummy. That statement alone should get you fired. A bunch of cheesy digital effects does not make a movie. You have the fucking balls to mention Brendan Frasier in the same sentence with Harrison Ford? After tellling people to see IDLE HANDS and now talking out of your ass about a movie with an actor that resembles a cardboard cutout, I'm starting to think you guys are losing your touch. Please stop smoking crack or whatever has altered your train of thought.
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JaneDoe33 cracks me up EVERY TIME! Hey, are you my friend Ryan, JaneDoe? Ryan is REALLY FUNNY too.
Go Mummy!
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Apr 29, 1999 2:38:36 PM CDT
IT'S MUMMY-RIFFIC!!! HI, MY NAME IS...WHAT? MY NAME IS..HUH? MY
by janedoe33
This is in response to the post above. No, I am not Ryan. I'm much sexier than Ryan is. Plus, I love pro wrestling. My favorite character was The Iron Shiek but he has long since retired.
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The Thing is the greatest horror film ever made. It's the only movie that I have ever seen that has scared me and it still continues to scare me, and I've seen em all. The only ones that come close are The Shining, The Exorcist and Hellraiser 2. I was only two years old when it came out so how could the moronic public and critics not support it.DAMN YOU ALL! I was anticipating The Mummy until I heard that Stephen ( Deep Rising )Somers is writing and directing, he strikes me as an audience pandering hack, at least Spielberg and Lucas are good at it. The only films which interest me this summer are Eyes Wide Shut,The Haunting (maybe), and The Fight Club. Oh ya, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was pretty damn scary too, especially that part where that geeky guys looking around and without any warning that meat locker door slides open and What's its name smacks him on the head with a hammer and slams the door closed again. What ever happened to surprises at the movies, besides the "I'm surprised people are stupid enough to make this and think it's actually worth making" surprise.
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when i see that the evil genius is reviewing something, well, i revert to a ten year old high on red food additives and pixie stix. the man KNOWS that some movies are made for serious exploration and that some are made to just be slurped down like a margarita. as a devotee of the summer of 1982 (a lasting happy memory is seeing a double bill of 'the thing' and 'prophecy' with a gang of like-minded thrillseekers), i say moriarty for president!
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OK,OK...let's all calm down. We all have our differences, whether it be film, pro wrestling, Tom Cruise, etc. I think we can ease the discourse with a good healthy dose of baby talk: GA-GA-GOOO! I GA-GA for THE MUMMY! GOO-GOO! GA-GA!
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Apr 29, 1999 5:24:25 PM CDT
Moriarty will always be my whore, cause he's the one that I ador
by tall_boy
Just wanted to work in a song lyric here. can't wait to see the flick! Moriarty's reviews always rock, I trust his judgement, so good job, you evil bastard, you. PS- Does anybody know how to play the guitar solo from the above-mentioned song? PPS- GODDAMN SLIP OF THE FINGER MUTHA FUCKIN' DOUBLE POST!!!! Ahh, I feel better. Time to listen to "Duel of the Fates" for the first time...
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um...mummy, and uh, yeah. Actually, I've always thought Brendan Fraiser was a pretty good actor. However, I've had too much to drink. Does anybody else get pissed when the talk back compresses your paragraphs? Slap me silly and pass me another "Rusty Nail"! Sincerely, The Brimley
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How could you leave out ST:The Wrath of Khan? I dragged my younger brother to see Poltergiest and ST:TWoK back to back. He still dosn't know what hit him. I'm hoping I can pull this stunt again this summer.
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Interesting to see how ppl either want phantom to be great or horrible. He (Lucas) seems to embody the pop icon like few others. I personally dont care much for the Star wars series, always thought sci-fi was Asimov, Ellison, and Bradbury. Star wars is great pop eye candy and a good romp at the theatre. Would be cool to actually see real sci-fi made into film, or even fantasy. What could possibly be a cooler usage for cg then one of Moorcocks characters (Elric ) running about with a fleet of dragons. Need more
Thing's (favorite horror movie), Dragonslayers, Excaliburs. Not another cheesy effects laden remake of Kurosawa, Lensman, and explicit outtakes of roman history.
Make Foundation and Earth.
or if you want buddy flicks, Caves of Steel.
Dunwich Horror could be done well.
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How could anyone think STAR TREK: Wrath Of Kahn (*THE* best s.f. adventure movie of the 80s BAR NONE) was unemotional? I'll take a rousing action packed story dealing with Humankind's ability to take technology intended for creation and twist it into a means of destruction, spiced up with a bit of Herman Melville Epic meets Alexandre Dumas Revenge Drama over a bunch of mystical mumbo jumbo and obsucated hippy nonsense about "trusting you feelings", any day of the week. ************** **************** "From Hell's Dark heart I stab at thee!"
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Blade Runner rocks! Thats all I have to say, you're right about it not being given enough credit.
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Summer may be over in the US but The Mummy is still giving surprises in the rest of the world. Despite misgivings about spending 2 hours watching a bandaged drunk staggering about town with Brendan Fraser, I left The Mummy with a few pleasant surprises. One, Fraser's not as idiotic as I thought he'd look (only seen pics of him, not even one movie!); second, no bandages, no drunk. A diehard Indy Jones fan, I found the movie vastly entertaining and every good thing that's already been said in this sites' reviews. BUT - the main surprise? Arnold Vosloo...where has this man been all my life??? So impressed I've been with Vosloo, I actually endured a van damme movie, Hard Target, and confirmed forever, my obsession with Vosloo. When I die, I want to be mummified with my DVD of The Mummy, my pics of Vosloo and my favourite wavs. files from Hard Target. Think I'm crazy? So're the hordes of Vosloo fans who hog the AV forums with postings in the thousands after seeing him The Mummy.
Vosloo, though, is more elusive than a mummy. No one knows what he's up to since he was resurrected and there's a rumour going round that he's being considered to play the mature Anakin Skywalker in Episode 3. After what he can do to a 3,000 year old corpse, some people think he'll prevent Episode 3 from becoming another menace. Me, being a fan of the first trilogy and sorely disappointed with Ep.1, Vosloo would be the only reason I'd risk watching another Episode. -
Saw it when I was a kid. I remember being entertained, but I was probably too young to fully appreciate it.
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