{"id":4107,"date":"2024-09-18T20:23:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T20:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4107"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:10:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:10:41","slug":"the-mummy-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/18\/the-mummy-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mummy Returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Mummy Returns<\/strong> (2001)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Fantasy-Action-Adventure-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 130 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (adventure action and violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Stephen Sommers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stephen Sommers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alan Silvestri\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Adrian Biddle\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Release date: May 4, 2001 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velasquez, Freddie Boath, Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson, Alun Armstrong, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Shaun Parkes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $202M (US)\/$433M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0It is written that every successful movie shall beget a sequel of lesser quality. I don\u2019t know exactly where it\u2019s written, but it feels like the right way to open my review of The Mummy Returns<\/strong>, a noisier and more convoluted sequel to the hit 1999 movie. While it\u2019s sillier than its predecessor, it\u2019s not as much fun. I gave up trying to follow the confused plot early on, but it\u2019s not really about that. It\u2019s a case of too much\/enough already. The Mummy Returns<\/strong> gets boring after a while. When it was over, I felt numb rather than entertained. While that\u2019s the biggest of its problems, it\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Mummy Returns<\/strong> is being sold as the movie debut of WWF star The Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson) who receives prominent billing in the trailer. It\u2019s the biggest bait-and-switch since Steven Seagal in Executive Decision. The reality is The Rock\u2019s role doesn\u2019t even amount to a cameo. We see him for a few minutes at the beginning with some dopey backstory about somebody called \u201cThe Scorpion King\u201d. He doesn\u2019t have a single line of dialogue. He returns near the end, but this time it\u2019s just The Rock\u2019s head digitally attached to the body of a giant scorpion. It\u2019s a computer-generated special effect NOT a person so I\u2019m not even sure it counts. How can you judge the man\u2019s acting abilities based on what little he actually does in The Mummy Returns<\/strong>? You can\u2019t. That the CGI is terrible adds insult to injury.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As for the plot, it doesn\u2019t make a lick of sense so describing it is a task even the gods would be hard-pressed to perform. I\u2019ll still give it a shot. Here goes nothing. After all the Scorpion King business (circa 3067 BC), the story catches up ten years after the events of the first movie. Adventurer Rick (Fraser) and Egyptologist Evie (Weisz) are now married. They have an 8YO son Alex (Boath) who takes after both parents with his fearlessness and clumsiness. They\u2019re exploring a ruined ancient temple in Thebes where they find the Bracelet of Anubis which leads the wearer to the Ahm Shere Desert and the location of the Scorpion King\u2019s pyramid. The problem is that once it\u2019s on, it doesn\u2019t come off until the wearer reaches the pyramid. Also, the wearer has only seven days to get there or else die when the sun\u2019s rays shine on the pyramid. You may have noticed I neglected to mention the identity of the wearer. Well, it\u2019s young Alex. There\u2019s nothing like a child in jeopardy to get the action going.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Another party would like to get to the pyramid, the resting (?) place of the Scorpion King and his army. That other party is a cult led by museum curator Baltus Hafez (Shakespearean actor Armstrong). Somehow, they\u2019ve resurrected Imhotep (Vosloo) and intend to use him to defeat the Scorpion King so he can take control of his army for the purposes of taking over the world. For his part, Imhotep plans to once again attempt to resurrect his late forbidden lover Anck-su-Namun. As it so happens, one of the cult members (Velasquez) is the reincarnation of Anck-su-Namun so all it will take is a quick soul switch. After a failed attempt to sacrifice Evie, the cult kidnaps Alex and takes him to Egypt with his parents in hot pursuit (in a dirigible, no less!).<\/p>\n

\u00a0As you can see, the storyline is something of a mess. Like I said, I stopped trying to follow the plot and instead focused on the action scenes which are pretty fun. In one scene, an army of mummified soldiers chases our heroes through the streets of London. Did I mention that Rick and company are driving a double-decker bus? Well, they are. Later on, they\u2019re attacked by pygmy mummies. Sure, the creatures are obviously CGI creations, but there\u2019s something cool about them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I enjoyed The Mummy Returns<\/strong> on a very superficial level. It\u2019s not a bad movie per se. The cast still looks like they\u2019re having fun. Fraser is a decent leading man. Weisz is better than the material deserves, but she\u2019s a good sport about it. Boath has some great scenes as their trouble-prone son. In an early scene, he duplicates the mishap his mother had with the bookshelves in the library at the beginning of the first movie. The special effects aren\u2019t anything special. Some of it\u2019s good, some not so good. It\u2019s a noisy movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I left the first movie with a goofy smile on my face; The Mummy Returns<\/strong> left me feeling rather empty. The thrills are kind of hollow. It\u2019s a watchable movie; it has a great deal of action and a few laughs. It all feels perfunctory which drains some of the fun out of it. It\u2019s a decent time-killer on a rainy afternoon.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mummy Returns (2001)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Fantasy-Action-Adventure-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 130 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (adventure action and violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Stephen Sommers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stephen Sommers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alan Silvestri\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Adrian Biddle\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Release date: May 4, 2001 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velasquez, Freddie Boath, Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson, Alun Armstrong, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Mummy-Returns-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5501,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107\/revisions\/5501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}