The Mummy Returns (25th Anniversary) - Movie Review

The Mummy Returns was written and directed by Stephen Sommers, who directed the first as well. Once again, stars Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and Arno Vazlou as the mummy, Imhotep, but this time around also starred The Rock in his very first big Hollywood role as the Scorpion King, and he even got a spinoff movie, which isn't that bad. Like people talk about Scorpion King, Scorpion King movie's kinda good. And yes, I have yet to review the 1999 Mummy film, which I definitely will, and I plan to for this year's Halloween special. But this is the perfect time to talk about The Mummy Returns, because it is back in theaters for its 25th anniversary, and they gave me a cool poster, and it smells really good. I know that's a weird thing to say, but have you ever opened a pack of trading cards or got one of these new posters and just kind of smelled them? It's like a really good smell. And today a nice elderly lady took my ticket at the theater and was like, would you like one of these posters, sonny? And I was like, yes. Yes, I want a free poster. Thank you for incentivizing me to go to the movie theater and receive free merchandise. It's so nice to go to the theaters, isn't it? And here, once again, Imhotep has been brought back from the dead and wishes to claim the bracelet of Anubis to control the Scorpion King's army. But when Rick and Evelyn O'Connell's son, Alex, is kidnapped along with the bracelet, they must race against time to save their son and stop that evil army from rising again. Oh my god, I have so many fond memories with this movie. This was a staple VHS of most of my friend's collections. Actually, I really miss VHS sometimes. I don't miss the look. I miss this. I don't know how to explain it. And it came out in the middle of 2001, when everybody was still happy. There were some films that came out in 01 and 02 that I kind of call the last of the 90s movies. Films like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. Films like Lara Croft's Tomb Raider. These movies, you know, they hadn't really been touched yet by the oncoming wave of dark and gritty that happened throughout the 2000s. There were still some films that were very content to have a blast, and nothing else. And The Mummy Returns really holds up on the big screen. Yes, there is an aspect of this movie that is dated. We'll talk about that briefly. It's been talked about to such an extent that I don't even really want to talk about it, but I kind of have to. It's such a good movie. This is so well-paced, structurally. I love that Somers wrote and directed this. On the first film, he shared credit with a few different people, and this is his film from beginning to end, and it is immensely fast-paced. I mean, it is set-piece to set-piece to set-piece. You've got double-decker bus chase. The sword and gunfight through their house. Those crazy pygmy things that are chasing everybody through the wilderness. Trains. Mummies. The scorpion rock. Okay, we'll briefly touch on this. This is some CGI that has been made fun of for many, many years, and I think it's kind of a perfect storm, because not only is it not very good, even in 2001, by today's standard it's not good, but it's also The Rock, an extremely recognizable and well-known actor now. He was obviously very recognizable and well-known for WWF, now WWE, back then, but this was his first big movie, and now, since he is potentially, you know, top five biggest most recognizable actors slash entertainers in the world, it's just this thing where everyone likes to talk about it and make fun of it, and I get it, but visual effects artists are some of the most disrespected in film. They are crew members, and they are integral crew members to films working, and many studios and some filmmakers treat them awfully. They act as if they are expendable, and they can just replace them with someone else, because in truth, that is often the case, and sometimes it has to happen. Sometimes you're working with an effects house, and they're just not doing the work properly, and sometimes, in the case of The Mummy Returns, they're not given enough time to complete the film, and the studio does not allow a date change, and so you are going forward with effects that are not entirely finished. So that's what's going on here with The Rock as the Scorpion King, and a few other effects in the movies, but for the most part, the effects work just fine, especially back in 2001. It's really just The Rock as Scorpion King in the final act that, uh, that's the inflection point of it. I swear, that's where the earthquake, like, the needle jumped up, you know? And we noticed. But the fact that not just the visual effects artists have had to publicly talk about this, but the actors themselves have talked about it, they've heard about it enough. It's like, it's done, you know what I mean? Whatever. Be nice to your visual effects artists. They're working hard to make your movie good. Treat them with respect. One of my favorite things about The Mummy Returns, beyond the fact that it is just so incredibly fun, I mean, this movie made me so happy. I left the theater energized. I was like, yes, life. I love living. One of the things I love about it is that they didn't do the cliche thing that a lot of sequels do when you have characters get together in the first film. You have Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, who have such great chemistry, Rick and Evie O'Connell. In the second film, they're not at each other's throats. They're not broken up. They're not separated. They are deeply in love. They love each other so much that while they're making out, their son gets kidnapped. So maybe they love each other a little too much. It would have been such an easy thing to separate them or repeat their arc of coming back together again. But just having them be a couple that's deeply in love, this is actually a script that is talked about a lot in writer circles, about ways to do a second film when you have a couple. Brendan Fraser is so good as Rick O'Connell, so likable. His anger and the bitterness that he carries for things never feel cynical. It's really a magic trick, not just in the writing, but as a performer. And their young son, played by Freddie Both, is not annoying. This could very well have been a thing where you've got the kid that gets kidnapped and causes problems and he's just like this baggage you have to carry around. He's great in the movie. You can tell that he's really their kid. He's got the best of both of them and some of the worst, which makes him be very annoying for his kidnappers. And I love all that. Arnold Vosloo, I love him as Imhotep. He has such a presence. The real MVP of this movie is Rachel Weisz. She is incredible. She has so many extra fight scenes and things she wasn't doing in the first film. She's experiencing this kind of reincarnation thing that's going on that, you know, it's kind of entirely told through exposition. But it works for me. The movie is so fast-paced and dead set on never boring you that occasionally the exposition dumps about what's been going on with her dreams go unnoticed, at least for me. She's amazing in the whole film. I love her so much. And I also want to talk about Oded Fehr. Listen, this man, this is a beautiful man. This is a very attractive man. And I remember the first time I saw him in these movies, I was like, I like that guy. I think he's cool. There might be something else happening, but he's cool. And I don't know what that means. I know what it means now, now that I'm older. There are a handful of folks throughout film history where I was like, something's going on with me that isn't entirely something I'm comfortable talking about with my parents yet. I'll come to terms with it one day. I know there's been a real glut of social media posts and videos and stuff of people lately saying, like, they don't make movies the way they used to make them. And I wish they would do things like this. And why don't movies look good like they used to? And I agree with all of that. And I don't want to be a broken record. But truthfully, while I was watching this movie, I just couldn't help but think that, yeah, I really wish we got films like this a lot more often. Now, we would get a movie like The Mummy Returns like every few months back in the day. I'm not saying like, you know, an old school adventure, but a film that felt this big that felt like this much money was being spent in very effective ways while also being relentlessly entertaining. And it made you excited about film. It made you excited about making movies and discovering how movies are made. Films like The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, those two in particular, are very integral to my growth as a film lover and a filmmaker, because I already love the Indiana Jones films. But those movies, you know, they could have been viewed as Indiana Jones lite. And in some ways, maybe you could look at them that way. But they were made with such skill and such devotion to entertaining an audience that you can't ignore that. This movie, along with the first, are two of my favorite adventure movies. If you have never seen The Mummy Returns on the big screen or never saw either of them, I highly suggest both. But especially go out there and see this movie, maybe for the first time in the theater. I got to for the very first time. I had never seen it on the big screen before, and that was an absolute blast. I loved seeing it that way. And I can't wait for the 25th anniversary re-release of Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Guys, thank you so much as always for watching. I'll definitely try to review The 99 Mummy for the Halloween special later this year. And if you like this, you can click right here and get Stuckmanized.