"At the threshold between life and death sits the ancient Egyptian city of Hamunaptra and at the threshold of many a millennial adolescence (including mine) sits 1999's The Mummy, a story about a hot lunk (Brendan Fraser) and a sexy nerd (Rachel Weisz) learning first-hand the consequences of expatriating cultural artefacts. A turn-of-the-millennium Spielbergian blockbuster with shades of the superhero craze to come, Stephen Sommers' desert romp remains dizzyingly fun to this day."
"Both masterfully well-made and refreshingly horny, it is one of the last great examples of a specific mode of multiplex entertainment now all but lost to the sands of time: the mid-budget action-adventure movie. For an 11-year-old in 1999, blissfully ignorant about the folly of colonialist fantasy, nothing was more important than the adventure movie your Mummies and Jumanjis and Jurassic Parks and even, dare I say it, your Wild Wild Wests."
The Mummy (1999) centers on the ancient Egyptian city of Hamunaptra and follows Brendan Fraser's adventurous hero and Rachel Weisz's intellectual heroine confronting the consequences of expatriating cultural artefacts. The film mixes turn-of-the-millennium Spielbergian spectacle with influences from 1960s sword-and-sandal epics and 1980s action comedies. Stephen Sommers navigates tonal shifts between sprawling action set pieces, Busby Keaton-inspired comedy beats, and genuinely grisly horror. The movie epitomizes a mid-budget action-adventure mode that combined erotic tension with accessible peril for younger audiences. Universal originally intended a low-budget horror update of the 1932 The Mummy but produced a lavish, fun desert romp instead. The film evokes millennial nostalgia and cinematic escapism.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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