The Mummy Returns (2001)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Stephen Sommers

Writer (WGA):

Stephen Sommers (written by)

Release Date:

4 May 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The most powerful force on earth is about to be unleashed by the two people who should know better.

Plot:

The mummified body of Imhotep is shipped to a museum in London, where he once again wakes and begins his campaign of rage and terror.

Plot Keywords:

King | Bracelet | Scorpion | Son | Ancient Egypt

Awards:

4 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Brendan Fraser	...	Richard 'Rick' O'Connell
Rachel Weisz	...	Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell / Princess Nefertiri
John Hannah	...	Jonathan Carnahan
Arnold Vosloo	...	High Priest Imhotep
Oded Fehr	...	Ardeth Bay
Dwayne Johnson	...	Mathayus the Scorpion King (as The Rock)
Freddie Boath	...	Alexander 'Alex' O'Connell
Patricia Velasquez	...	Meela Nais / Anck Su Namun
Alun Armstrong	...	Baltus Hafez
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje	...	Lock-Nah
Shaun Parkes	...	Izzy Buttons
Bruce Byron	...	Red
Joe Dixon	...	Jacques
Tom Fisher	...	Spivey
Aharon Ipalé	...	Pharaoh Seti I

Also Known As:

The Mummy 2 (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for adventure action and violence.

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | New Zealand:M | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Brazil:Livre | Chile:TE | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Hungary:14 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:PT | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 (cut) | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Bloomsbury, London, England, UK

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

The building used for the outside of the British Museum is not the real British Museum; it's University College London. The Museum was unavailable as it was undergoing external reconstruction and was covered in scaffolding.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Where the girls are having the dagger fight to entertain the court of the Scorpion King. One of the girls kicks the other one by lifting her right leg up and backwards. Her foot comes nowhere close to hitting the other girl, but she reacts as if it has.

Quotes:

Izzy: You're not exactly catching me at my best...
Evelyn: Oh... I'm sure I am.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Jeopardy!: (#22.35)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Forever May Not Be Long Enough

Entertaining, but very, very messy.

If you're thrilled by amusing one liners and nonstop special effects of all kinds of weird creatures, then you're sure to enjoy this second Mummy picture. If not, you will probably turn it off after a few minutes. The first Mummy picture was quite good, in that it managed to fit in characters and plot amongst the big budget special effects. The first picture showed that Universal movie monsters could easily be remade into big budget, special effect extravaganzas, and still be good. Everything I liked about the first movie (minus the characters) was overdone to the extreme here, and about halfway through or earlier, I found myself loathing this picture. The overall feeling though was not one of hatred...this is just an overplotted mess, with moderate entertainment value throughout.

Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) is back, nine years after the first movie (I thought it was two, but whatever), and he and Evelyn (Racchel Weisz) are married and have an 8 year old kid, Alex (Freddie Boath). Imhotep's (Arnold Vosloo) mummy has been brought back to life, and he wants the bracelet of immortality, which is now in the hands of Rick and company. The bracelet controls the Scorpion King's (played in a pointless cameo by the Rock) army, which consists of easy to defeat dogs who with one hit turn to sand. Chaos ensues throughout.

If you aren't paying attention in this movie, or you miss the first ten minutes, you will be extremely confused. Heck, you could be paying attention the whole movie and still be confused. So much is going on, and so many special effects and new plot lines are shoved in your face way too often. Special effects on the mummies and creatures are pretty cool, but the bigger effects are just a huge headache, and they look very artificial. The plot is virtually nonexistent. I guess there are several plot lines, but in between them are many sidetracked scenes, and by the end, this just feels like a bunch of random scenes shoved together.

This movie is full of cutesy moments. I'm unsure as to why a mummy movie needs any cutesy moments, but since this is meant for families, writer and director Stephen Sommers made this both violent and cutesy and comedic, so it never fully works as anything (though it does work much better as an action movie than anything else). Jonathan (John Hannah) provides many of the movies cringe worthy lines. He's one of those characters that is scared to death from anything and everything, and still quips out the bad jokes. Brendan Fraser does the same, but he has a charm he brings to the character, and is one of the few positives of the movie. The kid Alex was a good addition, and for some reason, he felt more mature and developed than most other parts of the movie.

Overall, this is a pretty bad movie. It's full of effects that add up to nothing, and characters that do the same. There is some entertainment to be found, but you may find after you finish this, you'll be in desperate need for something intelligent.

My rating: * 1/2 out of ****. 125 mins. PG-13 for violence.