The Mummy

After being caught carrying on with the Pharoah’s missus, the improbably named Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), the High Priest of Osiris, is entombed alive with only flesh-eating beetles for company.

Three thousand years later and rugged French Foreign Legionnaire, who also happens to be an American, Rick O’Connell (Fraser) joins up with bookish but obviously attractive librarian Evelyn and her stereotypical English brother Jonathan (played by Scottish actor Hannah) to uncover the lost city and nick all the gold. Stumbling upon the ancient tomb they inadvertently resurrect a not-too-chuffed Imhotep, who sets about reclaiming his body parts and generally causing havoc in early-1920s Cairo. And believe me, after three thousand years in the same underwear he is not a pretty sight.

If your idea of the Mummy is a skinny bloke with bad teeth wrapped in bandages who walks so slowly you could sneak up behind him, boot him in the arse and run off giggling before he’s even turned around then you’re in for a bit of a shock. The new-look Imhotep is at first-glance a walking Gray’s Anatomy textbook who likes nothing better than to summon Biblical sandstorms and spew a plague of flies from his mouth.

Borrowing more from Raiders of the Lost Ark than Universal’s classic mummy original, action-adventure-horror-thriller The Mummy certainly does what it says in the tin. With impressive production values and jaw-droppingly-good special effects this is definitely one to watch.

Simon C. Williams