Rating: 
Summary: Mummy Dearest
Review: Such trash the movie studios insult us with. The Cringometer peaked over the red line from the opener and climaxed with some of the worst CG ever. The Rock- more like The Crock! Possibly the worst film in any aspect ratio, preferable on NO SCREEN. Had hoped that Stephen Sommers would be sent into exile for this sub-par Jules Verne abortion, but we've just seen Van Helsing and don't understand why he hasn't suicided.
Rating: 
Summary: Awfully artificial
Review: The story is kind of minimal. But I don't have too much of a problem with that. I didn't expect to be moved or inspired by this movie. But I DID expect to be awed.Well, it turns out that this movie is AWFUL. The special effects are plentiful but aren't cool. I constantly felt as if I was watching an animated film (cartoon). The ambitions of creating big action sequences are met with neither precise (and sensible) direction nor special effects that are sophisticated enough. What's the point of trying to create the big scenes then? If the results are not real enough, please just try something simpler. It has all the features of a made-for-TV movie: Weak plot, cliched dialogues, under-developed characters and unconvincing special effects (and lots of them). If measuring against the benchmark for made-for-TV movies, I would have given it 4 stars. But it's definitely not worth the hype and big budget.
Rating: 
Summary: AWESOME! A++++++
Review: THIS MOVIE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE FIRST!
THE WHOLE PLOT IS STILL REALLY GOOD, SO I HIGHLY RECOMEND IT!
Rating:
Summary: The Monster Walks
Review: The Mummy (1999) was perhaps the greatest achievement in the Adventure-genre since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), while the sequel suffers quite a lot from the fact, that it was obviously rushed for commercial reasons. It's a great rough draft though and a few sequences are quite brilliant, including the fighting off the warrior-mummies in the London-doubledecker-bus turned singledecker. It's great fun, but nothing at all like the first one.
Rating: 
Summary: Fair followup to spectacular first story
Review: The Amazon.com Editorial is correct. The special effects and grandeur of the film leave little time for character development. While the film is visually amazing to watch, I felt betrayed that the beloved characters of the first film where given so little time to show us even more about them and their personalities. Its fast-paced, but when you think it should slow down and show us a little more about the characters and their interactions, we are off again to the next segment. The fight scene between Nefertieri and Anuck-su-namem as seen in a flashback by their modern day selves is awesome. That whole scene helps bring the plot line together, but it comes too late and is too short. We are still left with questions. All in all, the performances are fair when compared to the previous film. Rachel Weisz is amazing, but doesnt deliver the same energetic performance as in the original, save for a few scenes. Brendan Fraser is also toned down a bit too much in this follow up. Maybe it was on purpose to show the passage of time and age, but I think the spark of the original dimmed a bit.
Rating:
Summary: It's A Terrible Movie, Really . . . . . . . . But . . . . .
Review: . . . . . . .it's so watchable. THE MUMMY RETURNS is like this for many reasons, almost none of which have to do with the actual quality of the movie itself. In those terms, this movie is one of the very worst I have ever seen. Both plot and action are just so rushed and contrived that it all becomes . . . . well, rather boring (the exact opposite of what a film like this is supposed to be). That whole sub-plot with Evie (a very hot Rachel Weisz) being the reincarnation of an Egyptian princess is really stupid. Oh, and what's with all those little pygmy mummy things?! Comedic, perhaps, but pretty lame. Acting by most involved isn't all that great, especially the newcomers, and there are lots. So many, in fact, that character development is all but forsaken. On the other hand, that's okay, because most of the new actors/characters suck anyway. But like I said before, there are some things that make THE MUMMY RETURNS very watchable, depending on your mood. For starters: - First and foremost is the score by Alan Silvestri. It's one of the best I've ever heard! Such sweeping, epic music . . . WOW! The actual movie isn't worthy of the soundtrack. How often can you say that? - Okay, Oded Fehr just plain rocks, man! He embodifies the very word "cool"! Even though his character of Ardeth-Bey has been reduced to a 2-Dimensional "come-to-save-the-day" hero, his assured performance is one of the few saving graces of this film. - Third and least of all are the visuals. THE MUMMY RETURNS is a beautiful-looking film. The effects aren't what you'd call realistic, but they look super cool! The charging army of Anubis is a perfect example. The entire film is pure eye candy all the way. Alas, now for some more cons. One of the things I hate most about this movie is the treatment of Im-Ho-Tep. No longer a powerful figure, his inclusion to the story seems purely due to the fact that it's a mummy movie, though it's far less focused on him. In the first film, Im-Ho-Tep was a spectacular villain, menacing and intimidating. Now, of course, that's all left behind in favor of a stupid love story between him and the reincarnated princess (Patricia Velasquez, proving to be one of the worst actors alive today). Arnold Vosloo seems to realize how low his character has stooped, and he shows it in his performance. Moving on, two words: The Rock. I . . . . . HATE . . . . . . The Rock! He's such a terrible actor. I have yet to see THE RUNDOWN, however, and I heard he does pretty well in that. Regardless, he just plain sucks here, coming off as unintentially funny instead of cool. Or menacing. Or whatever it is he's supposed to come off as. Whatever it is, he fails miserably. I may be jumping around a bit in this review, but I just thought of another good thing in THE MUMMY RETURNS. That is the final confrontation between Rick O'Connell (Brendan Frasier) and Im-Ho-Tep. It's a spectaculer fight. Just consider all that's happened between these characters in the first film and how much they truly hate eachother. The dramatic tension and build-up, even the use of slow-motion, is fantastic. That is, all up until that darned CGI Scorpion King comes on (PS2, anyone?). And now for the main reason all my friends and I like to watch this movie: finding and pointing out all the other movies THE MUMMY RETURNS copies. It sound lame, but it's really fun! We came up with all kinds of stuff: STAR WARS, INDIANA JONES (no duh), THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, E.T., THE GOONIES, you name it! You might try playing it as a game, with a point given to the person who finds and names the movie that has been copied. Our list reached something like 27, one time. You have to be creative, then! CONCLUSION: Go out right now and buy the awesome soundtrack. Whatever you do just don't buy the actual movie; it's not worth the price (well, maybe it is for 5 bucks on VHS). Rather, plan a night with your friends once ever six months or so, rent THE MUMMY RETURNS, and try out that game I mentioned. ; )
Rating:
Summary: just like the original..only worse
Review: a sequel...a frickin sequel...come on people..this is totally lame....only a booster for the acting career of The Rock...which is not a good impression..though he was good in The Scorpion King and The RunDown...better then this pile...none of the characters are very great...seems like the writers had no idea what the hell they were doing.....special effects like I said are beyond boring..especially those damn little pixie mummies...this one should of stayed on the rack..big blockbuster bust with idiot followers
Rating:
Summary: Guilty pleasure - mindless big-budget summer entertainment!
Review: I took my wifey to see THE MUMMY RETURNS when it premiered in theaters (at her request), and the movie was actually better than I expected. Don't get me wrong -- it's eye candy, and there's really nothing there for the folks in the audience other than to be dazzled by the wall-to-wall special effects. The movie charges along at a nonstop pace from the first second to the last, with barely a breather throughout the entire show. And the plot? Well, it's more of a coherent plot (to comic book and pulp fans like us) than most other movies of this ilk, fortunately, and there's nothing that makes us wince and say to ourselves, "Oh, COME ON! Gimme a frackin' break!" Hell, this is the story of a 4,000 year old sorceror resurrected from the dead (for the SECOND time, no less) to do battle with a 4,000 year old army general who sold his soul for power, and who leads an army of 500,000 anthropomorphic dog creatures, *and* fight the good guys at the same time. (Yes, I know those beasties are supposed to be images of Anubis.) We're not talking SCHINDLER'S LIST or even LAWRENCE OF ARABIA here. We're just watching this movie for the special effects and cliffhangers, and while the cliffhangers are predictable, the special effects are good. Sometimes I wonder about how people today are so accustomed to eye-popping special effects that we've become blase to them. The effects in THE MUMMY RETURNS are remarkable, yet there's nothing we haven't seen before. (The movie even uses the bit about a "wall of energy and death rushing towards you with an image of a howling face in it" twice!) And yet, back in the heyday of the cheap 1950s and 1960s sci-fi movies, directors and producers would have sold their souls to Anubis many times over for "everyday" multi-million dollar special effects of this sort! Lots of people are blase to special effects extravaganzas like this, so that even folks our age can just shrug and go "Eh, special effects are so-so." But there are kids who are raised on this stuff, who are so used to stunningly lifelike special effects that they sneer at the great classics of old like THE WAR OF THE WORLDS or THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL or even the original MUMMY starring Boris Karloff. Sigh... (And by the way, the original MUMMY is good, but it suffers from the same problem of many Hollywood movies of the early 1930s -- it can get stiff and wooden (like Imhotep himself) because Hollywood was still learning the tricks of filming with sound in those days.)
Rating:
Summary: The Bad Movie Returns
Review: Writer-director Stephen Sommers succeeds in creating a sequel that is even worse than its predecessor. Another example of how outdated Hollywood cliches such as mummy stories should be left in their tomb undisturbed. With even less character development and plot than the original, this movie puts all its stakes on the dazzling special effects that are too absurd if not comically bizarre to be credible. The story now focuses on the Scorpion King (The Rock) who, after being dead for 5,000 years, comes to life again in the '30s to defend his newly discovered oasis from evildoers. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are back but married with a young son named Alex (Freddie Boath) to find the oasis before the antagonists. Bad acting and character development are as numerous as grains of sand in a desert storm; suffocating the audience with forced expressions and bad dialogue. The Rock seems more interested in embellishing himself in his first feeble attempts at acting outside of a WWF match than actually playing the role of his character. The movie reaches the absurd in how the characters go off on their "epic" adventure. A flying carpet discovered in a tomb or souk by accident would have been more credible than the ridiculous flying contraption used by the characters to reach their destination. If you want to laugh at how bad a movie can be, by all means, rent this movie. Again, a perfect demonstration on how long-dead story concepts should be kept in their Hollywood sarcophagi never to rise again. To bring them back to life and torment an audience ad nauseam is a curse indeed.
Rating: 
Summary: Great entertainment!
Review: Seems like a lot of people were down on this film, but I found it enjoyable, kind of a lite fare. Makes me think of watching movies on Saturday afternoon as a kid. This is not a definitive work of art, what it is, is entertainment, that's it. No deep meaning, messages, points, just a quickly moving story and some actors that are generally appealing.
| 
