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Mummy, The
Universal Pictures


7.4

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 13 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for pervasive adventure violence and some partial nudity

Starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Kevin J. O'Connor, and Jonathan Hyde

A full-scale re-imagining of Universal Pictures' seminal 1932 film, The Mummy is a rousing, suspenseful and horrifying epic about an expedition of treasure-seeking explorers in the Sahara Desert in 1925. (Universal Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Stephen Sommers Nina Wilcox Putnam (story) Richard Schayer (story) John L. Balderston (1932 screenplay)
DIRECTED BY:	Stephen Sommers
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 14, 2000 Video: August 14, 2000 Theatrical: May 7, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	124 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Digs up both laughs and chills from timeworn material.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Even if The Mummy is imitation Spielberg, it offers more bang for the buck than we're used to getting.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Cheerful, slightly cheesy entertainment that uses the latest special-effects techniques to breathe life into a venerable film tradition.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There is hardly a thing I can say in its favor, except that I was cheered by nearly every minute of it. I cannot argue for the script, the direction, the acting or even the mummy, but I can say that I was not bored and sometimes I was unreasonably pleased.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

A pretty good job of zipping things along and occasionally scaring us, and the digital effects are fun.

Newsweek Devin Gordon

This remake is like a live-action cartoon: all brio and no brains.

Film.com Gemma Files

Here in the rotting depths of pulp horror/adventure territory, that's the entire point of the exercise.

Mr. Showbiz Justine Elias

A well-crafted, great looking adventure, with some spirited performances.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

There is much to look at--it's like spending two hours in Michael Jackson's Undead Neverland--but not a lot at stake.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Packs so much hell-for-leather action, gorgeous Moroccan scenery and eye-popping Industrial Light and Magic visual effects into its two hours that, after a while, I began to get tired of it.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

In the end, it's the self-mocking aura that save this film from being a waste of two hours.

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

It's not nearly as much fun as the action-packed trailer makes it seem.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

A near miss overall, but enjoyable in its littler particulars.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Noisy, spectacular and disposable.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

In the end, solid acting, stellar special-effects, and well-wrought tension make the film a worthy date flick or matinee outing.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Long, bombastic, and violent, but fantasy fans may enjoy its fast-moving energy.

Dallas Observer Hal Hinson

Even with so much in its favor, The Mummy seems to fall all too easily. If only generating a soul for the film itself were so easy.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

A soulless spectacle.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Make no mistake -- this Mummy is an effects film all the way.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Seems to be going through a series of motions so obviously virtual that it makes you wish that the filmmakers had stayed away from the computer keyboards entirely and stuck with the rotting tape look.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Drags its uninspiring action out too long for anyone's good.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Big, lavish and dumb as camel spit -- is proof that sometimes it's better to let sleeping genres lie.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Tries for that series' breezy matinee atmosphere but the results turn out far too forced.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

This version of The Mummy has no pretenses to be anything other than a gaudy comic video game splashed onto the screen.

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

A frantic, epic-sized blowout of campy, "Indiana Jones" -style derring-do mixed with lots of computer-generated gee-whizzes.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Numbingly predictable and repetitive non-stop action.

Slate David Edelstein

There isn't a mummy at the center of The Mummy, exactly, but a mutating Industrial Light and Magic Special Effect.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

What we've really got here is a tame screwball adventure dressed up with some desert scenery and some awful computer graphics.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Fast and furious, shallow, empty, casually racist, merry, jaunty, silly and utterly weightless.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Stumbles and screeches on for an interminable two hours.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Crudely remaking the 1932 Universal original.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Universal’s attempt to find gold by bringing to new life one of the mustier items in its vaults is pure hokum and scarcely of the first order.

Time Richard Schickel

Hopelessly overwrought and deeply dopey movie.

Film.com Robert Horton

Slouches in as a weightless, instantly forgettable picture.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

David D gave it a4:
Oh my god, what a bad "indiana Jones wanna be". Actually some of it was ok but i hated the "good guys". I have never wanted the "bad" guys to win more then this movie. With all that power, why didnt the mummy just kick some serious butt at the end? who knows.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Just another cheesy adventure. Nicely done, though.

Andrew M. gave it a 5:
In many ways, this is my sort of movie; brisk pace, exotic locale, enchanting story, and a doll like Weisz to look at! Normally that alone would ensure a better-than-average score from me... but this film just has a lifelessness about it, a soullessness (if that's a word ?) that meant it just didn't grab me and whisk me away with it's impressive sound and vision. I was surprised, as most people I had spoken to told me I would love it, but I barely liked it. I believe the film was let down by sub-par acting, a jerky narrative style to what is a fairly solid story, and a sense of indecision by the filmmakers as to whether it should be funnier, more serious, more historically accurate, more campy-horror story, more what?.... it seems to me they just tried to incorporate too much into the film and, because of that, none of it really gels together..... but Weisz really is beautiful.....

Pat C. gave it a 3:
... full of sound and fury, but signifying something less tangible than nothing.

Rick J. G. gave it a 10:
A great guilty pleasure movie if there ever was one. Weisz is wonderful. She steals most of the show with her passion for her role, slapstick and her beauty. A lot of funny dialogue and moments in this movie. The one that stands out is when Imhotep's spell is cast over all of Egypt and every Egyptian becomes his slave, endlessly chanting "Imhotep, Imhotep, Imhotep..." They are like a human version of that army of flesh eating beetles that shows up from time to time during the movie. Escapism doesn't get any better than this.

Trixie J. gave it an 8:
This movie is filled with excitement! This movie really shows you,there is no I in team.

Brian D. gave it a 10:
Pure escapism, never a dull moment. That's entertainment!

Mummy, The Universal Pictures

Mummy, The
Universal Pictures