OnVideo DVD Briefs
BigStar DVDs


OnVideo Logo

DVD Brief: The Mummy

home page
calendar
reviews
widescreen
features
video
resources
video sales
links
video news
sell-through
kidvid
information




dujour
iway 500
winner


Good
& Associates logo

Masthead created by Good & Associates

The Mummy
The Mummy

Universal
1999
PG-13
125 minutes
Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive menu
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English, French
Subtitles: English
Close-captioned
Extras: "Building a Better Mummy" documentary, audio commentary, deleted scenes, isolated musical score, interactive visual effects, "Egyptology 101," Web links, production notes.
Suggested Retail Price: $29.98
Director: Stephen Sommers
Writers: Stephen Sommers
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Arnold Vosloo, John Hannah, Kevin J. O'Connor, Jonathan Hyde, Oded Fehr, Eric Avari, Bernard Fox.

Description: Delightfully entertaining horror-adventure-thriller (with great touches of comedy/whimsy) about a beautiful librarian (radiant Rachel Weisz) who searches for the Egyptian City of the Dead with her loopy brother and a reluctant hero of an ex-Legionnaire (Brendan Fraser), inadvertently setting loose on the world the 3,000 year-old mummy of evil high priest Imhotep, whose resurrected power will destroy the world. It's up to the threesome to stop the invincible menace. Great special effects, a thrill-every-minute. This one is our family favorite of the year: it can be viewed over and over again with no loss of pleasure (my seven-year-old daughter has seen it six times now).

Universal calls this a Collector's Edition, we presume because of the added features (there is no non-Collector's Edition DVD). Some of the features are enticing, others run-of-the-mill (none of which should persuade/prevent you from buying this movie, which stands as one of the most enjoyable films in recent memory.

The features:

"Building a Better Mummy" is an engrossing 40-minute behind-the-scenes look at the making of "The Mummy," and includes interviews with director-writer Stephen Sommers and visual effects supervisor John Berton, among others. Sommers wanted to remake what he considered to be the scariest of the classic monster films he remembered from his childhood, the Boris Karloff-starrer "The Mummy." Sommers' overriding philosophy was to create a Mummy for the 1990s, "a mean and fast mummy, not a guy stumbling around, wrapped in bandages" (referring to the many "Mummy" sequels that generally had a bandage-wrapped mummy -- with arm outstretched -- chasing after a hero or heroine). The interviews and special effects examples are enlightening. The folks at Industrial Light & Music show how the "reconstituted" Imhotep was created -- not with makeup -- by using digital models of actor Arnold Vosloo that were integrated with the real actor's movements. One of the techies calls ILM's efforts in this area as heading down "the road to digital acting."

Another interesting special feature is called "Visual Effects Formation," which tracks the development of five of the film's visual effects. For example, the opening sequence that pans through ancient Thebes is broken down into its components: a live action shot, a shot of miniature Thebes, a composite shot with digital effects added (with simulated people in the background, for example) and the final feature sequence. Another fascinating visual effect sequence explained is the mummification of Imhotep with flesh-eating scarabs, which relied heavily on drawings and digital simulation.

One feature that disappointed was "Egyptology 101," but only because I had anticipated more. I thought it would be a mini-doc on ancient Egypt when in fact it contains text-based chapters on Egyptian Artifacts (such as the ankh, Book of the Dead, hieroglyphics), Gods (from Amon to Horus and Isis to Osiris and Seth), a listing of Immortal Rulers, a listing of the Plagues brought upon Egypt by Moses, and an interactive map of the country with a few cities and sites highlighted.

Other extras include three deleted scenes (and well they were), skimpy one paragraph production notes, trailers, film highlights, Jerry Goldsmith's score isolated on a separate audio track, and PC features.

Image: Gorgeous vistas with seamless digital effects. rich accurate colors and contrast.

Sound: Heart-thumping and startling in its clarity and power.


All DVDs are screened on a reference Onkyo DV- S717 third-generation DVD player.



More Reviews
E-mail OnVideo
| Home | Resources | Features | VidNews | KidVid | Calendar |
| Sell-Through | Reviews | Links | Widescreen |


E-mail: mail@onvideo.org
© 1998, 1999 OnVideo. All rights reserved

(ISSN 1094-3676).