![]() Via something Universal calls U-Control, Blu-Ray also offers a Picture-In-Picture video commentary, with interview clips from the archives popping up as you watch the film. These old friends make great hosts, bantering through the ideas, the nuts and bolts and the anecdotes of the production. The muscular DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is also a knockout, with discrete effects, dialogue and music.įirst up is a Feature Commentary with writer/director Stephen Sommers and executive producer/editor Bob Ducsay. The excessive effects sequences don't result in an inconsistent picture, thanks to the film's digital finishing I would characterize the image quality as near-perfect. Though by design the sequel feels more digital and less natural than its predecessor, the high-def transfer is comparably excellent: the film looks just as good as it did on the big screen, if not better. The disc earns the title "Deluxe Edition"-fear no double-dipping on this one, folks: it's fully loaded. Universal makes its Blu-Ray debut with the Mummy franchise: sparkling new discs of The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and The Scorpion King. ![]() Being told "It is written" for the last time, Evy's brother Jonathan demands, "Where is all this stuff written?!" In the Book of Eternal Profits, of course.Īspect ratios: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreenĭistributor: Universal Studios Home Entertainment And how many movies feature a scantily-clad catfight between Marla from Arrested Development (Velasquez) and Oscar-winner Weisz? The Mummy Returns is violent and preposterous at every turn, but generates genuine excitement and plenty of lighthearted dialogue. It's a lot of codswallop to swallow, but Sommers again crafts frantic, surprisingly appealing action sequences, like a double-decker bus chase and a jungle run-in with pygmy mummies. (The second sequel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, ignores these plot points.) In demonstrating that Alex is a chip off the old block, Sommers jokily repeats a larger-than-life appears to be the reincarnation of Nefertiti and Rick carries the heretofore unnoticed mark of the Medjai. ("There is a fine line between coincidence and fate," Ardeth insists here). In another iffy development, Sommers makes some fatalistic suggestions about the triad of Rick, Evy, and Alex. The sequel has a few sequences that take the viewer out of the film with their obvious digital animation. The Mummy Returns feels like wall-to-wall CGI, and it's to be expected that more is less, and less convincing. Adding a kid is usually the kiss of death to a franchise, but Sommers and his actors make the O'Connell dynamic shine with enough humor and heart to perfectly balance the dark and scary doings of the main plot. The Mummy Returns truly impresses in the funny byplay amongst the family. Still, Sommers grounds it somewhat by perpetuating the core love stories from the first film. Even more so than in the first film, the plot here seems largely irrelevant, an excuse for action. Kidnappings and last-minute rescues are the order of the day as the O'Connells travel from their London mansion (Mentmore Towers, now better known as Wayne Manor in Batman Begins) back to Egypt for another tour of cobwebby tombs, magical artifacts, and creepy-crawlies. (Evy's gadabout brother Jonathan, played by John Hannah, also makes a welcome return.) Of course the O'Connells are mixed up in all this nonsense: reluctant treasure hunter Rick, his Egyptologist wife Evy (Rachel Weisz), and their precocious eight-year-old son Alex (Freddie Boath), a towheaded prodigy who makes the mistake of trying on the Bracelet of Anubis. In 1933, the threat of his return motivates a group of baddies (including Lost's Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) to plan a smackdown between the Scorpion King and Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), who wakes to find a familiar-looking beauty named Meela (Patricia Velasquez). sold his soul to Anubis before winding up 36 feet under. A prologue again narrated by mummy-hunter Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) depicts the story of "The Scorpion King" (The Rock), who in 3067 B.C. Sommers at first seems to be ready to repeat the narrative structure of the first film. To some degree, Sommers falls into the sequel trap, taking on more CGI special effects sequences than his budget and schedule could tastefully render, but the film's bloated ambition seems of a piece with its panting, happy-dog charm. ![]() Writer-director Stephen Sommers keeps the good times rolling with The Mummy Returns, a horror-action sequel to 1999's The Mummy. The Blacklist: The Complete Third Season (2013) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) Journey to the Center of the Earth (3D) (2008)
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