The Mummy

A mix of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Evil Dead II, this is overlong and thematically meandering, and with mostly downmarket performances. Just as well, then, that writer/director Sommers chose to film it tongue-in-cheek. Egyptian high priest Imhotep (Vosloo) is caught in flagrante during a tryst with his lover, who then kills herself. Discovered trying to revive her in Hamunaptra, the forbidden City of the Dead, he's entombed alive, with obligatory curse and flesh-eating scarabs. In 1923, adventurer Rick O'Connell (Fraser), Egyptologist Evelyn (Weisz) and her wimpish brother (Hannah) take part in an international race to locate the lost city. Meanwhile, Imhotep's decomposing cadaver and curse are waiting to be unleashed. Though Fraser and Weisz look as if they've just stepped out of Titanic, the film aspires to Raiders: the settings, romantic interludes, the self-deprecating humour, the Cairo street chases, the creepy crawlies - they're all here. If you can swallow the hokum and ignore the plot implausibilities, you should find much to enjoy (the sfx are state of the art). But Spielberg it ain't. By the way, the Mummy's voice and soul shrieks were rattled off by Blixa Bargeld, from Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave's Bad Seeds.