Director
Stephen Sommers

Cast
Brendon Fraser,
Rachel Weisz,
John Hannah,
Arnold Vosloo,

Music
Jerry Goldsmith

With FX usage fast approaching the mundane, The Mummy squeezes every bit out of it, some with great success (lie the sand storm) others not so great (like the recomposition of the Mummy himself)

I think my aunt said it best about this version of the mummy, it's just like an old Saturday Matinee Cliffhanger episode they use to screen at the cinemas, but all joined together making an entire film.

In 1,290 BC The Priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) and the Pharoah's Misses ,Anak-Su-Namum, are secret lovers and it's not long before they are discovered.  The two of them kill the Emperor, and Anak-Su-Namum Kills herself, for the Priest has the power to raise the dead.  However, this Forbidden love (and the murder of the emperor) results in the Priest, having his tongue cut out, mummified and buried alive with flesh eating scarab beetles!!!! 

Jump to 1925 and Evy (Rachel Weisz) is a librarian in the heart of Egypt, Egyptology is something that has fascinated her for years.  When her brother Jonathan (John Hannah) finds a puzzle box containing a map of the way to Haminaptra (City of the Dead) the two of them track down the puzzle boxes finder, Rick O'Connell (Brendon Fraser).  Problem is Rick is behind bars and is about to hung.   Evy manages to bribe the Warden with some of the treasure of Haminaptra, so the FOUR of them head of for the City of the Dead.  

With another Crew also looking for the Lost City, the race is on to be the first to find the Book of the Dead (bound in Gold). 
It's not long before an Egyptian book (possibly the Book of the Dead) is uncovered (by the other crew) , along with the coffin of a mummy (found by Evy and hers).
During the night Evy Steals the book from it's current owner the Egyptologist (Jonathan Hyde) When she reads aloud from the book, she unknowingly releases the Mummy from his dead sleep.  As luck would have it, this mummy turns out to be the Priest Imhotep, and very soon disaster ensues as Imhotep goes about to  resurrecting his one true Love. 

So How Does These Transfers Hold Up??

VIDEO
This 16:9 Enhanced transfer was ever so sharp (perhaps a touch too sharp), which results in far too much aliasing and excessive edge enhancement.  I've seen far worse, but with so much being right with the transfer, it is downright disappointing that this problem of aliaing is so prominent here.
Otherwise, It's extremely well detailed with an incredible depth to the picture and is completely free of grain.  Colour Saturation is terrific (which is quite typical for the look of the great Universal based transfers).  But the aliasing simply drove me nuts, and it 'Could' have been reference quality material . 
Having access to the region 1 Pan and Scan version, I could see excessive edge enhancement there also, but it was not as bad as our Anamorphic PAL version.  This is most likely emphasised by the fact the Anamorphic version's height has to be reduced to maintain the correct 2.35:1 framing.  Personally I would have dropped the sharpness back a little as it would have greatly reduced this problem and wouldn't have taken away from the image quality (being so sharp anyway)...Pity
Running over two sides of an RSDL DVD the layer change occurs at the 78:51min mark which is smack bang in the middle of chapter 12, right after Imhotep (as a sand creature) flies out the window.

Video Highlights
Ch 01 01:20 - 01:27 Anak-Su-Namum
Ch 03 18:47 - 18:52 Looking for a good time
Ch 05 34:38 - 34:51 Blue Desert
Ch 10 60:02 - 60:09 Do you See what I don't See
Ch 11 72:57 - 73:06 Tee Eclipse


AUDIO
I am pleased to say, or at least, Hear that the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (available in English, French, Italian, and Spanish) IS reference quality.  This is a truly great 5.1 mix, with a simply wonderful music score by cousin Jerry.  Soundeffects make great use of the surrounds, and the LFE track will rock your house in parts.  This was a real joy to listen to.  Very sweet sounding without every being too bright.   (it really makes up for the Video Problem mentioned above)

Audio Highlights
Ch 01 01:46 - 02:02 For Thier Love
Ch 05 33:35 - 34:26 Trek Across the Desert
Ch 09 54:36 - 54:37 Audio flub in the music score??
Ch 10 58:13 - 58:47 You Must NOT read from the Book
Ch 15 98:56 - 99:26 Anak-Su-Namum's Soul

EXTRAS
This is Columbia Tristar Home Video's First DVD tile to come under the DELUXE COLLECTOR'S EDITION
It's pack full of goodies that are DVD player, and DVD ROM Based
- Running Commentary by Director Stephen Sommer's and Editor Bob Duscay
This is a great comm track, with lots of insight into the making of the film, and is thankfully never boring with these guys obviously having a lot of fun with film, which is carried over into this comm track
- Building a Better Mummy  (Doco)
A very informative [47 minute] look at the creation of the Special Effects and CGI work, contains interviews, snippets,etc.  
- Egyptology 101
A series of Egyptian Artifacts and their purpose in life (menu based with text)
- Deleted Scenes
About 2 minutes worth of 3 deleted scenes
- Visual and Special Effects Formation
A very nice addition that takes you through almost step by-step (via a commentary of sorts with the Visual Effects Supervisor John Berton)  as to "how they did that" .  The final part of each effect actually takes you to that spot in the actual.  
With so much effort going into this DVD's features, I am surprised with the apporach taken with this particualr extra where each of the sequences is chopped uo into a seperate piece.  It would have been much better to have 5 chapters for each of these sequence, with title card introducing each part. (being a lazy DVD watcher, I don't like having to press so many damn buttons to navigate my way around menus...hope they make HD-DVD with voice recognition commands :-)
- Theatrical Trailer (presented in the 16:9 format with Dolby 2.0 audio..)
- Cast and Film Maker's Information & Production Notes
- The DVD menus are also fully animated with background music (nice)

- DVD ROM FEATURES
This PC Friendly based feature starts you off with the Mummy Home Page.   From there, you can chose from Several options
Read the story of the Mummy, Send a Mummy postcard (must be on-line form that part), Cast and Crew info, Behind the scenes info, Mummy screen saver as well desktop piccys, and the Mummy Game (which I was looking forward to playing, but I needed a new version of Shockwave..maybe later)

All up this is a great Deluxe Collector's Edition DVD, that to me, is only marred by the constant aliasing of the very sharp image...It's still a lot of fun to watch.

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver: Marantz SR870 & Sony SDP-EP9ES
Speakers:-
     Fronts: B&W 602
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Rears: Jamo Magic 14
     Subby: M&K V125 

- Reviewed 8th January 2000