Sunday, July 10, 2011

Russell Mulcahys Tale of the Mummy (1998)

An archaeologic expedition discovers the tomb of Talos which has a warning on it's door. Ignoring the warning, all are turned essentially to pottery or sand (which is pretty cool), although Christopher Lee manages to blow up the entrance before literally falling to pieces.

Years later his diary of the dig ends up in the hands of Sam Turkel, who heads out with another team to uncover the unseen tomb. The team wears hazmat suits and manages to open the door without dying (always a plus). However, Brad has visions and goes crazy, and Burke, in an incredibly stupid move, climbs into the tomb to grab an amulet and falls to his death.

The antiquities are brought back to England for an exhibit. The opening of the exhibit correspond to a series of murders in which different body parts are stolen from the victims. A detective teams with Sam to try to solve the mystery of what is happening, as insane Brad insists the alignment of the planets signals the end of the world and the return of Talos.

The film features cgi mummy wrappings flying around, and they look really bad. We couldn't even tell it was supposed to be bandages. When one character held up a piece of it, it appeared to be a piece of tape.

It's a mediocre movie, but not a bad viewing as long as you discount.... oh never mind, it was okay. There are a few special effects that are neat, mostly in the beginning, while others like the flying wrappings are horrible. Even seeing the wrappings lying in the sarcophagus, we had no idea what it was supposed to be because it looked that bad.

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