Drive-in Saturday Tuesday Movie Review: The Mummy (1999) and King Kong (1933)
The Drive-In Saturday Tuesday Movie review series is, of course, named after the Bowie song but often has little more than that related to Bowie. For more Bowie, come back tomorrow…
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Movies: The Mummy (1999) and King Kong (1933)
Bowie Connection: There was a short, animated film before The Mummy about a boy who dreamt of being an astronaut. Also, “Ziggy Stardust” was part of the soundtrack of the 2017 movie, Kong on Skull Island.
Experience: We visited the Greenville Drive-in in Greenville, NY, on two consecutive nights. This drive-in typically screens older movies and features a “garden” area where cocktails are served. Five years ago, my wife rented out this venue for my 50th birthday party, which had a Christmas in July theme—we watched Elf on the big screen, which was also used for a PowerPoint roast of me. (My birthday is actually in January). This past weekend, on Saturday, the night was beautiful, but the temperature dropped quickly. We started out on lawn chairs but ended up watching from the car. On the second night, despite rain, we decided to go again—so we stayed in the car and watched the beginning of King Kong in the rain. About a third of the way into the movie, the rain stopped, and the sky cleared, but we remained in the car.
Movie Review: I recently wrote about King Kong, so I won’t go into much detail here, except to say that it was supremely cool to see it on a drive-in screen, despite the rain. I cannot stress enough how amazing it is to me that this movie exists at all and is now 91 years old. We missed the chance to see Fay Wray present the movie in Rochester several years ago because the ad in the paper had the wrong date. Seeing Kong at the drive-in didn’t make up for that missed opportunity, but it reminded us that a little rain shouldn’t stop us from enjoying the experience. That said, you can read my earlier “Kongathon” post HERE.
The Mummy is a much newer movie, but it’s already 25 years old. The special effects hold up, and so does the movie as a whole. It’s loosely based on the plot of the 1932 film of the same name—actually, the plot is quite similar, but the newer mummy is more magical than Boris Karloff’s version. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, the hero and heroine, are the real stars of the 1999 movie, while Karloff is the unforgettable presence in the 1932 film. Arnold Vosloo does a great job as the mummy this time around, though most of his acting is through facial expressions and gestures, with minimal dialogue, spoken in what we assume is the ancient Egyptian language. Vosloo couldn’t compete with Karloff’s distinctively creepy voice, so having him speak in an alien-sounding language is actually one of the movie’s minor triumphs.
As for the plot, the heroes accidentally awaken the mummy while searching for ancient treasure in a buried, quasi-mythical Egyptian city. Imhotep, the mummy, seeks to resurrect his lost love and unleashes plagues and chaos, forcing the group to stop him before he brings destruction to the world. You know the drill—it’s all an excuse for action sequences, special effects, romance, and witty dialogue. This makes for great drive-in material. It holds up because it’s well-executed and well-acted. The special effects don’t look dated (neither do King Kong’s). Being a remake, it doesn’t try to be overly original, so it borrows a bit from other films, especially Indiana Jones, but that’s fine—it’s never boring and is mostly free of the logical inconsistencies that plague many CGI-heavy knockoff films.
But that’s about it. The Mummy isn’t profound. I’m not really able to identify the obvious cultural analogies that I usually find in fantasy and action movies. Maybe that’s because it’s hard to get back into the 1999 mindset. Let’s see—there was anxiety as the millennium approached. This movie is about the return of an ancient curse (remember the Mayan calendar thing?). Technology seemed to be taking an enormous leap forward, raising the value of nostalgia (this movie is set in the past and generally recalls a more innocent, black-and-white time). In uncovering secret, ancient mysteries, the movie responds to the idea that there was nothing left to learn, which was maybe a thing in 1999. For the most part, though, The Mummy is little more than a good time on a Saturday night. And it was certainly that.
Ratings: Kong gets a rating of four gigantic bananas and The Mummy gets three flesh-eating magical scarab beetles.
