Product Description

RICK AND EVELYN ARE MARRIED WITH A CHILD AND LIVING IN LONDON. THE MUMMY OF IMHOTEP IS ON DISPLAY AT A MUSEUM IN THE ENGLISH CITY WHERE HE IS RESURRECTED.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8771 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 2001-10-02
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 130 minutes

Amazon.com
Proving that bigger is rarely better, The Mummy Returns serves up so much action and so many computer-generated effects that it quickly grows exhausting. In his zeal to establish a lucrative franchise, writer-director Stephen Sommers dispenses with such trivial matters as character development and plot logic, and charges headlong into an almost random buffet of minimum story and maximum mayhem, beginning with a prologue establishing the ominous fate of the Scorpion King (played by World Wrestling Federation star the Rock, in a cameo teaser for his later starring role in--you guessed it--The Scorpion King). Dormant for 5,000 years, under control of the Egyptian god Anubis, the Scorpion King will rise again in 1933, which is where we find The Mummy's returning heroes Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, now married and scouring Egyptian ruins with their 8-year-old son, Alex (Freddie Boath). John Hannah (as Weisz's brother) and Oded Fehr (as mystical warrior Ardeth Bay) also return from The Mummy, and trouble begins when Alex dons the Scorpion King's ancient bracelet, coveted by the evil mummy Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), who's been revived by... oh, but does any of this matter? With a plot so disposable that it's impossible to care about anything that happens, The Mummy Returns is best enjoyed as an intermittently amusing and physically impressive monument of Hollywood machinery, with gorgeous sets that scream for a better showcase, and digital trickery that tops its predecessor in ambition, if not in payoff. By the time our heroes encounter a hoard of ravenous pygmy mummies, you'll probably enjoy this movie in spite of itself. --Jeff Shannon

Additional features
Fans of the special edition of the original Mummy will find just as satisfying a treasure room in this sequel DVD. Director Stephen Sommers and executive producer-editor Bob Ducsay are back with an animated play-by-play commentary, complementing the movie with technical tidbits and entertaining production stories. The "Spotlight on Location" featurette is the usual promotional puff piece, but the Visual and Special Effects Formation galleries dig deep into four key effects scenes (including the pygmy mummy attack), each broken down into four stages of development and illustrated with work-in-progress footage, raw animation, and production sketches. In addition to the historical factoids, production notes, games, and promotions for The Scorpion King is a five-minute collection of outtakes cleverly cut together like a mock movie trailer. --Sean Axmaker

From The New Yorker
A huge popular success, but harder to follow than "Memento," whose story runs backward, or "The Circle," which is in Farsi. It has something to do with cursed tombs and the return of legions of mummies, but the plot is gibberish, the action is garbled, and there is such a superfluity of prancing creatures, devil-eyed villains, and roiling clouds of digital dust that one can only respond to it as a series of random sensations. Call it camp without jokes. Directed by the shlockmeister Steven Sommers. With Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz as the married adventurer-archeologist team and the wrestler Dwayne Johnson, known as the Rock, who emerges in all his glory at the movie's end wearing giant crab claws. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker