We’re heading to the lost city of Hamunaptra in search of adventure, romance, and an undead priest named Imhotep who just wants to bring his ride or die back from the dead and destroy the world. Thankfully, we have OSCAR WINNING (!!!!) actor Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell to charm his way to the salvation of the human race in a movie that is magically more than the sum of its parts… Stephen Sommer’s 1999’s action-adventure flick “The Mummy”. Look, we get it. It’s not perfect. But, with that being said, there’s something about this movie that fills us both with a warm, happy feeling. Even though it features some major flaws and weaknesses, it works. It may be because “The Mummy” is one of the last of its kind or maybe it’s the vibes it brings to the party or maybe it’s our own nostalgia… either way, we think this movie deserves another look because we love it. Starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Oded Fehr, and Arnold Vosloo, this movie was released to mixed reviews but was a box office monster that spawned one good sequel and then some other movies we would rather not talk about. Plus, The Rock as a half-scorpion man straight out of a PS1 game... Sick? Awful? Par for the course? We don’t know… but Otis thinks he may have market-corrected Brendan Fraser. Hmm.

In this episode, we break down the film, share our thoughts and personal history with it, revisit some of the critical responses (both good and bad), and wonder just what makes this film such a good time. Roger Ebert said, “There is hardly a thing I can say in its favor, except that I was cheered by nearly every minute of it. I cannot argue for the script, the direction, the acting, or even the mummy, but I can say that I was not bored and sometimes I was unreasonably pleased." So, we obviously look at some of the many weaknesses of the film including the awful title sequence, the dialogue, the dated stereotypes, and some of the bad CGI moments. We also look at all the good things that this film has going for it including the cast, Brendan Fraser’s charm, the action, the heart behind this film, and the excellent mummy design from ILM. Ultimately, this is a film that is greatly improved by turning your brain off and just going along for the ride. It is very much in the same lane as the big action-adventure films of the 80s like Indiana Jones. This leads to a conversation about adventure films and how much we love them.

Later in this episode, we talk about the blissfully ignorant children playing stickball after Imhotep’s plagues hit Cairo, Imhotep and Anck-su-namun’s relationship, the film’s development including casting what-ifs and all the other directors that were attached to it, some of the previous treatments of this film and their different vision, the AWFUL reboot with Tom Cruise, and PALMREADER shares his story of meeting Rachel Weisz at his old workplace. It involves Lego. It’s pretty good. Also, we had to take a few minutes to chat about the Oscars and what “Everything Everywhere All At Once” sweeping the awards this year means for Hollywood going forward. We also talk about the wins of “All Quiet On The Western Front”, “The Whale”, “Avatar”, and more good stuff.

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