when i saw the mummy returns as a 9 yr old i told my mom walking out of the theater that it would win best picture and brendan fraiser would win best actor
I highly recommend the Podcast "Are You Afraid of The Dark Universe" where a couple writers decided to fanfic a Dark Universe with the 2017 Mummy being the only canon to start from. It's pretty amazing and over 20 entries in, there are some really fun and dark takes on Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Wolfman, and the rest of the gang along with team up "movies" and cool offshoots. It's here on RU-vid as well.
While I wouldn't call The Mummy my favorite Universal Monster franchise, I agree that it is the most flawed one, I do appreciate how they expand what the "Classic Monster" term means (as well as the performances of Zita Johann and ESPECIALLY Boris Karloff) and for how fun the Brendan Fraser movies are. The less said about the Tom Cruise version, the better.
There is a Mummy movie titled "Talos - The Mummy" that holds a special place in my heart. For a long time, I had thought that it was part of Universal's Mummy lineup but it was not. It's a more horror leaning movie with the Mummy's curse manifesting as the wrappings (bandages?) that stalks and kills its victims. I highly recommend it.
The Mummy and the Mummy Returns are bonified classics. Worthy successors to The Indiana Jones movies and a perfect blend of action, horror and romance.
I feel like if they wanted to start a rebooted Cinematic Universe with their iconic monsters, they could've easily used the 90's/00's Mummy movies as the starting point by focusing on a descendent of Rick and Evie dealing with a new mummy, and flesh it out from there, especially if it lead to a new Van Helsing movie where the new O'Connel would team up with this Van Helsing descendent along with a few monsters who may have tragic pasts mostly are given another chance by working with these heroes like Frankenstein's Monster (who would prefer to be called Adam, like in the novel) and a new version of Larry Talbot a.k.a. The Wolfman to deal with a united group of monsters lead by Dracula and the return of Immotep
Just hire Stephen Sommers back because Van Helsing still had a more plausible (and enjoyable) reason for the Universal Monsters to share the same screen.
Dark Universe may have crashed and burned but I still like the trailer/homage they made for it. It was cool seeing this video tribute to the classic Universal monsters.
Perfect timing, I literally just watched through all of the classic Mummy movies this month 😂 I honestly think the original Karloff Mummy is a bit underrated. It's more of a tragic romance than a horror movie, but the atmosphere and cinematography are great. The Hammer Mummy movie is pretty good too. But I think my favorite is still the 1999 version, I love that movie. I know some fans don't love that it's more of an action film, but in hindsight, most of the classic "scary" Mummy movies really weren't all that great.
I love the original Karloff Mummy and Sommers' film from 1999 was a whole lot of fun, if a bit too slapstick and silly for my tastes. I enjoyed it but would like to see a solod horror film in the next incarnation. Penny Dreadful was the most successful attempt at what Universal has been trying unsuccessfully to do for a couple of decades now with their classic monsters. Vampires, Frankenstein, and his "monster", Dorian Grey, Jekyll & Hyde, the Wolf Man, demons, & finally, Dracula all feature and the cast was phenomenal. I'll never understand why it didn't get mrke love. The show was dropping hints about Imhotep in the last season which is why I don't believe the show runner's claim that the final episode of season 3 was always intended to be the series finale
Clive Barker was gonna make a weird Mummy sex cult movie in the 90s… Brendan Fraser’s Mummy is one of my all-time favorites, but that would’ve been cool to see
i saw the brendan fraiser mummy when i was a little kid and thought it was the coolest movie i'd ever seen, a kid in my class told me about how the guy was mummified alive and i seriously thought he was lying thinking no way would they do that. he went on and on how they cut out his tongue, dumped flesh eating bugs on him and buried him alive. as an 8 yr old kid this movie was scary enough but also cool and fun enough that i watched it about 100 times
A really suitable title. The Mummy monster has had some scope for perhaps not character but certainly presence. Even though it was such a big movie we had no idea how good we had it with Brendan Fraser's Mummy. The Mummy movie from 2017 could have been the start of a franchise, still not rivalling the established Marvel movies but it could have been something to look forward too. I think people were fed up of Tom Cruise just being Tom Cruise
I still sort of wish that we got that fourth Fraser mummy movie. It sounds interesting to go to Mesoamerica, with Antonio Banderas as an Aztec mummy sounds interesting
Mr. Draper I always love your videos and content. You have a clear passion and appreciation for these old horror flicks. I especially love these videos in spook month. Happy Halloween!
Disagree about the Karloff-Mummy: It has such a great, moody-hypnotic atmosphere, it's easily one of my favourites. The slow tempo actually works. I think it's a better version of Universal's Dracula... And Hammer's version was a better version of the 40s sequels. Compared to Lee's powerful and even sometimes emotional performance, Chaney & Co. look like bumbling invalids (never understood that broken-arm-thing). Even the Hammer-sequels are fun.
The original mummy movie despite its flaws is a classic regardless the Frasier films are just great in terms of blending the scares and action. The tom cruise movie and the dark universe as a whole IS A DISTANT MEMORY
0:01 intro 4:12 He...He went for a little walk! 7:39 Prepare to be THRILLED 10:12 Karas rises again! 14:04 Another fine Mess 17:11 PREPARE...BEWARE...BEHOLD 21:42 Do you smell what the SCORPION KING is Cookin'? 25:30 Mummies...they never play fair! 28:03 IT BURNS!!!! 32:00 The Rankings
Even though the Mummy franchise struggles a lot it has always had a special place in my heart cuz of the amazing sets pieces created for most of the movies. It also made me fall in love with history as a child
The og Karloff film TRAUMATIZED me on my first watch. I kept seeing his eyes and fingers anytime I closed my eyes. Karloff is genuinely scary even when I rewatched as an adult and found the movie less impactful something about his face is chilling
I personally will always treasured The Mummy Returns. Its one of the rare sequels to Build Upon a central Romance from the previous film instead of separating them and forcing the audience to witness the same beats again. I love seeing O'connell and evie learn from one another with Rick developing more of nose for Archeology and Evie learning how to defend themselves. Ill always Treasure Jonathan as maybe of the most underrated Side Characters in any film with jokey attitude never completely overshadowing his more heroic nature when it comes to defending his Sister,Rick,His Nephew Alex and even the Pharaoh's Bodyguard leader.
I have such wonderful memories of The Mummy and Returns. I really loved the anubis warriors and watched the cartoon. I cant remember if that was on at the same time as Mummies Alive or not. I think every kid has an Egyptology phase and boyo that was a great time for a 90s kid. The O'Connells globe trotting and fighting the universal monsters is such a brilliant elevator pitch Im amazed Ive never heard it before. I have a soft spot for Van Helsing and while I appreciate the universal Blumhouse horrors pictures, i still want a swashbuckling pulpy Dark Universe. I love Sofia Butella but god what a mess of a movie. Just reinventing a bad League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The Mummy Returns has been one of my favorite films since childhood despite its flaws. That scene on the train scared me so much the first time I watched it. Upon rewatch, I really like how they choose to parallel Rick and Evy’s true ride-or-die romance to what was revealed to be a tragically fake and skin deep romance between Imhotep and Anck. The way it builds out the powers, world and characters despite it using the same general premise is what brings me back to those two first Brendan Fraser Mummy films time and again. Such a shame they couldn’t take the warning sign of Rachel Weisz’s refusal to sign on to the third one as a sign that it needed a rewrite.
My dad was born in Hollywood in 1929. He got apprehended with a couple of other boys when they sneaked onto the Universal lots to play on the sets of "The Mummy's Hand." Luckily, his dad was a deputy sheriff LA County, so he wasn't arrested. Cool memory.
I'm currently working my way through a DVD boxset of all the B&W Universal horror movies, and I couldn't help but notice that The Mummy seems to have way more sequels than any of the others.
I adore the 1932 film. I actually prefer it to Dracula, which some people accuse it of ripping off; while Dracula's motivations are simple (he just wants to feed), Imhotep wants to reclaim his lost love. I've always wondered about that missing ten years between his resurrection in 1922 and his appearance as Ardath Bey in 1932. Where did he go? How did he learn how to speak modern languages and navigate the strange world he was reborn into? Did he have help? There's another movie to be made from that, but I guess it will just have to remain in my head. In any case, Imhotep is a complex villain, and Karloff brings him wonderfully to life. I also appreciate Zita Johann's heroine, a lady with a bit more moxie than the rest of the Universal Horror damsels of the 30s and 40s. Kharis, on the other hand, bores me to tears.
The makeup technique Jack Pierce used with Boris Karloff for his skin (stretching the skin, applying liquid latex, letting it dry, and moving on) is the same technique that Dick Smith used with Father Merrin in The Exorcist in 1973.
It's fascinating to me that the tactic from studios is to always spend less and less with each subsequent horror sequel, as opposed to spending more of their profits to ensure quality remains high... there are always exceptions to the rule, of course, but it's been this way for decades and decades and it's still the norm.
Love this series of videos, they're how I found you in the first place! Glad you're still making then Have you seen the recent Van Helsing series? I'm wondering if it's worth watching
I think "The Mummy" from 1932 (because of Karloff's performance and the effectiveness of the Kharis revival scene) and "The Mummy's Ghost" (for it's unexpectedly tragic ending that sure left an impression on me as a kid) are the only entries in the original series that genre fans should seek out.
I’m all about the 1932 original. It’s my favorite of the Universal horror films. I also quite like the first Hammer mummy film. I was already an adult when the 1999 Sommers film came out, so I don’t quite have the nostalgia for it, but it’s definitely a lot of fun.
@31:10 apparently, you haven't been to universal studios, orlando, the park directly next door to where they're building.Epic universe. They have a ride based on the 1999 the mummy movie. And it is without question the best ride in the park
The Mummy Legacy Collection is an amazing collection of films. I love the Lon Chaney Jr. Mummy movies. If you don’t, then you’re not a true Universal Monster fan.
I watched all of these movies (plus the Hammer movies) as preparation for a lecture I gave last year, so I know it's not easy going through the really bad ones. When I first watched The Mummy Returns on 2001, it was a huge letdown. Upon rewatch, I actually kind of liked it. When you know what to expect, it's way more entertaining than I remembered.
It's not mentioned in this video, but there are new Universal Monster tie-in comics. Frankenstein, Dracula, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. No Mummy though
at 31:57, so you may mention it in the 9 minutes remaining-but that's also because there's _already_ a Mummy-themed dark ride at Universal-entitled Revenge of the Mummy and based on the Brendan Fraser (at the time) duology with the cartoon playing on TV screens while waiting in line. it replaced Kongfrontation in 2002. just checked to see if it's still operating (since I haven't been there in like a decade or more), and Wikipedia says as much. edit: no mention of the ride (figured not since you were getting to the rankings), so I'll add that the consensus I recall was that it was awesome. it was always just a little too intense/extreme for me growing up so I never got on it, but that's how I always saw the cartoon cuz I would wait for my family members who were getting on it at the time.
Another great look back at a classic series. I've never seen the other Mummy movies other than the OG and the first Brendan Fraser movie. I would love to hear your thoughts on the recent Image comics Universal Monsters series that have been coming out. So far all 3 have been fantastic.
What???? "The Mummy" (the 90s) is a remake of ak old b/w movie??? Dude!! This is really nice surprise! I never watched the original movie so I thought the 90s was its own film! Uh! Now I wanna watch the b/w movie! :D
I'm gonna get flack for saying this, but i think Jack Pierces Mummy makeup from 1932 has aged better than the 1999 CGI mummies, it just was underutilised in it's own movie.
I liked the brief 1930s adventure movie fad (The Rocketeer, The Shadow, The Phantom, and the Mummy/Mummy returns) a d remember really hoping it was going to continue. I'd wanted at least Doc Savage or Mandrake, but also Flash Gordon (not based on the campy one), the Avenger/Justice Inc., and a few others that I've forgotten (even, as a distant hope, a crossover between any twoor more of them).
Aside from making an actual good movie, Universal just had to advertise that they had the original cinematic universe with their monster films, instead of trying to make a new one. Also giving Tom Cruise creative control of anything is a guarantee of failure, it seems.
See it's kind of funny that you critique the later Mummy movies for not taking place in Egypt. But that's ironically the main critique I have of the original The Mummy. Yes it does take place in Egypt, but so much of it just kinda feels like we're in some British guy in Egypt's house. Idk I just never bought into the "We are in Egypt" aspect of that original. It's probably just down to the other UMM films being set in Western locations that make it easier to make sets for but it's just something that jumps out to me when watching The Mummy.
I'm sorry but you got something wrong when it came to the mummy returns. Rick's character is not a reincarnation. Rather he's a prophesized warrior that is destined to protect the reincarnated princess.
I think this whole idea of "Tom Cruise destroyed this movie" got this much oxygen because Cruise doesn't really do typical interviews, podcasts etc. He doesn't really try to personally control the narrative by commenting on Twitter, posting on Instagram, talking with a famous Podcaster etc So others basically get to say whatever they want. On this particular project, based on what I've seen it could have been easily the case of Tom Cruise seeing the project was going nowhere , trying to strong arm people into fixing it and failing. But most people just go with "ah yes Tom Cruise ruined it". Which honestly, his resume doesn't really support. Even with his most dearest movies, the mission impossible ones, he's shown to give a good amount of freedom to the creative team behind them.
I was extremely annoyed when the 2017 version of Mummy was just SUCH a weak remake of the wonderful ‘99 and ‘01 Brendan Fraser films (ignoring the awful 2008 third movie)….didnt realize until now that Ardeth Bey, who was a separate character played by Oded Fehr was merely the alter ego of Imhotep
Maybe it's just a result of what you expect out of a horror film, but the Brendan Fraser The Mummy, which you rank #1, while well made, left me cold as a horror movie. I guess the action/comedy, deliberately reminiscent of Indiana Jones, did not work for me. Instead of blending the best of both, it seemed more like a rip-off of Indiana Jones, Fraser a poor-man's Harrison Ford, and lessened the horror of the Mummy himself--who should have been the star. As an action movie, it's fine. But as a Mummy movie, I never even gave it a second watch. I'd put it down near the Cruise Mummy movie (which I agree was awful). The original Boris Karloff will always be my favorite. Karloff was awesome, and just the look in his eyes when the mummy awoke, still sends chills down my spine to this day. I agree the sequels were mostly forget-able, I agree it was an idea that was really only one movie. I just think that one movie is the original. I know you mentioned the Hammer/Christopher Lee version, but curiously you did not rank it. I would have put it #2.
I have mixed feelings on the whole Mummy franchise. I love ancient Egyptian stuff, and I do think the Brendan Fraser movies can be fun in an Indiana Jones way, but I'm not the biggest fan of how all these movies tend to represent the ancient Egyptian people and culture. I don't even think mummies coming back to life to terrorize living people is even a major trope in the ancient Egyptian belief system. It seems to have its roots in Victorian horror literature. Not to mention, it's a little weird how mummy horror tends to vilify the mummies. It's the (usually White) people breaking into their tombs to take their stuff who are guilty of the transgression IMO.
No other Mummy movie, remake or sequel, comes close to the original Karloff classic. Though THE MUMMY’S HAND is entertaining enough, they all miss the mark entirely when it comes to subtlety, suspense and characterization. They are all far too formulaic, just worse versions of the films before them. That being said, Karloff shines in the original; his performance is genuinely creepy and unsettling. Sure, it essentially a remake of 1931’s DRACULA, but it’s still light years above the rest.
