Take that, Bembridge scholars!

[sarren]

So, this new Tom Cruise Mummy movie has so far been very successful... in introducing a whole new generation to the classic 1999 version of the Mummy :)

Someone on Twitter was like, what to do if you are thinking of going to see the new Mummy movie:
1 Go see Wonder Woman
2 Go see Wonder Woman again
3 Watch the 1999 classic instead

Which was pretty much what we did, except we were already at the cinema to see Wonder Woman when the promo came on and Bunny was like, that looks good, I want to see that, and I was like, yeah, no, let me show you a thing, and then we went home and watched Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz being adorable and hilarious.

There appears to be a bunch of articles about how much better the original was, but I like this tumblr pimp post here

Comments

[transcendancing]

Best!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, yes, it is definitely the best!

(Is the new one really a remake of it, rather than just a remake of the 30s stuff/the old Universal Mummy franchise, as The Mummy was in its own rather quirky way that turned out not to be a horror film at all? It doesn't sound like my sort of thing, but I'm also not sure that it's necessarily a reboot at all.)

[sarren]

I just realised I have no idea, just gather that the general opinion is that it is shallow and crap plot and not a patch on the 1999 Mummy movie. And of course, that it stars Tom Cruise, who people seem to dislike for a variety of reasons.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh no, we shall both have to sit here in ignorance! (It's not as if I could have Googled instead of asking you, but that would have required much more caring about the case than I do!)

But I'll definitely be over here with the 1999 Mummy forever, too. <3

[sarren]

I also chose not to google. What's the point of conversation if we just google everything. If I'm out with friends and we're trying to remember the name of some actor from a film or whatever and someone pulls out their phone I'm like, no, put it away, this is conversation

[thisbluespirit]

Ha, I have a friend who does that - but it often only leads to more conversation once we learn who they are. Despite the moral panics over every new thing, it is actually hard to stop human beings talking!

[sarren]

Good point. I have a bit of a knee jerk reaction after once meeting up with a group of friends I hadn't seen in months only to realise that one of them was playing a painting game with her housemate (who was at home) while talking to us.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, no, that kind of thing is just v annoying! And so many people will do it...

[tehomet]

I actually, to my slight but annoyingly persistent shame, really like Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe, so will eventually end up watching The Mummy, just for those eye candy reasons. But I totally take your point and I do love the 1999 version. The villain's backstory was so romantic, and the modern day characters were top notch, particularly Evelyn - I adore the classic monologue about the wonders of being a librarian. :D I thought Arnold Vosloo was incredibly handsome and Oded Fehr even more so. :) And the high quality of the production design (not so much the special effects) really sucked me in. It's a fun movie, only one step down from Raiders IMHO. I didn't like the sequels so much at all. But *sigh* I think I feel a rewatch coming on.

[sarren]

I like Russell Crowe, am I not supposed to? The only thing I know about him personally, was something I read years ago about how he always wears the same clothes when he goes out so that the paparazzi can't make money from taking photos of sightings of him, Which amuses me :)

Why is it a step down from Raiders?

[tehomet]

I like him too; he seems like a good egg as well as a good actor. The only reason I'm mildly mortified about liking him (as well as Tom Cruise) is that although I'm a big film buff, I would happily go see RC or TC in literally any movie, regardless of quality. I'd watch them reading the telephone book, as the saying goes.

Here's my favourite quote about Russell, taken from a review of Gladiator: "Russell Crowe was clearly born in a hard month, in a hard year during a freak outbreak of total hardness. The man exudes the physicality of a wild animal. Shifting testosterone like a pre-bloated Brando, he holds the screen with such assuredness and force you simply can't rip your eyes away from him. When he looks pissed off (as he does for 90 percent of the time), the movie possesses its own gravitational pull."

I think The Mummy 1999 is just a notch below Raiders on my mental best films of all time list because it's somewhat derivative of Raiders, in that it's one of the style of films that hark back to the vintage-adventure-flick of the 30's and 40's, which genre was resurrected by Spielberg with Raiders. I think Raiders has a better plot too, and a scarier set of villains.

[sarren]

Is it derivative?

The only RC film I regretted seeing him in was Les Mis, simply because his singing voice is only average, and set alongside such fantastic singing talents, it was a bit painful to watch.

Hand to heart, I like Russell Crowe, but I have to wonder if his ego is so big that he honestly didn't realise, or if he did know and wasn't bothered cos he just wanted to play the role anyway :)