--- title: "The Mummy" year: 1999 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-mummy" fi1m_id: "the-mummy" imdb_id: "tt0120616" tmdb_id: 564 wikidata_id: "Q202508" fi1m_score: 71 critics_score: 67 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-09" updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:44.179511+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Mummy (1999) Directed by Stephen Sommers · 2h 04m · MPA PG-13 · Adventure, Action, Fantasy ## Identity The Mummy - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-mummy - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-mummy - **IMDb ID:** tt0120616 - **TMDB ID:** 564 - **Wikidata ID:** Q202508 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120616/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/564, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q202508 **Fi1m score: 71** · Critics 67 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* Rachel Weisz knocks over every bookshelf in Cairo and then reads the wrong book aloud > Stephen Sommers’s remake of the 1932 Universal picture is a loud, cheerful adventure serial with a good cast and a script that thinks a shrug is a joke. The effects have aged; Fraser, Weisz and Hannah have not. ## Synopsis Egypt, 1926. Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz), a librarian at the Cairo museum, and her brother Jonathan (John Hannah) come into possession of a map to Hamunaptra, the lost city of the dead, and buy the freedom of the one man they can find who has been there, the American soldier of fortune Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser). A rival party of treasure hunters follows them into the desert, and a company of warriors led by Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) tries to turn everyone back. Beneath the sand lies Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), a high priest buried alive three thousand years earlier for loving the Pharaoh’s mistress, Anck-Su-Namun (Patricia Velásquez). Stephen Sommers writes and directs. ## Review Stephen Sommers has taken the title and premise of the 1932 Universal picture, a slow and mournful thing in which Boris Karloff mostly stood in doorways, and turned it into a Saturday serial. Then it is 1926, and Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz), a librarian at the Cairo museum, and her sponging brother Jonathan (John Hannah) get hold of a map to Hamunaptra and buy the freedom of Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser), who has been there and would rather not go back. It is good fun most of the way, and it knows how much fun it is aiming for: a moderate amount, delivered loudly. The company carries it. Fraser plays Rick as a man braver than he is clever and aware of the gap; his best moments are reactions, a face that has just seen something and is deciding whether to run or hit it. Weisz gives Evelyn a clumsiness that has nothing to do with weakness, a woman who topples a library and then corrects a colleague’s Egyptian. Hannah treats cowardice as a hobby he has put real hours into. Sommers keeps the three of them in the same frame as often as he can. Vosloo, as Imhotep, is the smart piece of casting. He has almost no lines in a living language and does his work by standing still and looking at people as if they were already dead. Kevin J. O’Connor’s Beni, a weasel who changes sides the way other men change hats, gets the best comic business. Oded Fehr’s Ardeth Bay is given a stern jaw and a warning and little else, and the film’s Egyptians are otherwise sinister, greedy or ridiculous. Critics said so in 1999 and it reads worse now. Adrian Biddle shoots the desert in hot gold and the underground city in a blue-green that seems lit from below, and when the party first goes down into Hamunaptra a chamber of angled mirrors carries the sun into the dark in one cut, the prettiest thing in the film. Allan Cameron’s sets are the real spectacle: a treasure room, a hall of jars, corridors, all with the too-clean finish of a place nobody has stood in for three millennia. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is brass and drums played dead straight, and it does more than anything on screen to persuade us the stakes are real. The digital work is where the film has aged, and it had little to spare. Imhotep’s half-rotted face, jaw and cheek missing and the eyes intact, was the selling point and now looks like an early demonstration of the idea. The scarabs are another matter: small, fast and under the skin, they gave us the one honest jump of the evening, and we were briefly and properly revolted. Bob Ducsay and Kelly Matsumoto cut the action so we can always see who is where, though there is a slack half hour while people shuttle between Cairo and the desert. Sommers the writer is the weak link. Every scene ends on a quip and about one in four of the quips is funny. The rival American expedition exists to be picked off in order. What we felt, mostly, was a large uncomplicated pleasure with a small discomfort under it: we laughed at the bookshelves, we jumped at the beetles, and around the ninety-minute mark we noticed the film had run out of new ideas and was repeating the old ones at higher volume, and we did not mind as much as we should have. Against [*Raiders of the Lost Ark*](https://film.one/film/raiders-of-the-lost-ark) (1981), it has none of Spielberg’s care about where a body is in a room and how a joke sets up a scare. Against the Karloff film it has none of the sorrow. It has three actors who like each other and a director who wants us to enjoy ourselves and is not fussy about how. It runs 124 minutes and carries a 12 certificate, which is about right: children will love the beetles and adults will enjoy watching the children. Watch it on a wet Sunday afternoon with someone who talks back to the screen. *Fi1m score 71, published 9 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews split fairly evenly between warm and lukewarm, with nobody dismissing the film outright and nobody quite loving it either. The praise clusters on the effects department, which most critics credit with the film’s best moments, from the shape-shifting mummy to the swarms of creepy-crawlies, and on Brendan Fraser, whom several find a likeable, goofy hero. Stephen Sommers’s direction is generally called assured and rarely dull, and the Indiana Jones comparison comes up again and again, mostly in the film’s favour. The reservations cluster just as tightly: a weak, silly script, broad performances and stereotypes that more than one critic finds offensive. Sight and Sound thinks it trades the original’s atmosphere and mystery for a string of theme-park rides, and Variety finds no suspense in it at all. The Los Angeles Times reckons it harmless fun for teenage boys, which is roughly where the consensus settles. ## Straight answers **Is The Mummy worth watching?** *The Mummy* (1999) is worth watching as a loud, cheerful adventure serial, and we scored it 71. Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah carry it, Adrian Biddle's desert and underground city look handsome, and the scarabs still deliver an honest jump. The script ends every scene on a quip, and the digital work has aged badly. **How long is The Mummy, and what is it rated?** *The Mummy* runs 2h 04m and is rated PG-13 by the MPA in the US. It is an adventure and action film. **Where can I watch The Mummy in the US?** *The Mummy* is streaming on AMC+, Disney+, Tubi, The Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video in the US. It leaves Tubi on 1 October. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How does The Mummy compare to Raiders of the Lost Ark?** *The Mummy* is copying [*Raiders of the Lost Ark*](https://film.one/film/raiders-of-the-lost-ark), and the earlier film is the better of the two by some distance. Spielberg cares where a body is in a room and how a joke sets up a scare; Sommers delivers his fun loudly and is not fussy about how. Choose Raiders for craft, The Mummy for a wet Sunday afternoon with children. **What should I watch after The Mummy?** After *The Mummy*, try [*Raiders of the Lost Ark*](https://film.one/film/raiders-of-the-lost-ark) (1981, Fi1m 93): The film this one is copying, with the jokes and scares in the right order. Then [*Romancing the Stone*](https://film.one/film/romancing-the-stone) (1984, Fi1m 77): A bookish woman, a mercenary and a map; the bickering is the point; and [*Tremors*](https://film.one/film/tremors) (1990, Fi1m 82): Cheap, quick and funny, with creatures under the ground and people arguing above it. ### Reviews we read (12) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (80/100, inferred): Ebert finds the film good trash, cheering nearly every minute despite its flaws in script and direction. He singles out the fun action sequences and silly dialogue for enjoyment. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-mummy-1999) - **Empire**, Caroline Westbrook (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a lot of fun despite its dumb script and stereotypes, praising its blend of Indiana Jones-style antics, impressive special effects and chaste romance as escapist entertainment. Brendan Fraser is highlighted as a likeable hero, with the effects department singled out for creating spine-tingling moments. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/mummy-review/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (70/100, inferred): The film is fun, with terrific set pieces and assured direction from Stephen Sommers. It abandons the original's dark metaphorical power in favor of healthy, risk-free scariness and Indiana Jones-style action. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jun/25/4) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Hunter (65/100, inferred): The film is undermined by weak writing but succeeds as an ambitious actioner with imaginative set pieces and effects that deliver chills and thrills. It rarely has a dull moment and evokes classic adventure films through strong technical work. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/mummy-review-1999-movie-1195466/) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (65/100, inferred): Lane notes the film has a blast of fun and roots for Brendan Fraser but criticizes the ignorance, racism, and lack of character depth. He singles out the shape-shifting mummy effects and action hilarity for praise amid complaints about stereotypes. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/05/10/changelings) - **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (3/5): The digitally manipulated villain meets adversaries in vibrant action and epic adventure, with ancient curses, archaeological treasure hunts and romantic elements. Sommers embroiders the story excessively with gruesome modern additions, but Fraser brings goofy macho enthusiasm and Vosloo provides brooding menace. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-s91gz3/the-mummy/) - **The New York Times**, Stephen Holden (60/100, inferred): Holden describes it as a gaudy comic video game with cheesy effects and no pretenses to seriousness. He praises the lavish but silly special effects and the over-the-top horror spoof elements. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/07/movies/film-review-sarcophagus-be-gone-night-of-the-living-undead.html) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (50/100, inferred): Turan says it's harmless fun for young teenage boys with cartoonish effects and adventure, but drags on and is yucky. He singles out the special effects and Indiana Jones-inspired elements for appeal to juveniles. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-may-07-ca-34714-story.html) - **Sight and Sound**, Kim Newman: The film is a mostly entertaining series of theme-park rides but sorely misses out on magic, atmosphere, mystery and romance. It features over-the-top action, unlikable heroes, cardboard villains, irritating comic bits and offensive stereotypes. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/152) - **Time Out**, DA: This overlong and thematically meandering film has mostly downmarket performances, but its tongue-in-cheek approach makes it enjoyable for the settings, humour, chases, creepy crawlies and state-of-the-art SFX. It aspires to Raiders but falls short of Spielberg. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-mummy-3) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (**): McCarthy calls it pure hokum with lame comedy and no suspense. He singles out the broad performances and feeble dialogue for complaint, while noting abundant effects. [Read](https://variety.com/1999/film/reviews/the-mummy-2-1117499718/) - **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as delivering class effects, dashing adventure, laughs and non-stop action, while also being scary. They highlight Stephen Sommers' original direction that avoids Spielberg clones, along with strong performances from Brendan Fraser as the beefcake hero and Rachel Weisz as the brainy, sexy lead. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-mummy-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) ## Details - **Director:** Stephen Sommers - **Director:** Stephen Sommers - **Screenplay:** Stephen Sommers - **Cinematography:** Adrian Biddle - **Editor:** Bob Ducsay, Kelly Matsumoto - **Music:** Jerry Goldsmith - **Production design:** Allan Cameron - **Costume design:** John Bloomfield - **Producer:** James Jacks, Sean Daniel - **Cast:** Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell; Rachel Weisz as Evelyn Carnahan; John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan; Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep; Patricia Velásquez as Anck-Su-Namun; Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bay; Kevin J. O'Connor as Beni Gabor; Jonathan Hyde as Allen Chamberlain - **Runtime:** 2h 04m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 7 May 1999 - **Genres:** Adventure, Action, Fantasy - **Budget:** $80 million - **Box office:** $416 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGOBz4t7OXs ## Where to watch in the US - AMC+: streaming - Disney+: streaming, hd - Tubi: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-09-22 - Amazon Prime Video: add-on *Checked 2026-09-10.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, ES, FR, HR, IN, IS, IT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2000: Best Sound (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Mummy* (1932): The slow, sad original, where the curse is a love story and nobody runs - *Raiders of the Lost Ark* (1981), Fi1m 93: The film this one is copying, with the jokes and scares in the right order — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/raiders-of-the-lost-ark.md) - *Romancing the Stone* (1984), Fi1m 77: A bookish woman, a mercenary and a map; the bickering is the point — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/romancing-the-stone.md) - *Jason and the Argonauts* (1963): Monsters built by hand, and they have outlasted most of the digital ones - *Tremors* (1990), Fi1m 82: Cheap, quick and funny, with creatures under the ground and people arguing above it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tremors.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-mummy