Customer Reviews

A CHEESY GOOD TIME - By: stuart, 26 Oct 2007
In the Arizona Desert, archaeologist Matt Fletcher, (Casper Van Dien) & his friend Gus Ferguson, (Geoffrey Lewis) find remains of a ritual burial site after several thousand years. Searching a burial spot nearby, he finds a mummyin the ground & Angela, (Kristen Miller) a fellow worker on the site, grows concerned that it might interfere with their business. Digging more at the site, they find the mummy is over forty feet long & buriedin an Egyptian manner. Growing more concerned, the staff at the site starts disappearing making owner Morton, (Robert Wagner) & investor Ammon, (Navid Negahban) feel that the discovery could upset the build of a new casino. As it gradually becomes apparent that one of the members of the site's staff isin conjunction with the resurrection of the mummy, (Robert Allen Mukes) which is a son of a God, by a small sect of followers that want it brought back, & race to stop it from happening.

The Good News: This wasn't all that bad when it really wanted to be. One of it's best features is that it manages to incorporate several new ideas into this type of genre. There's a regular amount of the clichés foundin this style of film, yet there's also some features that are new to this one. There's a giant animated effigy of the creature that pops upin the film, the mummy's a giant monstrosity & there's a series of small fist-fights that really don't belong with this type of film. This amounts to a real large amount of actionin the film that manages to really make it watchable. The several fights are pretty fantastic, including one that takes placein the background of another scene that don't know about it. Thatin itself is a hilarious visual, & it's done wonderfully. The last half hour, where the giant mummy is unleashed & goes on a rampage, is it's most action-packed & entertaining segment that includes a rather unusual car chase, several more fist-fights & it's most intense scene, a massive flood that really works on a lot of levels. The idea of doing so is handled well, the visuals are perfect, & the premature detonation gives some potential suspensein the race to get out alive. This is also one of the few films to positively benefit from having a cheesy atmosphere, as this one can'tin all circumstances be considered anything other than cheese, & it revealsin it & works to its advantage more often than it should. The resurrected mummy itself is also a pretty impressive site, towering over everything & allowing it's huge size to generate most of it's shocks. There's enough bandage & rotten features to make it seem like it's been dead for ages, & it even manages to workin one of the most clever scenes everin the prologue to explain it's motive for rampaging later on. This is hardly ever done, & that it was done was a really pleasant surprise. The last big surprise was the single sequence where the villain's plans were unveiled to the one who had figured it out. There's a lot to love about it, & it's a surprising one to be includedin the film. These here lift the film up a lot.

The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot here that didn't really work. The biggest issue is that the CGI effectsin here are pretty bad. There's really very few scenes where they even look the closest side of believable, & that they all comein during the big effects scenes at the end manages to take a lot of the luster out of them. Even going so far as to animate an entire confrontation between two figures that shouldn't have beenin that manner to begin with. Addin the fact that there's a large amount of the action scenes done with CGI & it simply makes it feel fake as it never feels like it's happening together. It's a problem with all these types of films, & this one is no exception. The high cheese-quotient might also be a hindrance to some, as it's impossible to take seriously with all that's going onin the film with giant mummies being resurrected & incorporating fallen angels & biblical prophecies into the mix along with giant robot effigies, & this becomes a real fight for some. The last big problem is that this simply feels like a low-budget hodgepodge of several other films combined together, & then rips them off fairly accurately. They're easy to spot, so they won't be revealed here, but there's a lot of them on hand, allowing for yet another disadvantage.

The Final Verdict: This is a pretty entertaining cheese-fest that manages to workin that favor rather than being a handicap. Worth a look for those who enjoy these turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy films or want to see a few new spins on the mummy genre, while those that don't like the cheesy films should exercise caution.