THE MUMMY

5Nosey parkers: Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser play a pair of Egyptologist and explorer, respectively, who uncover (and unwittingly unleash) an ancient terror three thousand years in the making.

If you want to make a movie about campy Rodgers & Hammerstein monsters with south of US$80 million to spend, this is the way to do it. Stephen Sommers’ (by industry standards) modestly budgeted action horror adventure is an old-fashioned crowd pleaser that deftly alternates between ‘theological’ build-up and full-blown blitzkrieg. It’s a seamlessly interwoven genre-buster that aggrandizes B-movie trappings and transcends conventional expectations.