Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Jonathan Hyde, Kevin J. O’Connor
Directed by: Stephen Sommers
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment [Release date: July 22, 2008]
Video: 2.35:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 16:9 color; 1080p HD
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; Spanish, French DTS Surround 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: Three separate audio commentaries (the first with Director Stephen Sommers and Editor Bob Ducsay, the second with Actor Brendan Fraser, and the third with Actors Oded Fehr, Kevin J. O’Connor, and Arnold Vosloo); “Building A Better Mummy” documentary; three deleted scenes; visual and special effects formation; storyboard to final film comparison; photograph montage; sneak peek of “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”; “An Army to Rule the World, Part 1” featurette; “Unraveling the Legacy of The Mummy” featurettte; picture-in-picture; U-Control
Length: 125 minutes
Movie Rating: **** Video Rating: **** Audio Rating: ****1/2
Based (somewhat) on the legendary 1932 Universal horror classic, “The Mummy” stars Brendan Fraser as adventurer Rick O’Connell. O’Connell leads a small group of treasurer-seekers on an expedition in the Egyptian desert. However, when the group unwittingly unleashes a 3,000 year-old evil force (the high priest Imhotep) during their excavation, they find themselves in a race against time to stop Imhotep before he becomes all-powerful. Among my all-time favorite movies and reminiscent of the “Indiana Jones” films, “The Mummy” is simply a lot of fun, action and adventure packed into the span of a couple of hours. Fraser perfectly plays the role of the somewhat clumsy hero and Weisz shines as the reserved heroine. The CGI special effects were ground-breaking at the time of the film’s initial release and they still hold up well today. Highly recommended.
The high definition video quality of this Blu-ray DVD is very good. Images are clean with sharp detail. Blacks are consistently dark throughout the movie. Colors are vibrant and warm with fully saturated hues. Other than some occasional film grain, picture defect mastering is well done with no major flaws or compression artifacts. The overall audio quality is excellent with the English DTS 5.1 track. Dialogue is natural-sounding and anchored in the center channel. The surround channels are aggressively utilized for the sound effects and the Jerry Goldsmith music score, and also include multiple split rear effects. The low frequency effects channel is deep and explosive.
– Calvin Harding Jr.
