Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velasquez, The Rock
Directed by: Stephen Sommers
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Video: 2.35:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 16:9 1080p HD
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; Spanish, French DTS Surround 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Supplements: Audio commentary with Director/Writer Stephen Sommers and Editor/Executive Producer Bob Ducsay; “Spotlight on Location” featurette; “An Army to Rule the World, Part 2” featurette; “Unraveling the Legacy of The Mummy” featurette; “An Exclusive Conversation with The Rock” featurette; visual and special effects formation vignettes; outtakes; LIVE music video “Forever May Not Be Long Enough”; sneak peek of “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”; storyboard-to-final-film comparison; picture-in-picture; U-Control
Length: 130 minutes
Movie Rating: ****1/2 Video Rating: ****1/2 Audio Rating: *****
Set ten years after the first film, “The Mummy Returns” finds Rick O’Connell married to Evelyn and living in London with their nine year-old son, Alex. When a chain of events both resurrects the mummy Imhotep and an even more dark and powerful force, the fate of the world is threatened. As these two evil forces clash, the O’Connells embark on a desperate race to save their son and all of mankind. Sequels to blockbuster films often times fail to live up to expectations, but happily this isn’t the case with “The Mummy Returns”. This film reunites the same principal cast, adds a couple of new charismatic characters to the mix, and then ratchets up the level of special effects, action, and overall fun. As much as I liked “The Mummy”, I found “The Mummy Returns” even more enjoyable. Highly-recommended.
The high definition video quality of this Blu-ray DVD is excellent. Images are crisp with nice detail. Blacks are uniformly deep throughout the movie. Colors are vibrant and bold with well-saturated hues. Picture defect mastering is commendable with no major flaws or compression artifacts. The overall audio quality is also excellent with the English DTS 5.1 track. The soundtrack does a great job of incorporating all of the discrete channels into its mix. Dialogue is intelligible and properly positioned in the center channel. The surround channels are aggressively utilized both for the sound effects and music score, plus include numerous split rear effects. The low frequency effects channel is very active and powerful.
– Calvin Harding Jr.
