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The Mummy Ultimate Edition DVD Set
Review
by : Russ
Ray
One of
the recurring jokes with DVD-philes is how elitist they are
when it comes to the format. Unless a DVD has four commentaries,
twenty deleted scenes, and a gazillion other extras, they'll
put it down as if it's unworthy of their attention. It's as
if the crystal-clear video and digital home theater sound
isn't enough for them. But, if you don't have the extras,
what do you have?
More companies
need to put together DVD compilations like The Mummy Ultimate
Edition. Universal Studios has packed so many features
and bonuses into this set that it's well worth the money to
pick up. If you've seen the original The Mummy Collector's
Edition DVD, you know that it features commentary from
Director Stephen Sommers and Editor Bob Ducsay, the superb
50-minute documentary Building a Better Mummy (with
an in-depth look at how the crew of Industrial Light & Magic
put together the film's special effects), and other background
materials.
The Ultimate
Edition packs in two additional commentaries in this 2-disc
set. One is a very humorous track with Oded Fehr (Ardeth Bay),
Kevin J. O'Connor (Beni), and Arnold Vosloo (Imhotep/The Mummy)
that really explores the camaraderie of the actors in the
film. Their commentary is so much better than that of the
throwaway version of Brendan Fraser's (Rick O'Connell), who
proves that his vapid surfer dude persona is well deserved.
That track is rather excruciating to sit through. The second
disc also features the fullscreen version, in case you're
one of the idiots that thinks widescreen chops up the picture.
There's also a highlight film on The Mummy Returns,
as well as DVD-ROM links to the live webcast from The Mummy
Returns premiere and a demo of The Mummy PC game.
However, the feature that motivated me the most in this purchase
was the free movie pass to The Mummy Returns, which
is good until May 20.
For those
of you who haven't seen the film, the basic premise is that
Evie Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) is a librarian at the Museum
of Antiquities in Cairo who finds a map to the lost city of
Hamunaptra. After freeing Rick O'Connell from hanging and
dragging her brother Jonathan (John Hannah) along (who is
motivated by gold and comic relief instead of archaeological
discovery), they find themselves in a race with a group of
Americans to open the treasures of the city first. However,
they end up awakening Imhotep, a priest who was buried alive
thousands of years ago. His goals are simple: reincarnate
his lost love Anck-Su-Amun and take over the world. The special
effects are just astounding, and the film is just good, clean,
light-hearted fun. It's a suspenseful and scary movie without
being very gory, and there are loads of exciting fight scenes.
Its melodrama, reminiscent of Indiana Jones, is buffered by
the great writing and little details that are taken care of
by writer/director Stephen Sommers.
With the
amount of DVDs out there that don't include extra features,
people need to start picking up the ones that do have extras
in droves to get the point across to the studios that we want
the extras. The Mummy Ultimate Edition is a perfect
example of that. It's a great movie with a lot of great reasons
to pick it up.
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