Day of the Mummy

Out of the over 260 Found Footage films I have seen, only a handful combine exotic locales with a setting rich in history (see list at the end). There definitely needs to be more, for when a found footage movie manages to take advantage of the setting, the result can be an amazing vicarious experience. Unfortunately, it does not happen too often, and here the result is mixed.

DAY OF THE MUMMY is a found footage horror adventure movie in which a team of archaeologists are looking for the tomb of a cursed pharaoh, and the protagonist in addition is secretly given the task by the wealthy financier of the expedition, played by Danny Glover, to find a valuable gemstone.

The movie feels very much like a live-action video game, with the gimmick of a camera being clandestinely installed in the protagonist's eyeglasses and the financier boss periodically adding commentary to the happenings on screen through a hidden ear piece. I take it that the protagonist, an Indiana Jones type, is meant to be drawn as a complex character, not entirely good and not entirely bad, but he ends up feeling like a video game character, too.

Although the film has some atmosphere, the happenings on screen are always at arm's length and therefore fail to involve the audience. There are also some major requirements of suspension of disbelief (e.g. A signal going through even while deep inside a cave: the group reaching a chamber full of lit candles and never even asking who lit them and when, and so on). The ending was less than satisfying.

Still, there was enough to at least keep me entertained. So, while it is not a good found footage movie, I think the IMDB rating (2.6 as of this writing) is too harsh. The film may well have an audience in those who, like me, enjoy found footage movies with an adventure component and exotic setting.

There is one other ancient Egypt-themed FF movie I know of, made even the same year as this, THE PYRAMID (2014), which is a couple of notches better (see my review). Some other comparable movies I liked are

1. JERUZALEM (2015)

2. AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (2014)

3. FINAL PRAYER (2013)

I don't think I've ever seen a more bored group of actors pretending to be actors. The characters are completely devoid of any sort of personality, charming or otherwise. They have no notable growth as people to make it interesting. Oh sure, the hero is a sleazy, greedy jerk who also believes that people's lives are worth more than money, but that doesn't make him heroic now does it? No, it makes him pretty normal I'd say. I've known more than a few people who behave like degenerates when left to their own devices, but will still go through heck to be there for a friend in need. People are funny like that, but I can't call them heroic.

And what's with the strong lady who is hired for "security"? Looks to me like she was hired because she's hot. Not to be rude, but she seriously didn't do anything useful in this movie except drop the tough guy act and crawl into the hero's sleeping bag before the first half hour was through.

The storyline is like being fed spoonfuls of dusty Egyptian fairy tales that are obviously garbage. It sounded fake even to me, a guy who knows next to nothing about Egyptian history.

Fortunately, special effects were limited in this feature. I'm not a big fan of overdone special effects, but having the camera blink out when anything exciting happens has never been a convincing method of building the tension to me. Especially when there isn't a reason for the camera to be blinking out.

But of course the biggest weakness this movie has is the "found footage" style of filming. I don't care how clever the writers think they are. "We thought up YET ANOTHER way to explain having a convenient camera to film everything in our movie! Yay!" It feels more like a ripoff of popular video games like "Metal Gear", with the boss routinely appearing in the corner every few seconds to bark an order, and the hero's voice coming in smoothly crystal clear, like it was recorded in a studio (it was, by the way).

Are there any good bits? I feel like I should mention some, but to be honest I'm having trouble thinking of any. The performance was very dry and honestly fairly dispassionate. Sure the actors ACTED angry, sad, in pain and the like, but it just still felt.. distant. Like you didn't have to care. Somewhere along the way the movie just got so cheesy that the viewer feels removed rather than involved. It fails to pull you in.

It's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it really just feels completely unexceptional and easily forgotten. In my mind, this is the greatest failure any movie can have, to be unmemorable. So I'm giving it a 2 to be generous.

It shot the movie with a handy cam. It's constantly shaking and it makes me dizzy from the beginning to the end. All my 3 kids and my wife and I vomited. The movie has basically no plot, but full of dumb cheesy conversations.

About 10 minutes before the end, a couple of mummies showed up a bit and they were all played by humans in cheap Halloween costume. Not scary at all! It'd be nicer if it could use computer-aided scenes. Waste of my time and money and physically made me uncomfortable. I feel the director has stolen money (a few dollars) from me.

I strongly suggest you not rent this movie. It borrows the name Mummy and has similar scenes on its DVD cover and hence makes you think it is a sequel to the wonderful movie -- The Mummy.

What a load of Rubbish.

1 hour and 20 minutes of my life I will never get back. Although as I had it on fast forward much of the time due to no dialog taking place perhaps only an hour lost.

Shocking acting and lousy story line.

I should have known as Danny Glover was listed. A cameo role. Seems like all these "has been" actors are nowadays giving up 15 minutes of their time to appear briefly in a "B" or "C" grade movie so they can get a cut.

Don't bother with this at all.

For goodness sake, do yourself a favor and close your eyes for 80 minutes instead of watching this, you will be more entertained.

After having sat through 80 minutes of the worst movie I have ever seen, I spent the next almost 4 hours with self torture techniques trying to remove any recollection of having watched it.

I must admit it was only because Danny Glover was cast I watched it, but never has he acted so poorly. I have been a long time fan of his, but how he was directed to be so bad, I will now question any future movies he is in.

The directing was pathetic. I thought this was his first, so willing to cut some slack, but nope, he has done this before. One thing for sure he will never see red carpet in his life.

All in all this movie might have been made on a McDonalds meal budget, but directing could have made this acceptable.

Johnny Tabor failed. He is now Johnny Ta-boring..........