Ancient Egyptian tomb's curse awakens when archaeologists break its seal. All vanish except a logbook. Years later, the leader's granddaughter follows their path, finds an amulet, and battle... Read allAncient Egyptian tomb's curse awakens when archaeologists break its seal. All vanish except a logbook. Years later, the leader's granddaughter follows their path, finds an amulet, and battles the immortality-seeking Talos in London.Ancient Egyptian tomb's curse awakens when archaeologists break its seal. All vanish except a logbook. Years later, the leader's granddaughter follows their path, finds an amulet, and battles the immortality-seeking Talos in London.
- Awards
- 2 wins total
- The Mummy
- (as Roger Morrissey)
- Blind Man
- (as Edward Tudor Pole)
Featured reviews
While some CGI is used, this is primarily a story driven as opposed to an effects driven film. The performances are solid (even Jason Scott Lee fits his role especially when you see the flashbacks and the surprising finale) with a wonderful OTT turn from Sean Pertwee as a haunted member of the expedition and a sympathetic one from Shelley Duvall as a medium who helps him.
Much has been made of the concept of Talos, the mummy as it's his bandages that come to life but it's original and creative and shows what can be done on a small budget. Partially financed but abandoned by Disney, this film was made at the same time as Stephen Sommers' big budgeted Brendan Fraser epic and consequently never got an American release until much later when it was cut from 115 minutes to 88 minutes.
Although I would be curious to see the full length International version, longer is not always better for I can't imagine this film being much longer than it already is. If you're looking for gore and high tech special effects then you won't find them here (although a scene in a Men's room qualifies in both regards) but the widescreen transfer looks great and the sound is loud and clear. Uneven overall but TALE OF THE MUMMY deserves credit for trying something different...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.
The movie does start out in an adequate pace, and does establish some characters pretty early on, which was good for the movie.
"Tale of the Mummy" has an adequate storyline, although parts of it seemed a bit forced. The storyline is simplistic and very easy to follow, making it feel like writers Keith Williams, John Esposito, Russell Mulcahy and writer/director Russell Mulcahy were followed a generic blueprint of 'how-to-make-a-mummy-movie'.
I must admit that I was more than genuinely impressed with the ensemble of cast that had been hired for this movie, because there are some rather good names on the cast list here. It was a nice surprise to see the likes of Christopher Lee, Gerard Butler, Lysette Anthony, Sean Pertwee, Shelley Duvall, Jon Polito, Jason Scott Lee and Michael Lerner in a movie such as this.
The effects in "Tale of the Mummy" were quite good and actually do, to some extend, still hold their ground even today. So thumbs up for the special effects team that worked on the movie.
It was kind of funny how adept the awakened mummy was at speaking English and speaking it flawlessly.
The movie does let off some of its momentum once it makes it past the halfway marker. Which is a bit of a shame. The movie in whole doesn't really stand out and is not a particularly memorable addition to the mummy movie genre.
And the ending of the movie? Wow, seriously? That had to be one of the most ridiculous endings in the history of mummy movies. It was so phenomenally bad that it has to be seen to believe.
Did you know
- TriviaLouise Lombard was a late casting choice, replacing another actress who had to drop out because she had been bitten by a dog with rabies.
- Quotes
Bradley Cortese: What sort of respectable mummy snuffs it without leaving a mothercurse on her tomb?
- Alternate versionsThe 88 minute US version is missing about 30 minutes of footage that exist in the international version.
- ConnectionsReferenced in DVD/Lazerdisc/VHS collection 2016 (2016)
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- La malédiction de la momie
- Filming locations
- London, England, UK(one day of shooting)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $8,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $831,785
- Runtime1 hour 28 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1