La Malédiction du pharaon

My son is 8 and he enjoyed it. At three hours it was a too long for me, but I remember watching Tarzan movies for hours on Saturday mornings when I was his age, including those awful Mike Henry in South America Tarzan movies. This was better than those. So, even though I didn't like it much, I'm glad movies are still being made that a kid can watch and get lost in. One thing I thought was puzzling, they kept introducing characters that they never really did anything with. Steven Waddington was the only supporting character that managed to shine. The history was of course pretty silly, but they "fixed" that at the end. It made my son want to know more, so we went on the web and looked up what really happened. Definitely a "B" movie, with limited special effects and wooden acting, but still fun for kids.

The happenings depicted in The Curse Of King Tut's Tomb somehow didn't make it into the history books. If you're looking for the story of how Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter found the tomb than you'll be disappointed.

Instead we find Casper Van Dien doing a pale imitation of Indiana Jones as archaeologist, right down to the fedora. Van Dien knows he's in a Thanksgiving special and he overacts accordingly.

That of course is nothing compared to what Jonathan Hyde does as the master villain of the film. Hyde runs the gamut of villainy from Snidely Whiplash to Darth Vader with a lot else thrown in. Hyde in his villainy is backed by the Hellfire Club headed by Malcolm McDowell. But Hyde's ambitions extend far beyond just ruling this world. Tut's tomb is a passageway to the demon world and Hyde's working with them.

A lot of talented people get wasted in this Hallmark TV movie which is downright mediocre. And the end switches from Indiana Jones to Stargate.

As for Carnarvon and Carter that's covered too, but you'll have to sit through almost three hours to find out.

With all the finesse and depth of an after-school movie, we are treated to an Indiana Jones knock-off.

Long before the Egyptian dynasties, the world was in a struggle between good and evil. A jade plaque that when assembled lets them their evil critters in from another world.

Archeologist/teacher Danny Freemont (Casper Van Dien) is in the process of finding the plaque quadrants from the far corners of the earth.

Morgan Sinclair (Jonathan Hyde) competing archeologist/teacher and member of that popular cabal "Hell Fire" is in the process of pilfering jade plaque pieces from never learning and unsuspecting Danny Freemont.

Now here comes the Hallmark part. Danny loves Dr. Azelia Barakat (Leonor Varela), who loves Government Official Yunan Heikal (Parvin Dabas) who is in love with Egypt. Will anyone get together?

Will the bad guys finally win or is this just another save the world at the last minute movie?

This is supposed to be Egypt however, it is filmed in India. Strangely, enough all the Egyptians look Indian.

This animal even looks fuzzy in Blu-ray.

The film starts thousands years ago,under sands of ancient Egypt. The pharaoh Tutankamen rules, few know the events about his life.Tuthankamen really was son from King Amenophis IV and Qeen Nefertiti and he died violently.In the movie he appears fighting evil forces. The king was buried and his tomb eternally curses so that no man would ever again suffer from his evil ways. But thousands years later on a greedy search of Tut's treasure a group of archaeologist break the curse seal the tomb. A crakerjack adventurer(Casper Van Dien,Space troopers)is an adventurer wishes to find King Tut's tablet that would rule the world. But his nemesis Sinclair(Jonathan Hyde,Titanic) along with a secret society(Malcolm McDowell,Clockwork orange and Simon Callow,Room with a view)also want it and will stop at nothing to obtain it. Fremont is helped by a beautiful archaeologist(Leonor Varela,Cleopatra) and a trio friends(Steve Waddington,The last Mohican,among others). They venture into Valley of the Kings where find the Tut's tomb and the curse come out and once again unleashes the savage power.

This TV picture is a crossover of Egyptian fantasy:¨Mummy,King Scorpion¨(Stephen Sommers) and adventures and clothes from¨Indiana Jones¨(Spielberg). This is a cheesy fun in the Saturday matinée tradition with excessive and mediocre special effects. The movie contains lots of mummies, skeletons, wizards, as well as spooky tombs. The motion picture is regularly directed by Russell Mulcahy(Razorback,Highlander,Resurrection)who made a similar story about Egyptian curse titled¨Tale of mummy¨. Rating : Average but with some moment entertaining.

This is not "The Lord of The Rings" by any means and is not even the best work of Director Russell Mulcahy. And there were far too many natives of India trying to pass as Egyptians. Having said that I found this film to be good escapism entertainment if you realize that they are not trying to present any kind of historical fact. One of the best ways to sum it up is to imagine Indiana Jones on the cheap. Casper Van Dien is always fun to watch once you accept his natural cockiness and are pulled into his ability to be comic and serious at the same time.

Johnathan Hyde is always excellent either as hero (ala "Richie Rich) or as villain, and he seems to be fated to play these evil archaeologist types recently. And Malcolm McDowell is always superb. But the winner in this film was the sets, props and the soundtrack. The film was worth that alone. Still, a tighter shot film in a shorter time frame might have made it all work better. Not Oscar material by a long shot, but worth the time if you have nothing better to do.