Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and as we move closer to Halloween, spookier) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week’s movie was the 1999 film The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and Oded Fehr.

I absolutely love this movie, for many reasons. I think it is a wild rumpus of a movie, cheesy in parts, creepy in others, with goofy little funny scenes, and Oded Fehr. Yes, he is a reason I love this movie. But we will get into that more later.

Google Overview: “The Mummy is a rousing, suspenseful and horrifying epic about an expedition of treasure-seeking explorers in the Sahara Desert in 1925. Stumbling upon an ancient tomb, the hunters unwittingly set loose a 3,000-year-old legacy of terror, which is embodied in the vengeful reincarnation of an Egyptian priest who had been sentenced to an eternity as one of the living dead.”

I love movies with academic women going out on expeditions. I love books with that as a theme as well. And I think this is the movie that started that love for me. Evie is an awesome female heroine; intelligent, beautiful, human with her mistakes and clumsiness, brave, and best of all, a librarian! Rachel Weisz plays her part so well, she is charming and adorable and funny.

On the other hand, of course like in all movies like this, she is paired with a rough and tumble adventurer, Rick O’Connell, played by Brendan Fraser. And whew his cardio for this movie had to have been intense. Billy and I think he spent 90% of the movie running! All of them really because it was one action scene after another.

The duo is rounded out by Evie’s brother, Jonathan, played by John Hannah, who is a bit a wastrel but she loves him and he loves her. And he does have some worth, as he can also read and speak ancient languages, which is important later on in the movie. Although it cracked me up how many scenes he raced into, to skid to a stop in horror before joining the fight. Despite being comic relief, he is also a valuable member of the team.

And then there is Oded Fehr. He plays Ardeth Bay, a Medjai warrior and chief who is dedicated to preventing Imhotep from returning to life. I guess he wasn’t counting on a librarian spoiling those plans! He rounds out the group as the action and danger really begins.

I also had a huge crush on him after this movie all the way back in 1999. In fact, last night when he came on the screen while we were watching it all together, Billy turned to Wyatt and said “Your mom thinks he is handsome,” in that singsong type of voice. Lol. I couldn’t deny it. And then when I texted that to Lisa, she had a little confession of her own about him as well. Sorry Brendan, had we been Evie our affections would have been for a different man.

Sigh.

Ok, back to the movie. There is a race to the treasure, because of course. Former associate of Rick’s, Beni, an opportunistic thief is leading his own group of men to Hamunaptra, which is said to contain treasure. Evie is interested in a book, because she is a librarian.

Of course, all manner of disasters and mishaps and calamity ensues. People die (all offscreen). Imhotep is obsessed with reincarnating his girlfriend, and plans to use Evie to do it.

This movie has a bit of everything – action, adventure, comedy, horror, romance. A little something for everyone!

However, how much did this movie get right about Egyptology? I was surprised to read that an actual Egyptologist did work with the film, a man named Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith. According to a post from Egypt at the Manchester Museum, there were quite a few things that were accurate, including some very small details. One such detail was the book that Evie was reading near the beginning of the movie, while onboard the boat during their journey to Hamunaptra, is actually a book that someone studying or interested in Egyptology would have been potentially been reading at the time. It was The Dwellers on the Nile, by E. A. Wallis Budge, and was published in 1885. I love that the filmmakers and Dr. Smith thought abut keeping this small little detail so accurate!

I also got sucked into this analysis by Dominic Perry on TikTok. If you are interested in any of the history surrounding this movie, give this a watch. It is fascinating.

Overall, I absolutely love this movie. It is just fun and cute in parts and I don’t think it is particularly scary, but that is all subjective to the person watching of course. Billy loves it as well, and Wyatt seemed to be before he fell asleep. Lol.

Next up, we turn back to the cozy and comfy, watching The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain.

And with that, I will wrap this up and say goodbye! Don’t forget to check out Lisa’s post here.

If you are interested a few years ago I also wrote a post about librarians you would not want to mess with.

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!