The Mummy Returns (2001)

Director: Stephen Sommers

Writer: Stephen Sommers

Composer: Alan Silvestri

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velasquez, Freddie Boath, Alun Armstrong, Dwayne Johnson, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Shaun Parkes, Bruce Byron

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The most powerful force on earth is about to be unleashed by the two people who should know better.

Plot: The mummified body of Imhotep is shipped to a museum in London, where he once again wakes and begins his campaign of rage and terror.

My rating:6/10

Will I watch it again? Nope.

I came out of the theater from this 14 years ago pissed as hell.  I hated it so much.  THE MUMMY (1999) was a lot of fun and it still holds up as a great action flick with humor and grand adventure.  Some issues I had the first time around with this one weren't so bad on this recent second viewing. The kid's actually alright.   Because this is a sequel the film makers traded out the abundance of fun from the first one for an abundance of action and there's a lot of it.  In fact, there's way too much action and it's relentless to the point of forgetting to take the required breathers.  It's a two hour movie BEFORE the long ass end credits roll.  It's a case of giving too much and trying too hard.  We don't need to out-do the first film in a franchise.  Keep the story fun with likable characters, good action and leave us wanting more.  Don't fill my belly to the point of bursting and then try and force desert down my throat. Ugh.  The special effects are fine until the big fight at the end with the Scorpion King.  Dwayne Johnson's CGI creature looks embarrassingly bad.  It's not a bad film, there's just too damn much of it to the point of exhaustion.  The Universal DVD has lots of extras including a 3.5 minute interview with Johnson, an anamorphic widescreen trailer for THE SCORPION KING, a 20 minute featurette on the location, a director's commentary, a scant few minutes about the effects, outtakes (6 minutes), a music video for the song Live Forever May Not Be Long Enough, the anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer, a special message from Oded Fehr (less than a minute) and a PS2 video game trailer.  That's a lot of weak filler extras.