The discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in November of 1922 had a ripple effect through many disciplines, inevitably including entertainment. The story of its discoverer, archaeologist Howard Carter, was almost as riveting as that of the 18th-Dynasty Pharaoh. His career with the Archaeological Survey of Egypt ended suddenly in the early 1900s over an altercation with tourists, but he was pulled from early retirement by Lord Carnarvon, an aristocratic Englishman with an interest in the Egyptian Pharaoh. In much the same arrangement as Jurassic Park's John Hammond and Alan Grant, the two joined forces in 1907 with Carnarvon providing the funds and Carter providing the expertise. Convinced over years of piecing together that the Valley of the Kings (near Luxor) must indeed be the burial site of King Tut, Carter made detailed plans for uncovering the site - only to be stopped in his tracks by the onset of World War I. Patiently biding his time until the war was over, Carter returned to the area for season after season, until that November morning when his hired diggers informed him that steps - and a doorway - had been found.

Interest was so high in this discovery that it was only a matter of time until a movie would be made to capitalize on it. After Universal's success with Frankenstein, Universal screenwriters Nina Putnam and Richard Schayer cobbled together a story about the discovery (set a year earlier than that of Tutankhamen) of an 18th-Dynasty Egyptian, who had been buried alive after committing some horrible crime. They blended in some hokum of the "Pharaoh's curse" (while there were always rumors of curses against those who defiled the tombs of the pharaohs, it's doubtful the ancient Egyptians ever believed in them - and most likely they were invented by more modern-day Egyptians in an effort to scare off European archaeologists), and the result was the classic (if slow-moving by today's standards) 1932 The Mummy . This film began a franchise that lasted for four more sequels, each worse than the one before.  It was revived again in 1959 in the Hammer films, with the dual lure of blood and sex that was unavailable in 1932.

In 1999 Universal again took control of the characters with the release of The Mummy, the first in the third wave of Mummy movies and the first to take advantage of the new generation of special effects. The new film owed as much to Raiders Of The Lost Ark as it did to the 1932 original, and was one of the great successes of that year. The deal for the sequel had been made before the film ever opened.

That sequel, The Mummy Returns, is largely considered a disappointment; by retreading many of the set pieces of the first movie, relegating that movie's villain to second-tier by introducing a more powerful villain, and then giving that new villain less than ten minutes of screen time, the result is a film without a center, whose energy - while admirably high - is spent in the directionless fizzle of an unguided bottle rocket. While parts of the movie are good - how can a movie with an attacking horde of Pygmy skeletons be bad? - the story has no resonance, and it was not surprising that the box office fell so precipitously by the second week in the theaters. True to the form of Universal's original series, however, this franchise will continue sputtering (The Scorpion King opens next year) until it's buried alive, to be unearthed again for a future fourth wave of Mummy movies.

Film Synopsis: Deep within a chamber in the British Museum of London, an ancient force of terror is about to be reborn. It is 1933, the Year of the Scorpion. Eight years have passed since legionnaire Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) and Egyptologist Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) fought for their lives against a 3000-year-old enemy named Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo). Rick and Evelyn are married now and are raising their son Alex (Freddie Boath). When a chain of events finds the corpse of Imhotep resurrected in the British Museum, the mummy Imhotep walks once more, determined to fulfill his quest for immortality. But another force has also been set loose in the world, one born of the darkest rituals of ancient Egyptian mysticism, even more powerful than Imhotep. When these two forces clash, the fate of the world will hang in the balance, sending the O'Connells on a desparate race to save the world from unspeakable evil and rescue their son before it is too late.

Technical

Video:	Widescreen release: Widescreen 2.35:1 (Anamorphic) Full-screen release: 1.33:1
Audio:	ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC] FRENCH: : Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]

Not surprising for the DVD release of a big-budget special-effects picture, the pressing is very, very good.  The picture is sharp, with no visible noise and excellent color and shadow detail. No weak colors were seen, and even the richest red (and there's a lot of red) appears steady.  There were no visible artifacts, and the flickering that was seen in the pressings of the 1999 Mummy were absent.  The layer change is well-placed.  All in all, an excellent job by Universal --but not perfect.

The DTS track that was included in the R4 releases of the movie is missing from the R1 release, presumably because to include the data stream would have expanded this very full dual-layer disc to a flipper (or, more likely, a 2-DVD set) -- and given the box-office performance of the movie, Universal was not convinced that the demand for the video release would justify such a set (at least not until The Scorpion King opens, when it's possible that Universal will release an "Ultimate Edition," a la The Mummy (1999).

Supplements

• Audio Commentary by director Stephen Sommers
• Making Of; Interactive visual and special effects breakdown
• Outtakes; Live Music Video
• Production Info
• Interview with The Rock
• Egyptology 201
• "Chamber of Doom" theme park attraction virtual tour
• DVD-ROM: Preview of "The Scorpion King"

The audio commentary by director Sommers is similar in style to The Mummy, with a good amount of filmmaking information (some of the scenes towards the end of the movie were lit by having the gaffers hold flame-throwers).  Thankfully, he never loses sight of the fact that this was a popcorn movie.  We should mention that Interview with The Rock runs under four minutes, and is (not surprisingly) little more than a commercial for the upcoming sequel.  The outtakes are actually a 6-minute gag reel -- pretty entertaining if you're a fan of the film.  The "Chamber of Doom" theme park attraction virtual tour is a three-minute walkthrough of the Universal Studios attraction; note that it contains spoiler information for those planning to visit Universal.