Mummies (PG)
4 Cats Pictures; IMDb; Rotten Tomatoes; Warner Bros.; Wikipedia
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Let me start by saying that the mummies in this movie don't really look like the traditional idea of mummies. Their bodies are wrapped in bandages, though they wear ancient Egyptian clothing over that, and even the bandages, in my opinion, don't really evoke the bandages typically associated with mummies. More importantly, their heads are not bandaged, but just look like the heads of living people... unless exposed to bright white light, in which case they look like skulls. Anyway, the mummies all live in an underground city... well, I say "live", but they're actually dead, but also immortal in their death. They've apparently been "living" there for thousands of years, so the movie takes place in the present.

It begins with a chariot race, which is won by a mummy named Thut (pronounced "Toot"). He just barely survived the race, however, and after that retired. (I have no idea how long ago the race took place, but he's still got plenty of fans, for whom he signs autographs.) Meanwhile, there's a mummy princess named Nefer, who when we first meet her sings a song, which made me think the movie would turn out to be a musical... but it's not. She really was singing, and that's not a normal thing, the way it is in musicals. It is her dream, but it is discouraged by those around her, including her father, the Pharaoh, despite the fact that she has a good singing voice. She's instead expected to carry out the duties of a princess. And that includes getting married to a man who would be chosen for her by a phoenix. She definitely doesn't want to marry anyone, especially without being able to choose for herself. And then... Thut's little brother, Sekhem, happens to be playing with his boomerang when the phoenix passes by, and it hits the bird, causing it to crash into Thut and Sekhem's house. So it is believed that the phoenix chose Thut to marry Nefer. And the two of them don't get along at all; Thut wants to remain single. But if he refuses to marry her, then his tongue and eyes will be cut out, so he agrees to go along with it. He's also given a ring he has to protect until their wedding day.

In the land of the living, there's an archaeologist (really more like a treasure hunter) named Lord Sylvester Carnaby, who has a pair of inept henchmen (as well as a smothering mother whom he sometimes calls "Mummy"). Carnaby discovers the place Thut had put the ring for safekeeping, and he steals it, along with a bunch of other stuff. Thut and Sekhem go to the land of the living to retrieve the ring, and they're followed by Nefer. The three of them are forced to hide in crates which are shipped from Egypt to London. (This is one of those movies where there's no explanation for how people who speak different languages understand each other. The mummies just appear to speak English, even though they thought they were in Rome.) Well, they spend most of the movie trying to retrieve the ring, while Carnaby tries to capture them to put them in his exhibit so he can become famous. Meanwhile, the Mummies are befriended by a guy named Ed, who has no idea that they're mummies. He wants Nefer to sing a song he had written, which she's eager to do. But of course Thut just wants to get the ring and go home.

And now I feel like I've said too much, so I won't say much more. I'm leaving out lots of details. But I will say that predictably, Thut and Nefer end up falling in love. And there is a happy ending. Anyway, I thought it was a fairly fun and occasionally amusing movie, with some good characters. It's not a great movie, in fact I think I'd call it average. But that's not bad. I liked it well enough, and I'm glad to have seen it.