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7 months ago

Dawn of the Mummy

a review by CinemaSerf

Having just sat through five hours of Steven Soderbergh's "Che", I thought a little light relief might be in order. OK, well maybe not quite this light. It's all about a group of bimbettes and their photographer who are filming in the Egyptian desert and discover a long lost tomb. Seeking treasures, all they find is trouble as their desecration awakens some critters who haven't had a snack since King Tut was but an apple in his mother's eye. The first ten minutes and the last ten minutes are where the action is, the rest is a shocking waste of videotape where director Frank Agrama has concluded that women screaming hysterically and a lack of stage lighting will do all that's required to convey a sense of peril. Personally, I felt sorry for the indigestion facing these mummies who really did deserve something altogether meatier after their millennia long nap. George Peck stands out as "Rick" - acting like this, well you just don't see to every day and I think it ought to be savoured. Appreciated even - for exactly what it is. Terrible. It isn't really fair to single him out, they are all just as bad as each other and in no world could I ever recommend this - even if you do, like me, like the genre. Neither Boris Karloff nor Christopher Lee have anything to worry about.