The Movies

1 The Mummy Returns

$68.1 million 1 week in release $68.1 million to date

PLOT Escapist nonsense about a couple of adventurers racing to stop the dreaded Scorpion King from conquering the world.

CAUTION Rated PG-13 for adventure action and violence. Contains lots of pulp-Egyptology: mummies, occult magic, reincarnation, etc.

BOTTOM LINE This film begs not to be taken seriously beyond the good guys vs. bad guys level. One action sequence simply piles upon another from start to finish.

$6 million 2 weeks in release $21.5 million to date

PLOT Noisy action movie about a racecar driver who comes out of retirement to help a promising rookie.

CAUTION Rated PG-13 for language, suggestive content, and some intense crash sequences.

BOTTOM LINE This is little more than an attempt to revive Stallone's career while appealing to the auto-racing crowd. The scant story serves to stitch together races, chases, and crashes.

$5.7 million 4 weeks in release $44.4 million to date

PLOT Quasi-update of Pride and Prejudice, recounting the exploits of a 30-ish Londoner trying to choose between two suitors.

CAUTION Rated R for language and strong sexuality.

BOTTOM LINE Well-acted but sadly set in a world where virtue and honor have nearly opposite meanings than they did for Jane Austen.

$3.8 million 6 weeks in release $98.4 million to date

PLOT When their secret agent parents are captured during a mission, a brother and sister set off to track them down and reunite their family.

CAUTION Rated PG for action sequences. Also contains some bad language.

BOTTOM LINE A fun-filled adventure that should appeal to parents and children alike, both for the quality of the storytelling and the strength of the film's pro-family message.

$3.7 million 5 weeks in release $60 million to date

PLOT A Secret Service agent and a police detective unite to find the kidnapper who abducted a congressman's daughter; based on the James Patterson novel.

CAUTION Rated R for violence and language.

BOTTOM LINE Admittedly implausible and occasionally flat, but nonetheless a thriller without sex or extreme violence.

The Mummy Returns opened the summer movie season with a box-office bang: a non-holiday weekend record of almost $70 million. What audiences saw was an over-the-top explosion of special effects and action sequences. Nothing in the movie (Universal Studios, rated PG-13 for adventure action and violence) plays for anything but put-your-brain-in-neutral-style escapism. The Mummy Returns revels in its roots-old pulp-fiction magazines and Boris Karloff-with loads and loads of computer-generated effects. This sequel brings back the leads from the original (Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz), who are now married with a son (Freddie Boath). The bad guy is the Scorpion King (The Rock of WWF fame), who made a deal with an evil pagan god that he and his armies would conquer the world. In the midst of the movie is a long series of chase scenes, martial-arts routines, and shootouts. Beyond good guys and bad guys, the plot is incoherent except as a way to build moment upon moment. Of course, this is no family movie: It includes B-movie horror occult elements such as resurrected mummies, pyramids, tombs, evil werewolf-like warriors, and a magic "bring Mommy back from the dead" spell. But at least the conquer-the-world deal with the devil meets an unintentionally biblical end-failure.