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Let sleeping mummies lie
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 4, 2001
New releases
The Mummy Returns (PG-13)
[Photo: Universa]
Brendan Fraser is archaeologist Rick O’Connell in The Mummy Returns.
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Archaeologist Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) gets wrapped up in his work again. This time, the mummified corpse of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) is awakened in London and starts killing again. Meanwhile, another evil presence, the Scorpion King, is being revived in Egypt, possibly to rule the world but more likely as an excuse to hire the Rock for maximum viewer appeal.
First impressions: "It's tough deciding who we're pulling for in The Mummy Returns. (Writer-director Stephen) Sommers believes this can be solved with one army of computer-drawn thousands crashing into another, or maybe some of those flesh-burrowing beetles everyone liked in The Mummy. He's wrong."
Second thoughts: All movies are created sequel.
Rental audience: Anyone who left the theater saying: "It's good, but I wouldn't pay full price again."
Rent it if you enjoy: The Mummy (1999), cafeteria leftovers.
Heartbreakers (PG-13)
[Times photo: MGM]
Sigourney Weaver plays a con woman who marries and dumps a series of rich men, including Gene Hackman in Heartbreakers.
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Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play con artists with a family touch: Mom marries rich men and daughter seduces them into fat alimony payoffs. The last victim was a shady crook (Ray Liotta) out for revenge; the next target is a phlegmatic tobacco mogul (Gene Hackman) with a frisky libido. Lightweight screwball comedy that hits the target more than theater audiences obviously expected.
First impressions: "Thanks to a game, energetic cast and a sexy script, Heartbreakers proves there's still life in the art of the con."
Second thoughts: Solid comedy that deserves to be discovered on home video.
Rental audience: Mature audiences looking for laughs.
Rent it if you enjoy: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Sting
DVD: New and noteworthy for digital players
A family like no other: 'The Simpsons'
The Simpsons: The Complete First Season
Matt Groening warns us in the liner notes for this DVD retrospective that it won't be the last: "With 280-odd shows in the can and no end in sight, you might be able to complete your Simpsons collection just before the next (home video) format comes along."
These 13 episodes, first aired in 1989 and 1990, were the beginning of the end of TV sitcoms as we knew them. Groening poked fun at every TV family who ever shared a dinner table, turning them into the cartoons they really were, but always with an element of truth that could warn a heart or turn a stomach. The Simpsons is one of the greatest television shows of all time, and this 3-disc DVD set recalls how it started.
If only the bonus features were as elaborately wacky as the show they celebrate. Each disc contains at least 4 episodes in chronological order, with copies of the scripts with margin notes and words to punch up in the dubbing process. Commentaries are provided, but you need to search for them under the audio language option.
A few interactive games, a library of guest stars or just a photo gallery would be nice. The episodes are great, the commentary okay, but the shortage of extras is enough to make DVD fans have a cow.
Rewind: Videos worth another look
A commanding presence
Son of a gun, it's Charlton Heston's 77th birthday. These days, the Academy Award-winning actor is better known as a mouthpiece for the National Rifle Association.
Heston's ramrod demeanor imbues each of his roles, even the punchlines he added to Wayne's World, Disney's Hercules and this summer's Cats & Dogs and Planet of the Apes. See for yourself with any of these video selections:
The Greatest Show on Earth -- Cecil B. DeMille's big-top soap opera won the 1952 best picture Oscar. Heston plays Brad Braden, a no-nonsense circus manager dealing with a love triangle, racketeers, a train crash and a clown (Jimmy Stewart) on the lam.
The Ten Commandments -- Who else could play Moses now? Heston delivers Hebrews to the promised land in DeMille's biblical epic, the best of its genre.
Touch of Evil -- Classic film noir, although Heston's tough to believe as a Mexican cop tracing a border town frame-up.
Ben-Hur -- Another best picture Oscar (1959) plus a best actor prize for Heston, playing a deposed Jewish prince gaining revenge as a slave.
Planet of the Apes -- Heston stars as an astronaut stranded in a world where simians rule. Get your damn, dirty paws on a copy of the original.
The Omega Man -- The last man on Earth (Heston) after nuclear holocaust copes with loneliness and a pack of vampire zombies. Heston's gravity as an actor keeps it real.
Soylent Green -- Another sci-fi favorite with Heston investigating the source of a miraculous food source for a starving world. Pass the people, please.
Will Penny -- A sadly underrated Western with Heston as an aging cowboy chasing away ranch squatters.
The Agony and the Ecstasy -- Heston lays down on the job playing Michelangelo as he paints the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
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