The Mummy

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

The message of this movie is very simple: Fool around with the lovelorn undead--the featured creature was mummified alive some 3,000 years ago for unwisely lusting after the Pharaoh's mistress--and you will unleash a nonstop barrage of special effects. That would be O.K. if The Mummy's computer whizzes had generated something fresh, but it's pretty much shape-shifting and meteorological anomalies as usual. These batter into senselessness the wan efforts, led by Brendan Fraser as the chief tomb robber, to impart a sort of cheeky, Indiana Jonesish air to this hopelessly overwrought and deeply dopey movie.

--By Richard Schickel