The target of this iRiff is 1999's 'The Mummy': 739th in a long line of miserable remakes. This version of the movie far outstrips its predecessors on two counts: it contains more Brendan Fraser, and it contains more of that sugar-substitute for quality, CGI. If either of those two things seems promising to you, may we suggest that skipping this iRiff and viewing Journey to the Center of the Earth might be more to your liking.
For those still with us, please enjoy this iRiff as we dig in to a nice, dare I say 'juicy'?, helping of well-meaning acting and energetic silliness. Adding that special blend of sarcasm and irony, with a dash of disbelief and a pinch of pain, Tom and Jon endeavour to make this movie palatable to the discerning Riff-lovers' taste.
Tom & Jon
Notes:
* We riffed the "Ultimate Edition", 125 minute runtime
* Cheryl joins us as our Sync-Cat
* NTSC & PAL versions available




Comments
It's clean, it's hilarious, and I find something new to laugh at everytime I watch it. Nice job, guys!!! Mummy fans *(or non-fans) will love this riff!
The main thing I took away from watching this movie along with the iRiff is that Rachel Weisz is gorgeous -- but then that's the main thing I have always thought when watching this movie... I enjoyed this iRiff a lot, particularly after listening to it several times. I liked the running joke of how there isn't any blood in the whole movie (except for the part where the water turns to blood), which I had never noticed the other times I watched it. I also thought the running joke of calling Rachel's brother "Bob" (to avoid calling him Jonathan) was funny. The line about how the magi have great eyesight was great. ___p___
The first time I listened to this I thought it was a little weak, particularly compared to their riff of "The Core". But after a few listens, I think it was just that I missed the point of some of their riffs the first time through. The track has a good variety of riffs, and in particular I liked the various music references. ___p___
The riff was well-done on the technical details too. The sound quality was good and clear, the riffs pretty much fell into quiet spots in the movie, and the track stayed in sync with my copy of the movie for the whole movie (and Cheryl did a fine job of delivering the sync lines). I rated this iRiff as a 5, although I do still think that their iRiff for "The Core" was somehow a better riff. I can't even put my finger on why I think that. Maybe it's just that I really hated the absolute scientific stupidity of "The Core", while I must admit I actually did enjoy "The Mummy" as a movie.
In general I don't want to repeat too many riff lines from a riff track when writing a review. It happened that I listened to this iRiff several times last night (while trying to pin down a problem at work), and I'd say that there's still plenty of things in the movie which could be riffed on. ___1___ One thing is that any character who loudly announces "I Hate (=some animal=)s!!" early in a movie is pretty much guaranteed to have a run in with large numbers of (=that animal=) later in the movie. ___2___ Also it was amusing that at one point Brendan mentions that he and his little army had been to the lost city, and "All we found was sand and blood" -- even though his entire army was killed on screen (earlier in the movie) without a single drop of blood being shown. ___3___ It's interesting that when the mummy recognizes Bennie speaks "the language of the slaves", the mummy immediately offers Bennie large amounts of gold if Bennie will do his bidding. Because, you know, slaves were *always* paid with large amounts of gold... ___4___ I also like that when Bennie is going through his list of religious icons, he says some prayer in the original language of all these religions -- except that apparently Christianity originated in *ENGLAND*. Certainly the mummy would be impressed with *ENGLISH*, a language which must have been well-known in Pharaoh's day... ___5___ The pharaoh's secret guard have been guarding this city for thousands of years, to avoid someone "releasing this creature we have feared for three thousand years!". You'd think that in all that time, someone would have said, "Hey, let's pick up the one key which unlocks all these nasty items, and toss it into the ocean!". ___p___ Note that this isn't meant as a criticism of Tom + Jon's collection of riffs, as they have plenty of good lines in their track. It's just that when you really focus in on the story in this movie, there is an awful lot of details which are just plain silly when you think about them!
I purchased this riff on a whim. I love the Mummy movies, and this was a good riff. I want to encourage you guys to develop some of your jokes. You guys did get me laughing from time to time. I am not going to nit-pick like some other commenters, that don't have any of there own riffs up to prove that they are better. You guys have great chemistry to riff, keep at it.
I liked the Henryetta Pussycat synce. Is she single?
From the Brotherhood, good luck.
Hey, All. I'm glad you liked it!
I'm working on getting the sample back up on YouTube...it was pulled for "copyright violation"...thanks for your patience!
@Shortstuff: Thanks! So...out of curiosity, were you a fan or a non-fan?
@NanoRiffite: Thanks! If we ever go back and clean up the audio for a rev 1.1, I'll make sure to add in your riffs! Also, I'm glad you liked the soul-to-diaper joke as it was one of my favorites.
@The Brotherhood: It is with great personal joy that I regret to inform you that Cheryl (a.k.a. Henrietta) is in fact _not_ single! [8^) Thanks for the kind words. (Btw, I really don't mind the nit-picking, we're very much beginners and need all the pointers we can get (not to mention he said he rated this riff a 5, so I certainly can't complain! [8^) )
Jonathan