Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Dries Vermeulen A three thousand year old mummy wreaking havoc in the famous Louvre Museum in Paris was the subject of a popular French TV series for youngsters from the '60s, starring legendary chanteuse Juliette Gréco. Now, young director – who undoubtedly grew up with the show – Jean-Paul Salomé, who would go on to make the equally nostalgic ARSENE LUPIN with Continental matinée idol du jour Romain Duris, has turned this pivotal childhood experience into an expensive and undeniably good-looking multiplex blockbuster. The elaborate CGI alone must have eaten up a considerable chunk of the budget.Erstwhile centerpiece Gréco even does a brief walk-on for those in the know during an atmospheric cemetery scene where she makes fleeting eye contact with replacement Sophie Marceau, a talented thespian best known to US audiences for her purely decorative turn in Mel Gibson's supremely silly BRAVEHEART. Though obviously aimed at family audiences, this fairly old-fashioned adventure yarn will please moms and dads rather than their offspring who have become accustomed to far more gruesome sights than the extremely mild horrors on display here.For the uninitiated, this intentionally naive mix of scares and chuckles should prove something of a disconcerting experience. For example, in spite of its 1935 Egypt prologue, complete with a tomb desecration whose perpetrators wind up swiftly dispatched, the movie draws less inspiration from old Universal or Hammer mummy chillers than from a long line of possession flicks ranging from the modest WITCHBOARD series to the landmark EXORCIST, with Marceau as beleaguered heroine Lisa, unwilling vessel to the embalmed one's vengeful spirit, doing a PG version of Linda Blair's finest hour for the film's grand finale. More importantly for a pervert like myself, she also bares her shapely butt and (right) boob on separate occasions, just so you won't forget this is a French film after all ! Diminutive heart-throb Frédéric Diefenthal, who rose to prominence playing the clumsy policeman hero of the wildly popular TAXI movies with Samy Naceri, also registers strongly as her frequently beaten up romantic foil. Dependable old timer Michel Serrault (forever swishy Alban from the original LA CAGE AUX FOLLES) gets all the best lines as a retired cop turned security expert and even a halfway decent farcical romance with bumbling Egyptologist Julie Christie, the latter handling her French dialog in disarming Laurel & Hardy fashion.Once viewers can get past the fact that this movie's not intended to scare the living daylights out of them – though the image of the diabolical Belphégor in full ceremonial burial dress hovering through the museum corridors has an eerie Jean Rollin poetry to it – they can fully enjoy this handsomely mounted horror comedy for its ingratiating performances, amiably ludicrous set pieces and stunningly shot Paris settings with all tourist traps present and accounted for. A genuinely haunting score by then fledgling composer Bruno Coulais, who of course went on to write the music for the immensely successful LES CHORISTES, provides the icing on the cake.

JohnBlund2001 According to me french movies doesn't gets much PR around the world for some reason. However this movie is a proof of that France can make good movies and do. The first time I saw this movie was just a coincidence more or less... One evening I read the Swedish TV guide to see if it was something on worth watching. I didn't think so, however I turned the TV on anyway and zapped around a bit. I finally got to the channel showing this movie and somehow it caught my eye and I start watching, even if I discovered that I unfortunately have missed the first 10 minutes of the movie. I am really glad that I did watch it after all anyway!About the movie: Much of the story (plot summary) is already available to read on IMDb about this movie, so I don't think one can consider this as a spoiler but to make sure you might think twice before continue reading.The story starts 1935 in Egypt when a french expedition led by Egyptologist Pierre Desfontaines (Pierre Aussedat) discovers a tomb with a 3000 years old sarcophagus in it containing a mummy. Amongst other artifacts, they decide to bring back the sarcophagus and the mummy, to the Louvre museum in Paris. During the boat trip to Marseilles however all but one crew member strangely dies including Pierre Desfontaines himself. 65 years later during a restoration of the Louvre museum in Paris the mummy is found in a forgotten storage room. The museum curator Bertrand Faussier (Jean-François Balmer) brings in Egyptologist Glenda Spencer (Julie Christie), to examine the artifacts and trying to establish who the mummy really where and its name.Lisa (Sophie Marceau) is an ordinary girl living across the street from the museum, together with her grandma Geneviève (Patachou). One evening they get an electrical problem and call for electrician Martin (Frédéric Diefenthal) who has helped them before when in trouble. When fixing the problem in the basement, Lisas cat runs off and they have to follow it and end-up in the museum after closing time. Will they be discovered by the guards? Lisa and Martin gets separated and Lisa accidentally discovers the mummy in the basement. Things happen and after that evening neither Lisa nor anybody else understand why Lisa begins to visit the museum every night. At the same time strange things starts to happen at the museum, alarms going off now and then and people gets murdered and rumors amongst the guards begins to spread that there is a phantom called Belphégor on the loose. The chase to get this phantom begins but soon they will be aware of that getting Belphégor will not be as easy as they from the beginning thought. And when they finally do, they don't know what to believe, believe it!Sophie Marceau is a masterpiece when playing the role of Lisa and Frédéric Diefenthal is equally good playing the role of the electrician and later on her boyfriend as well. It's wonderful to see Julie Christie in this french film playing Egyptologist not to mention the french Patachou playing Lisa's grandma.

nirvanafan37-1 Kind of like our version of the mummy it is about a phantom who haunts the Louvre. The writing is not that great, nor is most of the writing in films like this one in terms of hooking you into the story. It was very predictable in terms of what was to happen next. So that definitely knocks a few points from a higher vote, I personally like to wonder what happens and have a guess at what could unfold. Sophie Marceau plays Lisa a really dull nervous/anxious commonly seen before type of character, who of course gets caught up in some drama as the movie drags on to the predictable finish. This is nothing like a french cinema movie, much more like a Hollywood film. I am a big fan of foreign cinema, and Sophie Marceau and felt this film was a very average, done before kind of deal. The fact it had lots of action is one plus, because I liked that the action was the only thing that kept me going in this completely ordinary done before film. I give it an ordinary 5 out of 10, if you are going to rent foreign, rent "La Fidelite" also starring Sophie Marceau

Andreev Well, this film worth seeing, if you are tired of Hollywood computer-animated demons and want to see the real people instead. I liked the authentic surrounding, the interiors of the real Louvre in which the film was shot. And the playing of actors, of course. Though not a masterpiece, but I think it deserves 7 points of 10.