Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. This evening: one of the rare failures of Tom Cruise at the cinema.
In 1999, Tom Cruise auditioned to play the hero of the fantasy adventure film The Mummy directed by Stephen Sommers. But the role is finally assigned to Brendan Fraser, who becomes world famous thanks to his immense commercial success and his two sequels.
However, this is only a postponement for Tom Cruise. A reboot of the saga was launched in 2017 under the leadership of director Alex Kurtzman. This time, the actor obtains the main role and faces the terrible antagonist of the title: an Egyptian princess returned from the dead to sow terror.
Spotted by the director in Kingsman: Secret Service, the Franco-Algerian artist Sofia Boutella was chosen, even before Tom Cruise was part of the project, for her ability to give the mummy a real humanity. In addition, the actress was able to use her background as a professional dancer, a discipline she has practiced since childhood, for her physical scenes, in particular the one where she is chained to the ground.
Unfortunately, The Mummy did not achieve the expected success when it was released. If Universal Pictures toyed with the idea of creating its own extended universe, the failure of the film reshuffles all the cards. The latter brings in “only” $409 million worldwide for a budget of $125 million (not counting the marketing budget of at least $100 million).
With an average viewer rating of 2.4/5, The Mummy is one of the lowest-rated feature films in Tom Cruise’s filmography (who also won the Worst Actor Razzie Award for his performance) by AlloCiné internet users.
The Mummy by Alex Kurtzman with Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis…
From 10 years old
Tonight on TFX at 9:05 p.m.