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HARRY KNUCKLES AND THE TREASURE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY

By Merle Bertrand | February 21, 2000

The title’s pathetic pun says it all. It’s just this sort of immature groaner humor that permeates the unnecessary return of this non-action hero. Harry’s daughter has been kidnapped by Mr. Grande (Feisal Mohamed),a smooth-talking lummox in a nice suit, and he must trek to the depths of the jungle to recover the Aztec Mummy McGuffin. We know this is a dangerous journey because the ineptly handled opening sequence — which shamelessly aped the opening of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — showed us it is. He crosses a river in, um, a pontoon boat and, after a couple of tedious chopsaki fights and a lame sex-as-a-weapon subplot involving an Anna Nicole Smith clone Jade Pussycat (Isabelle Arnedo), recovers the mummy and saves the day. Ho-hum. A high concept cross between Indiana Jones and Jackie Chan, Harry (Phil Caracas) employs the best characteristics of neither in this lame adventure spoof. Not that there’s anything wrong with a well-done parody, but this is just plain bad. It looks so awful, at first thought it was an old Super 8 film someone dug out of their closet. Even worse than the picture quality is the sound; horribly looped, bassier than a rap song booming from a low-rider and absent any attempt to add ambiance to the mix. Finally, Harry just doesn’t have any charisma at all. It’s as if the mechanic at your local garage suddenly decided he was a superhero. Director Lee Demarbre needs to pull the plug on this embarrassing serial now.

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