Prisoners Of The Sun has Professor John Rhys-Davies astronomer organizing an expedition to Egypt to view from the pyramids or one specific pyramid a celestial event that only takes place every 5000 years or so. A perfect alignment of some stars. Since they're going in the tomb itself or will attempt same he's needing an archaeologist. The one he has in mind is Joss Ackland.

But Ackland suffers a heart attack and he sends his young assistant David Charvet in his place. Reluctantly the rest agree to have him along.

Others in this merry band are Gulshan Grower,, Michael Higgs, Nick Moran, and Mohamed Akszham and one of them killed for the privilege of going along.

Prisoners Of The Sun borrows from several other sources including Indiana Jones and all the mummy films you can name going back to Boris Karloff. Any cliche you can think of is there.

John Rhys-Davies must have been in competition for an award in overacting because he trundles and bellows his way through most of the scenes. He makes this whatever else it is, not dull.

Still it's one lame movie for Mummies.

From the opening scenes, Egypt was started by aliens lead by Osiris. Their intent was to conquer the world, but somehow they got trapped and buried in a pyramid and can reactivate every 5,000 years when certain stars line up. There is a bronze key that is needed to open it, a bad guy, the professor and Mary Ann all go to the tomb at the right time etc.

The plot was boring. The science has horrible. A few things... There are no stellar alignments that take place every 5,000 years. Sirius was never a pole star. And you can't carbon date bronze, it has no organic carbon.

The movie attempts to be a combination of "The Mummy" "Stargate" and "Indian Jones." And not the good Indian Jones film, the one with the Crystal Skull. The film is too short and formulaic. The characters were shallow. The special effects were above Asylum grade, except for that one insect thing.

Might work for the kids.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

"Prisoners of the Sun" starts out with an interesting premise--the idea that elements of Egyptian mythology actually represent extraterrestrial powers who may be brought back to Earth when the signs are right-- but unfortunately fails to develop this idea very well. Admittedly, some of the problems the film has are the result of a low budget, but there are dramatic weaknesses that go beyond that. First and foremost, the script is incredibly tepid, and not much of anything happens for long stretches of time. Even towards the end, when our cast of characters are on the brink of a historic discovery in the haunted catacombs of an ancient pyramid, there is little action or suspense. Naturally, since this is a film about ancient Egyptian mysticism and curses, there is an undead mummy, but despite the mummy's prominent disposition in the film's trailer it actually has only a tiny role in the story and disappears from the proceedings pretty quickly. The screenplay needed a healthy dose of adrenalin to bring the admittedly interesting plot to life, but instead there is simply a lot of unconvincing exposition from one scene to the next. As a result, even the film's relatively short running time seems to go on interminably. One the plus side, the cast is for the most part decent and capable, though regrettably the one exception is the actor playing the part of Dr. Adler, the film's hero, as he is badly miscast as a scholar and is totally unconvincing in the role. Overall, "Prisoners of the Sun" is just too uninvolving and lackluster to recommend. There was the potential to make a respectable movie, but the opportunity is never realized.