When The Fallen Ones originally aired on the Sci-Fi Channel earlier this year, I tuned in for about 10 minutes then flipped to another choice on my 500+ channel system. With the DVD, and the promise to review it, I was a captive audience with no option but to see it through. The movie starts off as cheesily as I remember, but I must admit that sticking with the flick paid off — not with dividends by any means, but The Fallen Ones is actually reasonably entertaining.

The movie starts off with a flashback set in Biblical times, introducing us to a fallen angel, Ammon (played by “24” baddie Navid Negahban), who did the nasty with a human woman, produced a 42-foot giant of a son, and really, really pissed The Almighty off in the process. Try not to notice the dime-store toga costumes, “Xena Warrior Princess” style CGI, or the honey baked ham acting, and flash forward some 3,000 years.

It’s present-day Arizona and Casper Van Dien (“I Married a Princess”) is an archaeologist working at an excavation site in the desert where a developer played by Robert Wagner (“Hart to Hart”) is going to erect a fancy resort. Before you can say “Battle of the B TV Stars”, Tom Bosley (“Happy Days”) shows up as a rabbi with a yarmakule and a head for dead languages. He comes in handy when an earthquake uncovers a 42-foot mummy whose gravesite is rife with ancient Sumerian markings and writings. Add a saucy blonde (Kristen Miller) and an elderly, no-nonsense sage (Geoffrey Lewis), and you’ve got yourself an ensemble ready to do battle when the Fallen Angel comes back to resurrect his evil son. Look and listen for an annoying cameo by horror cult-fave Irwin Keyes as a loudly-chanting disciple of Ammon.

After a flurry of fistfights, flirting, foul play and fearless forays into the fray, The Fallen Ones ends with a bang — and an in for a sequel. It’s a mummy movie that is not too tightly wrapped, but it’s fun while it lasts (and it helps to be a devotee of Van Dien’s onscreen persona, which, I confess, I have been since Starship Troopers).

The Fallen Ones was written, directed, and edited by Kevin VanHook. In my opinion, he should have stopped at the first credit. The script is very good (well-researched, good story, funny dialogue, neat characters), but the direction and editing fall short (the movie drags in places, pacing is off, things happen with no explanation). You will see this pattern’s first emergence in the reasonably-written but weakly directed 2001 straight-to-video flick, Frost: Portrait of a Vampire; let’s hope it doesn’t become a trend with his third movie, the upcoming Voodoo Moon. VanHook obviously has talent in the writing department, but it doesn’t look like he’s ever going to be willing to keep it at that — additional release material on the DVD shows that he’s very much into having a hand in every aspect of filmmaking.

The Anchor Bay DVD is packed with additional release material, and thankfully, all of the featurettes include optional captions. There’s a commentary featuring VanHook and some of the producers and technical people, but not, unfortunately, any of the actors. There’s also a making-of featurette, and one of the making of the mummy (from the casting of the actor to the computerized effects).

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson