The Haunted Mansion
Review by Clint Morris
 The
third – anyone remember The Country Bears? –
film based on an amusement park attraction rears it’s
head, this time with Eddie Murphy front-row-centre.
In The Haunted Mansion, the former wise cracker turned,
well, kids-film folly plays a workaholic real estate agent,
who, whilst on the way to a weekend getaway with his wife
and kids, gets a call from a butler that an owner of a priceless
mansion wants to sell.
Naturally, the clan makes a quick detour. A storm brews,
and the family has to end up staying the night. As per title,
they encounter a few lively spirits that skulk the corridors.
It’d be easiest to simply blame The Haunted Mansion
on its inspiration…a theme park ride.
Unfortunately, with another ride turned movie, Pirates
of the Caribbean proving this year that good movies can
actually be conceived from the most infinitesimal of ideas
– and the most unlikely of places – that’s
an off-kilter ruling.
Instead, the hitch with Rob Minkoff’s The Haunted
Mansion is that – and in comparison to the great
Pirates – it doesn’t seem to have any kind
of feasible script, nor fun stratagem from the get-go.
They’ve simply started and ended with special effects.
Okay, so Eddie Murphy’s in it, but he might as well have
been a visual effect himself, having being given nothing to
do but shriek and run from a bunch of old-hat effect gimmicks.
Yep, it is as dull as its trailer projects.
In short, The Haunted Mansion is a pretty unappetising
place to visit. It feels so much like a Wonderful World of
Disney telemovie and not the big event movie it was obviously
supposed to be. Give us more of those Pirates instead
– or at least someone offer director Minkoff and star
Murphy some much needed career advice.
1 out of 5
The Haunted Mansion
Australian release: Thursday March 25th
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Marsha Thomason, Terence Stamp, Jennifer
Tilly, Aree Davis, Marc John Jeffries, Nathaniel Parker, Wallace
Shawn, Don Knotts.
Director: Rob Minkoff.
Website: Click
here.
Brought to you by MovieHole
|
