Haunted Mansion

Might be hard to believe, but we actually have a Disney movie that was fun!!! It didn't try to shove an agenda down your throat while still tackling important themes such as loss and grief. Of course that is all secondary to the most important thing...FUN AT THE MOVIES which is rare these days sadly! It was escapism, great cast, not to mention soooo many easter eggs for fans of the ride. If I'm honest, the 2003 version isn't something I hated like many, but this does it MUCH better. I told my wife when we left, "if I wanted someone to know what ride they were about to get on at Disney World, I'd just have them watch this and I love the movie for it".

I was hoping they learned from mistakes they made with the last Haunted Mansion movie. The story was much better than I expected, but they executed it poorly. They tried too hard with their overly silly jokes, cheesy ghost visuals, and painfully obvious shout outs to the ride. They tried to cater their jokes to kids, but in a theater full of children and preteens, the only chuckles I heard came from their elderly grandparents. My seven year old even thought it was too cheesy and was hoping for it to be a little more scary. HM is my favorite ride at Disney but I hated their use of obvious references to cater to the fans. Especially their use of the ride's original script. That was unforgivable.

Another pointless remake in a sea of pointless remakes, reboots or whatever the term they use these days. This movie is even worse than the original with Eddie Murphy. The lead actor is completely miscast. But he's not the only one, Rosario Dawson and Owen Wilson are just there for the sake of being there. The other female actress, the psychic, completely unfunny, feels like they were going for the Whoopie Goldberg style role of 1990's Ghost but it fails on all levels. Danny De Vito, nice to see him but he doesn't shine and also he's not funny. In fact nothing was really funny. The movie was bland, generic, empty, devoid of any energy. Watching the lead actor was like watching Tom Cruise in The Mummy reboot. What is he even doing in this movie and he is boring and feels like he didn't want to be in the movie. At least Eddie Murphy's role we got some laughs. I cannot believe I wasted 2 hours of my life with yet another Disney reboot stinker.

I wasn't expecting Disney's "Haunted Mansion" film to be a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but I was hoping it would be good entertainment, as the trailers seemed to make it look a bit more fun and authentic than some of Disney's other ride adaptations. It also has a talented cast including LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, and Danny DeVito. Yet the film fell short of my expectations, simply because it is so generic and derivative that it fails to offer the viewer anything new. It's not simply that "Haunted Mansion" might be too scary for younger kids and too juvenile for older kids, as that would not be a problem if the movie was good or interesting--it's just that this film overall isn't very good or interesting, period.

The film follows a single mother and her son who move into the Haunted Mansion, which is in New Orleans. While the film tries to utilize the setting of New Orleans in some decently authentic ways, the rest of the plot and character development is so generic that they fail to make viewers more engaged in the setting. The film's attempts at both humor and scares fall flat, as the jokes are formulaic and corny while the attempts at more frightening moments fail to elicit any tension or suspense, and are quite repetitive and CGI-heavy. For a film that supposedly cost $160 million to make, the visual effects look very cheesy and artificial as well. At over two hours long, the film also runs for too long, especially given the plot has limited resolution or payoff in a way that would be directly satisfying for the audience. While the supporting cast (such as Wilson and DeVito) try their best with the material they have been given and sometimes give off charismatic and fun performances, the rest of the film does not work especially well. Not recommended. 5/10.

Pacing is all off here, this film could have done with at least 20-30 minutes trimmed off. It sagged in the middle, can't really fault the actors here, they all did their bit. They were just dealing with a baggy script.. The effects were fine, the set was appropriately eerie and atmospheric. I would have liked to seen a bit more menace with the ghosts, gave them a bit more edge which would have avoided all the characters seen as safe and untouchable but still have the light hearted approach, along the lines of the Frighteners (directed by Peter Jackson). I know it's a 12a but the kids would have coped with it for sure.