Review: The Haunted Mansion (** 1/2)

THE HAUNTED MANSION
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2


THE HAUNTED MANSION is the third Disney movie based on one of its theme park
rides. The first (THE COUNTRY BEARS) was a real dog, and the second
(PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL) was a surprisingly
huge critical and financial success.



"So how is the third in this erratic series?" you ask. Not bad, but it
never manages to rise above kind of cute. The best laugh at our screening
came when Michael (Marc John Jefferies), the kid in the movie, utters the
recycled line, "I see dead people."



The story has top-notch real estate agent Jim Evers, played sweetly by Eddie
Murphy, ready to postpone a key family trip for the chance to secure a
lucrative listing, one for a creepy old mansion in the middle of nowhere.
Assuring the kids, Michael and Megan (Aree Davis), and his fellow agent
wife, Sara (Marsha Thomason), that they'll be "twenty minutes tops" when
they stop by to get the owner to sign on the dotted line, Jim ends up
getting his family stuck there overnight, after a freak storm covers the
road. Since the place turns out to be crawling with ghosts, their stay
isn't the least bit restful.



The show's charm comes mainly from how closely it reproduces the ride upon
which it is based. If you've ever gone through the Haunted Mansion at
Disneyland and wished that it were a movie, your dreams have been answered,
right down to Madame Leota (Jennifer Tilly), a sassy talking head who lives
in a crystal ball. When Jim doesn't like Madame Leota's responses, she
tells him in no uncertain terms, "Look, I don't make the rules. I just work
here." My personal favorite is four talking heads in the form of stone
busts, who sing a medley of barbershop quartet songs.



There's not much to this family film, but it does pass the time nicely
without anything the least bit offensive occurring. It's even bathroom
humor free. Still, I think that Megan, the story's wonderfully spunky teen,
would probably have said something sarcastic like, "Yeah, it's okay," if she
could have voiced her opinion of the movie.



THE HAUNTED MANSION runs 1:39. It is rated PG for "frightening images,
thematic elements and language" and would be acceptable for kids around 8
and up. Younger kids might be frightened by the scary images even though
they are all played purely for comedic effect.



My son Jeffrey, age 14, gave it ***, saying that he thought the story was
good and Murphy was funny. He said the costumes and the set decoration
deserved Oscar nominations.



The film opens nationwide in the United States on Wednesday, November 26,
2003. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century
theaters.



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