The Haunted Mansion
(2003)
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Eddie Murphy stars in this spooky, CGI-packed Disney film, based on the famous Disney World attraction. He plays Jerry, a workaholic estate agent who interrupts his family's vacation to check out a remote mansion that's for sale. But soon he and his family are trapped in the haunted house and are screaming for their lives. Terence Stamp is the ghost butler, and Nathaniel Parker is the ghost owner who falls for Jerry's wife, Sara (Marsha Thomason), believing she is the reincarnation of his lost love and providing for both a refreshingly interracial, and frighteningly inter-dimensional romance. Jennifer Tilly has a great bit as a loudmouthed head in the crystal ball; Wallace Shawn and Dina Walters are the ghost servants. Zombies rise up from their graves to attack the living, but generally the film is harmless kid stuff that is bursting with cheerful colour, noise, bloodless shocks and refreshingly bathroom-free humour. Fans of the ride should be pleased, as it hits nearly every bump, from the barbershop quartet busts, to the ghostly passenger in the coach. Murphy hams it up royally and the rest of the cast is up for the challenge, especially Stamp, whose droll line readings provide a perfect balance of menace and mirth. Makeup maestro Rick Baker provided the non-CGI special effects. |
Nowhere near as successful as Disney's last theme-park-ride-derived movie Pirates of the Caribbean, this third-rate Ghostbusters saddled with a soulless supernatural Romeo and Juliet saga can't escape the limitations of its funfair origins. Eddie Murphy plays a workaholic estate agent who interrupts the family holiday for a visit to a potential sale — a vast mansion that turns out to be haunted by a lovelorn ghost. Director Rob (Stuart Little) Minkoff simply fills in the gaps between the popular ride's best known sections — such as the disembodied head of Madame Leota (a spirited Jennifer Tilly) and some ethereal ballroom dancers — with Murphy's unfunny mugging. If sumptuous photography and lavish production design were all a family-friendly horror comedy needed to get by, this would qualify as an inoffensive hit. However, its uninspired catalogue of fright-less genre clichés fails to conjure even a suspicion of eerie atmosphere.