hecoxjus Sometimes, basing a movie off a ride turns out great, like Pirates of the Caribbean. And sometimes, you end up with this.But is that really a bad thing? Sure, a lot of people hated the movie, but I genuinely enjoyed it. The plot, while far from scary at any point, wasn't half bad. It was creative, and actually quite fun.And the best part? The movie was hilarious. Some of the jokes were pretty clever, but the funniest parts were unintentional. In some scenes, the CGI is absolutely atrocious. And that makes it funny. It's hard not to crack up when poorly animated minuscule tubas are orbiting Eddie Murphy.Oh yeah! Did I mention Eddie Murphy? So, this movie isn't really for everyone. The overly critical and the easily offended will not like this movie. But anybody with a good sense of humor will enjoy it, despite it's faults.

Julie Kinnear There's one thing that people should be very clear on, and that's that Eddie Murphy does not care in the slightest what people think of his acting career. And that's good, because this film is unspeakably bad and is only viable as a tool for wantonly consuming 90 minutes from your life that you will never get back. Yes, this is an Eddie Murphy project that functions better as a fourth-dimensional black hole than anything else.What audiences have here is a project in which Eddie Murphy plays real estate agent Jim Evers, who hopes to transform a dilapidated mansion in New Orleans into financial success. Before venturing out in search of a buyer for wreck, he and the family he's been somewhat neglectful towards visit the house for an inspection. They discover there is more going on with the property than they could have ever anticipated.Eddie Murphy's character is hapless, with little awareness of what is going on outside of his real estate duties. Terrance Stampis, confusingly, in this movie as one of the 999 ghosts that reside in this mansion, even though his acting career easily and understandably puts the film "beneath him." Jennifer Tilly is present in the film in a significant role as a disembodied medium and adviser to Jim Evers. Despite the quality of the film overall, their talents are put to good use, considering what little they're working with.The acting is stiff and contrived. Murphy turns in a performance that is completely alien to the talent that brought him success throughout the 1980s. The relationship between Evers and his wife appears unnatural and difficult to believe within the context of the film. The film might have had greater success with an increased focus on the efforts made by the home's original owner, a ghost, to reunite with his long-lost wife. Certain contradictions were apparent in the film as well, such as what physical objects ghosts were capable of manipulating. Sometimes they were able to move objects. Other times they were relegated simply to phasing through them. The visuals of the film are quire colourful. The effects, both special and practical, are top-notch and clearly show a great deal of effort had been put into producing them.This film is mainstream pabulum of the highest order. Murphy delivers a performance that's typical Murphy schtick — frantic, energized inanity with a dull edge and inarticulate delivery, devoid of any nuance or subtlety. Murphy's more sophisticated and impressive roles, not nearly as upsetting, are not easily remembered. Everyone can remember his Saturday Night Live origins, his work in 48 Hours, Trading Places, Coming to America, The Golden Child, Bowfinger, the Beverly Hills Cop series, and Dreamgirls. People often want to remember these, but seldom do they wish to recall the likes ofMeet Dave, Norbit, Daddy Day Care, Nutty Professor, Dr. Dolittle, and the infamous Pluto Nash. People can find themselves anxious with the likes of Ben Affleck because they remember roles he's "phoned in," such as with Jersey Girl, because they know he can produce absolutely amazing work like he did in The Town. People know he can do better, so they become, understandably, disappointed. That perspective we have for Murphy has inflated to such proportions that you can't help but see anything else. The Haunted Mansion is a good vehicle of work to add to the pile of problems movie- going audiences have with his intentions. It's good that a man that has done ten Shrek-related jobs since the first Shrek doesn't care what audiences think of him, otherwise this might all seriously effect him on an emotional level.Former Village Voice writer Rob Minkoff may have put it best when he said, "Rob Minkoff has directed a movie that's nearly laughless and nowhere near as frightening as what's happened to Eddie Murphy's career." Even famed film reviewer Richard Roeper simply described The Haunted Mansion as "dreadful." While Disney proved, earlier in 2003, with Pirates of the Caribbean that a film based on an amusement park ride can be successful, Eddie Murphy proved that substantial talent is a significant portion of the equation required to project the success of such a film.You'd get more for your dollar if you were to visit the actual Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland rather than engaging with The Haunted Mansion. There's no particular reason this film should exist. The world is worse off it now that it exists. Rather than waste your time with this cinematic detritus, you would be better off sitting somewhere and reading a book for 90 minutes.

convincing60 This is a very basic and plain movie, its just another stupid black comedy with Eddie Murphy. He's always in stupid kiddie movies, it's ruining his career. The Haunted Mansion isn't that great of a movie, the script and plot are very basic and predictable. The special effects were cool but they should have included a little more. One good thing about the movie is that there wasn't a lot of horror scenes.Don't bother watching this garbage, its a silly Disney movie with very little comedy and action. These "so-called" black comedies are so dirt, they suck. This is just a cheesy rip-off of kiddie craps mixed together with kiddie horror.

Gavin Cresswell (gavin-thelordofthefu-48-460297) Oh, Eddie Murphy. You were a great comedic guy with such great hits like the Beverly Hills Cop movies, Shrek and many more, but you just kept picking some stupid (Showtime), stupid, (The Adventures of Pluto Nash) and *STUPID* movies (I Spy) (Norbit) (Meet Dave). This is one of those movies that I never saw in theaters, but have seen it on Disney Channel a few years ago because there was nothing to watch for me.While it's not as bad as Battlefield Earth, Batman & Robin, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, and Kazaam (those were terrible movies, but I digress), this adaptation of a ride from Disneyworld is not that good either. The story's predictable with it's painfully obvious anti-climatic ending and the dialog didn't surprise me at all. Even the humor wasn't that funny at all and some of the lines in the script are repetitive.There are some good things that saved this movie. The cinematography's very nice and the visuals are impressive with some great music that gives the movie an atmospheric charm to it. The costume designs are cool and the special effects are the best I've ever seen in most movies. The cast isn't that bad either. Eddie Murphy was good, but didn't quite handle the script. Marsha Thomason and the kids were good and so was Wallace Shawn and Nathaniel Parker, but I think that Jennifer Tilly steals the show for having some great lines as Madame Leota. Terence Stamp, however, is quite underused with the material he's been given.Overall, not as bad as some say it is, but with a much better story and a better script, it would've been so much better. I've heard that there's gonna be a reboot and it sounds like it's going to be written and produced by Guillermo del Toro while Disney is trying to find a new director for the remake. As long as they make it into a horror movie, I will be so satisfied to see it.