The Haunted Mansion

While this film is passable on the visual front, capturing some of the ghoulish vibe of the fun Disney ride it’s based upon, the story is crap. The permanently slumming Eddie Murphy stars as Evers, a real estate agent who is all about selling property and ignoring his family. When he gets the chance, or so he thinks, to sell the haunted mansion, he takes his family into a dangerous situation for monetary glory. It turns out his wife is the spitting image of the ghostly proprietor’s long lost love, and he’s looking to wed. There are some good scares, and the special effects create some pretty ghosts to look at, but the film goes nowhere. Murphy is just hamming it up here, continuing on his apparent mission to lose all credibility as a talented actor. Terrence Stamp is useless as a droning butler with a nasty secret, but Jennifer Tilly manages a couple of laughs as the head inside the green crystal ball. That thing used to freak me out on the ride.