2.5 Jack (Black) lanterns
The long title tells you this isn’t a serious story, especially with Jack Black in the credits. If it’s haunted houses, crazy creatures and fantasy you’re expecting, then you’re at the right address.
Lewis (get the reference? Owen Vaccaro) is an orphaned young boy who needs to move in with Uncle Johnathan (Jack Black) after his parents died in a car accident. He also meets Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) who talks to Johnathan in insults. (Dianne Zimmerman was a magician in the 60s).
It’s good fun, as is the house. There’s a comfy chair that acts like a big dog, a leafy Griffin that craps dirt and leaves, some nasty pumpkins and a changing stained window. Yet there’s a ticking clock in the walls left by a previous Warlock, Isaac (Kyle McLachlan) which rhymes with comeback, which is what he does, and then plans to end the world with crazy girlfriend Selena (Renee Goldsworthy). Doesn’t coming back from the dead to end the world seem like a self-indulgent waste of time? Literally?
This is a film full of fun and frolic. It almost recognises its gratitude to previous storytellers (and even calls the Brothers Grimms stories ‘Histories’).
Director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) usually does horror and has a feast with the Gothic sets and effects. He has put a muzzle on Jack Black who is very restrained. He normally goes so far over the top they need search parties to find him, but his Uncle Johnathan is befuddled and seems to know it.
OurCate is as great as always but I can’t help but feel she’s miscast. She looks too perfect to be an embittered Sorceress. The constant insults with Black are hilarious but they peter out. They both could have had a lot more fun as this is primarily a kiddies movie. And Lewis should have been trying to impress a cute girl instead of the school bully, but these are skin-curling modern times.
There is just enough here to entertain accompanying adults and maybe enough to capture the “Whateve’s” generation and those pining for Potter. It lacks that spark that takes you to amazement and relies on running gags and pooping lions. It’s not enough to spawn a long series.
Con Nats – Theatre Now
