Ralph's Movie Reviews: MONSTER HOUSE

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

MONSTER HOUSE

Animated adventure

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ryan Newman: a blonde pigtailed little girl
Mitchel Musso: 12-year old DJ
Fred Willard: his father, a dentist
Catherine O'Hara: his mother
Sam Lerner: DJ's best friend Chowder
Maggie Gyllenhaal: Elizabeth (aka Zee), the baby-sitter
Steve Buscemi: Old Man Nebbercracker, the owner of the decrepit old house
Spencer Locke: Jenny, student selling school items door-to-door
Jason Lee: Zee’s boyfriend Bones
Kevin James: Officer Landers
Nick Cannon: his rookie partner Lister

REVIEW
This is an old-style adventure story pitting the good guys against the forces of evil but done using the latest CGI technology. Despite the fact the movie is fairly short (1½ hours), character development has not been overlooked. Each of the principals has their own body language, their own way of speaking and what they say actually seems real.

Although there are some scary images, the producers have stayed away from really frightening ones. What a relief for “fraidy cats” like me.

CLASSIFICATION

for scary moments for the really young (5 and under ?)

P.S.
The movie is a natural for 3D viewing and some theatres will be showing it in this format. BTW: there’s one more chuckle just before the final credits.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.