Haunted Mansion
(Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Tiffany Haddish, LaKeith Standfield, et al. | PG-13 | 2 hr 03 min | Walt Disney Pictures )
Overview: A woman and her son enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters.
Verdict: In theaters this weekend is Haunted Mansion, the new reimagining of the story surrounding the beloved Disney ride and it’s a fun little romp with some nice surprises. The story revolves around a single mom and her son that move into a big creaky old mansion that is – you guessed it, haunted – and when they leave, the ghosts follow them, so they get a priest to come by then a paranormal photographer to the same result so they’re all stuck in it together until they can figure out how to shake the many many ghosts!
Of course we know Tiffany Haddish, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Jamie Lee Curtis and Danny De Vito can really carry a big movie but LaKeith Stanfield and Chase W. Dillon are the real heart and soul here – and what a joy to see them both shine here. Stanfield is always great but this is a big platform for him and Dillon is a kid that seems to have a promising future.
You wouldn’t expect to tear up in a movie like this but you might a couple of times given these two together. Director Justin Simien gets a good shot here to mix funny, scary, sweet and something for everyone, which is hard to do. It’s a bumpy ride here and there but overall pretty fun which is all you could hope for from a movie based on an amusement park attraction. [P.S.]