The Gracey Manor is full of history as well as it appears to be full of ghosts. It’s this history that had led to the haunting of this ancient Mansion that was once so full of life. Jim Evers on the other hand is very alive and him and his wife Sara run their own real estate company that takes up all his time it seems of late. Jim has been doing incredible business of late selling once house after another but by doing so he has begun to neglect his wife and two children. So after being late to his own anniversary because he was trying to close a real estate deal he promises his family he will make it up to them and will take the entire weekend off to spend time with them at the lake. But when a mysterious person calls Sara about what appears to be the real estate deal of a lifetime in one of the richest areas Jim can not pass up at least having a look at it. So he talks his family into taking a little side detour before they head out to the lake to have a look at the Mansion. But when they get there it becomes clear that maybe everything is not as it seems, as while the house is a huge masterpiece its residents seem to be slightly off. Jim who is so intent on the deal quickly ignores all the things that seem to be wrong with the house and takes his family on the adventure of their lives through a world of ghosts and all the history and mystery of the Haunted Mansion.

You have to commend the movie on trying to be more than just another Disneyland theme ride that has become a motion picture. The movie tried to be more, tried to be more grand, tried to weave a richer story and a thicker plot but in most cases did not quite succeed. This is not to say that the movie isn’t enjoyable and that it does not tell an interesting and sometimes enthralling story. What it does mean is that while it did manage somewhat to tell an interesting story the movie did not succeed at being a great movie and had to rather just settle for being good. A lot of the jokes fell short, which may be why the movie wasn’t, as good as it could have been. The movie did manage an interesting and compelling plot but failed to make the audience laugh at the same time. And that’s what this movie need more of, humor. Somewhere along the way Eddie Murphy stopped being as funny as he could be, he is just not the actor he once was when he could be cast in 80’s style slapsticks that seem to fit his persona. So instead he is forced to much through some lines that he just cannot seem to make that humorous. The movie is good and most of the kids will enjoy it, but after such masterpieces like Pirates of the Caribbean it is hard to know want and expect more from a movie than just being good.
3 stars out of 5