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IN
SHORT: Grade-Z
Laurel & Hardy
I know I
make every effort not to make comparisons with What Has Come Before, but
the creators and stars of Mouse Hunt are living in deep denial if they
think that anyone over the age of 15 or so won't make the connection to
classic Laurel and Hardy movies. Stars Nathan Lane and Lee Evans look
like Stan and Ollie, and their fight to rid an old mansion of a mouse
is classic Laurel and Hardy-style tale.
If it walks
like a duck . . .
Take two
brothers who don't care much for each other, toss in a father whose dying
wish is that his sons take over the family business, a string making factory,
and run it together. Elder brother Ernie Smunts (Lane) doesn't care much
either for younger brother Lars (Evans) or for the idea, as he runs a
high falutin' restaurant and doesn't care to hang with the common folk.
Dad's also left them a run down old house which, it turns out, could be
worth oodles of money if they can get it fixed up just right. The sole
inhabitant of the house, a teeny weeny l'il mousie, doesn't exactly want
to leave of his own volition. So they try to make him leave.
From this
point on its a lot of traps and a lot of wasted time and movie ticket
money, unless you're parking the littlest of kidlets for the 97 minutes
this flick runs. There is an animatronic cat that is so fake looking,
no one but the most innocent can fall for the gimmick. Almost everything
else has been done ad nauseam in repeats of old toons on the Cartoon Network.
Mouse
Hunt is just plain painful.
On average,
a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to
set his own price to Mouse Hunt, he would have paid . . .
$2.00
If you have
'em, rent it for the single digit kidlets.
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