Oh, Eddie Murphy. You were a great comedic guy with such great hits like the Beverly Hills Cop movies, Shrek and many more, but you just kept picking some stupid (Showtime), stupid, (The Adventures of Pluto Nash) and *STUPID* movies (I Spy) (Norbit) (Meet Dave). This is one of those movies that I never saw in theaters, but have seen it on Disney Channel a few years ago because there was nothing to watch for me.
While it's not as bad as Battlefield Earth, Batman & Robin, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, and Kazaam (those were terrible movies, but I digress), this adaptation of a ride from Disneyworld is not that good either. The story's predictable with it's painfully obvious anti-climatic ending and the dialog didn't surprise me at all. Even the humor wasn't that funny at all and some of the lines in the script are repetitive.
There are some good things that saved this movie. The cinematography's very nice and the visuals are impressive with some great music that gives the movie an atmospheric charm to it. The costume designs are cool and the special effects are the best I've ever seen in most movies. The cast isn't that bad either. Eddie Murphy was good, but didn't quite handle the script. Marsha Thomason and the kids were good and so was Wallace Shawn and Nathaniel Parker, but I think that Jennifer Tilly steals the show for having some great lines as Madame Leota. Terence Stamp, however, is quite underused with the material he's been given.
Overall, not as bad as some say it is, but with a much better story and a better script, it would've been so much better. I've heard that there's gonna be a reboot and it sounds like it's going to be written and produced by Guillermo del Toro while Disney is trying to find a new director for the remake. As long as they make it into a horror movie, I will be so satisfied to see it.
While it's not as bad as Battlefield Earth, Batman & Robin, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, and Kazaam (those were terrible movies, but I digress), this adaptation of a ride from Disneyworld is not that good either. The story's predictable with it's painfully obvious anti-climatic ending and the dialog didn't surprise me at all. Even the humor wasn't that funny at all and some of the lines in the script are repetitive.
There are some good things that saved this movie. The cinematography's very nice and the visuals are impressive with some great music that gives the movie an atmospheric charm to it. The costume designs are cool and the special effects are the best I've ever seen in most movies. The cast isn't that bad either. Eddie Murphy was good, but didn't quite handle the script. Marsha Thomason and the kids were good and so was Wallace Shawn and Nathaniel Parker, but I think that Jennifer Tilly steals the show for having some great lines as Madame Leota. Terence Stamp, however, is quite underused with the material he's been given.
Overall, not as bad as some say it is, but with a much better story and a better script, it would've been so much better. I've heard that there's gonna be a reboot and it sounds like it's going to be written and produced by Guillermo del Toro while Disney is trying to find a new director for the remake. As long as they make it into a horror movie, I will be so satisfied to see it.