VIDEO: See Tim’s review of “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” with Adrienne Broaddus on KARE 11.
“The House with a Clock in Its Walls” (PG)
While its title is one of the clunkiest movie titles in recent memory, “The House with a Clock in its Walls,” is exactly what the movie is about — a doomsday clock hidden within a haunted house that must be discovered before it starts ticking down to an end of days plan concocted by an evil warlock. Even though the film has all the talent it needs to succeed, however, the film plods along until the third act to fulfill its promise.
Relative newcomer Owen Vaccaro stars as Lewis Barnavelt, an orphaned 10-year-old in the 1950s who goes to live with his eccentric uncle, Jonathan Barnavelt (Jack Black), in a spooky neighborhood haunted house. Blank soon discovers that his uncle has magical powers as a warlock as does his quirky neighbor, the witch Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), and begins to learn about the dark arts himself. But once Lewis begins to learn too much about and his curiosity gets him into trouble by carrying out a spell in a forbidden book, he, Jonathan and Florence must work together by preventing the doomsday clock from clicking ahead and its warlock creator (Kyle McLachlan) from fulfilling his deadly destiny.
AUDIO: Click to hear Tim’s review of “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show.”
“The House with a Clock in Its Walls” feels like a combination of “Goosebumps” and “Fantastic Beasts,” and with a PG rating, it’s definitely aimed at the kids’ set. However, feels like it’s trying too hard to be a kids movie with its zaniness and doesn’t have anything remotely scary until the third act. On one hand, it’s great that kids have a rare opportunity to see a light-hearted, spooky PG movie in today’s marketplace, but on the flip side, an opportunity was missed to engage any prospective adults (re: parents of said kids they are brining to the movie). As movies like “Incredibles 2” have shown, movies can definitely be made to appeal to families as a whole.
The most interesting thing about “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” is that it was directed by Eli Roth, who has made some brutally sadistic movies in the past with such horror flicks as “Hostel” and its sequel, and “The Green Inferno.” And while Roth oddly showed signs of easing up on the violence and showing restraint on, of all films, the Bruce Willis remake of Death Wish, the fact that he is suddenly helming a PG film is a real head-scratcher.
Presumably Roth (who has a cameo in the film) did “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” to work with Jack Black, who is entertaining as usual, and Cate Blanchett, who brings class to every film she’s in. Perhaps Roth directed the film because he couldn’t convince her to star in “Hostel, Part III” … now that would have been truly scary.
Lammometer 6 (out of 10)
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
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