The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

The House with a Clock in Its Walls has two things going for it - Jack Black, who stars in the film, and... Jack Black, who also stars in the film. Normally, any film with both of those qualities would instantly be a favorite of mine. You could count on a totally quirky, crass, and hilarious romp of a movie, with a not-so-insignificant chance of a guitar solo or heavy metal reference thrown in.

However, it seems that just slapping a well known actor onto a film does not a good movie make. Black can't seem to live up to his usual level of zaniness, primarily due to the very poor writing. The dialogue is incredibly inconsistent, and varies wildly in style. You could convince me, without much effort, that it was a collaboration between an HBO drama writer, and a five year old who hasn't gotten past poop jokes yet. One moment you have cutting dialogue about family and loss, really forcing the characters to deal with their flaws, and the next you have a magical garden statue firing wads of poo at an unsuspecting Lewis. Even with good casting you can't work around that, and frequently the adult characters in the film sound like caricatures of people, delivering bizarrely wooden lines that feel very out of place.

Not only is the writing all over the place, but so is the subject matter. You have magic and wizardry on the one hand, schoolyard drama on the other, and then a bizarre dive into necromancy, Satyrs, and all manner of occult influences. The film can't make up its mind on what kind of story it wants to tell, or who the story is for.

The oscillation between these different tones creates a truly jarring experience watching the film. Parts of it are done well - the more serious dramatic moments actually hit home quite well - but they are so fleeting that they lose their impact. This makes the immature and childish jokes and one liners even more stale and out of place than they already are.

The actual story of the film is easily its biggest strength. A tale of mystery and magic, with some creative ideas and interesting characters. It follows the story of Lewis, who moves in with an Uncle he soon learns is magical. Lewis gets swept into a world of warlocks and witches, a world that holds both wonderous sights and dark secrets alike. Certainly a promising start. There are even some surprising twists here and there. The potential is absolutely there for a fun and creative adventure that the whole family could enjoy, but that potential is squandered by poor execution, inconsistent writing, and an inability for the film to just make up its mind. The House with a Clock in Its Walls may be confused, but I'm not. I wouldn't recommend seeing this one.

Fmovies: Good cast, good special effects & interesting storyline, yet it lacked story depth & attention to story details. If had been done right, the story could have been better than mediocre. First and foremost this story is about 3 people in search for love, family and finding where one belongs. The screenplay failed to show hints of romantic love between Jack Black & Cate Blanchett's characters. Jack Black showed little attachment to the Boy which could have been demonstrated by hands on magical instruction by Black to the Boy. Thirdly, the movie could have spent a scene or two with the "true friend" with the boy. Finally, I thought the back story of Black's nemesis was clumsily done. It seemed to me that this movie was half baked instead of being nurtured into a mature film that could have been fully entertaining to kids and adults. Sorry to say, but I give this film a 6.5 to 7.

Sorry to criticize the kid, but the boy can't act and it was painfully distracting. It would also be more interesting if more fun magic tricks were shown...

The House with a Clock in Its Walls fmovies. This is a cute fun fantasy comedy, that works because its stars make it work. Like most fantasy movies of late, it's very CGI driven, but since CGI is by now a mere technicality it's not a problem. Not having any real villain, is a problem and Kyle MacLachlan doesn't get any screen time in which to build his character, but it still works, because the leading trio is wonderful. Cate Blanchett, doesn't need my support, her abilities as an actress are long proven, and she is as good as one expect her to be. The kid Owen Vaccaro, has a nerd a dweeb and a dork written all over him. He simply has the look of the ultimate social misfit, he does have a few off moments but they're hardly noticed because the rest of the cast around him covers for him. And then there's Jack Black. I already consider him an extremely underrated actor. He's one of the rare few who can do buffoonish and cute together and make it flow naturally. In my personal book his most endearing quality is his complete lack of respect to his own image.

Without Jack Black, this is a nice but way too preachy movie about growing up with loss, and about outgrowing loss. With him, all the preachiness is gone, you simply can't take it seriously enough to be preached at. The moment you remove the preachiness, all you're left with is fun, and that's what we got here. A fun fantasy comedy with some added value to boot.

The movie was a decent way to spend about 2 hours, but it left me wondering who the target audience is. For adults I found that the plot is too silly and has too many random "conveniences", but children might be shocked and frightened by some contents. So maybe it is just for those who are just too old for Harry Potter, but too young for R rated movies? Would be a pretty small audience. Anyway, I had some mindless fun with it.

I was very excited to see this movie as I'm a fan of fantasy films, plus casting Jack Black and Cate Blanchett was icing on the cake. However, the movie lacked excitement. There were a lot of drawn out boring segments where I felt myself closing my eyes and drifting off a bit and that's rare for me during a movie. The previews made it look like it was going to be creatively exciting, but all the good parts were in the trailer. Since going to the movies these days can be costly, I say don't bother wasting your money.