Mouse Hunt is actually "darker" than you might think-- making it more of a treat for discerning adults but perhaps also making it inappropriate for really young children (although the shrieks of delight from every kid at the screening I attended suggest I should just lighten up). Still a few scenes in particular demonstrate that this is no Barney the Purple Dinosaur flick-- one character dies of a heart attack and soon after young girls are seen playing with the police tape; a small child cries as she is dragged from the city pound, presumably having just lost her pet; and a deathbed flashback features the late William Hickey looking disturbingly (and all too realisitically) close to death.

      That said, Mouse Hunt is a very fun ride, featuring brilliant comic acting by Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, a Laurel and Hardy for the 90's, as the Smuntz brothers, whose good fortune in inheriting a house created by an historic architect is severely tempered by a pesky mouse out to defend his turf. Lane and Evans are fantastic physical comedians, and they give no-holds-barred performances that make the Three Stooges look tame by comparison. The mouse, though a fraction of the size of a T-rex or an alien bug, is a dazzling achievement in special effects, the most well-executed of the year. And to top it all off, Christopher Walken (yes, I said Christopher Walken) has a hilarious cameo as a renegade exterminator who can tell you everything you need to know about a mouse just by inspecting its droppings.

      Ultimately, Mouse Hunt is far more clever than the movies that so obviously inspired it: the Home Alone films and the Tom Hanks/Shelley Long house disaster comedy The Money Pit. Director Gore Verbinski keeps things bouncing along at a brisk pace, winningly using a cartoonish Barry Sonnenfeld-type style. And as a bonus, those who have followed the melodrama surrounding Dreamworks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg's tumultuous departure from Disney will enjoy the not-so-subtle digs the film, Dreamworks third major motion picture release after The Peacemaker and Amistad, takes at Walt & Co. (Lane's character greets a foreign guest with a bow and the words "Hakuna Matata."). Mouse Hunt is by no stretch of the imagination a groundbreaking film, but you and your favorite ten year old will thoroughly enjoy it.

Eric Lanyard, 1997