Spooky House

After a troubled performance, magician The Great Zamboni (Ben Kingsley) has retreated to his Spooky House with his pet jaguar Shadow. Mona (Katharine Isabelle) and her two idiot male minions are causing havoc and burns down his van. They steal a goat from a group of children. The kids track their goat to the Spooky House and they break into the house. Zamboni befriends Max who is scared to be sent to the orphanage. It's a little kids movie. It does have the greatness that is Ben Kingsley and he's trying to give this light family entertainment real weight. Little kids would like watching these little kids exploring the magician's house and learning some magic tricks. This is really only for little kids and maybe not even for them. It's not fast paced enough or brightly colored enough. If it could spend more time with the little characters, it could make this more compelling. They should at least give them the chance although they don't seem to be good actors.

My family and I just watched this and enjoyed it. If you want a gentle, young children appropriate, not-scary hallowe'en movie with a happy ending, this one may suit. It's not supposed to be a Hollywood blockbuster. It's for a young audience that still believes that magic can be real and good things still happen.

So many reviews on here are talking about the predictable plot and the goofiness and the silliness of it, blah blah blah. I had the video of this movie as a kid and LOVED it. Because I loved it so much as a kid I continue to speak highly of it. I saw one person on here saying it's not a good family film because they watched it with their parents and they didn't like it...yet they were old enough to be writing an IMDB review? Watch it with your KIDS. It is a great film for KIDS. Adults who watch this film as KIDS really enjoy it. I personally give it an 8 because there is some poor acting courtesy of the child actors, but you don't notice these things when you're a KID yourself.

For the 'film critics' on here I will just say yes it's amazing that you noticed the bad direction. But who cares? It's a kids movie and it is highly entertaining and good hearted. I loved that it was free of characters with an attitude, no streetculture, no constant wise cracks. We loved it. Better times.

Normally I don't bother with kid-oriented movies such as this, but I decided to watch this one because it was directed (and co-written) by William Sachs, whose previous movies have been mainly R-rated exploitation fare for adults. This sudden change in pace for Sachs may explain some of the problems in the finished product. The movie is somewhat too goofy for the most part, enough that even kids may be annoyed by the movie's low mentality. The story is pretty slow and stretched out (there are far too many plot threads), though oddly there are some moments here and there where footage seems to be missing. Also, the relatively low budget may explain why the movie often looks and feels like a television effort made for a network like Nickelodeon. On the other hand, the end product does have some strengths. Ben Kingsley, as expected, gives a professional performance. He helps to make his character a multi-dimensional person and not a stereotype. And the scenes where he is paired up with child actor Matt Weinberg (who plays the orphan boy Max) generate some great chemistry. In fact, this part of the movie - the relationship between these two people - is without doubt the strongest part of the movie. I think the movie would have been a lot better had it instead focused on that aforementioned part of the movie instead of adding all that padding and juvenile nonsense. As it is, the movie is best suited for young kids only. Their parents, on the other hand, should have some reading material on hand.