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Reviews Counted:155
Fresh:114
Rotten:41
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: Monster House welcoms kids and adults alike into a household full of smart, monstrous fun.
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Childrens
US Box Office: $73,661,010
Synopsis: MONSTER HOUSE is a feat of blockbusting filmmaking--a visually stunning, witty tale that is sure to stimulate children and their parents. The film focuses on an anthropomorphic mansion, a haunted... [More]
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Nick Cannon, Jon Heder
Director: Gil Kenan
While it has some spectacular set pieces and dollops of goofy, wisecracking humor, Monster House rests on such a flimsily constructed narrative framework that it starts collapsing in on itself, long before the predictably over-the-top conclusion.
The movie, by UCLA film-school grad and whiz kid Gil Kenan -- reflects a distinctive voice, one that's needed in the ever more crowded but often less-distinguished field of feature animation.
This Monster House is a real fun house. It's a 3-D animated kids' film built on classic gothic horror lines, a jokey, spooky Goonies for the new millennium.
An enjoyable ride on a dark but not-quite-scary-enough-to-make-you-scream roller coaster, told in elegant motion-capture animation.
The hybrid computer animation technique used by Robert Zemeckis in Polar Express finds both better expression and a more appropriate holiday -- Halloween -- in the witty kids' horror movie Monster House.
Surprisingly enough, puberty-stricken J.D. and Chowder actually sound like real teenagers, but the cartoony look will probably alienate real-life kids that age, and the man-eating house might be downright terrifying to younger kids.
The movie treats children with respect. Monster's pre-teens are sarcastic, think they're smarter than their parents and are going crazy over the opposite sex.
Top CriticTrick and treat! Halloween seems oh so far away -- until Monster House rolls out its spooky, ooky welcome mat for kids of all ages.
Trick and treat! Halloween seems oh so far away -- until Monster House rolls out its spooky, ooky welcome mat for kids of all ages.
A grim, dark ride.
There's no gore, no nudity and only the mildest of vulgar jokes. But this time the haunted house isn't full of clever crooks, and the scares aren't just an excuse for silly humor.
What the movie lacks in story development it makes up for in spooky thrills.
Monster House is a cute, fun and smart stroll down the universal adolescent memory lane, a sort of haunted Home Alone or a Leave It to Beaver episode set in The Twilight Zone.
Monster House, energetically directed by first-timer Gil Kenan -- takes what could have been a pretty thin story and turning it into a grand tale of daring and friendship.
It's fun, funny, smart and even scary -- in that surreal, Gothic-style way that the old Universal horror movies such as Frankenstein were frightening.
Monster House, a frankly horrific and full-tilt hilarious family yarn about a man-snacking mansion. It's engineered to scare your pants off, split your sides and squeeze your tear ducts into submission.
Monster House chooses not to take the interesting route, opting more often for wisecracking dialogue and bombastic effects.
Monster House tries to straddle the line between childhood and puberty to little effect; it's adult enough to hint at consequence, but not enough to follow through.
Top CriticThe result is an efficient film that never really catches fire, but satisfies along the way.
Like the books of Roald Dahl and the Harry Potter novels, Monster House does not condescend to kids, but respects their intelligence, and their ability to separate fantasy from reality.
September 18, 2008:
Kenan and Zemeckis Reunite for Airman 
Director Gil Kenan and producer Robert Zemeckis, the duo that brought you "Monster House," have announced plans to film an adaptation of "Artemis Fowl" author Eoin Colfer's book... More...
July 31, 2007:
Sony Planning Three More Motion Capture Flicks
You know that fancy "motion capture animation" technique that's been employed in The Polar Express, Monster House, and the upcoming Beowulf? Looks like Sony Imageworks is... More...
July 26, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: Mmmmmmmmmmm Box Office Feast!
Bart, Lisa, and the whole gang from Springfield will charge into multiplexes across North America and much of the world this weekend in the highly anticipated animated comedy... More...
February 09, 2007:
Zemeckis & Lasseter to Deliver CG "John Carter of Mars"?
OK, a whole bunch of bloggers are falling all over each other to report this "speculation," but if they're on to something, it's a pretty big story. Well, a big story... More...
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