This originally as Halloween movie was adapted from John Bellairs's novel of the same name. The story tells the young boy who lost his parents, Lewis went to find his uncle , Jonathan who had been away from home for many years. He discovered that the real identity of his uncle was actually a magician with magical spells, and he was curious about the house that full of supernatural phenomena. Jonathan and the tongue friend of the same magician Mrs Zimmerman always finds the source of the mysterious “Tit-Tat” sound of the house in the midnight. In fact, the former owner of the house is a dark magician couple with evil spells. They both left a secret in the house that could destroy human civilization. . . The magical old house in the film has a sofa chair that looks havings a hidden dog soul, a moving picture, a living tree-carving animal, a special creature hidden in a corner of the house, etc. Its quite full of fantasy and fairy tale colouring which can fight The Hogwarts school in Harry Potter series. Originally, this could be a fun and intimate piece, but it was defeated by the slow pace and the lack of stimulating plots, and the whole movie was a bit boring, wasting the two actors behind the film, Jack Black and Cate. Blanchett's superb acting.
This movie is mediocre at its best. It can't really compare with Harry Potter series. First of all, the storyline is lame. So overall, the story is about a child that accidentally found out his uncle is a wizard and accidentally receive the devil wizard. Fun movie but nothing too exciting. The good casts is not utilised completely.
Jack Black is mediocre in this movie as he seems can't escape from the character he has acted before. But Cate Blanchett is simply amazing as she brings a no-nonsense and sarcastic character to live.
Its kind of a movie similar to goosebumps movie. Where the funny part is minimal, kind of america type of funny. Certainly not as fas ntastic as harry potter series
