The House with a Clock in its Walls movie review

Movie Title: The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Grade: C+

Rating: PG, 104 minutes

In a Nutshell: This movie has a decent balance of scary and funny, but I wouldn’t say it’s perfect for all ages. It’s more scary for younger kids and less funny for older ones. Based on the book by John Bellair, this family-friendly flick is a tasty appetizer to get your goblins in the mood for Halloween…..HOWEVER…the rating seems to be off.

Writer John Bellair lived in Marshall, Michigan where the Cronin Mansion in town was said to be haunted, which inspired him to write the book.

In case you were worried, no chairs or topiary griffins were harmed in the making of this movie.

Tips for parents:

This is director Eli Roth’s first movie that isn’t rated R. How nice to have a PG option at the movie theater right now! So many films at the box office are currently rated R. The problem is that this really deserves a stronger PG-13 rating. It really pushes the rating boundary and parents might be alarmed by the content.
Jack Black and Cate Blanchett’s characters are dear friends, yet they constantly call each other names. Talk to your kids about the difference between playful banter and rude insults that are inappropriate or hurt other people’s feelings.
There is a handicapped kid with leg braces.
Bullying
Profanity 3 times.
A topiary griffin poops in the pool and other places. You expect poop jokes when a movie is targeted towards kids, but the tone of this movie makes it seem oddly placed. Still funny though.
A baby boy without a diaper shoots pee..
The first part of the movie is ok for little kids, but then the second half is way too scary
The boy in the movie uses a lot of big words, which is great fun for a wordsmith like me. You might need to provide definitions for some of the words for real little ones.
There’s a lesson for parents in being more patient and understanding with their children. Cate Blanchett’s character says, “Children make mistakes.” True that.

Uplifting theme:

“I’ve found that all we need in this world is a good friend.” – Mrs. Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett)
Friendship
Courage
Be indomitable
“As Einstein said, ‘Life is like a bicycle. To stay balanced, you have to keep moving forward.’” – Jonathan Barnavelt (Jack Black)
“You’re the only you in the whole universe.” – Mrs. Zimmerman

Things I liked:

- Cate Blanchett in anything. She’s just that awesome. She baked up so many delicious looking chocolate chip cookies in the movie that I found myself making some myself when I got home from the theater. Her character in the movie says, “There are very few problems in the world that can’t be helped by a chocolate chip cookie.” Agreed.
- Jack Black is hilarious and so lovable. He’s one of those actors who makes you laugh just by being on the screen. The first time he was on my radar was when I saw him in THE School of Rock. My oldest son’s favorite performance of Jack Black is Nacho Libre and has almost all of the movie memorized.

Edward Gorey (perfect last name for a Halloween movie, eh?) did the illustrations for the book, which the movie sets were based on.
I don’t mind nepotism in film. In this movie, director Eli Roth’s wife, Lorenza Izzo, plays the mother of the main character, Lewis Barnavelt (played by Owen Vaccaro).
If you see this movie in 3D on the IMAX, you’ll be treated to a digital remaster of Michael Jackson’s epic music video to his album feature of Thriller ! Young kids may have never seen it before and might even be frightened by the scary zombies. I had forgotten how scary it was. One of these days I’m going to learn that awesome choreography.
I loved the magical backyard starry scene.
I get a kick out of random movie trivia. For example, when this movie was shipped to theaters, the pseudonym “Kimono” was used. Ha ha Jack Black’s character wears one in the movie. I found one online that kind of looks like it that you could buy and wear for Halloween! (Click on the image!)
Feline telepathy book. ha ha

Although a bit out of place and potentially confusing for children, there is an interesting sequence that shows the painful and long-lasting effects of war on families.
The production of the movie is really good.
Your kids may be interested in getting their own Mattel Games Magic 8 Ball Mini . I remember how popular they were when I was little. I always wanted one.

Things I didn’t like:

Sometimes it’s hard to understand what people say.
I only heard one person in the very small audience I watched the movie with actually laugh.
Creepy house decorations.
The CGI has some terrible moments.
The plot gets too complicated for little kids.
The tone of the movie changes and makes me wonder who the target audience for this movie really is. Yes, it has the obligatory pooping and peeing scenes for kids, but parts of it are just too scary for kids.
Sunny Suljic played a boy whose name I could never figure out. People pronounced it differently and drove me nuts. It’s TARBY. What kind of a name is that anyway?
Little kids might be frightened by pumpkins this Halloween season.
The cemetery scene is super creepy and scary for little kids, unless you’re doing genealogy! I’m going to be speaking about researching family history at the Family Roots Conference next weekend in Utah! Tombstones can provide a lot of great information when you trying to climb your family tree!

I even wrote a book about it called Climbing Family Trees, Whispers in the Leaves (My shameless plug for my book.)

Funny lines:

“So creepy.” – Jonathan Barnavelt (Jack Black)
“Death’s been good to him.” – Jonathan

Interesting lines:

“As Einstein said, ‘Life is like a bicycle. To stay balanced, you have to keep moving forward.’” – Jonathan
“Don’t we have to eat dinner before we can have cookies?” – Lewis

“Why not just eat cookies for dinner? They’re far more delicious.” – Jack Exactly. (My thoughts exactly.)

“It’s not what you say, but how you say it.” – Mrs. Zimmerman
“What’s wrong with weird? Weird is like the nuts in my cookies. It makes things interesting.” – Mrs. Zimmerman