Almost without exception, films made by music-video and television advertisement directors have betrayed their roots — they're usually good-looking but virtually insubstantial. Let's just say that these would-be filmmakers have a hard time holding audience interest for longer than a minute or two.
Add "Mouse Hunt" to that ever-growing list.
To its credit, the premise behind the movie, which marks the big-screen debut of video director Gore Verbinski, is amusing. Verbinski (who also directed some of the Budweiser frog spots) and screenwriter Adam Rifkin set out to make a live-action cartoon — one based obviously on the old Tom and Jerry 'toons.
However, despite the fact that it has a lot of style and a talented cast, something is still missing from the comedy. Perhaps it's the particularly mean-spirited shenanigans, which are more akin to "Home Alone" movies than they are to any classic cartoons, or perhaps it's Rifkin's script, which isn't nearly as funny as it needs to be.
Nathan Lane ("The Birdcage") and British comedic actor Lee Evans star as, respectively, Ernie and Lars Smuntz, down-on-their luck brothers who inherit a useless string factory upon the death of their father (William Hickey, in his final role). In his will, Dad also leaves the two a dilapidated mansion, which they discover is actually an architectural masterpiece.
Already spending millions in their heads, the brothers set out to fix up the old house, cleaning it and replacing some of the fixtures. But there's one big obstacle in their way — a tiny gray mouse who refuses to leave the premises and thwarts all of their efforts to remove him.
The miniature menace also manages to dispatch a psychotic mouse-catching cat (named "Catzilla," appropriately enough) and an armed-to-the-teeth exterminator (Christopher Walken in a surprisingly unfunny supporting turn) before the Smuntzes finally capture him, and just in time for the big auction.
Both Lane and Evans (who does a good job masking his thick accent) try their hardest to be a modern-day Laurel and Hardy team. Unfortunately, they're stuck playing second-banana to their adorable co-star (whose antics are aided by computer trickery from the "Babe" effects team).
And though he gives things his own unique look (something along the lines of "Brazil" and "101 Dalmations"), Verbinski lets the transitional scenes drag on, which drain the film of much of its manic energy.
"Mouse Hunt" is rated PG for slapstick violence and mayhem, some needlessly vulgar gags, a couple of mild profanities and a scene with brief partial nudity.