Today’s Prayer Focus
MOVIE REVIEW

Mousehunt

MPA Rating: PG-Rating (MPA) for language, comic sensuality and mayhem.

Reviewed by: Dave Rettig
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating: Average
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: 13 to Adult
Genre: Comedy
Length: 93 min.
Year of Release: 1997
USA Release:
Featuring Nathan Lane, Lee Evans, Christopher Walken, Maury Chaykin, William Hickey, Michael Jeter and Vicki Lewis
Director Gore Verbinski
Producer
Distributor Distributor: Dreamworks. Trademark logo.DreamWorks Pictures, aka DreamWorks Studios, a production label of Amblin Partners

Home alone with a mouse are brothers, Ernie (Nathan Lane) and Lars Smuntz (Lee Evans). Once sons of string magnate Mr. Rudolph Smuntz (William Hickey), the family (now sans Papa Smuntz) is heir to a dilapidated string factory and a decrepit house. But fortune smiles on the Smuntz’s, when, while pursuing a rascally rodent, the brothers discover that their home is worth millions! Rather than accept the multimillion dollar offer for this lost architectural masterpiece, the brothers decide to auction off the estate. But before the house goes, the mouse goes! However, this is not your average mouse. Bombs, traps, a maniacal exterminator (Christopher Walken), and a rabid cat all fall short of snuffing out the house mouse! Mighty Mouse and Macaulay Culkin move over for “Mousehunt”.

With the two “Home Alone” movies grossing millions, how could Dreamworks pass up an opportunity to get in on the “stupid adults falling down and getting hurt a lot” movie genre? Add a mouse for extra cuteness and instant hit! You do not even have to rewrite the script! This movie was so lacking in originality that it was just aching to be walked out of. Even your children will wonder why the “Wet Bandits” now own a string factory.

This movie contains so much sexual innuendo that it is difficult to decide for whom it was written. The beginning of the movie has the mayor vomiting a live cockroach, having a heart attack, and dying! The senior Smuntz corpse is flipped into a sewer drain and abandoned. The young Smuntz is nude except for several small balls of string strategically placed, which he quickly drops when a sexual proposition is made. The brothers Smuntz grope two young women in order to find this mouse, then go on to grope each other. I do not see how this is appropriate for children. Yet the plot is so unoriginal and the laughs so shallow that I doubt any adult could enjoy “Mousehunt”.

Pass on “Mousehunt”. Play some “Mousetrap”, at least then your family can spend some quality time together and you will not have to wonder how you are going to explain to your children why it is wrong to stick your arm down the front of a women’s blouse or down a man’s pants.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
It seems that the trips to the video store are becoming more and more of a challenge to find something suitable for a Christian family that actually has entertainment value. We had high hopes for Mouse Hunt from clips of previews. Biblically I really can see no redeeming values from this movie other than one of the brothers honors his dying dads wish not to sell the family business. The special effects are good as long as you let yourself go and remember that this is action fantasy. There are several occurences of bad language, but at least the Lord’s name is not taken in vain.

There are two very un-Christian scenes which involve a woman in Frederick’s of Hollywood clothing (very brief, no pun intended) and one scene when the brothers are trying to catch the mouse and it goes down the dress of a very developed woman and they reach in (grope really) after the mouse. Even my 13 year old and 11 year old didn’t complain when we asked them to fast forward and not look. The slapstick barrage got tiresome after awhile, and we felt overall that the search would have to continue for better videos that we felt Jesus wouldn’t mind sitting on the couch and watching with us.
Jim Goodrum, age 45
My husband, two children and I went to see the movie “Mousehunt” over the holidays, because we truly believed it was a child’s movie, at least that’s the way they marketed it. Not only did I think the movie was awful, not funny, nor made for children, but it doesn’t deserve a PG-13 rating either. It is offensive and dumb. None of us cared for it and I felt we wasted good, hard earned money on false advertising. Don’t go see this movie.
Mrs. B. Knicele
Christian rating—don’t bother. Quality: *** A terrible disappointment! When I got up to leave I looked to see what kind of an audience we had. Grandma and Grandpa and the grandkids in front of us and children throughout the theater. I don’t have children yet, but I kept thinking of what I would have done had my children been sitting next to me. This was PG! Ha!

It is an incredible disappointment! I couldn’t even safely take my child to a PG movie. From now on, I know that I will have to preview every movie before allowing my children to go. What a shame. And this was definitely not a children’s film. Very poorly rated! The scene was absolutely inappropriate where the men were groping the women, which by the way was all the way down past the waste. It led any watcher to believe that this was not an intrusion but something all women would (or should) enjoy.

And we wonder why there’s so much rape, molesting, and premarital sex?? Children will believe it’s ok and fun for a stranger to grope all over them! It’s disgusting! I agree with the reviewer that poses the question of who was this movie written for. It clearly drew children in with its “Home Alone” feel and cute mischievous mouse, yet had perverted additives.

Not acceptable for ANYONE to see people act in such inappropriate ways. This movie could have been wholesome—no (semi-when you make enough money-seductive) wife but a true wife whether rich or poor; no extra women to cloud the plot, but just a plain old mischievious mouse. It’s not hard to make a good movie. Do better.
Julie Lehman, age 24
My boyfriend and I with several other Christian dating couples went to see this movie. I was so embarrassed at the nudity, sexual innuendo, groping of women (and men). Both my boyfriend and I got up and left out of the movie. I am also a single parent… I am glad we previewed this movie before allowing my children to watch it. This movie is not a movie for children (of Christians or non-christians) and I would definitely NOT recommend dating couples (those who value purity) seeing this movie.
Rhonda Rudd, Age 29
I went to see “Mousehunt” and was truly appalled!! How could any one sit through that movie I don’t know. Yes, I did, and I am shocked that I did; I only went because my children wanted to see it, they thought it would be a cute movie because of the TV previews. Well, what the TV previews forget to show you is… all the scenes a christian would find offensive… i.e, the cursing, nudity, innuendo, sex innuendos, the harshness one has for the dead, lack of respect for family, the greed for money which makes these brothers do awfull deeds against each other… and this is just to mention a few. I for one have finally realized that a christian has no place at a movie theater, due to the fact God says in his word to “abstain from all appearance of evil” well the movies they show these days are definitely of evil nature. I am 38 and a mother of 2 boys.
Concerned Mom, age 38
If you liked “Home Alone” you’ll like this one. This film was simply a remake the “Home Alone” films replacing the main star with a cute rodent… For the Christian this film contains about ten offensive terms(H.,SOB,B.and vain use of God’s name), but no(G.D.,F). The mouse in the film has I.Q. beyond human, this could be taken either as simply humor or by some a evil twist such as some cartoons are now said to hold, this would just be the individuals call.

There are many scenes not fit for the young such as a man running around naked covering himself with what he’s carrying, a woman in underwear, and a man with his hand down a woman’s shirt in effort to get the mouse out. …not fit for kids, not as appealing to mature audiences.
Charlie Dykstra, age 29
WARNING—This is not a family movie!!!… The previews led me to believe that this was going to be a cute and witty show that I could take my family to see. I was duped ! All of the best parts of the movie are in the previews.

I was forced to remove myself and my family half way through the movie when the sexual situations and nudity began to appear. I have completely lost faith in our rating system. The movie reviewers must have been asleep during this one. We should have gone to see “Anastasia” again. …
Kevin Raybon, age 28