 Animated films rarely receive critical raves. But Monster House is piling up a few of them. Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer praises it as "easily the best computer-animated feature to come from Hollywood in a long while." Geoff Pevere in the Toronto Star calls it "a divertingly bizarre movie." A.O. Scott in the New York Times describes it as "marvelously creepy" and "the best child-friendly movie of the summer so far." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post predicts that it will be "a genuine sleeper hit." And Scott Bowles in USA Today observes, "The movie may be rated PG, but Monster's clever use of sound and shadows will likely have parents flinching in their seats with the kids." But Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post says "What unfolds is by turns tiresome and terrifying, as the house comes to creepy life and its back story -- gothic to the point of grotesqueness -- is revealed... "Monster House" is an eyesore. And Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls Monster House a monstrosity and concludes, 'I agree with the little girl down the row from me at a preview screening who said, "Mommy, I don't want to be here.'" |
