Nice cast -- and they all do a fine job with two exceptions. Steve Guttenberg's natural venue is a television situation comedy, and Beverly D'Angelo brings a touch of subtlety to her role. Subtlety is otherwise absent from this frantic mess.
O'Toole is the owner of Plunkett Castle, actually Dromore Castle in County Limerick. Oh, it's a grand place, it is. I assume the interiors are sets but they're rich with atmosphere, a knockout place to throw a party. No kidding. It would be colossal fun to live in such a stony place, festooned as it is with cobwebs, as long as Darryl Hannah were running around in a diaphanous gown.
Anyway, O'Toole must pay the mortgage or lose the castle and see it transported to Malibu where it will be converted into a theme park or something. To save his home, O'Toole remodels it and advertises it as a haunted hotel. Fake ghosts and goblins and banshees are arranged. Of course the plan falls apart because of the shoddy design, but then the real ghosts start showing up, for reasons known only to ghosts.
It's all frenzied. It's too loud, too fast, and too clumsy. The jokes are fast, okay, but they're slapstick and ill thought out. The movie treats drunkenness as if that were funny in and of itself, although it's not. The dialog doesn't twinkle. Nobody says anything very amusing or clever. It reminded me of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" or, to a lesser extent, "1941." All had plenty of zest and not much else.
It's a disappointment considering the talent and production values on display. Too bad. The writer/director, Neil Jordan, was responsible for the superior "Mona Lisa" and "The Crying Game." He seems to have gotten lost in the hidden passageways and spooky compartments here.
O'Toole is the owner of Plunkett Castle, actually Dromore Castle in County Limerick. Oh, it's a grand place, it is. I assume the interiors are sets but they're rich with atmosphere, a knockout place to throw a party. No kidding. It would be colossal fun to live in such a stony place, festooned as it is with cobwebs, as long as Darryl Hannah were running around in a diaphanous gown.
Anyway, O'Toole must pay the mortgage or lose the castle and see it transported to Malibu where it will be converted into a theme park or something. To save his home, O'Toole remodels it and advertises it as a haunted hotel. Fake ghosts and goblins and banshees are arranged. Of course the plan falls apart because of the shoddy design, but then the real ghosts start showing up, for reasons known only to ghosts.
It's all frenzied. It's too loud, too fast, and too clumsy. The jokes are fast, okay, but they're slapstick and ill thought out. The movie treats drunkenness as if that were funny in and of itself, although it's not. The dialog doesn't twinkle. Nobody says anything very amusing or clever. It reminded me of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" or, to a lesser extent, "1941." All had plenty of zest and not much else.
It's a disappointment considering the talent and production values on display. Too bad. The writer/director, Neil Jordan, was responsible for the superior "Mona Lisa" and "The Crying Game." He seems to have gotten lost in the hidden passageways and spooky compartments here.