Earlier this year Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney Pictures unveiled Pirates of the Carribean, a huge beast of a picture based on the popular Disneyland ride. While far too long, that film proved to be a worthy entertainment thanks to it's epic feel and a fantastically creative performance by Johnny Depp. Now comes The Haunted Mansion, a rushed, ill-conceived take on another fantastic Disneyland ride. Sadly, this picture hasn't an epic feel, nor does it feature a creative turn by it's lead.

This new comedy/thriller features Eddie Murphy as a workaholic real estate agent who takes his family on a detour during their much needed vacation, so that he might help sell a spooky old mansion. Of course when he and his family arrive, they find more than just a stately old fixer-upper.

The Haunted Mansion is an obvious rush job and relies on heavy (and boring) special effects to tell it's story. Sure, there are a few moments that got a smile out of me because I'm such a huge fan of the ride, but those moments are extremely scarce, and certainly, none of them had anything to do with star Eddie Murphy.

I loved Murphy in the early days. Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, 48 Hours, Coming to America. Those were fun movies and Murphy was hilarious in all of them. Unfortunately, this once edgy-comic actor has fallen into family-fare flop-dom as he's gotten older. Which wouldn't be so bad if he'd put forth any real effort to rise above the mediocrity of the material. Save for a lively, high energy turn in The Nutty Professor movies, Murphy merely coasts through most of these awful family pictures (did you see the dreadful Dr. Doolittle and it's sequel?). With Shrek he proved that he can still bring the funny, but for the most part Eddie seems to be merely in it for the money.

What happened to that quick wit and high energy that made him so likable in the early years of his film career? I understand Murphy's yearning to make more family-oriented movies since he himself is a family man, but why can't he mix it up a bit and make edgier fare as well? Robin Williams has managed this quite gracefully. In Haunted Mansion, Murphy brings nothing whatsoever to the table, then again, like many of the things in this film (including the screenplay) the table is an apparition. Murphy's performance is so phoned-in that Paul Walker could have played this role and it wouldn't have changed the effect of a single frame of this still-born bore-fest. The only performance here that evokes any sense of joy is Terence Stamp who plays a stereotypical butler. I love the way this actor carries himself, but his talent is far beyond this material.

I did like some of the art direction on display in The Haunted Mansion. Some of the set pieces are taken directly from the ride. We get breathing doors, a haunted graveyard, hitchiking ghosts, and a fortune teller's head in a glass ball. We also get the infamous singing statues, which are reduced to annoying supporting players, hell-bent on singing dopey songs throughout the picture.

While The Haunted Mansion does manage to duplicate a couple of moments from the ride, it never once captures it's spirit. This is a movie that was clearly slapped together to make a quick buck off of Murphy's name and the legacy of one of the greatest theme park attractions in history. Walt Disney is undoubtedly rolling in his grave. My guess is that the Haunted Mansion will quickly vanish from multi-plexes across the country.