Mouse Hunt

{{Infobox film

| name = Mouse Hunt

| image = Mouse hunt ver4.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = Gore Verbinski

| producer = {{Plainlist|

Bruce Cohen
Tony Ludwig
Alan Riche

}}

| writer = Adam Rifkin

| starring = {{Plainlist|

}}

| music = Alan Silvestri

| cinematography = Phedon Papamichael

| editing = Craig Wood

| distributor = DreamWorks Pictures{{cite web|title=Mouse Hunt (1997)|website=AFI Catalog of Feature Films|access-date=9 October 2021|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/61084-MOUSE-HUNT?sid=e025e324-551c-4668-9b3d-405cde9fa47b&sr=12.005678&cp=1&pos=0}}

| released = {{Film date|1997|12|19|United States}}

| runtime = 98 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $38 million

| gross = $125.4 million

}}

Mouse Hunt is a 1997 American slapstick black comedy film written by Adam Rifkin and directed by Gore Verbinski in his feature film directorial debut. It stars Nathan Lane, Lee Evans, Maury Chaykin, and Christopher Walken. The film follows two Laurel and Hardy-like brothers in their struggle against one small but crafty house mouse for possession of a mansion which was willed to them by their father. While the film is set in the late 20th century, styles range humorously from the 1940s to the 1990s.

It was the first family film to be released by DreamWorks Pictures, who released it in the United States on December 19, 1997, to mixed reviews, but was a commercial success, earning $125.4 million on the box office against a budget of $38 million.

Mouse Hunt features one of William Hickey's final roles. The film was dedicated to his memory.

Plot

When the once-wealthy string magnate Rudolf Smuntz dies, he leaves his factory and a dilapidated Victorian mansion to his sons Ernie and Lars. Ernie, who has ignored the family business to become a chef, walks out of the reading of the will, taking a box of cigars. At Ernie's restaurant, a cockroach crawls out of the box and into a dish prepared for Mayor McKrinkle, causing him to have a fatal heart attack. After McKrinkle's death, Ernie's restaurant is shut down and scheduled for demolition. Ernie loses his career and his home. Meanwhile, Zeppco International, a cord company, offers Lars a buyout for the factory, but he remembers his promise to Rudolf never to sell it, and refuses. Furious, Lars's greedy wife, April, kicks him out of the house. Lars and Ernie meet up, and with nowhere else to go, spend the night in the mansion.

The brothers cannot sleep due to noises caused by a mouse, and while investigating, discover the blueprints of the property. The blueprints reveal that the mansion is the fabled final design of the famous architect, Charles Lyle LaRue, and would be worth a fortune if restored. The brothers decide to renovate and auction the mansion to recover their lives. They later see the mouse again. Ernie, fearing a repeat of the cockroach incident, convinces Lars that they must also get rid of the mouse. The brothers try numerous failed attempts to kill the mouse, including buying a cat named "Catzilla" and hiring exterminator Caesar; the mouse drops Catzilla in a dumbwaiter, and traumatizes Caesar by dragging him around the mansion using his truck's winch line. The brothers realise they are dealing with an unusually intelligent mouse.

The bank advises the duo the house will be repossessed in two days unless they pay off the mortgage, after Ernie had borrowed against it to pay for an unnecessary addition as part of the renovations. With their limited funds, the brothers cannot pay their workers, prompting them to strike and quit. Ernie finds Zeppco's business card and arranges a meeting to secretly accept their buyout offer. After Lars accidentally loses his clothes to machines while trying to run the factory alone, he is met by April, who has learned of the mansion's value and takes Lars back, giving him the funds that they need. While attempting to impress women, Ernie is hit by a bus and misses his meeting with Zeppco's representatives.

Enraged, Ernie later chases the mouse with a shotgun and accidentally shoots a bug bomb Caesar had dropped, blowing a hole in the floor. Lars later overhears Zeppco call and leave a voicemail, saying that they have taken back their proposal since Lars declined their offer and Ernie never showed up for the meeting. Angry at each other for their actions, the brothers get into an argument. Lars throws an orange at Ernie, which misses him but hits the mouse, who is stunned but still alive. The brothers cannot bring themselves to finish him off, and instead mail him in a box addressed to Fidel Castro. The brothers reconcile and finish their renovations. The postal box, however, is eventually returned due to insufficient postage. On the night of the auction, while giving a speech, Ernie sees the mouse on his podium. As the auction begins, the brothers attempt to flush the mouse out with a garden hose, filling an inner wall of the mansion with water until it bursts, washing the bidders out and causing the estate to collapse. When April leaves with a wealthy bidder, the brothers are left with nothing, but take solace in that the collapse must have killed the mouse.

The brothers spend the night in the factory, unaware that the mouse has actually survived, and followed them. Seeing their sorry state, the mouse takes pity on them and activates the factory's machinery, dropping a block of cheese into the wax boiler to produce a ball of string cheese. Inspired, the brothers end their battle with the mouse and renovate the factory to produce string cheese and other cheese-based products. Lars (now having formed a relationship with a Belgian model named Hilde) runs the factory with Ernie as the head chef and the mouse as their taste-tester for new cheese combinations.

Cast

Nathan Lane as Ernie Smuntz, a man who refused heirdom to his father's string factory to become a chef.
Lee Evans as Lars Smuntz, Ernie's brother and the heir to their father's string factory.
Vicki Lewis as April Smuntz, Lars' gold-digging former wife.
Maury Chaykin as Alexander Falko, a wealthy LaRue collector.
William Hickey as Rudolf Smuntz, a string magnate and the late father of Ernie and Lars.
Christopher Walken as Caesar, an odd and eccentric exterminator hired by the Smuntz brothers to rid them of the mouse.
Eric Christmas as Ernie and Lars' lawyer.
This was Christmas' final acting performance before he died in July 22, 2000.
Michael Jeter as Quincy Thorpe, a LaRue historian.
Camilla Soeberg as Hilde, a Belgian model.
Debra Christofferson as Ingrid, a Belgian model.
Ian Abercrombie as the auctioneer.
Annabelle Gurwitch as Roxanne Atkins, a photographer.
Eric Poppick as Theodore Plumb, the banker.
Ernie Sabella as Maury, a worker at the cat shelter.
Cliff Emmich as Mayor McKrinkle.
Susan Blommaert as Ms. Park Avenue
Carmen Filpi as Pallbearer #4
Jack Angeles as Kennel Employee
Thom Barry as a doctor (scenes deleted)
Sarah Dampf as a crying girl

Release

Mouse Hunt was released in North America on December 19, 1997 and opened in the #4 spot. The film was released in the United Kingdom on April 3, 1998, and opened at #2, behind Titanic.{{cite web|url= https://www.25thframe.co.uk/box-office/box-office.php?chart=19980403 |title=Weekend box office 3rd April 1998 - 5th April 1998|website=www.25thframe.co.uk|access-date=10 September 2017}}{{Cite web|title=Mousehunt|url=http://www.saltypopcorn.co.uk/movies/mousehunt|access-date=2021-01-19|website=www.saltypopcorn.co.uk|language=en-GB}}

= Home media =

Mouse Hunt was released on VHS on May 5, 1998,{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122487784/boogie-nights-comes-to-video/ |title='Boogie Nights' comes to video |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408201859/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122487784/boogie-nights-comes-to-video/ |date=April 3, 1998 |access-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-date=April 8, 2023 |page=82 |newspaper=The Kansas City Star |via=Newspapers.com |url-status=live}} {{Open access}} and DVD on December 8, 1998, by DreamWorks Home Entertainment.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Mousehunt-Maury-Chaykin/dp/B00AEFYO08/ref=tmm_dvd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=|access-date=2021-01-19|website=www.amazon.com|title=Mousehunt}} It was released on Blu-ray on February 2, 2021, by Paramount Home Entertainment.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Mouse-Hunt-Blu-ray-Maury-Chaykin/dp/B08NWY67DM|access-date=2021-01-19|website=www.amazon.com|title=Mouse Hunt}}

A 4K Ultra HD release of the film will be released by Kino Lorber under license from Paramount in 2025.

Reception

=Box office=

The film was a box-office success, partially due to its release during the Christmas and New Year's holiday period. It grossed $6,062,922 in its opening weekend, averaging $2,817 from 2,152 theaters. In its second weekend, it stayed at #4 and increased by 60 percent, making $9,702,770, averaging $4,428 from 2,191 theaters, and bringing its 10-day gross to $21,505,569. In its third weekend, it once again stayed at #4 and dropped by only 13 percent, making $8,418,001, averaging $3,804 from 2,213 theaters, and bringing its 17-day gross to $40,021,527.{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=mousehunt.htm|title=Mouse Hunt (1997) - Weekend Box Office Results |website=Box Office Mojo}} It closed on July 1, 1998, with a final gross of $61,917,389 in the North American market and $60,500,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $122,417,389.

=Critical response=

Mouse Hunt received mixed reviews from film critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 44% of 33 critics had given the film a positive review. The critics consensus reads: "Mouse Hunt gets trapped under the weight of its excessive slapstick antics."{{Cite web|title=Mouse Hunt (1997)|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mouse_hunt|language=en|website=Rotten Tomatoes|access-date=2023-01-20}} On Metacritic, the film has a score of 54 out of 100 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".{{Cite web |title=Mousehunt Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/mousehunt |access-date=September 20, 2022 |website=Metacritic |publisher=CBS Interactive}} Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, calling it "not very funny, and maybe couldn't have been very funny no matter what, because the pieces for comedy are not in place... A comedy that hasn't assigned sympathy to some characters and made others hateful cannot expect to get many laughs, because the audience doesn't know who to laugh at, or with." His colleague Gene Siskel disagreed and liked the film.{{cite episode|title=Mouse Hunt |series=Siskel & Ebert |date=December 20, 1997 |season=12 |number=16 |network=ABC}}

Regarding the digital special effects, Ebert deemed the film "an excellent example of the way modern advances in special effects can sabotage a picture (Titanic is an example of effects being used wisely). Because it is possible to make a movie in which the mouse can do all sorts of clever things, the filmmakers have assumed incorrectly that it would be funny to see the mouse doing them."{{cite web|url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mouse-hunt-1997|title=Mouse Hunt Movie Review & Film Summary (1997) |first=Roger|last=Ebert|date=December 19, 1997|website=www.rogerebert.com}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/19981202135744/http://www.freezone.com:80/mousehunt/mouse.html official website] at the Wayback Machine (archived December 2, 1998)
{{IMDb title|0119715|Mouse Hunt}}
{{TCMDb title|335174|Mouse Hunt}}
{{AFI film|61084}}
{{mojo title|mousehunt|Mouse Hunt}}
{{rotten_tomatoes|mouse_hunt|Mouse Hunt}}

Category:1997 films

Category:1997 directorial debut films

Category:1997 black comedy films

Category:1997 children's films

Category:American children's comedy films

Category:American black comedy films

Category:American screwball comedy films

Category:American slapstick comedy films

Category:Films about mice and rats

Category:Films about cats

Category:Films about death

Category:Films about brothers