JACK BLACK IN GOOSEBUMPS

year: 2015 cast: Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush Director: Rob Letterman

Steven Spielberg, whose 1941 rolling rollercoaster is paid homage to, was a big Orson Welles fan, and there's a LADY FROM SHANGHAI fun house full of mirrors, which includes reflections of a Charlie McCarthy Doll: kind of like the one on Steven's rollercoaster, only "Slappy" is shrewd and nefarious, and an important cog in R.L. Stine's horror wheelhouse created for kids, immensely popular before Harry Potter monopolized young readers worldwide... But back to the subject at hand...

Jack Black has the right amount of edgy charisma as the grouchy, reclusive real life Stine – whose work comes to life when hidden manuscript pages are opened – balancing out an oddly cast "new kid in town" teenager, Zach, who doesn't look as neurotic and depressed as he constantly seems to be. Meanwhile, goofy sidekick Champ has almost the same personality, deleting any comic relief status.

Then of course there's a young beautiful ingenue... a soft, secret part of an otherwise noisy vehicle so full of grandiose special effects, the audience might eventually feel as worn out as the characters, which isn't so bad since going overboard seems intentional: paying a belated, collective tribute to the man whose literary creatures sparked a generation of Millennial nightmares in a big screen transition, more action/adventure than horror while providing thrills instead of chills.

RATING: ***