MouseHunt (film)

For the social network game, see MouseHunt.

MouseHunt
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gore Verbinski
Produced by	Bruce Cohen Tony Ludwig Alan Riche
Written by	Adam Rifkin
Starring	Nathan Lane Lee Evans Vicki Lewis Maury Chaykin Christopher Walken
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Phedon Papamichael
Editing by	Craig Wood
Distributed by	DreamWorks Pictures
Release date(s)	December 19, 1997 (1997-12-19)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$38 million
Box office	$122,417,389

MouseHunt is a 1997 American slapstick comedy film, directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Adam Rifkin and starring Nathan Lane and Lee Evans. Although quite dark, it was received as a family movie, and was the first family film to be released by DreamWorks.

Plot

After Lars (Lee Evans) and Ernie Smuntz’s (Nathan Lane) string manufacturer father Rudolf (William Hickey) dies, they go over his will in his now-outdated factory, where they find out that he left them a handful of personal items, one of them being a deed to a debt-ridden mansion.

Representatives from a company called Zeppco International offer to buy the factory from Lars, but he refuses their offer after remembering his father giving him and Ernie his lucky piece of string and made a promise to him to never sell the factory. He is later kicked out of his house by his self-centered, money-hungry wife April (Vicki Lewis) after she discovers this. Meanwhile, Ernie serves Mayor McKrinkle (Cliff Emmich) at his restaurant Chez Ernie, but the mayor soon suffers a heart attack after accidentally consuming a cockroach found in his dish. As a result, Ernie loses his restaurant and home.

He then reconciles with Lars at a diner and they both decide to investigate the mansion, since they do not have anywhere else to live. While sleeping there, they investigate a noise which is attributed to a mouse in the attic. They also find blueprints of the mansion, which show that is was built in 1876 by the famous architect Charles Lyle LaRue. As it was the last house built by him and until now considered a mere rumour, the mansion is dubbed “The Missing LaRue”. Alexander Falko (Maury Chaykin), a LaRue item collector, attempts to make an offer on the house; Ernie, however, convinces Lars that they will make a lot of money if they restore and auction the mansion.

As the brothers begin renovation on the mansion, they begin a series of increasingly aggressive attempts to kill the mouse, all of which fail when the mouse sabotages their efforts. In one attempt, Ernie and Lars go to an animal shelter where they adopt a crazy cat named Catzilla. However, the cat is subdued by the mouse after cornering it in a dumbwaiter and gnawing the rope causing Catzilla to fall and trapping it at the very bottom of the shaft. The brothers have no choice but to hire an exterminator (Christopher Walken) to kill the mouse (which also fails) while the brothers finish some errands. Meanwhile, Ernie arranges a meeting with the executives from Zeppco, but it never occurs since he was flirting with two Belgian hair models and gets hit by a bus after retrieving his hat from the street. Later that night, after another series of failed attempts to eliminate the mouse (which results in two explosions and Ernie blasted from a chimney), Zeppco, by answering machine, declines their offer, and the brothers argue about betrayal - Ernie is angry that Lars turned down Zeppco's first offer without consulting him first, while Lars is angered that Ernie was willing to sell the factory. At the height of their arguments, Lars throws an orange at Ernie, who dodges, and it hits the mouse, knocking it unconscious. The brothers attempt to finish it off with a shovel, but cannot bring themselves to do harm the defenceless creature. Instead, they put the mouse in a box and mail the box to Fidel Castro in Cuba. Elevated at being rid of the mouse, the brothers quickly reconcile and work together to repair the house and prepare it for the auction.

Unfortunately, during the auction, Lars discovers the mouse’s parcel, which was returned due to insufficient postage, with a hole chewed through it. After yet another series of failed attempts, Lars and Ernie try to kill the mouse by putting a hose in a wall and flushing it out. This backfires horribly when the water fills the spaces between the walls of the house. Those present for the auction are washed outside when the walls around them collapse, and despite Ernie's attempts to convince them to stay, they leave as the house collapses.

Convinced that the mouse is finally dead, the brothers return to the factory. The seemingly indestructible mouse has followed them and manages to make a ball of string cheese by dropping a slab of cheese into the wax receptacle. Ernie and Lars end their war with the mouse, taking its suggestion for the future of the factory. The dying factory becomes a success as it is now manufacturing string cheese, with Ernie and the mouse working together to create new blends.

The closing scene shows the portrait of Rudolf Smuntz beaming, his lucky piece of string framed and hung beside the portrait, with the quotation "A world without string is chaos."

Cast

• Nathan Lane as Ernie Smuntz
• Lee Evans as Lars Smuntz
• Vicki Lewis as April Smuntz
• Maury Chaykin as Alexander Falko
• Eric Christmas as Ernie and Lars' Lawyer
• Michael Jeter as Quincy Thorpe
• Debra Christofferson as Ingrid
• Camilla Søeberg as Hilde, the Bench Lady
• Ian Abercrombie as Auctioneer
• Annabelle Gurwitch as Roxanne Atkins
• Eric Poppick as The Banker
• Ernie Sabella as Maury, the Cat Care Society Owner
• Frank Welker as Mouse, Catzilla
• William Hickey as Rudolf Smuntz
• Christopher Walken as Caesar, the Exterminator

Reception

MouseHunt received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 45% of critics had given the film a positive review. The film was a financial success. It was released on December 19, 1997 and opened up in North America at #4 and grossed $6,062,922 in the opening weekend. It wrapped up its run on July 1, 1998 or 27.9 weeks with $61,917,389 in the North American market and $60,500,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $122,417,389. Its budget was $38 million.

See also

Film portal

• 1997 in film
• Cinema of the United States
• List of American films of 1997

External links

• MouseHunt at the Internet Movie Database
• MouseHunt at Box Office Mojo
• MouseHunt at Rotten Tomatoes