10 Most Underwhelming Summer Movies Of All Time
3. The Haunting
If you drew up a list of all the movies that didn’t suggest themselves as ripe for remaking as an effects-filled summer blockbuster, then Robert Wise’s The Haunting (adapted from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting Of Hill House) would surely be on it. But remake it they did, with Speed 2’s Jan de Bont at the helm.
The results are tawdry, illogical, monotonous, never-ending, pointless, lame, ridiculous, underwhelming, needless, stupid and more than likely to test one’s patience. On the plus side, Steven Spielberg’s disappointment with the film reportedly caused him to fire de Bont from Minority Report.
For an $80 million movie with such (over) elaborate production design, you’d expect more than a glorified episode of Scooby Doo, but when statues start coming to life, everyone thinks that Liam Neeson’s creepy doctor is behind it all. Probably with projections and remote-controlled robots. No other explanation is possible.