The House With A Clock In Its Walls Review: 5 Ups & 3 Downs

3. The Humour

Needless toilet jokes aside, there is a lot of good humour in there for the whole spectrum of the audience, with particularly good work in the banterful dialogue between Jack Black and Cate Blanchett. When the script isn't dumbing things down, the humour really works.

There really has to be a nod here to Jack Black, whose career hasn't always gone as some might have expected a few years ago, but his performance in the Jumanji sequel has seemingly kicked off a new chapter for him. He's great as the eccentric uncle of Lewis, whose demeanor hides the fact that he's not the poor warlock he claims. His comedy work is also surprising restrained given what he's done in other roles.

The whole thing is very charming and it does lift a few solid laughs regardless of how old you are. That's got to be the real marker of a "family" film.