In this horror comedy from director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Michael J. Fox stars as a charlatan ghostbuster who can communicate with the undead. After many of the local ghost community start disappearing, Fox gets roped into solving the mystery, which involves a 20-year old mass-murder at a nearby mental institution. If it sounds convoluted, it is. The narrative is over-complicated, involving too many characters and flashbacks, but there are enough elements here that you’re likely to find at least some of them interesting.
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films are among my very favorites of all time, so The Hobbit is doomed to suffer in comparison. If you’re not a devoted fan of Middle Earth, the first half of An Unexpected Journey will probably feel a bit cumbersome. Jackson should have trimmed 20 or 30 minutes (starting with the oddly wooden cameo performances from Ian Holm and Elijah Wood). But rest assured the pace does pick up and the film does find its action/adventure groove by the end.
