Mouse Hunt is a 1997 American slapstick black comedy film written by Adam Rifkin and directed by Gore Verbinski in his feature film directorial debut . It stars Nathan Lane , Lee Evans , Maury Chaykin , and Christopher Walken . The film follows two Laurel and Hardy -like brothers in their struggle against one small but crafty house mouse for possession of a mansion which was willed to them by their father. While the film is set in the late 20th century, styles range humorously from the 1940s to the 1990s.
31-407: Adam Rifkin (born December 31, 1966), sometimes credited as Rif Coogan , is an American filmmaker and actor. His career ranges from broad family comedies to dark and gritty urban dramas. He is best known for writing family-friendly comedies like Mouse Hunt and 2007's Underdog . Most recently, Rifkin directed The Last Movie Star (2017). A native of Chicago, Illinois , Rifkin graduated from
62-424: A box addressed to Fidel Castro . The brothers reconcile and finish their renovations. The night of the auction , Lars discovers the postal box returned to the mansion and a hole chewed in it, while Ernie sees the mouse on his podium as he speaks to the auctioneers. As the auction begins, the brothers try flushing the mouse out with a garden hose, filling an inner wall of the mansion with water until it bursts, washing
93-699: A defining feature of most British towns and cities. In the United Kingdom , Victorian houses follow a wide range of architectural styles. Starting from the early classicism inherited from Regency architecture , the Italianate style gained influence in the 1840s and 1850s, and the Gothic Revival style became prevalent by the 1880s. Later in the Victorian era , the Queen Anne style and
124-468: A final gross of $ 61,917,389 in the North American market and $ 60,500,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $ 122,417,389. Mouse Hunt received mixed reviews from film critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 44% of 33 critics had given the film a positive review. The critics consensus reads: " Mouse Hunt gets trapped under the weight of its excessive slapstick antics." On Metacritic ,
155-633: The Night at the Golden Eagle (2002). Rifkin began his production career in 1999 on the production of Touch Me in the Morning by Giuseppe Andrews . Preceding his completion of that project, Rifkin produced his own film Night at the Golden Eagle as well as Getting Hal by Tony Markes. Rifkin began his acting career in 1989 with his directorial debut Never on Tuesday . Rifkin has appeared in small roles and cameos in his other films, Night at
186-591: The Arts and Crafts movement increased in influence, resulting in the transition to styles typically seen in Edwardian houses. Victorian houses are also found in many former British colonies where the style might be adapted to local building materials or customs, for example in Sydney , Australia and Melaka , Malaysia . The Victorian Society is a membership charity which campaigns for Victorian architecture. In
217-709: The Chicago Academy for the Arts in 1984, after which he moved to Los Angeles. He attended the University of Southern California for one year before dropping out. He then began writing scripts and collaborating with Brad Wyman . As a screenwriter, Rifkin has written several family-friendly movies. He wrote Knucklehead for WWE Studios , starring WWE star Big Show , Underdog for Walt Disney Pictures , Zoom , starring Tim Allen and two films for DreamWorks , Mouse Hunt and Small Soldiers . Continuing in
248-434: The Edwardian era was the last sustained period in which great houses were built in large numbers. Many of these harked back to earlier periods of English architecture , for example: Victorian-era homes in eastern American cities tend to be three stories those in western American cities tend to be two-story houses or one-story cottages. This is not representative of a typical Victorian-era home in all regions. Although
279-410: The 1850s domestic buildings also became increasingly influenced by the Gothic Revival , incorporating features such as pointed, projecting porches, bay windows , and grey slate. In addition to general architectural influences, this progressive change in style resulted from several other factors. In the 1850s, the abolition of tax on glass and bricks made these items cheaper yet a suitable material and
310-554: The Golden Eagle , Without Charlie , Detroit Rock City , The Dark Backward , Denial and Psycho Cop 2 . Rifkin also appeared as Croaker/Miss Spain in the 1989 film, Going Overboard , starring Adam Sandler and Burt Young . He also wrote, directed and acted in the 2007 film Homo Erectus , in which he portrays a wimpy caveman called Ishbo, the main character in the film. The film's ensemble cast includes Ali Larter , David Carradine , Talia Shire , Gary Busey , and Ron Jeremy . Acting credits Mouse Hunt It
341-620: The United States, Victorian house styles include Second Empire , Queen Anne , Stick (and Eastlake Stick ), Shingle , Richardsonian Romanesque , and others. Early in the Victorian era (up to the 1840s) houses were still influenced by the classicism of Regency styles . However the simplicity of Regency classicism fell out of favour as affluence increased and by the 1850s the Italianate style influenced domestic architecture which now incorporated varying quantities of stucco . From
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#1732793108486372-420: The auctioneers out and causing the mansion to collapse. April leaves with a wealthy bidder and the brothers are left with nothing, but take solace that the mouse was surely killed in the collapse. The brothers spend the night in the factory, unaware the mouse has survived and followed them. Seeing their sorry state, the mouse takes pity on them and activates the factory's machinery, dropping a block of cheese into
403-417: The audience doesn't know who to laugh at, or with." His colleague Gene Siskel disagreed and liked the film. Regarding the digital special effects, Ebert deemed the film "an excellent example of the way modern advances in special effects can sabotage a picture ( Titanic is an example of effects being used wisely). Because it is possible to make a movie in which the mouse can do all sorts of clever things,
434-593: The cities, resulted in successive housing booms in the 1850s and 1870s that saw the creation of millions of houses. These catered not only for the rich and the new "middling-classes" but also for the poor. In deprived areas, Victorian houses were often very small, for example, back-to-back houses built in extremely cramped conditions. Some of these areas became slums or 'rookeries', and were later cleared. Some smaller, two-up two-down houses still survive, for example in Salford, Greater Manchester . Victorian houses for
465-486: The coming of the railway allowed them to be manufactured elsewhere, at low cost and to standard sizes and methods, and brought to site. There was also progressive introduction from the 1850s of various building regulations. There are a number of common themes in Victorian housing: In Victorian times, population growth, and the Industrial Revolution which saw a migration of workers from the countryside to
496-596: The family film genre, he wrote the big screen version of He-Man for John Woo and 20th Century Fox . He also wrote the unused draft of Planet of the Apes in 1988. Rifkin's film The Dark Backward was named one of the top ten films of its year by The New York Post . He was then the director responsible for New Line Cinema 's Detroit Rock City . Rifkin directed his first film Never on Tuesday in 1989. As of December 6, 2007, he has directed eleven others, including The Chase (1994), Detroit Rock City (1999) and
527-503: The film has a score of 54 out of 100 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, calling it "not very funny, and maybe couldn't have been very funny no matter what, because the pieces for comedy are not in place... A comedy that hasn't assigned sympathy to some characters and made others hateful cannot expect to get many laughs, because
558-400: The filmmakers have assumed incorrectly that it would be funny to see the mouse doing them." Victorian house In Great Britain and former British colonies , a Victorian house generally means any house built during the reign of Queen Victoria . During the Industrial Revolution , successive housing booms resulted in the building of many millions of Victorian houses which are now
589-464: The general public often incorrectly refers to a Victorian-era house as a Victorian- style house, Victorian era refers to a time period and not to a style. Although architectural historians generally agree that about eight primary architectural styles were prominent in the United States and Canada during the Victorian era, Victorian-era residential architecture in the United States and Canada
620-405: The mansion's mortgage to help pay for the renovations, and the bank informs them they will be evicted in two days unless they reimburse the money. With their limited funds the brothers cannot pay their workers, causing them to go on strike . Ernie finds Zeppco's business card and arranges a meeting to secretly accept their buyout offer. Lars goes to the factory to manufacture enough string to pay off
651-416: The mayor, causing him to have a fatal heart attack when he accidentally bites into it. Ernie's restaurant is shut down and he becomes homeless. Meanwhile, a cord company called Zeppco International offers Lars a buyout for the string factory, but he remembers he promised his father to never sell it, and refuses. Lars' gold digger wife April furiously kicks him out. With nowhere else to go, the brothers spend
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#1732793108486682-413: The middle classes and upwards tended to have accommodation for servants, often employed to carry out the considerable labour required to keep the house, including its fireplaces, clean and well stocked. Victorian houses of the middle and upper classes aspired to follow the purest forms of contemporary architecture, for example, the Gothic Revival or Queen Anne styles. The Victorian era , together with
713-420: The mortgage and is met by April, who has learned of the mansion's value and takes Lars back, giving him the funds they need. Ernie's meeting with Zeppco's representatives goes awry when he attempts to impress some women and is hit by a bus. The brothers return to the mansion and find it surrounded by emergency personnel, who received a mysterious 911 call of Caesar screaming from inside a trunk. The brothers chase
744-402: The mouse with a shotgun and accidentally ignite a bug bomb Caesar had dropped, blowing a massive hole in the floor. Lars overhears Zeppco on the answering machine, revealing Ernie's plans, and the two argue with the mouse watching. When Lars throws an orange at Ernie, he ducks and the mouse is struck and stunned, but is still alive. The brothers cannot bring themselves to kill it and mail it in
775-421: The mouse. Conventional methods fail when the mouse demonstrates itself to be exceptionally intelligent. The brothers resort to extreme measures to remove the mouse, including buying a monstrous Maine Coon cat named "Catzilla" and hiring an eccentric exterminator named Caesar; the mouse drops Catzilla in a dumbwaiter, and drags Caesar through the mansion using his truck's winch line. Ernie had borrowed against
806-460: The night in the mansion. The brothers cannot sleep due to noises caused by a mouse, and while investigating find blueprints of the property. The blueprints reveal the mansion was the final design of a famous architect, Charles Lyle LaRue, and it would be worth a fortune if restored. The brothers decide to renovate and auction the mansion to recover their lives. Ernie, fearing a repeat of the cockroach incident, convinces Lars they must also get rid of
837-413: The once-wealthy string magnate Rudolf Smuntz dies, he leaves his factory and an abandoned Victorian mansion to his two sons: the dutiful and optimistic Lars, and venal cynic Ernie, who has ignored the family business to become a chef; he walks out of the reading of their father's will, taking a box of cigars. At Ernie's restaurant, a cockroach crawls out of the box of cigars and into a dish prepared for
868-605: The wax boiler to produce a ball of string cheese . Inspired, the brothers renovate the factory to produce string cheese and other cheese -based products. Lars runs the factory with Ernie as his chef, and the mouse as their taste-tester for new cheese combinations. Mouse Hunt was released in North America on December 19, 1997 and opened in the #4 spot. The film was released in the United Kingdom on April 3, 1998, and opened at #2, behind Titanic . Mouse Hunt
899-472: Was a procession of styles borrowed from countries and historical styles. One feature that became popular in the Victorian era was the use of wooden gingerbread trims to create ornate embellishments to decorate their homes. This was a reinterpretation of European Gothic Revival architecture using timber that was abundantly available in North America. With the invention of steam-powered scroll saw ,
930-830: Was released on VHS on May 5, 1998, and DVD on December 8, 1998, by DreamWorks Home Entertainment . It was released on Blu-ray on February 2, 2021, by Paramount Home Entertainment . The film was a box office success, partially due to releasing during the Christmas and New Year's period. It grossed $ 6,062,922 in its opening weekend, averaging $ 2,817 from 2,152 theaters. In its second weekend, it stayed at #4 and increased by 60 percent, making $ 9,702,770, averaging $ 4,428 from 2,191 theaters, and bringing its 10-day gross to $ 21,505,569. In its third weekend, it once again stayed at #4 and dropped by only 13 percent, making $ 8,418,001, averaging $ 3,804 from 2,213 theaters, and bringing its 17-day gross to $ 40,021,527. It closed on July 1, 1998, with
961-409: Was the first family film to be released by DreamWorks Pictures , who released it in the United States on December 19, 1997, to mixed reviews, but was a commercial success, earning $ 125.4 million on the box office against a budget of $ 38 million. It has also grown a cult following in recent years. Mouse Hunt features one of William Hickey 's final roles. The film was dedicated to his memory. When