"Inkheart"
New Line
At Showcase and Quality 16

1.5 out of 5 Stars

Seeing memorable fantasy characters like the Flying Monkeys from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" leap out of the pages of a book and into reality is a compelling concept. Unless, of course, it’s at the expense of the audience’s intelligence. Such is the case with “Inkheart,” a movie inspired by a best-selling children's novel about the quest of Mortimer Flochart (Brendan Fraser, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”) to find the rare book "Inkheart," using his unique power to bring the book's characters to life with his voice.

The movie's problem is that it assumes everyone in the theater lacks basic reasoning skills. Mortimer and friends go to the home of the author of "Inkheart" to obtain a copy of the original manuscript — why Mortimer didn’t go to the author earlier in his decade-long search for the book is a mystery that viewers are expected to ignore. And in the film's finale, all the audience discovers is that the entire movie up to that point was a huge waste of time.

The only slightly redeeming quality of the film is its use of CGI. It’s entertaining to see swirling fire and crazy cyclones, but even the orgy of special effects featured can’t possibly make up for the rest of the films shortcomings. “Inkheart” is yet another perfect example of a movie that should have never left the pages of a book.