I never really caught the original "Willard" which starred Bruce Davidson, but I did catch 'Ben" when I was a child, a film that made me bawl like a baby… in fact I was a baby; so it was a bit of a vexer when I approached yet another remake, yet another unneeded remake for a classic horror flick. This time around, there's a loon playing a loon, in this case Crispin Glover who is delightfully over the top as Willard himself. He’s fun to watch here as Willard the shouting and often times groaning Willard who wants to control his life in a very Norman Bates manner. He should have played Norman Bates instead of the larger Vince Vaughn. He’s good here with his pathetic scowling and pleading, to his menacing psychotic grimacing when he is in control of the rats. Then there’s also the always hot Laura Elena Harring as the kind Cathryn who witnesses Willard’s torture by his menacing boss (R. Lee Ermy) and his co-workers. There are a lot of good sequences here including Willard’s interaction with the rats, and his rivalry with Ben, plus there’s the subtle cameo from original star Davidson that you have to really keep an eye open for to catch.

One of my main quibbles with the film, one of many, is that the mice just aren't menacing. I don't care how menacing they tried to make them look with red eyes and computer rendering, these looked simply like trained mice without any personality whatsoever, and Ben is possibly, for all of his Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote antics with Glover, is not menacing in the least. He looks like the best trained mouse in Hollywood. That's all. These mice didn't have a sense of dread to them. I know it’s hard for mice to emote, but give me a break here, give us characters we can hate, other than Willard. The rats are boring here, and most of the time you can almost sense the trainers' doings with much of the stunts and whatnot. It's flawed and very annoying to try and buy that these mice are menacing and villainous.

What’s that you say? Over the top performances? Well, sit down stranger, we have plenty! What you need? Well, first and foremost there's Crispin Glover who is wa-a-a-ay over the top in his performance as Willard, and if you look closely, you can see a cameo from the original stare Bruce Davidson, but, alas, he only appears for one second and it’s very subtle. However, Glover pulls the weight with a large over the top performance screaming, and emoting with such insanity that it's almost comical, and who's second best with over the top performances? Well, R. Lee Ermy of course. He plays wicked boss man Frank Martin with a lot of zeal; so much zeal that when he yells he spits at the cameraman whom you know is laughing at his screaming, a shtick that wore thin years ago.

Then there’s the godly underused talents of Laura Elena Harring who is the only human link to Willard, but is hardly shown enough, considering her performance could be an important and integral one to the story. The beauty is hardly focused on, so we never exactly understand why she\'s so infatuated with Willard other than she pities him. But does she like him? Like like? Who knows, because we barely see much of her to get the answer? The film has a very Tim Burton motif that just didn't work and with characters that were over the top, and a love interest that's under-used, it's not hard to believe there's barely a story to see here, especially one that is just comprised of Willard seeking revenge on his enemies through the mice. There's nothing but filler and mild violence that hardly displays the carnage of the mice who are supposed to be the devil incarnate, the devil in Willard, but nothing is accomplished except a lot of tricks involving rats.

Despite a good performance from Glover who is over the top in many points, "Willard" never accomplishes what it sets out to do: never scares, never pulls off enough tension, and the rats are as bland as any trained rodent can be.

• Joaquin Phoenix and Macaulay Culkin both turned down the role of Willard.
  
   

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