The cast is pretty solid but the movie struggles with identity problems. It doesn't really go in enough to be funny per se, missing great opportunities and beats with the magic that could be as good as Beetlejuice. For example the femme fatale singing scenes could be hilarious if she sang about something more stupid and magical since the lyrics aren't great as they are, but they're still focused on heavily for a whole long scene. Besides not being funny enough for comedy, it isn't really scary or suspenseful enough to feel like a true horror or noir either. The horror effects are cool and campy but they lack some of the edge from the likes of the eighties Gremlins and fall a bit more on the side of cartoonish, probably because of the budget. Otherwise the film looks to be of surprisingly good quality.
Similarly to the humor, the magic doesn't quite permeate most scenes enough, except for being pushed in the dialogue, so as a viewer you keep forgetting it's supposed to be a _magical_ noir until something sort of random highlights it for you again. Also the idea of a sidekick could really work for it's advantage, maybe using the already intresting characters of Hypolite or Thadius more, for example.
I wish this movie was redone by someone like Mel Brooks, if they upped the anti on the humor this could be a really great movie in the vein of The Producers. As it is, it's a fine B-movie to slap on when you don't feel like doing much thinking, theres some fun "fast talking high pants"-dialogue in the classic noir-vein, but you wouldn't miss that much if you didn't see it either.
Similarly to the humor, the magic doesn't quite permeate most scenes enough, except for being pushed in the dialogue, so as a viewer you keep forgetting it's supposed to be a _magical_ noir until something sort of random highlights it for you again. Also the idea of a sidekick could really work for it's advantage, maybe using the already intresting characters of Hypolite or Thadius more, for example.
I wish this movie was redone by someone like Mel Brooks, if they upped the anti on the humor this could be a really great movie in the vein of The Producers. As it is, it's a fine B-movie to slap on when you don't feel like doing much thinking, theres some fun "fast talking high pants"-dialogue in the classic noir-vein, but you wouldn't miss that much if you didn't see it either.