Peter Hastings

Peter Hastings

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Connections, in both directions

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides poster
But when it was originally announced, the thought of making a movie based on the popular Disney theme park attraction seemed a dubious idea at best, with previous similar attempts (including 1997's TV movie "Tower of Terror," 2000's "Mission to Mars" and 2002's "The Country Bears") not really inspiring tremendous confidence in future success -- which was proved again in late 2003 with the Eddie Murphy flick "The Haunted Mansion."
Paddington in Peru poster
As a cherry on top, the climactic bit of pathos manifests with greater deftness (mostly through, again, Whishaw’s voice work) than other kid’s movies detouring into sentimentality like Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, or Dog Man.
The Spool
thespool.net ↗
…it also shares its origins with the current (for the last two weeks) box office champ DOG Man, which is based on a beloved series of children’s books.
Jim Batts →, Jim Batts • We Are Movie Geeks • Feb 13, 2025
wearemoviegeeks.com ↗
Game Night poster
Screenwriter Mark Perez’s resume is a mixed bag, too: he wrote the sweet and subversive college comedy Accepted , but also The Country Bears , which is a the sign of the apocalypse.
MaryAnn Johanson • Flick Filosopher • Feb 27, 2018
flickfilosopher.com ↗
Written by Mark Perez (Disney’s “The Country Bears”) and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (“Vacation”), “Game Night’s” premise — a brother’s gift of a dangerous adventure that may or may not be real — is eerily similar to director David Fincher’s 1997 thriller, “The Game.”
Christopher Lawrence • Las Vegas Review-Journal • Feb 22, 2018
reviewjournal.com ↗
Game Night’s secret to success is its whip-smart dialogue and breezy, energetic pacing from screenwriter Mark Perez who unsuccessfully tried to reboot the Herbie the Love Bug franchise back in 2005 and brought the Disney World attraction The Country Bears to life in 2002.
"Vacation" directors John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and a game cast intermittently keep this film aloft, McAdams' nutsy enthusiasm and Plemons' creepy obsessiveness particularly on target, but Mark Perez's ("The Country Bears") labored script creates a drag that ultimately overtakes their efforts.
Reeling Reviews • Jan 10, 2020
reelingreviews.com ↗
Game Night is Daley and Goldstein’s second feature, with a script credited to Mark Perez, esteemed author of Herbie Fully Loaded and The Country Bears.
Oktay Ege Kozak • Paste Magazine • Feb 23, 2018
pastemagazine.com ↗
Although the screenplay was written by Perez, whose past credits are hardly reassuring (that is, unless you’re a superfan of The Country Bears, Herbie Fully Loaded, and/or Accepted), Daley and Goldstein’s influence is all over this film.
Michael Roffman • Consequence of Sound • Feb 21, 2018
consequenceofsound.net ↗
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl poster
The first and last of the films that resulted - 2002's The Country Bears and Thanksgiving, 2003's The Haunted Mansion - were precisely what you'd expect, and audiences and critics responded accordingly.

That's all the connections!