What theaters have been lacking is a head-scratcher like "The Haunted Mansion," a film that should be better given its behind-the-scenes talent. The movie starts to deliver with some amusing and scary bits, then inexplicably stalls out at about the hour mark. At the end of its ride, it leaves a bad taste — theme-park hot dog — in your mouth.

Like the very entertaining summer hit "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Mansion" is based on a Disney theme-park attraction (so was last year's "The Country Bears," a movie most everyone has forgotten), with a fleshed-out story and some A-list talent. Eddie Murphy stars as Jim Evers, a workaholic real estate agent with a ready smile and a cheesy slogan (he wants to find you a home that'll make you happy "For Evers and Evers.")

Jim's wife is a partner in his business, but she seems to find the time to go to baseball games and birthday parties for the kids while Jim finds himself sucked into one new deal or another.

After planning a weekend family adventure to make amends, Jim is again pulled toward a house deal when a mysterious millionaire puts a creepy mansion on the market. The family goes to the mansion, ghosts appear, high jinks ensue.

The most incongruous thing about "Haunted Mansion" is that the film slows down and loses its appeal after the family gets to the mansion. Obviously, in a film called "The Haunted Mansion" in which icky ghosts and creaky doors are supposed to be the main attraction, that's a bad sign. Blame the film for having such an entertaining opening. As he did in "Daddy Day Care" and even in the endless "Dr. Dolittle" movies, Murphy shows that he has a gift for acting with kids and playing a caring dad. He's so likable in the film's first 20 minutes that everything that follows — Murphy shouting and comedically riffing in "Shrek"-donkey style — pales.

What Murphy needs is a good, straight family comedy, one without special effects, prosthetics or a goofy premise.

In this film, however, the ghosts and ghoulies just get in the way. When the family arrives at the mansion, it becomes clear that the young, suave heir to the estate has designs on the comely Mrs. Evers. It turns out he believes she's the reincarnation of his long-lost love. A humorless butler (a strange, droning Terrence Stamp, who floats most of his lines in a distracting Ooooold Mooovie Spooooooky Vooooice) may have other, nefarious plans for his boss.

It's revealing absolutely nothing to say that just about everyone in this house is a ghost and that the Evers family will learn some Important Lessons About Being Alive while fleeing flesh-sloughing zombies (nicely done without computer effects by Rick Baker's makeup crew) and running into colorful undead characters. Wallace Shawn ("Inconceivable!") and Dina Waters are friendly servants, and Jennifer Tilly is a soothsaying green head floating in an orb.

The film does have some very funny moments courtesy of screenwriter David Berenbaum, who also wrote the recent "Elf." Like that movie, "Haunted Mansion" eschews toilet humor and bad language to create something wholesome that doesn't feel corny. When Murphy's family arrives at the mansion and they notice "huge knockers" on the front door, the film doesn't go for the easy punch line, or any punch line at all.

There's something to be admired in a big-budget effects film that shows a little restraint. Unfortunately, the fun tone set in the first half of the film isn't carried through. The film's middle feels pokey, as various members of the family wander the elaborate hallways of the mansion, following ghosts, chatting with servants, learning the estate's deep, dark secret. Except for a few nicely done scary scenes (that zombie attack in a mausoleum is a highlight) just on the line of being appropriate for the youngest kiddies, not much happens.

Director Rob Minkoff ("The Lion King," the "Stuart Little" films) seems to get lost within the predictable story, paying more attention to the ghoulish ghosts than Murphy's movie family before delivering a weak, groan-worthy ending. "The Haunted Mansion" stops being a movie and ends as simply an ad for the theme-park ride — it moves, it spooks, but by the end, you just want to get off and see something else.