I'm not really familiar with the "Our Gang" series (I think I've seen only one of their shorts, which was included as a DVD extra with a Marx Brothers movie), so I can only judge this "revival" attempt on its own: its has some mildly amusing bits, most of them in the first half (like the judge who can barely control his laughter at the kids' antics), but as soon as the action moves (and stays there until the end) to Doc Robbin's "haunted" mansion (complete with all sorts of traps, secret passages, strange sounds, etc.), "Who Killed Doc Robbin" becomes plodding and overly claustrophobic: it's essentially 30 minutes of the same thing, the kids running around the house, first chasing a small chimp, later being chased by a big gorilla. The young actors are actually quite good at what they have to do (even the chimp performs well), it's their material that lets them down. However, the film is almost worth sitting through just for a truly out-of-left-field finale. ** out of 4.
Review of Who Killed 'Doc' Robbin?
