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M. Night Shyamalan has always been something of an illusionist. Even at his best, he succeeds not because he's a masterful storyteller but because he's an expert at sleight-of-hand and pulling rabbits out of his hat. With The Lady in the Water, S...

The familiar fairy tales we were weaned on aren't good enough any more. First, Shrek playfully toyed with some of our old friends by having them interact in atypical ways with a big, green ogre. Then along came last year's Hoodwinked, which refus...

Anyone who saw Todd Solondz's breakthrough feature film, Welcome to the Dollhouse, has the kernel of an idea about what to expect from the director's latest effort, the ironically-titled Happiness. Welcome to the Dollhouse is a dark comedy tha...

Applying the Groundhog Day premise to a horror movie is so obvious a conceit that I’m surprised it hasn’t been previously attempted. It’s a no-brainer. Unfortunately, director Christopher Landon and screenwriter Scott Lobdell have taken t...

Put Happy Death Day 2U together with its predecessor, Happy Death Day, and you could easily call the pair Dumb and Dumber. Whatever pleasures this comedy-tinged horror/thriller may have to offer, coherence and intelligence aren’t among them....

Happy Endings is one of those ensemble films where several stories are told in parallel with occasional intersection points to keep them from being unconnected. Sometimes, as in the case of Crash, the approach works. Sometimes, as in the case of Ha...

Happy Feet is a weird movie. No one can accuse director George Miller and his co-writers of playing it safe, but there are some genres - such as family-friendly animation - where adherence to conventions can be viewed as a positive trait. 75 minu...

When it comes to golf comedies (not a very popular genre, apparently), the film residing at the dubious pinnacle is Rodney Dangerfield's Caddyshack. Happy Gilmore, the new release featuring Saturday Night Live alum Adam Sandler, tries gamely to att...

“These aren’t the Muppets,” director Brian Henson might remind us, but his smile and wink would hint at what he really thinks. The son of Muppets creator Jim Henson and the man who filled his dad’s shoes directing The Muppet Christmas C...

Hard Candy is the kind of uncompromising independent motion picture that is likely to foster ambivalence in a significant portion of its audience. Admittedly, the film doesn't stand up well to a careful postmortem (many psychological thrillers don...