Mark Waters

Like Heathers with the edges filed down a bit...the kind of smooth, clever (and rare) entertainment that critics and audiences can all enjoy, guilt-free.

Painfully predictable romanticized crap, but dealing as it does with mortal tragedy—death, brain-death, and loss—it's also unscrupulous and exploitative.

For a movie about magical beasts, The Spiderwick Chronicles does an awfully good job of pegging childhood emotional realities, particularly in a context of divorce.

The movie equivalent of a fling that you won't entirely regret but won't ever want to see again.