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People who are panning Lake Placid and calling it a horrible movie simply do not understand it. While it's certainly not the greatest movie ever made, it's a thoroughly enjoyable parody of monster movies.

I thought Gleeson was excellent as the sheriff; he's by far the funniest character in the film. And Fonda is quite good as the neurotic paleontologist.

The banter between the characters is hilarious.

I wanted to like The Haunting, I really did. It's been a long time since I've seen a good spooky movie about ghosts and haunted houses. Most of the horror fare that's been released in the last several years seems to revolve around alien monsters that have a penchant for disemboweling or beheading hapless humans. The last good scary movie I saw of this sort was Aliens. So I was really looking forward to The Haunting. The cast looked pretty good. I'm not Liam Neeson's biggest fan, but I can think of worse actors to cast in role like this. This film showed a lot of potential. The story is intriguing, and the lead character, Eleanor Lance, played by Lili Taylor is very likable. I found myself more interested in seeing the story revolving around Eleanor (or Nell, as she prefers to be called) unfold than the plot that brings the characters to Hill House in the first place. The story goes something like this: Psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Marrow (Neeson) decides to gather a group of folks suffering from insomnia at Hill House under the pretense of curing their sleep disorders. In reality, he's bringing his subjects in to study the phenomenon of group fear. Thus, he's using this creepy old house to scare the folks. This brings us to the first problem with the film: Marrow's group consists of a mere three subjects. Two folks accompanying the group exit very early after a freak accident injures Marrow's assistant, who, unfortunately, of all the people present, seemed to be the most genuinely afraid. I still wonder whether or not the accident was real or whether it was part of Marrow's plan to spook his subjects. He seemed rather unfazed by the incident. There are several events like this that occur in the film, and it's often difficult, if not impossible, to discern whether or not they're a part of the Marrow's experiment. Director Jan de Bont could've used this ambiguity to his advantage to create scary situations, but he doesn't. When Eleanor and fellow insomniac Theo, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones arrive at the mansion, Mrs. Dudley (Marian Seldes), one of the caretakers of Hill House, states that she and her husband, played by Bruce Dern, don't stay overnight. They leave … before it gets dark. They never stay … after it gets dark. The whole thing is overplayed, and Eleanor even mocks Mrs. Dudley's spiel as she's delivering it to Theo. I was sure that this melodrama was part of the instructions given to the Dudleys by Dr. Marrow, but, honestly, I can't be sure. The characters don't take it seriously, and since the whole purpose of it would have been to set them on edge, it fails miserably. Thus, it fails miserably on two levels: It fails to spook the characters, and it fails to do anything more than amuse the audience. Owen Wilson, who plays insomniac Luke Sannerson, provides the comic relief in the film. He has quite a few truly funny lines. I found his character to be one of the truly enjoyable aspects of the film. His character reminded me a great deal of Hudson in Aliens. Maybe they should've cast Bill Paxton in this film somewhere. The best scary scene in the movie comes when Nell hears strange noises and jumps out of bed to investigate. Nell's problem you see is that she had so much of her life caring for her recently deceased mother that she's still awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of her mother rapping on the wall with her cane. So when she hears the cane knocking on the wall in Hill House, she reflexively jumps out of bed and says, `Coming, Mother.' This was the one spooky moment in the whole film, because we all know it's not her mother. The question is, is it Marrow's doing or ghosts? I suppose it doesn't really matter, but this is a part of the story that's completely ignored. Nell's story is the focus, and rightly so, unfortunately, it falls on its face after showing some early promise. Which brings us to the real problem with the movie-plot elements are far too often revealed in flourishes. I won't divulge any secrets, lest you decide to subject yourselves to the film, but instead of feeding the audience key bits of information a piece at a time, some elements are pulled abruptly from behind a curtain. I'm reminded of the scene from Independence Day in which the President states, after having had psychic contact with the aliens, `I could sense its thoughts. I know what they're planning to do.' I could probably have forgiven the overblown effects if the story had been handled better. If you want to see digital wizardry used more effectively to create scary situations and images, look at The Frighteners, a film that was not outstanding, but was certainly better than The Haunting. The special effects, like many other elements designed to scare us, were a horribly overdone. The house itself is overdone. The architecture, the elaborate mantle carvings, the columns, the huge doors, all of it is hyperbole. The most effective horror films are much more subtle than The Haunting. And the end of the film is the worst offender. De Bont decided to rely on big-budget, overblown special effects in attempt to bring this film to a shattering climax. What he actually accomplished was send the audience a clear signal in the form of a digital crescendo that their suffering was nearly over. All subtlety in films is gone. I think one of Eleanor's lines offers the best summation for this film. As she walks toward a door behind which she hopes to find the answers to the mystery of Hill House, she covers her nose and states, `What's that smell?' Alas, it's this film.

This is one of the most entertaining action films I've seen in a long time. It was hilarious. I don't think there was one moment of the film that the viewer could take seriously, and I'm not really sure whether this was intentional or not. Either way, this film is hilarious. I've seen straight-up comedies that weren't as funny as this film.

Throughout the '80s, we saw a trend toward more and more outrageous action films. The Die Hard series really pushed the limits of the suspension of disbelief, and that trend continued with a number of other films. Most Wanted is a continuation of this trend, perhaps the culmination of it.

If you pay money to rent this and expect to see a serious action/conspiracy film, you're in for a big disappointment, because that's not what this movie's about. It's about hyperbole, and that's what makes it entertaining. You can't help but laugh at it.

Jon Voight is fantastic in his role as the cruel general. If I were going to cast someone in an over-the-top role, I'd have to choose Voight. I enjoyed him in Anaconda, and I enjoyed his performance in this film.

If you want to see a hilarious action/adventure romp, rent Most Wanted. I thoroughly enjoyed it.