Entertaining doesn't always equal good

<b>Entertaining = good?</B>

Dann: I have read many of your reviews over the years and, after viewing the movie, generally agree with most of them. By now I have a "feel" as to what you like and dislike. But today's column (Oct. 22) regarding a reader's view of your criticism of "Secretariat" surprised me.

I have always thought you, like other movie critics, were helping us, the moviegoers, decide which movies would be the most entertaining to us. Today, I found out your goal is to award stars based on how "well-made" the movie is. What?

I go to movies to be entertained (and sometimes informed) and not to see how well-made it is. Directorial mistakes, actor's miscues, may annoy me, but if I am entertained, the movie is good, or great to me.

I will still be reviewing and enjoying your reviews. Now I will have more ways to figure out whether to see a movie, based on your review. Jim Frediani, Huntley

Jim: I know you didn't mean to, but you have just invoked something I call "the porn defense." That's where young American guys try to convince me that all hard-core pornographic films should be considered good, even great movies simply because they're very entertaining.

If you truly believe that film critics should evaluate movies strictly on the basis of how much they don't bore audiences, wouldn't critics be required to highly praise sex films?

Worse, wouldn't they have to give glowing reviews to the two "Transformers" movies?

Jim, there's nothing wrong with a movie entertaining people. Or a racist movie entertaining people. Or an anti-Semitic movie entertaining people. Or a misogynistic movie entertaining people.

However, there is something wrong when a critic fails to call these "entertaining" movies on the red carpet for their built-in disdain of blacks, Jews, women or gays.

As I wrote before, Jim, a critic's job isn't to be a simple consumer adviser, it's to assess a film's true value. Think of us as consumer advisers with benefits.

After all, someone has to point out the rampant sexism promoted in such box office hits as "Major League," "Red Heat" and "Beverly Hills Cop II."

Someone has to notice Hollywood's racist tendency to bypass stories about real minority experiences and instead greenlight stories that glorify noble white people for saving downtrodden minorities and giving their lives meaning.

Critics do all this and then some.

Sometimes, critics even have to point out the hokey dialogue and overacting in popular movies.

You know, like "Secretariat."

<B>Paranormal slacktivity</B>

I finally caught up with the horror sequel "Paranormal Activity 2" last weekend at the Streets of Woodfield in Schaumburg.

What a disappointment.

The original 2007 "P.A." told the story of demonic possession in a fresh, dynamic way, even though its cheesy "gotcha!" ending begged the question: Why would a demonically possessed woman want to eat a consumer-grade camcorder?

If "P.A. 2" had copied what made "P.A. 1" so intriguing, the sequel might have been something special.

Instead, director Tod Williams and a team of screenwriters only copied the demonic possession subject from "P.A. 1" and ignored the fresh, dynamic approach.

So, we get a ho-hum recycling of the first story, with two kids and a dog added to another put-upon couple visited by invisible forces in their house.

Note to the Dad: If you're going to invest thousands of dollars into a security system that places cameras in every room of your house, the least you can do is actually review the recordings so you know what's going on when you're not looking.

<B>Reel Life review: 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'<B>

The last time we saw Scandinavia's infamous Goth computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, she had been buried alive after being shot in the head, shoulder and hip by her own sociopathic half-brother in "The Girl Who Played With Fire."

In "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" the final installment in the trilogy that began with "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" Salander (again played with athletic vengeance by the boyish and empathetic Noomi Rapace) survives her sibling assault and takes on a society of powerful, corrupt men who would have her silenced.

Michael Nyqvist reprises his role as Blomkvist, the crusading editor of Millennium magazine, dedicated to right the considerable wrongs heaped upon Salander by a systemically corrupt Swedish culture.

In this story, they actually meet, although the dramatic moment has been drastically scaled back for no apparent reason.

"Hornet's Nest" is the weakest entry of the trilogy, a visually unarresting and leisurely paced movie that readily reveals its made-for-Swedish-TV origins.

Fans of the first two "Girl" movies will probably appreciate this talk-heavy wrap-up more than others. It's the last film based on the "Millennium Trilogy," three unpublished novels found after the death of writer Stieg Larsson.

Note: "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is being remade by director David Fincher and writer Steven Zaillian, and my guess is that the Hollywood remake will easily eclipse the modest-budget Swedish original. Salander is now played by Rooney Mara, an inspired choice. You can see her in the opening scene of "The Social Network" breaking up with a Harvard computer geek played by Jesse Eisenberg.

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" opens at the ICON, the River East and the Century Centre in Chicago, Century 12 in Evanston and the Renaissance Place in Highland Park. Rated R for sexual situations and violence. 148 minutes. Two and one-half star