Chris Columbus, protector of children.
Some directors are automatic punchlines, their names synonyms for lousy. There's Adam Sandler cohort Steve Brill ("Without A Paddle," "Drillbit Taylor"), Eddie Murphy's favorite Brian Robbins ("Norbit," "Meet Dave") and of course Shawn Levy ("A Night At The Museum," "The Pink Panther," "Cheaper By The Dozen"), who pays the bills as perfunctorily as possible. The godfather of them all may well be Chris Columbus, a man so prone to alternating equally leaden bathos and comedy it's amazing he once had it together enough to write "Gremlins." His resume is one of shame: the first two "Home Alone"s (they're terrible, get over it), "Bicentennial Man," this year's ghastly "I Love You, Beth Cooper"... the list stretches on. But even the hackiest director has redeeming qualities, though they might not be visible onscreen; as Geoff Boucher points out at the LA Times' "Hero Complex" blog, Columbus is good at launching and protecting...
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