No need to bash Chris Columbus

I love Patrick Goldstein’s Big Picture column. I look forward to it avidly. But I must object to his joining a current trend among entertainment journalists: bashing Chris Columbus [“Warners’ ‘Wild’ Child,” July 12].

Chris Columbus is a wildly successful and imaginative writer-director with a track record including some of the most beloved (especially by children) movies in history: “Gremlins,” “Home Alone,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and the first two Harry Potter films.

Suddenly Chris Columbus has turned into the whipping boy of the industry. If Columbus had directed “Where the Wild Things Are,” it might not have been quite so unique, but it would have been in release and charming, and would have racked up a couple of hundred million dollars for Warner Bros. at the box office by now. This is a bad thing?

Bob Shayne

Los Angeles