Hide and Seek A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - R It's 1:40 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

"Hide and Seek" give us the great Robert De Niro in a creepy movie with the adorable Dakota Fanning. De Niro plays David, the Dad, and Fanning plays Emily, the daughter. After seeing Mom dead in the bathtub, Emily doesn’t take it too well. Dad, who’s a psychiatrist, thinks getting her out of the city into some house in the country will help her be able to cope with the loss of her mother. His fellow psychiatrist, and adult friend for Emily, Katherine (Famke Janssen), isn’t so sure isolation in the country is the greatest thing for Emily, but she is assured by David that they are only an hour away if they need something.

So David and Emily move into this big ol’ house near the woods, and we get quickly introduced to the creepy neighbors, the creepy sheriff, the creepy real estate dude and the still smoking hot Elisabeth Shue, who plays Elizabeth (notice the ‘z’ to differentiate the actress from the character she plays, but I’m sorry, I digress..), the town resident who also has a niece about the same age as Emily so David thinks it might be good the get the girls together, and who knows, Elizabeth might just come along for the ride.

While we get introduced to the creepy folks, and Emily takes a trip into the woods to follow a butterfly, we now find that Emily has an imaginary friend called Charlie. David is concerned, at first, but gets reassured by Katherine that maybe Emily is using Charlie to work through the loss of her mother. Then bad things start to happen, and Emily keeps telling Dad that Charlie did it. Dad, at first, dismisses the notion of Charlie, until larger things (like the cat and others) end up dead in the bathtub, just like Mom. Now Dad is suspecting maybe one of the creepy neighbors is actually Charlie, and the filmmakers leave way-to-obvious clues connecting Charlie to just about anyone, which is supposed to steer you away from the obvious connection. Fine, the connection is pretty well developed, but then the movie really turns predictable, at least for me, which is too bad because they had a pretty decent thriller, and then they just let the thriller formula rear its ugly head, having me leave the theater disappointed in a movie that had a lot of potential.

"Hide and Seek" is a decent thriller ruined when the film people go back to the generic thriller formula at the end, and that’s too bad. Dakota Fanning shows that she is a little girl who can play any role, De Niro is okay as the concerned Dad, and the supporting characters are creepy when they are supposed to be and caring when they are supposed to be. I just felt bad for David because Charlie never let him get it on with Elizabeth. Had I been De Niro, I would have definitely made that be written into the script, but then I’ve had a thing for Elisabeth Shue since "The Karate Kid" and "Adventures in Babysitting."

It’s 3 stars out of 5 for "Hide and Seek." This had the potential for a 4 or 5 star thriller, but lost it by going back to the thriller formula rather than turn the twisting up a notch. Catch a matinee or wait for the DVD.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!