[SPOILER ALERT!: the following column contains plot points of movies that are at least two years old. If you haven't seen them and don't want the author spoiling the endings, you might want to run over to the local video store, rent them, watch them, and then come back and read this.]

There's a movie called "Click" (2006, dir. Frank Coraci). I know there is, because I just watched it on cable. It stars Adam Sandler as a self-centered architect and is one of a particular kind of comedy: the kind of comedy that provides an audience that already has relatively low expectations with some slapstick humor, a rare witty comment, and some low-grade social moralizing.

In this case, the low-grade social moralizing tells us that we don't always know what we have until it's taken away from us. Cue the symphonic orchestra (whatever a symphonic orchestra might be, My understanding is that it's like a regular orchestra, only we should have sympathy for the musicians, 'cause they have to go home late every night after spending a long day doing background music for Adam Sandler movies and VW commercials. Wait, "symphony"/"sympathy" -- not the same. So I still don't know).

Anyway, the "we don't always know what we have until it's taken away from us" bit isn't the VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE that your attention should be drawn to in this movie. No, the "we don't always know…etc, etc." is something we've learned from a century of movie and television plots (thank heavens, because otherwise we would never have guessed).

The VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE is this: we can't learn to be good people except when extraordinary circumstances force us to be. (And I bet you thought the message was going to be: what are you doing watching an Adam Sandler movie when you could be out watching the grass grow, didn't you?)

In other words, this movie tells us that left to our own devices we are all jerks. Only through the application of someone hitting us over the head with a metaphorical Lesson Hammer and saying, "Dude, you're a jerk and here's why," can we have the chance to reach the coveted position of not-jerks -- good folk.

Often, the "someone" in the above equation isn't just your grandma or your best mate, Ernie, but has to be a supernatural force of some sort. In "Click" the force is in the form of a Universal Remote Control that Sandler's character can use to control various aspects of his life. A day going badly? Fast-forward through it. Awkward conversation or too much to do at work? Fast-forward through it.

Eventually, Sandler's character fast-forwards through his entire life, missing out on all sorts of "good" things until he realizes on his deathbed that life could have been so much more than a single-minded focus on work and self. At which point he's given a do-over, hopefully living his life right this time.

If "Click" was the only movie telling us subconsciously that we can't just choose to be good up front but have to have it beaten into our heads by an outside, often supernatural, force, then I wouldn't be bringing it to your attention here. But here are some of the others:

"Groundhog Day" (1993, dir. Harold Ramis): a self-centered weatherman (Bill Murray) must live the same day over and over again until he gets the point. An unscientific calculation of how long he spends in this time loop tells us that he relives the same day for something like 597 years before said point is finally got.

The Family Man (2000, dir. Brett Ratner): a self-centered investor (Nicholas Cage) wakes up one day to discover that his fast-lane life has been exchanged for a house in the suburbs and a mini-van. Eventually he gets the point.

Bruce Almighty (2003, dir. Tom Shadyac): a self-centered reporter (Jim Carrey) is given some of the powers of God (don't worry, God gave them to him, so we know it'll turn out okay) to teach him about humility and what's important in life. Eventually he gets the point (and somehow the Earth wasn't destroyed in the process of lassoing the moon closer to impress his girlfriend).

This is only a sampling. I'm sure there's more. But what I'm getting at is how disturbing this message is. Essentially, these movies are saying to us, "Be a jerk, be self-centered, be annoying, be a bad person -- because if it's really a problem, then someone will pop by shortly to hand you a Universal Remote Control and teach you about the true meaning of life. No need to try and figure it out on your own."

Or maybe I'm overthinking the whole thing and reading too much into what should just be light-hearted, fun-filled sorta-family comedies. I can be awfully self-centered that way.

Wait, wasn't there a sports car in my driveway a minute ago? Why is that station wagon there now?

If the author lived the same day over and over again, he'd spend most of the time learning how to make a perfect meatloaf.