A building explodes in a gargantuan fire burst and, from that big-bang opening on, "Lethal Weapon 3" never slows down as it mixes droll comedy and relentless action.

"Where Angels Fear to Tread," based on Forster's deft first novel, published in 1905, is a droll comedy of manners that ends in tragedy.

The droll comedy, which continues through March 31, is not geared to the "I Love New York" contingent.

In that film - a droll comedy about teen-agers in Beverly Hills - he plays an abrasive lawyer who is hilariously overprotective of his spoiled daughter.

If they were not so painful, these moments would have a certain droll comedy.

It could have made such droll comedy.

But "Magic Mirror" is a droll comedy about the lies people tell themselves and one another and the impossibility of shaking the burdens of your dreams and obligations.

That was a droll comedy, my friend.

Even when Mr. Blanc's hand-held-camera work and narrative clumsiness limit his film's effectiveness, this droll, rambling comedy has ready appeal.

Ideally, Mr. Reitman would be happy to follow the career track of Alexander Payne, the writer-director of such droll comedies as "Election" and "Sideways."