Of the two time-travel related movies available this July 4th weekend–and sans the existence of a wonderful July 4-ish movie like “National Treasure” or “Independence Day”–here’s why I highly recommend “Click” over its play-with-temporal-reality competition, “The Lake House.”

First, I’m a guy: Though “Click” is fairly close to chick-flicky, it’s not quite there. Next, “The Lake House” offers a love story and barely delivers, while “Click” promises stupid Adam Sandler humor and overdelivers with emotion and affection. Also, “The Lake House” advertised romance and depth, but “Flick” actually delivered more of it (or at least it was less concocted).

For those who love timeshifting movies, “The Lake House” never even gives a reason or cause for the magic mailbox, changes the rules of time travel (or mailbox travel?), and then breaks them anyway, while “Click” at least makes sense within the timewarp fantasy it creates. Finally, “Click” moves from the typical Sandleresque absurdity to some real meaning by the power of timewarp, while “The Lake House” loses more credibility as it goes along and falls off the table at the end. With all respect to my fellow Idol Chatter blogger Donna Freitas, I found “The Lake House” to be disappointing, while “Click” was at least unpainful.

Why write about either one? There’s something deeply spiritual about the possibility of conquering time and space, transcending time, or overcoming the boundaries of our three dimensions. It is something that only God has done in history thus far, and our fascination with it is one of the closest flirtations with deity that we entertain in our pop culture. In the meantime, though, I think I’ll go rent “Back to the Future,” “Contact,” “Minority Report,” “The Final Countdown,” “Frequency,” or even “The Terminator.” They’re all light years better than “The Lake House,” and at least a few clicks stronger than Sandler’s latest.