M. Night Shyamalan

[brokentusk16 0]

Personally, I don't think Shyamalan has made a bad film yet; some have been better than others, but nothing that made me want to demand my money back (looking at YOU George Lucas!). Like many others, Unbreakable is my favorite of the bunch. Sixth Sense is all right (not as good the second time), and Signs was good.

 

The Village has definately been his weakest film yet. The directing and writing just wasn't as strong as the others. BUT, the movie did make me want to jump for joy when the villain got what was coming to them. I won't spoil it, it but it made what to shout out loud for that fucker getting what they fucking deserved!

 

I want to see Shyamalan just make a good movie with great a great story and characters. We don't need a twist ending all the time, sometimes we just need a good movie.

[Nighthawk 0]

Signs is the dumbest movie, for a plethora of reasons. The part where he clutches the kid and keeps saying they're the same was the gayest thing I've ever seen. That's my main problem with his movies; people act like twats in them.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs = Awesome

The Village = not so much.

 

Since I have spoken it, it automatically makes it fact and all your opinions are false!

[Jingus 0]

Shyamalan has some interesting ideas, and certainly has his own unique style. I wanna see him do a movie where he didn't write the script. Imagine what Shyamalan could do with a script written by, say, Alan Moore or someone similar.

[Epic Reine 0]

I hated The Village. Definatley one of the worst movies I've seen in 2004.

 

I liked the rest of his movies though, Unbreakable being my favorite.

[spiny norman 0]

I thought Signs was entertaining enough. The ending sucked, sure enough, but I thought the way it was built up and the suspense was done quite well. I thought it was a decent movie with a bad ending, though I'm not certain how it could have ended without me feeling disappointed.

 

I only watched Unbreakable the once, but do remember thinking it to be pretty good. I'd need to see it again for a proper opinion, though.

 

The Sixth Sense was great. I managed to see it before there was much buzz (there was nobody else in the cinema) and so the ending completely shocked me. Which is unusual, because I almost always pick twist endings.

 

Didn't see The Village.

[Ripper 0]

okay, lets see if this works...

 

I forgot all about the tombstone. I think it would be very necessary to say that the year was the late 1800's to force themselves into thinking that they are in a different time away from the world, the same way they needed the black boxes to remind them of why they left and to prevent them from wanting to go back.

 

Noah didn't steal a suit from the elders. He found a suit and discovered that the things weren't real and made his own. He was taking the fur and skins from all the livestock to make his own suit. Noah was the proof that evil could be anywhere and not just the town. It brought on a realization that they couldn't really escape the horrors that they had gone through as it was a part of life.

 

And personally I liked the idea that this was a movie that could actually happen. The only monsters were the people, just like real life. And the fact that Ivy hasn't got the slightest idea about whats going on in the outside world, they could continue their little farce.

 

Personally, I think directing and character wise, this is probably his best movie(okay, character wise, Unbreakable was better, but this is a close second) I found it to be a beatifully directed movie, and the depth of the focused characters I found to be great. I CAN understand why some people don't like this movie, but I still think it is a product of the movie being NOTHING like people expected it to be. I know if I went in to see a horror movie and got a goddamn romantic period piece, I would be more than a little disappointed too. So I am not even trying ot say "Like this movie DAMN YOU" cause obviously alot of you are not going to. I still say it kicks ass.

 

And so did Signs. Dammit.

[Guest Boomer Sprinklespax]

I thought The Village was just abysmal. I mean, when WILLIAM HURT sucks in a movie, you should know there's a problem. I guessed the twists from the trailer alone. How you didn't see those coming, Ripper, I can't understand. Adrien Brody's retard character was the only decent acting in that movie. The fact that Jaoquin "I whisper in a convuluted attempt to display emotion" Phoenix is going to play the role of Johnny Cash truly frightens me.

Joacquin Phoenix is actually a pretty decent actor when he's directed well. Check out To Die For, Gladiator, or Quills. I have faith in him playing a good Johnny Cash.

 

Anyways...

 

Signs is a pretty good character study, though it is a bit too popcorny for my liking. That said, it shouldn't be looked at as a sci-fi movie, because it really isn't; sci-fi is just the chosen motif to tell the story of the ex preacher regaining his faith.

 

My biggest problem with The Village was the huge deus ex machina of Noah finding the hidden monster suit. Other than that, it was alright (though, much like Signs, only if it is taken as a character study and not a true horror).

 

False expectations have killed both of these movies. If they were advertised as what they really are, I am convinced they would both have much better word of mouth - though they probably wouldn't have made as much money.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

The Village was one of the cheapest, most abysmal excuses for a film I've seen.  Awful script that relies on gimmickry, designed solely to deceive the audience in ways that don't even make sense.  My big gripe, copied from what I said about it back in August was always the retarded insistence that it’s 1897. Why would any of this matter? The “elders” have created a society that’s entirely separated from the rest of the world. There is no comparison point; unless we’re intended to extrapolate that all the elders are some dorky LARP fans, there’s no reason for them to effect that formal, stiff, self-consciously ancient style of speaking, nor is there any reason for them to arbitrarily decide that their little village will occur in the 19th century. Call it 1897 or call it the year 8000; how will time period or an era mean anything to a generation of children without a frame of reference? It's trickery aimed at no one but the audience, and it is neither clever nor ultimately honest enough to be seen as anything but lazy filmmaking.

 

It's also really dumb.  I kinda liked Signs for being so weird; not as a serious movie, but Joaquin Phoenix in the foil hat and the similarly retarded weakness of the aliens just made it this bizarre exercise in incredibly low-impact terror.  Can't say the same about The Village.

*Sigh*

 

I'm sorry, but where was this "insisted" during the movie? I think the only reference to it even being 1897 in the whole movie was a gravestone at the beginning. That was probably just a little added quirk that the elders decided to throw in when creating the old fashioned society, more for their own amusement than anything.

 

Honestly some of you are worse than the movie critics. It took me actually removing myself from the board for a few months before I started to drop the smarky attitude towards movies and started enjoying them again.

[Ripper 0]

My biggest problem with The Village was the huge deus ex machina of Noah finding the hidden monster suit.

 

added spoiler tags to give people a HINT that MAYBE theyshould use them.

 

dues ex machina - An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.

 

In no way does this apply.

 

from the start of the movie to the end Noah was never afraid of the creatures, not because he was crazy, but because he knew that they weren't real. he knew that it was people in suits. At some point before the movie, Noah found a suit, and wanted one too so he started to gut up the animals to make his on. The animals being killed were a point throughout the movie as was the fact that not even the elder knew who was doing it. Its not like ALL OF A SUDDEN Noah was wearing the suit. It was alluded to throughout.

[Guest Crazy Dan]

Going down his movies I have seen, I do think Shyamalen has the talent to be a great thriller director, in the mode of a Hitchcock. He won't be as good as Hitchcock, of course, but there are not many directors working today who can make a good thriller and Shyamalan I feel can do it. However, he needs to really stop with the twist endings. It worked with the Sixth Sense, because that movie came out of nowwhere and so people did not go looking for the twist. A strong word of mouth about having to see the movie to see this so shocking twist, made the movie into the Sleeper Hit of the 90's. Twist endings can be very fun, a'la the Usual Suspects, but when your movies appear to be built around going towards the twist ending, it can throw out the flow of the movie. Especially when the twist feels forced into the movie. This is what I felt happened in Unbreakable, which I did enjoy, but the twist left me underwhelmed. Signs I felt was an ok movie, but the scene where Jauquin Phoenix's character watches the home video of the alien did creep me out. Here is where I feel that Shamalen does demonstrate the ability to create tension. The scene in the corn field where Mel's flashlight is dropped, is another example of great tension being created for the audience. However, these were the best parts of the movie and the ending was so anti-climatic and the movie on a whole really did not build on the brilliant scenes that I enjoyed. The Village was lame, as the twist ending did not shock anyone, nor did I really care that the villagers were living there. For the amount of good actors in the movie, they really underplayed their roles. I also did not see any point to this movie, as it just appears to be made for the sake of M. Night just wanting to make a movie with a tag line: From the director of the Sixth Sense and Signs. I just felt that this movie was more about stroking the ego of the director and less about a good film.

 

M. Night needs to expand the types of movies he does, because now audiances go in expecting a twist, instead of the twist comming out of nowwhere, but making sense. I think that he should make a horror movie and not be afraid to go into R-rated territory. Or how about an action movie, where he can create intense scenes. Please show us that you are more than a one trick pony. Otherwise, he will continue to see his movies begin to drop under the 100 million mark.

[Ripper 0]

But really, how was the end of Unbreakable a "twist". And how was the ending of Signs of a "twist" I think people calling them a twist make them seem worse than they are. Unbreakable was, while not predictable, not a twist. The end of Village was a twist and Signs was twist.

 

And by the way, i did like the kickassness of the Hitchcock throwback in The Village when you get halfway through the movie thinking that Jauquin's character was the main character he gets stabbed and its Ivy who was the main character all along

[Nighthawk 0]

A good guy turning out to be a bad guy is a twist.

[Ripper 0]

When did he show himself to be a good or a bad guy. He came off as a psycho the whole time.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Twist(According to Dictionary.com): To alter or distort the intended meaning of.

 

I'm still confused why people think the ending of Signs was a "twist"...

 

The aliens arrived, were defeated(also insinuated at the end in terms of aliens being killed elsewhere in the world), and left. Granted M. had the preacher/faith deal going but that was a backstory/tie-in to the aliens.

 

When he revives his son, he becomes faithful again. Where's the twist? The whole faith story was going on throughout the movie as was the arrival of the aliens.

 

If you were disappointed with the ending then it was a sucky ending, not a twist. It tied into both stories that were going on in the movie at the time.

[Nighthawk 0]

When did he show himself to be a good or a bad guy. He came off as a psycho the whole time.

Yes, he did, but the way they were using comic book motifs, he was clearly a good guy. He was the mentor, mentor's are a bit nutty all the time. Like Professor X. Or Yoda. And then he was a killer, which is bad.

[starvenger 0]

I've never been sure what to make of Shyamalan as a filmmaker. I didn't mind Unbreakable, but I thought that Sixth Sense was some really boring shit that no twist could save. I didn't watch the other two because the premise seemed to be based on twists.

 

I think he's got the goods to make a really good movie, but like Crazy Dan, I think he needs to branch out more. No major twists for the sake of having a twist, just a standard drama with some minor ones here and there. The problem though is that I don't think that people will be willing to accept him directing anything other than "thriller" movies with a major twist. Whether that's Shyamalan's fault or the fault of the marketing depts or both, I dunno.

[Black Lushus 0]

one of you guys that has more time than i do...bob i see you in here, i know you're good about it...look up some info on this guy, I know he's done one or two projects prior to the Sixth Sense, perhaps they were decent and didn't fall into his usual type of film criteria...

[Ted the Poster 0]

The Village's ending was a non-twist. If half the moviegoing public is likely to guess the ending within the first fifteen minutes of the film, it can't be considered a twist. I'm still baffled as to how you didn't see that ending coming, Ripper.

 

I just realized that Shyamalan's routine of giving himself a cameo in every film is really annoying. Hitchcock and Stan Lee can pull it off, but for some reason his doing it just seems really egotistical.

 

Btw, Brody's character was retarded, not crazy.

[Nighthawk 0]

He can't do cameos because he's Indian. How many of them do you see in a movie? He sticks out too much.

[starvenger 0]

He can't do cameos because he's Indian. How many of them do you see in a movie? He sticks out too much.

Yet he still does them.

[bob_barron 0]

one of you guys that has more time than i do...bob i see you in here, i know you're good about it...look up some info on this guy, I know he's done one or two projects prior to the Sixth Sense, perhaps they were decent and didn't fall into his usual type of film criteria...

M. Night did the movie Wide Awake before the Sixth Sense.

 

It's about a kid whose grandfather dies and he gets help dealing it with from a nun played by Rosie O'Donnell.

 

It's not like any of his other 4 films

[Nighthawk 0]

He also wrote the Stuart Little movie, apparently.

[Guest Boomer Sprinklespax]

My biggest problem with The Village was the huge deus ex machina of Noah finding the hidden monster suit.

 

added spoiler tags to give people a HINT that MAYBE theyshould use them.

 

dues ex machina - An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.

 

In no way does this apply.

 

from the start of the movie to the end Noah was never afraid of the creatures, not because he was crazy, but because he knew that they weren't real. he knew that it was people in suits. At some point before the movie, Noah found a suit, and wanted one too so he started to gut up the animals to make his on. The animals being killed were a point throughout the movie as was the fact that not even the elder knew who was doing it. Its not like ALL OF A SUDDEN Noah was wearing the suit. It was alluded to throughout.

I don't remember any build-up whatsoever to Noah suddenly having the suit, save for the line of dialogue that was something to the effect of "he found a suit hidden under the floorboards" or some such nonsense spoken by William Hurt. I saw the movie opening night, and have not seen it since, so I could be mistaken here, but I'm inclined to think that if this is the case then the setup for the whole thing was way too subtle.. To me, it came off like they had stashed him in this room without thinking, which seemed a huge logic jump at that point, considering the secretive nature of the characters, and a logic jump is a deus ex machina in screenwriting terminology.

 

I'm not a moron.

 

And I'm not using spoiler tags because the movie is out on video for fucksake. I think the word is out.

[starvenger 0]

He also wrote the Stuart Little movie, apparently.

I'm not sure that that's a good thing. Still, it probably doesn't count since it's just a screenwriter's credit.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah I do agree that M. Night's cameos are sometimes distracting. Maybe not so much in Unbreakable where he's just the dude at the stadium, but in Signs it is kinda distracting. I mean here he is, an East Indian, in a role of "Ray Reddy," who I figure was written as another redneck in rural PA. (I had a similar problem with Sideways, with Sandra Oh having a black kid, and her mom is white. I suppose that is theoretically possible...but why put it in the movie?)

 

Signs is to me his best movie besides this, mainly because it's the one film of his that doesn't become a crashing bore at some point. Sixth Sense is an exercise in tedium on a 2nd viewing, and really doesn't impress on the 1st if you guess it in the first 5 mins. It's funny but when Sixth Sense came out the paper gave it ** and said it wasn't terribly scary or engrossing....then when the movie made a few hundred million I started seeing ***1/2 reviews.

 

Unbreakable was a better movie than Sixth Sense (at least there I didn't see that twist coming for some reason), but it too had a part that got incredibly boring to me (where Bruce tries to stop the burglars and the water messes him up).

 

The Village as a whole was kinda dullsville but did have some nice sequences, such as Ivy going through the woods and you know she'll be attacked. The problem scriptwise is that by that point we already KNEW everything, so it kinda hurts what is a very well done scene. Wouldn't it have been much more effective if she didn't know shit about the nature of the monsters, then is attacked by Adrien Brody, and then the cat comes out of the bag once she returns and is like "Hey dad, what the fuck was the retard doing trying to kill me in a costume?"

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Y'know, if the aliens weren't pussies in that movie, it might've been better. War of The Worlds. Now those were some fuckin' aliens. Invincible space ships with death rays and coordinated attack schemes. They just got screwed because people are germy.

 

Signs aliens poot forth little clouds of gas that can almost kill a severely asthmatic child.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I love War of the Worlds. My dad brought me up on 50s sci-fi and monster movies, and the shower-head-looking death rays were probably my favorite thing out of all of them. Except maybe James Whitmore kicking the shit out of a giant ant in Them, I guess.