Giving opinions for several years and showing like a fine vintage
Giving opinions for several years and showing like a fine vintage
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M Night Shymalan broke into the big time with his third feature film The Sixth Sense. It was a film that actually delivered a solid story and had a twist that ensured word of mouth would drive the film's taking for weeks on end. His follow up film was Unbreakable, a film that wasn't as successful but in my view was a superior film. It required the audience to buy into it's grand theme and there were those that didn't get it and found it slow moving not slow burning.
Signs is his 2002 entry into the summer blockbuster market and sees Shymalan living up to his publicity as the next Spielberg. By this weekend it should cross the $200 million mark in the USA and become one of the biggest films of the year, it's success is deserved.
Mel Gibson stars as Father Graham Hess, a priest who has given up on his faith when his wief is killed in a horrific accident. Now he lives on a farm in a small rural community with his two young children Bo and Morgan (Rory Culkin and Abagail Breslin) and his younger brother
Merrill (Joaquin Pheonix). One morning they awake to find a giant crop circle in one of their corn fields, it's perfectly made and too elaborate to perhaps be a prank. Soon across the world other crop circles appear. Soon the world finds that these circles are indeed the creation of aliens who are now coming to earth on different continents with the possible threat of war. Hess's family become engrossed in the widespread media coverage and witness the signs of alien life as strange noises are picked up on radios and shadowed figures appear to be lurking in the darkness. All the while Graham has to contend with his own inner grief over his loss.
Signs is something you rarely see in a Hollywood film these days. It's extremely well made and written. It's story and characters are the things that actually make the film and I think that's why Shymalan has found success. With this film he again slowly builds things up, the pace is slow but always has an underlying tension. That's why I never became bored, I was always in anticipation of what was bound to happen but I wasn't sure how Shymalan was going to give it to me. This is a scary film but not one of those scares that you associate with on screen shocks and a loud soundtrack. Everything is very subtle and you are settled into a situation with the way a scene is composed, suddenly something occurs that jolts you out of your seat. That's what I like about Shymalans filmmaking style. It has a sense of style which actually engages your brain and sucks you in.
The acting in the film is excellent. Gibson is very good in what is probably one of his most demanding roles. You can always rely on him to convey a family man character well but Shymalan also throws in some emotional conflict that really comes off later in the film when Gibson is required to actually lose it and it's very believeable. Pheonix is also assured as his brother, his character is perhaps not the most important but he holds his own well against Gibson. Also once again Shymalan has pulled some excellent performances out of his younger cast members. Culkin is great and shows that it's not just older brothers who can act. but it's Breslin as the young girl who excels. She's incredibly cute but not in that way that annoys for an entire movie. She genuinely made me care. The supporting cast are also good in small roles, all of them are faces you haven't really seen before and that's what makes the story more believeable. Even Shymalan himself bulks up his usual cameo role into a more substantial and integral character, he even pulls it off well.
Of course any film that deal with aliens would be expected to be filled with special effects. That's the wrong expectation to have with this film, it chooses to convey most of what's happening with a potential war of the worlds via the television. However this works in the film's advantage. It brings it down to a level where you can actually imagine it happening. In a way it echoes September 11th where the television was the main focus for something that affected the world forever. The tension and anticipation at possibly seeing the aliens is slowly cranked up to the point when even the slightest of glimpses is exciting and scary at the same time. Of course I could tell you what amount of alien action we get but then that would ruin it for you.
With Signs, Shymalan has shown that audiences still actually like to see films that have traditional production values. It's very well shot, delivers on every account. He doesn't pull out the ending that twists everything around with this film but he's instead delivered an ending which is very low key but incredibly satisfying. I got the same feeling from when Bruce Willis finally realised his power in Unbreakable. Combine that with a classy James Newton Howard score and you something that can really show other film-makers how to do it.
Go into Signs with an open mind and not with the view that's it's going to be on par with Independance Day in the alien invasion stakes. It ain't that type of movie and it's all the better for it.
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Willow Smith, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Alice Braga
Excellent review but I am afriad I didn't think the film was that good. Yes, I agree that the suspense, acting, direction etc is all excellent but the overall alien invasion plot is just silly.
tommartin 23.09.2002 19:06
I was planning on going to see this soon anyway, but you've brought the date forward for me, I reckon I will have to go and see it tonight now instead! Nicely written piece of work their mate :)
Mauri 17.09.2002 20:42
This has been getting some good reviews I might have to see it. Cheers!
Director-writer M Night Shyamalan brings his distinctive, oblique approach to aliens ... more
inSignsafter tackling ghosts (The Sixth Sense) and superheroes (Unbreakable). With Mel Gibson replacing Bruce Willis as the traditional Shyamalan hero--a family man tr...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
From M. Night Shyamalan, the writer/director of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, comes the ... more
story of the Hess family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who wake up one morning to find a 500-foot crop circle in their backyard. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) and hi...
Director-writer M Night Shyamalan brings his distinctive, oblique approach to aliens ... more
inSignsafter tackling ghosts (The Sixth Sense) and superheroes (Unbreakable). With Mel Gibson replacing Bruce Willis as the traditional Shyamalan hero--a family man tr...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
From M. Night Shyamalan the gifted writer/director of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable ... more
comes the story of the Hess family in Bucks County Pennsylvania who wake up one morning to find a 500 foot crop circle in their backyard. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) a...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: Makes you think...and keep on thinking for ages afterwards, it has Mr Gibson in it, superb directing Disadvantages: A bit scary to be rated 12 - and all that thinking made my brain hurt
Collingwood21 12.10.2002 (12.10.2002)
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Review of Signs (DVD)
![Signs [DTS] [DVD] [2002]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/76771759.jpg "Signs [DTS] [DVD] [2002]")
Sep 16th, 2002
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