28 from Glasgow, love films - so you'll probably only ever see me write about them lol
28 from Glasgow, love films - so you'll probably only ever see me write about them lol
Member since:08.03.2004
Reviews:116
Members who trust:9
The Village is another of M Night Shymalan's fables of beings who dont quite exist within our time or space. Set in the 19th century, the elders have shut their people off from the rest of the world, making a creepy nearby woods their wall from the rest of the world. Nobody is allowed to cross the divide either way, but occasionally, their is contact which creates alarm and panic. In the night, there are also noises of the creatures who come into the forrest to upset their existence. Lucius Hunt is the town hero, quiet by nature, but fearless in a way that the elders dont understand. He falls in love with Ivy Walker, who is completely blind. When he is brutally stabbed by a mentally retarded man who exists in the village, its up to Ivy to find her way through the forest and into the towns to get medicine, but she finds a world that she wasn't prepared for.
All the right ingredients are here in another of Shymalan's unusual stories. Their are the heart pumping scares, the out of place hero, the other worldly beasts, and the obligatory twist that makes you question everything you've seen. Except, its all terminally dull. The dialogue is universally attrocious, even for a film thats supposedly set in another lifetime. The acting, with the exception of the reliable Bryce Dallas Howard, is appalling. Joaquin Pheonix isn't terrible, but he sleep walks through his role, delivering his lines in the same bewildered and slightly irked manner that the audience receives it. According to the extra's on the DVD, the cast is world class. I couldn't care less, because most of them look bored on screen, and no wonder with a script this bad. Everytime they muttered the 'so very clever' line "Those we do not speak of" I wanted to scream. Couldn't he have come up with a more interesting terminology for the human beings that existed outside of their village. Sigourney Weaver is unforgivable, given that she is a highly respected actress.
However, the most irksome thing about the whole tired tale is M Night Shymalan's direction. Its bland and predictable, and sets your teeth in edge everytime one of the actors mutters one of his pretentious 'oh so very profound' soundbites. The costumes and the attention to detail is once again wonderful, but perhaps Night spent far too much time paying attention to the small details and missed the point this time round that over-all a film of this nature should be entertaining. As for the set, as primitive as it is, and as dedicated to its timeframe it is, its sparce and depressing and it meanders in the mind to think that people would actually CHOOSE to live like this for any reason, no matter how keen to preserve innocence they are.
I didn't see the twist in the story coming, although it has become almost neccessary for Night's films to have the twist, but by the time it came, it was either just too incredulous to buy into or most likely I had long passed caring. This film doesn't know if it wants to be a love story, a period drama or a thriller, and its confusion of genre's is most likely the reason that it fails on almost every level. Which is a shame, because at the heart of all this nonsense is an interesting story about how innocence could be preserved by illiminating the things that have caused society to become so dangerous.
The extra's are more of the usual "we felt like a family" and "the experience helped me grow enormously" pretentious nonsense from the cast, and some insightful tidbits from M Night Shyamalan. He is obviously a director who is passionate about his work, its just a shame that this time it didn't transfer to the screen.
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Production Year: 2002 - Horror - Director: Danny Boyle - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Cillian Murphy, Megan Burns, Noah Huntley, Christopher Eccleston, Marvin Campbell, Brendan Gleeson
Production Year: 1984 - Horror - Director: Joe Dante - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, Frances Lee McCain, Judge Reinhold, Corey Feldman
Even when his trademark twist-ending formula wears worrisomely thin as it does inThe ... more
Village, M. Night Shyamalan is a true showman who knows how to serve up a spookfest. He's derailed this time by a howler of a "surprise" lifted almost directly from "A...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Even when his trademark twist-ending formula wears worrisomely thin as it does inThe ... more
Village, M. Night Shyamalan is a true showman who knows how to serve up a spookfest. He's derailed this time by a howler of a "surprise" lifted almost directly from "A...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 7 to 13 days...
Run. The truce is ending. M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Village' finds the renowned ... more
writer-director crafting a suspenseful story of a small community whose inhabitants are plagued by fear of the unknown forest that surrounds them. For years they have kep...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
From Academy Award-nominated writer, director and modern-day master of suspense M. Night ... more
Shyamalan (Nominee: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, The Sixth Sense, 1999), THE VILLAGE is a riveting, edge-of-your-seat chiller with a stellar ensemble c...
![The Village [DVD] [2004]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78514791.jpg "The Village [DVD] [2004]")
Mar 31st, 2007
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