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i love most of shymalans movies. i thought the sixth sense, signs, and unbreakable were incredible. i saw the village a looong time ago and remember not liking it, but i think i might need to give it another shot. i admit that the happening was just pure crap. the actors were horrible and the dialogue sucked. it seems like everyone has different opinions of his movies. what does everyone think?

I like him as well (as a director) but lately he needs to work more on been a story teller. He can connect characters into the major story but seems like he wants to confuse the audience into on big surprise near the end. He's writing is okay, I did like that scene in Lady in the Water where the movie critic gets eaten....hehehe..

I like his movies.

Praying with Anger - never saw it, but I am going to look for it.
Wide Awake - never saw it, but I am going to look for it.
The Sixth Sense - His best in my opinion.
Unbreakable - #2 in my opinion.
Signs - I liked this movie. Swing away...
The Village - A little strange, but i liked it.
Lady in the Water - I loved this movie (#3 in my opinion).
The Happening - A little too strange for me.
The Last Airbender - never saw it, but I am going to look for it.

I like his stuff, but he seriously needs a dialogue coach. Or better yet, relieve him from all dialogue assignments. He makes his characters talk like they've only known English for a year and only read comic books their entire lives.

I think his stuff is terrible and overrated.

Its not "creative" to just forgo telling the audience something.

any movie that can be "ruined" with a single phrase (he was dead the whole time) is not a good movie.

It's not legendary, but I'd still see his stuff over 90% of the crap at the cinema. Every time I go most of the screens are polluted with either Dance Line XIX, the latest Kate Hudson/Jennifer Aniston sh!tfest, the 9th remake of some 80's horror movie, or Pokemon in 3D.

Me thinks someone completely missed the FILM sections...

Might get moved...anywhoo...Signs was good in connecting the characters and setting up the suspence but then it had a terrible Plot hole with Aliens and water.

Originally posted by botankus
It's not legendary, but I'd still see his stuff over 90% of the crap at the cinema. Every time I go most of the screens are polluted with either Dance Line XIX, the latest Kate Hudson/Jennifer Aniston sh!tfest, the 9th remake of some 80's horror movie, or Pokemon in 3D.

I don't go to the movies, in fact, if it isn't revolutionizing a genre or taking a huge artistic chance I'm totally uninterested.

Has anyone seen "No Such Thing"?

Originally posted by inimalist


Has anyone seen "No Such Thing"?

No. But I will now. Thanks.

best monster movie ever. /fact

Originally posted by inimalist
best monster movie ever. /fact

Will try and watch it tonight. That's a heavy load you've put on it to bear, here's hoping it can. Synopsis is promising.

Edit: Watched 'Dead Snow' late last night (couldn't sleep), it's a Norwegian horror film about Nazi zombies terrorizing vacationing Med students. Outrageouly rediculous, but somehow entertaining still.

I'm not huge on new zombie movies, gore doesn't sit well with me sometimes, but I'll keep that in mind.

Reminds me of Shock Waves...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076704/

The only movie of his that I've see is Unbreakable. Maybe not a great movie but certainly above average.

don't see any others, Unbreakable was actually really good

Originally posted by inimalist
don't see any others, Unbreakable was actually really good

You really didn't care for Sixth Sense at all? This being his other good one, besides Unbreakable, imo.

Sixth Sense was awesome, his best work IMO.

I thought it was terrible. The only reason to keep watching was the fact that he just neglected to tell you about Willis' character. You are like, "hmmm, what is going on?" then you get the answer and feel like you want those 2 hours back.

The usual suspects did something similar, but the story Verbal tells is entertaining as is, and doesn't leave you feeling like you are missing something (because the director isn't capitalizing on the fact that you only know what they tell you). In the Sixth Sense it's not a twist ending, its just explaining the plot, if that makes sense?

Other than that, I hate almost all child actors. I think the TV series "The Wire" is one of the only things I've seen where the kids don't completely ruin any scene they are in.

like I said above, I don't think it is creative or even requiring of talent to make a surprising movie if all you are doing is not explaining the plot to the viewer.

EDIT: To expand. I feel in a movie like the sixth sense, as soon as you know that Bruce Willis is dead the movie is ruined. There is really no reason to watch it once you know a single sentence explaining the ending. Whereas a movie like Fight Club, knowing that Pitt and Norton's character are the same person doesn't really reduce the quality of the film. If anything, it makes watching it again even more interesting, as there are so many nuances that one misses or that are completely inaccessible until you have seen it through a few times.

Dead Snow was a fun film. See topic in Horror section on it for people interested.

Originally posted by inimalist
I thought it was terrible. The only reason to keep watching was the fact that he just neglected to tell you about Willis' character. You are like, "hmmm, what is going on?" then you get the answer and feel like you want those 2 hours back.

The usual suspects did something similar, but the story Verbal tells is entertaining as is, and doesn't leave you feeling like you are missing something (because the director isn't capitalizing on the fact that you only know what they tell you). In the Sixth Sense it's not a twist ending, its just explaining the plot, if that makes sense?

Other than that, I hate almost all child actors. I think the TV series "The Wire" is one of the only things I've seen where the kids don't completely ruin any scene they are in.

like I said above, I don't think it is creative or even requiring of talent to make a surprising movie if all you are doing is not explaining the plot to the viewer.

EDIT: To expand. I feel in a movie like the sixth sense, as soon as you know that Bruce Willis is dead the movie is ruined. There is really no reason to watch it once you know a single sentence explaining the ending. Whereas a movie like Fight Club, knowing that Pitt and Norton's character are the same person doesn't really reduce the quality of the film. If anything, it makes watching it again even more interesting, as there are so many nuances that one misses or that are completely inaccessible until you have seen it through a few times.


Just the opposite, actually. Rewatching sixth sense is the same exact reason to rewatch Fight Club. You can see all of the nice little clues throughout the film, dialogue, etc. (In both films.)

While I prefer fight club over sixth sense, both movies have the same exact reason to rewatch: once you find out the secret, rewatching it a second time is even more fun.


This may surprise you: I guessed that Tyler Durden was the narrator about halfway through the film whereas, Sixth Sense, I had no clue until it was revealed. Consequentially, I enjoyed the surprise in Sixth Sense more than I did in Fight Club. For me, a well written and acted script is even better if I can't guess the end.

the difference, to me, would be that Fight Club is actually about something and has an artistic statement which supersedes the "twists", whereas the Sixth Sense is just the "twist".

you can like whichever, as I said before, if it isn't genre revolutionizing or of a very interesting or challenging artistic perspective, I'm not really interested. Obviously this is a matter of personal taste. Hell, some people actually went to watch the transformers movies

Originally posted by inimalist
the difference, to me, would be that Fight Club is actually about something and has an artistic statement which supersedes the "twists", whereas the Sixth Sense is just the "twist".

I thought that the concept was of a man, still in love, that couldn't let go of the past and was blind to reality. I thought the underlying story/point was of the exploration of the paranormal and how some spirits have difficulty passing on.

Of the ones I've seen...

The Sixth Sense: very nicely played. Probably his best, IMO.

Unbreakable: cool. Nice spin on the "superhero."

Signs: sort of disappointing (very few alien shots, and again the standard humanoid). But the end kind of pulled it together. Not bad.

The Village: now knowing how M operates (and being a long-time fan of scifi), I sort of knew where the film was going (fake monster = disappointing). Had no where near the twist-at-the-end shock value of Sixth Sense or even Signs. But Bryce was a joy to behold. Boy did Opie bang the right woman.

Lady in the Water. Meps. I felt M was pushing it.

The Happening. Little better than Lady/Water. "We've seen this theme, M. What else ya got?"

Originally posted by dadudemon
I thought that the concept was of a man, still in love, that couldn't let go of the past and was blind to reality. I thought the underlying story/point was of the exploration of the paranormal and how some spirits have difficulty passing on.

I still thought it was a waste of my time and money /shrug

you probably aren't going to convince me otherwise. In fact, the sixth sense is the movie my friends and I refer to when talking about trite, awful movies that make an attempt at being artistic.

Originally posted by inimalist
I still thought it was a waste of my time and money /shrug

you probably aren't going to convince me otherwise. In fact, the sixth sense is the movie my friends and I refer to when talking about trite, awful movies that make an attempt at being artistic.

My opinion is worthless because I liked both Transformer films.

They were quite good, especially the first one.

Originally posted by inimalist
as I said before, if it isn't genre revolutionizing or of a very interesting or challenging artistic perspective, I'm not really interested.

I liked all of his movie excluding The village and The happening. I thought Signs, sixth sense, unbreakable, and Lady in the water all told great stories. Thought village and the happening were pieces of shit though.