This is not a hate or bait post. M. Night was, at one point (until Lady in the Water), one of my favorite directors.

I was discussing favorite directors last night and made this startling (but not exactly earth-shattering) realization - with one possible exception*, every movie M. Night has made since Sixth Sense was inferior to the ones before it.

I think most people would agree that Sixth Sense was his best movie, and the one that "made" him.

Unbreakable was a great movie as well; some people didn't dig it but IMO it's arguably his second best.

Signs was entertaining but deeply flawed. Clearly a big step down from his previous two movies.

* The Village is a love it or hate it movie, it seems. Personally, I liked The Village a LOT more than Signs, probably even more than Unbreakable (I need to see The Village again - it's been awhile). However, I know many people who did not dig it at all, so it doesn't necessarily break the pattern (though surely it's considered better than Signs).

I think most people agree that Lady in the Water was a piece of shit, and arguably his worst movie (I haven't seen The Happening). I'm sure it has some fans (though I'm not sure how), but it was honestly one of the worst movies I've seen in recent years. Note that I'm not a hater - until this movie, M. Night was still my dude, and I would have gone to see any movie he made. This was the movie that made me realize some serious flaws.

I haven't seen The Happening (and probably won't). From what I've heard, it's not good. At all. This means his last two movies have been his worst two movies. Not a good look.

So, plotting his movies over time, you end up with a serious negative slope. As I said, with the possible exception of The Village, every movie was worse than the one before it. Yikes.

Any thoughts?

Again, this is not a hate or bait post, I'm just curious what happened to someone who used to be one of my favorite directors and someone I was really checking for.

But honestly, do you agree that each of his movies have been worse than those before it?

Rank them for me, if you don't mind. Mine goes Sixth Sense, Village, Unbreakable, Signs, Lady in the Water. With Happening unranked since I haven't seen it, but I'm relatively confident it's going to fall among the latter two.

At the very least he's been on a negative slope since Sixth Sense.

Is it his ego - him thinking he can take any idea (however flawed or weak) and make it into a good movie? The concepts behind his last few movies have been pretty weak.

6th Sense
Unbreakable
The Village
The Happening
Signs
Lady in the Water

And I know lots of people that hated The Village, so the argument still holds.


>6th Sense
>Unbreakable
>The Village
>The Happening
>Signs
>Lady in the Water

Interesting. His earliest two movies are his best, while his most recent two movies are in 4th and 6th. Perhaps not a drop from each movie to the next, but certainly a negative trend, no?

I'm visualizing these on a graph. For example, 6th Sense at (1,6), Unbreakable at (2,5), Signs at (3,2), Village at (4,4), Lady at (5,1), Happening at (6,3).

Plotting a trendline would give a negative slope, for both your ranking and mine even more so...

Its a blessing and a curse

I guess to be fair we should leave Sixth Sense out of the equation somewhat, since he can't be expected to stay at that level.

I guess I'm still concerned about the fact that Lady in the Water and Happening (so I've heard) are bad movies from a great director, and those are his last two joints...

Why do people make this simple mistake? It's so easy to look up.

RED
http://arrena.blogspot.com

>Why do people make this simple mistake? It's so easy to look
>up.

I've never seen them, and don't know anyone who has... No one ever talks about them.

Sixth Sense was essentially the "start" of his mainstream career.

Praying with Anger was a fine debut film. And Wide Awake was decent, much better than Lady in the Water. Regardless of whether you or anyone else you know saw them, they exist.

Nobody talks about them because once he did Sixth Sense, people only wanted to talk about twist endings.

That, and because people lazily repeat that Sixth Sense was his first film. Whether people talk about them or not, Sixth Sense was not his first film. Perpetuating that falsehood only contributed, initially, to this wunderkind mythology that people had built up around him, and now only feeds the hate because he'll never again achieve the level of Sixth Sense.

I've always remained a fan of his, even though I really, really hated The Village and Lady in the Water and was mildly disappointed with Signs, because I knew based on his earliest work that he was capable of doing a lot more than just twist endings and overblown hype. People who discount his earliest work are more likely to think he was just a one-trick pony who is deserving of "downward trajectory" discussion threads.

RED
http://arrena.blogspot.com

>Praying with Anger was a fine debut film. And Wide Awake was
>decent, much better than Lady in the Water. Regardless of
>whether you or anyone else you know saw them, they exist.

True. But in my original post, I said this:
"every movie M. Night has made since Sixth Sense was inferior to the ones before it.

I think most people would agree that Sixth Sense was his best movie, and the one that "made" him."

Note that I said "since Sixth Sense" because I knew he had done previous movies, but that they weren't relevant to the point I was making.

And I said that Sixth Sense "made him" - not that it was his first movie. So my starting point in the discussion is when he became a popular mainstream director, not when his career actually began.

It would be hard to discuss his early movies considering so few people have seen them and can weigh in.


>Nobody talks about them because once he did Sixth Sense,
>people only wanted to talk about twist endings.

This post isn't really about twist endings; it's about the quality of the films as a whole. (and as I've come to realize, it's more about the writing than the directing, which I didn't make clear originally because I hadn't thought it through)


>That, and because people lazily repeat that Sixth Sense was
>his first film. Whether people talk about them or not, Sixth
>Sense was not his first film. Perpetuating that falsehood only
>contributed, initially, to this wunderkind mythology that
>people had built up around him, and now only feeds the hate
>because he'll never again achieve the level of Sixth Sense.

Fair points I suppose. But we often ignore the beginnings of someone's career in the "pre-stardom" period. It's not unique to M. Night, though I don't have other examples off-hand.

And my claim that his career has been on a downard slope since Sixth Sense is not debunked by the fact that he made two relatively obscure movies before that point.


>I've always remained a fan of his, even though I really,
>really hated The Village and Lady in the Water and was mildly
>disappointed with Signs,

Agreed on Lady and Signs, but I really liked The Village.


>because I knew based on his earliest
>work that he was capable of doing a lot more than just twist
>endings and overblown hype.

Not sure if you're addressing me, but I never said or implied that. He has sort of developed the rep of the "twist ending" guy, and it can't be totally on accident. At some point he embraced that notion, because he kept making them that way...


>People who discount his earliest
>work are more likely to think he was just a one-trick pony who
>is deserving of "downward trajectory" discussion threads.

I don't think he's a one trick pony at all, and I certainly hope he can reverse the downward trajectory that unfortunately describes his current career pretty well.

Honestly, I do believe thinking his first film was Sixth Sense, whether people honestly didn't know about the first two or choose to ignore them, contributes to selling dude short.

I think he is a guilty as anyone, having bought into his own hype. It's not like he spent a lot of time reminding people he made a movie with Rosie O'Donnell.

But

>Fair points I suppose. But we often ignore the beginnings of
>someone's career in the "pre-stardom" period. It's not unique
>to M. Night, though I don't have other examples off-hand.

I tried to think of some as well, drew a blank. It's very common with writers, as they will often take little crap gigs just to make a couple bucks or to get into the guild, then they breakthrough with something big and no one mentions the crappy work they did before that. It's also common for actors, but harder to hide as someone will always dig up the scene in the lame horror movie where he got killed in the first few minutes or where she took her top off and showed her pre-enhancement boobs. I know it happens for directors too, but I get the impression it's a little more rare.

>And my claim that his career has been on a downard slope since
>Sixth Sense is not debunked by the fact that he made two
>relatively obscure movies before that point.

Of course not, I was initially just addressing the statement that this was his first movie.


>>People who discount his earliest
>>work are more likely to think he was just a one-trick pony
>who
>>is deserving of "downward trajectory" discussion threads.
>
>I don't think he's a one trick pony at all, and I certainly
>hope he can reverse the downward trajectory that unfortunately
>describes his current career pretty well.

I hope so as well. And none of this was directed at you, but I do think a significant amount of the Night hate is because people only see him as the guy who made Sixth Sense -- either mad cause he can't achieve that again or mad because he tried to do something other than that. Don't know if he can ever *not* be defined by that movie, but right now that's the albatross around his neck.

RED
http://arrena.blogspot.com

.

You're right - it's really the writing I'm talking about.

You can't direct a good movie if the idea and screenplay are crap.

than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see manoj, that's on the worst day of his life.

doctor: What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?

manoj: Yeah.

doctor: Wow, that's messed up.

M. Night f*cked up by saying Spielberg was his hero.

almost as if to say he was gunning for the crown.

as if his sh*t was gonna be on par.

he should have kept that thought to himself.

they set his ass up by saying he was the next Spielberg

and he fell for the bait.

white folks will never let that go, and will knock him down every chance they get.

they tried that sh*t with Spike and the Woody Allen comparisons, but that sh*t aint work. Spike is too good for that.

with each M. Night release they are scrutinized to an even higher degree than the previous release.

his recents recnt movies aren't bad, its that his skin is just too dark.

and yet Tarantino gets a pass for sh*t pieces like Death Proof?

Hollywood and its critics...

lmao

The M. Night brand ain't hurtin'. But dude's writing is slippin' fierce. I enjoy the cat's work... but THE HAPPENING forgot to happen. And that wasn't a director's error. That's a writer's error. That's the problem with writer/directors who are brands. There's no one to tell them "Yo.... rewrite that."

And I ain't plea coppin' for Quentin. That dude's just as guilty. If not more. But that wasn't the question posed in the headlining post.

>M. Night f*cked up by saying Spielberg was his hero.

I never knew he said that, and couldn't care less. Spielberg is probably a hero to lots of directors. Doesn't mean anything.


>almost as if to say he was gunning for the crown.
>
>as if his sh*t was gonna be on par.

That's a stretch. Publicly naming someone as your idol is not the same as saying you're gonna top him. Does every NBA player who looked up to Jordan think he's gonna be better?


>he should have kept that thought to himself.
>
>they set his ass up by saying he was the next Spielberg

"They" who? I never heard anyone anoint M. Night as the next Spielberg.


>and he fell for the bait.
>
>white folks will never let that go, and will knock him down
>every chance they get.

Bullshit. This has nothing to do with anything. Folks (white and otherwise) liked M. Night until he started making lame movies like Lady in the Water, Signs (actually a decent and entertaining movie but kinda lame nonetheless), and The Happening.


>with each M. Night release they are scrutinized to an even
>higher degree than the previous release.

He's become a bigger star with each movie, until Lady in the Water, which probably knocked him down several pegs. Then The Happening came along, and didn't help matters either...


>his recents recnt movies aren't bad, its that his skin is just
>too dark.

Actually Lady in the Water was terrible. Besides, how does his skin factor in to the fact that everyone loved him up until he made some bad movies? Has he gotten darker?

>>white folks will never let that go, and will knock him down
>>every chance they get.
>
>Bullshit. This has nothing to do with anything. Folks (white
>and otherwise) liked M. Night until he started making lame
>movies like Lady in the Water, Signs (actually a decent and
>entertaining movie but kinda lame nonetheless), and The
>Happening.



No actually, he's right on this one. Just last week at The White People Meeting, the one chaired by Martin Mull and held in Dearborn MI, we discussed how bitter we were about M. Night trying to be a highly successful Jewish director and how much that bothered all of us and how we would never forget it and how, since we all do everything in unison and as one giant collective organism, we would all do everything we could to stop that from ever happenening.

One perfect example of how this works is when he makes a shitty movie, like Lady In Water, we all point it out...but what you don't know is that our White People Superpowers bent the space/time continuum such that it was our criticism of the wackness of the movie that went back in time and "shittified" his script.

to misquote the JBs

wack is wack is wack

it was still entertainig. he still had the knack for filming ridiculously creepy 'phenomenon' and creating a great atmosphere
but it just lacked a bit of cleverness i think. i don't know if the visual pun of 'killing ourselves' was good enough by itself. and some of the acting was well dodgy.

Lady in the Water was excellent. Most critics failed to engage with it

The Village was excellent. Maybe as good as Sixth Sense.

Signs was great, i don't see how it's 'deeply flawed'

Unbreakable is pretty good, probably my least favourite outside The HAppening

so, i don't see a downward slope. he's still young, MANY films left in him

>The Village was excellent. Maybe as good as Sixth Sense.

I mean cmon.


>Signs was great, i don't see how it's 'deeply flawed'

The movie "Signs" in four easy steps:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=signs

>RE: The Happening was probably his weakest movie
>it was still entertainig. he still had the knack for filming
>ridiculously creepy 'phenomenon' and creating a great
>atmosphere
>but it just lacked a bit of cleverness i think. i don't know
>if the visual pun of 'killing ourselves' was good enough by
>itself. and some of the acting was well dodgy.

I'll give him credit for creating an atmosphere, great visuals... hell, his whole directing style is cool. But lately his plots/stories have been terrible.


>Lady in the Water was excellent. Most critics failed to engage
>with it

No. Just no. I wanted to like that movie, I really did. Up until that point, M. Night was my dude and I loved his joints.

But it was dogshit. It is literally one of the worst movies I've seen in years. And it's mostly the plot. What a pile of shit. Narfs and scrunts and tree monkeys and what the fuck man.


>The Village was excellent. Maybe as good as Sixth Sense.

It's probably my second favorite, but let's not get crazy.


>Signs was great, i don't see how it's 'deeply flawed'

The ending?!
Water? (and yes, I hated War of the Worlds too)
Swing away?

Man, the ending ruined what could have been a very good movie.
(The alien stuck in the pantry bugged me too, but otherwise it was pretty good until near the end).


>Unbreakable is pretty good, probably my least favourite
>outside The HAppening

Hmmm. I just saw it again, that movie is dope as shit.


>so, i don't see a downward slope. he's still young, MANY films
>left in him

I agree that he's still young and has many films left in him. I sure hope he starts making good shit again. I don't know if he has another Sixth Sense in him, but I hope he at least gets back to Unbreakable / Village quality of films.

Maybe that other poster is right and he should do some directing for films he didn't write. Maybe he's just tapped out of good ideas at the moment (and that doesn't mean he's done for good, either).

>>RE: The Happening was probably his weakest movie
>>it was still entertainig. he still had the knack for filming
>>ridiculously creepy 'phenomenon' and creating a great
>>atmosphere
>>but it just lacked a bit of cleverness i think. i don't know
>>if the visual pun of 'killing ourselves' was good enough by
>>itself. and some of the acting was well dodgy.
>
>I'll give him credit for creating an atmosphere, great
>visuals... hell, his whole directing style is cool. But lately
>his plots/stories have been terrible.
>
>
>>Lady in the Water was excellent. Most critics failed to
>engage
>>with it
>
>No. Just no. I wanted to like that movie, I really did. Up
>until that point, M. Night was my dude and I loved his joints.
>
>
>But it was dogshit. It is literally one of the worst movies
>I've seen in years. And it's mostly the plot. What a pile of
>shit. Narfs and scrunts and tree monkeys and what the fuck
>man.
>
>

he wasn't trying a conventional plot
it was more a meditation on the nature of storytelling
and to do that he framed it like a bed-time story. it's ingenius imo

>>The Village was excellent. Maybe as good as Sixth Sense.
>
>It's probably my second favorite, but let's not get crazy.
>

it has more substance

>
>>Signs was great, i don't see how it's 'deeply flawed'
>
>The ending?!
>Water? (and yes, I hated War of the Worlds too)
>Swing away?
>

i don't know what everyone was expecting. Mel Gibson fly up to the mothership and upload a virus from his iBook?
we were never given enough information about the aliens for their to be a plot contradiction
we don't know why the came, if they got what they wanted, why they left, or that the aliens we saw were the 'intelligent' ones
regardless, it wasn't supposed to be a sci-fi epic, it was more like a short story about a family

i think it's absurd to think Shyamalan was like 'OK, so what might these super-intelligent invaders not have counted on... nukes? nah... computer viruses? nah... i know, WATER! they'd never have expected of that!'



>Man, the ending ruined what could have been a very good movie.
>
>(The alien stuck in the pantry bugged me too, but otherwise it
>was pretty good until near the end).
>
>
>>Unbreakable is pretty good, probably my least favourite
>>outside The HAppening
>
>Hmmm. I just saw it again, that movie is dope as shit.
>
>
>>so, i don't see a downward slope. he's still young, MANY
>films
>>left in him
>
>I agree that he's still young and has many films left in him.
>I sure hope he starts making good shit again. I don't know if
>he has another Sixth Sense in him, but I hope he at least gets
>back to Unbreakable / Village quality of films.
>
>Maybe that other poster is right and he should do some
>directing for films he didn't write. Maybe he's just tapped
>out of good ideas at the moment (and that doesn't mean he's
>done for good, either).

i think there's enough good directors going about.
writer-directors are more interesting

>he wasn't trying a conventional plot
>it was more a meditation on the nature of storytelling
>and to do that he framed it like a bed-time story. it's
>ingenius imo

I think people really have a hard time with the idea that dude makes bedtime stories/fables/fantasy flicks.

The reviews for Lady in Water were some of the most wrongheaded shit i've ever read.

it's one thing to criticize a film... it's another thing to do so without ever recognizing its central themes and intentions

the fact the main character was called 'Story' you'd think would tip them off

and also many of the people who saw the tag-line 'bed-time story' only though of fairy-tales
they didn't consider the actual features of bed-time storytelling (ie. an adult to a child, prolonged night after night, every character has a purpose, exciting but not horrifying, etc), which are more relevant to the film

but that's more understandable, cuz people don't think about black life that much, outside of abstractions and social ills.

but hell, everybody tells stories..so it ain't much excuse for that with lady in water

do it.

Y'all need to quit acting like that shitty-ass movie had some sort of hidden allegorical subtext that "the masses" and "the critics" and "PTP" somehow missed.

The goddamn trailer even noted that it was "A Fairy Tale Written, Produced and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan."
________________________________________________________________________
Scooby-DOO

.

1)most of the reviews i read took issue with him casting himself in the movie in that particular role, and took issue with his in-film critique of criticism (bboth from paid critics, and cats here). And the whole backstory about the making of the film. That's cool if this shit was some ol' herzog shit, but it's a pretty simple movie about simple faith., so i don't give a damn bout none of that. I have STILL yet to see anyone actually engage the text of the film and show me the glaring weaknesses of the movie. Considering how terrible this movie is to some folks, that should be a very very easy thing to do, right? Which prolly is because of...

2)it's all opinion. You think the movie failed - i don't. The only problem i got with that film is the continuing propaganda war to make me think Blythe Howard's attractive. No, y'all...just no. Shorty look like a russett potato

>This is not a hate or bait post.

whatever....m. night up 65 million on his latest. that's a wrap for this year. let's move on to his next one. see y'all then.

i won

all of his films are visually good, I love them all for how he can create a sense of fear/anxiety/what have you when there is really nothing there.
my list goes

Sixth Sense
Signs
The Village
Unbreakable
The Happening
Lady in the water

The Happening was actually quite decent, the acting sucked and the story was "ehhh" but I did like the end, I was like "OH SHIT!!". He ends movies pretty good. he's just having problems with making a decent plot.

>RE: He is a great director

Yeah, he is. I tend to lump directing and writing together in his case, but the problems I have with his bad movies (Lady, Happening, Signs to a lesser degree) are with the plot/story, and not the directing.


>all of his films are visually good, I love them all for how
>he can create a sense of fear/anxiety/what have you when there
>is really nothing there.

That's true. Even Lady in the Water was visually cool. That's about the only compliment I can give.


>my list goes
>
>Sixth Sense
>Signs
>The Village
>Unbreakable
>The Happening
>Lady in the water

Interesting to see Signs so high and Unbreakable relatively low. Lady in the Water and Happening in the bottom two slots seems to be pretty constant, as with Sixth Sense at #1.


>The Happening was actually quite decent, the acting sucked and
>the story was "ehhh" but I did like the end, I was like "OH
>SHIT!!". He ends movies pretty good. he's just having problems
>with making a decent plot.

Yeah, even though I haven't seen it, I know the plot and it sounds super dumb. I'm pretty sure I won't like it so I don't wanna bother. Maybe I'll eventually check it out on Netflix. But that's probably only if anyone I know says they actually liked it.

I do like his endings, usually. Although in the case of Signs, the ending pretty much ruined what could have been a good movie.

For his next two projects. I don't really agree that M. Night has completely lost it but he needs to fall back before his fans give up on his work. He should just direct a couple of films and take a break from writing because, for a lot of people, The Happening is strike two or three.

Money's great and it's obviously one measure of success, but personally, I don't care about how much money a movie makes as long as it's enough for the people involved to keep working.

I'm more interested in good movies (regardless of their profits) than bad movies that make money. As a viewer, how can it be otherwise?

His career should of been over after The Village. But, then Signs ressurected it. Lady In The Water was cool, for what it was. But The Happening????????????? I mean, what the f%ck. The first half of the flick was cool, but as minutes started to past, so did my attention to the movie. The ending sucked majorally. Was not impressed. The story was dope. Great premise. But, it was like a pie with no filling. Lol. I dont think i have really enjoyed one of his flicks since Unbreakable. Which to me, is so damn awsome.

Lyterall appears courtesy of
Midnight Heat Ent./Planet Ill

The new album "Stop Looking At Me" coming Winter 2009.... just waite and listen!

>His career should of been over after The Village. But, then
>Signs ressurected it.

Signs was released before The Village

Lady In The Water was cool, for what it
>was. But The Happening????????????? I mean, what the f%ck. The
>first half of the flick was cool, but as minutes started to
>past, so did my attention to the movie. The ending sucked
>majorally. Was not impressed. The story was dope. Great
>premise. But, it was like a pie with no filling. Lol. I dont
>think i have really enjoyed one of his flicks since
>Unbreakable. Which to me, is so damn awsome.

Unbreakable was decent but after I sat/laughed thru Signs I haven't even bothered to check out any of his other shit.

Either way. I never enjoyed the 6th Sense, a large amount of assholes ruined the movie for me. So, i always knew about the ending before i even watched it. But, Unbreakable was and remains my favorite. And Signs was pretty cool. But, The Village was so damn trash. Hated it! Was glad someone ruined the ending of that to me.

Lyterall appears courtesy of
Midnight Heat Ent./Planet Ill

The new album "Stop Looking At Me" coming Winter 2009.... just waite and listen!

afterall

and no matter what people are gonna feel one way or the other, MONEY is the only measure of sucess

and his last few movies haven't exactly set the box office on fire.

yes it is

He can still direct pretty well I'd say, but his scripts are atrocious

Lady in the Water is pretty boring, but it is what it is.

The Village literally made me angry, it was so bad. Maybe it's just cuz I was such a huge fan of M. Night up until that flick, but I found it to be shamelessly manipulative, a film that sets rules into place and then breaks them willy-nilly with the twists. Characters speak in an older form of English... and then we find out they were from the city in present-day, and just chose to change the entire way they speak. They go to great lengths to create this ruse... but then quickly tell a young girl so that she won't be afraid on her journey into the woods for medicine... which one of the elders who knew about the truth of the monsters clearly could have insisted on doing. A character is retarded... but acts incredibly smart at a key point in the film in order to try and squeeze an extra scare or two out of the audience. The end is interesting for a minute... and then resorts to a long didactic monologue in order to explain to the audience what was going on, in case the images on screen weren't quite enough. There's less than zero subtlety in this film, everything is delivered with the heaviest of hands.

I hated nearly everything about The Village. It was beautifully shot, had a nice score... but it was so incredibly bad. I have trouble believing I'd hate The Happening more than I hated The Village.

they gave up 'tricity, right?

and food they didn't have to break their backs for?

a little olde english looks relatively easy.

Speaking like some bad movie from the 1800s is unnecessary, and is only there as a stylistic way of conning the audience into trying to hide the plot twist which becomes obvious well before she makes it to the other side of the fence.

...the "bad things that happened in the city." Yes, it could be an 1800s New York or something... but then, why is it so important to scare people into not leaving?

But then, I thought, "No, that can't be. Why would they all be talking in stilted Amish dialogue unless it actually WAS set in Olde Tymes?"

God, I hated this movie.

And shit, I'll still ride for Night Dogg too. His films get a reaction, strong or not, so I give him props for being a director with a bold vision who also makes money.

But man... The Village. Such a piece of shit.

How's that for an unsettling image? lol
Sounds like the sequel to 2 Girls 1 Cup.


>Lady in the Water is pretty boring, but it is what it is.

What it is... is a pile of shit.


>The Village literally made me angry, it was so bad.

It sounds like you mainly just hated the twist and felt tricked and betrayed. What about the actual story? It was dope as shit.

Lady in the Water meanwhile, had the worst plot of any major mainstream movie in recent memory.

Blah blah storytelling fairy tale whatever. Shit was just dumb as fuck with the narfs and scrunts and such.


>Maybe it's
>just cuz I was such a huge fan of M. Night up until that
>flick, but I found it to be shamelessly manipulative, a film
>that sets rules into place and then breaks them willy-nilly
>with the twists.

That's why they're called twists. I don't recall the movie "setting rules into place" - all it did was introduce characters and a way of life and let the viewers draw their own (incorrect) assumptions about the time and setting.


>Characters speak in an older form of
>English... and then we find out they were from the city in
>present-day, and just chose to change the entire way they
>speak.

I assumed it was because they were trying to establish an atmosphere. They wanted to essentially go back in time to a simpler time and way of life. I figured they adopted that speech to remind themselves; then once you've been doing it awhile, it becomes natural. And all the younger folks have grown up that way organically, so it's not weird to them at all.


>They go to great lengths to create this ruse... but
>then quickly tell a young girl so that she won't be afraid on
>her journey into the woods for medicine... which one of the
>elders who knew about the truth of the monsters clearly could
>have insisted on doing.

I'll have to see it again, but it didn't seem terribly out of place to me at the time. The elders simply refused to ever go back themselves; that part makes perfect sense to me, especially if they trusted her not to reveal the truth to anyone else.


>A character is retarded... but acts
>incredibly smart at a key point in the film in order to try
>and squeeze an extra scare or two out of the audience.

Yeah, that was kinda odd, but retarded people can be pretty insightful in certain isolated situations.


>The end
>is interesting for a minute... and then resorts to a long
>didactic monologue in order to explain to the audience what
>was going on, in case the images on screen weren't quite
>enough. There's less than zero subtlety in this film,
>everything is delivered with the heaviest of hands.

The end was cool. I am not offended by a lack of subtlety - I recognize that many people need that. I guess it's catering to a lower level of audience, but I don't mind. It's a nice little summary.


>I hated nearly everything about The Village. It was
>beautifully shot, had a nice score... but it was so incredibly
>bad.

Sounds just like how I feel about Lady in the Water (although I can't really remember the score, seems like it was kinda cool). Everything else about it sucked ass.

Date Title (click to view) Studio Lifetime Gross / Theaters Opening / Theaters
6/13/08 The Happening Fox $62,497,909 2,986 $30,517,109 2,986
7/21/06 Lady in the Water WB $42,285,169 3,235 $18,044,396 3,235
7/30/04 The Village BV $114,197,520 3,733 $50,746,142 3,730
8/2/02 Signs BV $227,966,634 3,453 $60,117,080 3,264
11/22/00 Unbreakable BV $95,011,339 2,708 $30,330,771 2,708
8/6/99 The Sixth Sense BV $293,506,292 2,821 $26,681,262 2,161
3/20/98 Wide Awake Mira. $282,175 43 $95,875 29