Friday, July 13, 2012
Signs (2002)
I loved M. Night Shyamalan’s box-office-smash ghost story “Sixth Sense,”
and dug the under-appreciated bleak superhero thinker “Unbreakable.” For me, sky was
the limit for Shyamalan when his alien-invasion flick
“Signs” hit cinemas. I was stoked. Then I saw it. Sky fell. Hard and fast, and
has never risen again. This is a painful, awkward, insulting film to sit
through, the absolute symbol of bad cinema to me. Not just when Shyamalan unleashes his trademark “gotchya!” shocker
when a legion of world-invading aliens turn out to be allergic to water (!) on
a planet full of water, but the whole damn dull story of a faithless priest
(Mel Gibson) living with his young children and faithless baseball player brother
(Joaquin Phoenix, young enough to be Gibson’s son). Hours drag by as
the titular crop circles appear, the plot is set for the green visitors to
arrive, and then the climax comes and a glass of H2O and a Louisville slugger
are the weapons of choice. Ridiculous. This is the moment where a star filmmaker
turned incredulous hack, when Shyamalan screamed aloud, “They’ll love it,” and
no one said, “No.” He’s never recovered. F
Labels:
2002,
Alien,
drama,
insulting,
invasion,
Joaquin Phoenix,
M. Night Shyamalan,
Mel Gibson,
Pennsylvania,
religion,
sci-fi,
water,
worst
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That movie was pure turd. The payout was just terrible. I seriously considered asking for my money back.
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ReplyDeleteAlyson up here offers writers to write for free at some new site. Nothing in exchange, just our knowledge to make her and her co-workers earn money. They just need fluff, something to fill the site with. They don't care about good writing.
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