Shyamalan

Bilbo

TeaBaggins
Joined
Sep 27, 2004
Messages
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Watched Signs again last night. Was on BBC2. I didn't plan to watch it, but turned it over when it started, and found myself still sitting there at the end.

IMO, he is the nearest thing we have to Hitchcock in this generation. Forgetting the awful Lady in the Water, I liked Sixth Sense a lot, loved Unbreakable, Signs is very good, and I even liked The Village (though a little dull).

Doesn't get enough praise I don't think.
 
Sixth Sense was good the first time around, the rest are a pile of pap.
 
He's got some very nice ideas and uses some very watchable techniques, clearly has a good eye for a nice image.

However, he's lets himself down in almost everyother way. Preachy, always casting himself when he's a passable at best actor and he should probably try and find a proper screen writer so he stops writing twisting, frothy nonsense.

Lady In The Water was fecking laughable, he cast himself as a mild-mannered, modest revolutionary who's writing was destined change the world. Then he had the most awful and cringeworthy dig at film critics that showed him up more than the critics.

He's a bit of a pillock.
 
Spammy said:
He's got some very nice ideas and uses some very watchable techniques, clearly has a good eye for a nice image.

However, he's lets himself down in almost everyother way. Preachy, always casting himself when he's a passable at best actor and he should probably try and find a proper screen writer so he stops writing twisting, frothy nonsense.

Lady In The Water was fecking laughable, he cast himself as a mild-mannered, modest revolutionary who's writing was destined change the world. Then he had the most awful and cringeworthy dig at film critics that showed him up more than the critics.

He's a bit of a pillock.
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I agree he shouldn't appear in his own films, though another Hitchcock comparison there. Never worked for Tarantino, and won't work for him.

Agree about Lady in the Water. God awful.
 
francobaresi said:
I thought Unbreakable was a pile of shit personally. Just my opinion mind
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I completely agree, it and Lady in the Water have been his worst, but he has had some good ones, different style than Hitchcock imo
 
Shyamalan's work is boring as hell.

He's definately no Hitchcock.
 
I like his style. Good entertaining movies. Lady in the water was boring, looked more like a children story or something like that. 6th Sense, whoever says that film sucked is a liar. Unbreakable, good comic like story and characters. Signs wasnt about aliens at all as much as Village wasnt about monsters. Spin, science fictions movies dont really have to make perfect sense, tool.
 
I think he's over-ambitious and doesn't quite pull it off in most cases but I still admire him for trying to make big popular movies that have a few layers of meaning.
 
Yes, he's awful.

I'm so much smarter than him, not for I minute I would buy that crap...aliens, water, unbreakable people and monsters that are not monsters and I knew it from the beginning and his twists are stupid I figured them all at once oh boy is he not boring and ffs how much smarter am I.

Give me Michael Bay any feckin day of the week.
 
I dont like him at all, he rehashes old twilight zone plots and hes certainly no hitchcock.
sixth sense was a good film, the village was so bad i actually joked on the way in to my friend that this better not be like a bad twilight zone thing etc (i wont say in case people havent seen it)
Signs well, it was just stupid (the baseball crap "keep swinging jimmy" or whatever his dead mrs said)
Also why would an alien race that DIE when they are hit by water come to a planet that is 2/3rd water???
I think hes the biggest spoofer ever, all those behind the scenes things promoting the village as if he was this weird creepy kid who could speak to birds and stuff, just stop M Night, M shite more like.
I thankyou.....
ps Im a huge hitchcock fan and have nearly every movie he made in my collection.
 
Agree with most of what's been said.

The problem with most of his films is the storyline. Very rarely is the story exciting. I would go so far as to say his films would be unwatchable if he wasn't immense behind the camera.
 
bananaman said:
I dont like him at all, he rehashes old twilight zone plots and hes certainly no hitchcock.
sixth sense was a good film, the village was so bad i actually joked on the way in to my friend that this better not be like a bad twilight zone thing etc (i wont say in case people havent seen it)
Signs well, it was just stupid (the baseball crap "keep swinging jimmy" or whatever his dead mrs said)
Also why would an alien race that DIE when they are hit by water come to a planet that is 2/3rd water???
I think hes the biggest spoofer ever, all those behind the scenes things promoting the village as if he was this weird creepy kid who could speak to birds and stuff, just stop M Night, M shite more like.
I thankyou.....
ps Im a huge hitchcock fan and have nearly every movie he made in my collection.
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Oh please man, that would be like saying it's idiotic for Darth Vader to speak like a crippled moron considering the technological possibilities of that time. It's all science fiction and fantasy! The Village is a fantastic story on many levels, it's about love overcoming fear or about the desire to create a perfect world without crime and hatred yet paradoxically the very peaceful harmony is being controlled by 'monsters'... etc etc. It's all something like a bed time story.

And dont even start criticizing 'aliens', there would be no end criticizing the logic of science fiction movies. That's like saying Star Wars is shit because there is no sound in space actually!
 
The sixth Sense was excellent if you didn't know the twist.

Unbreakable, Signs and The Village were so dire that I didn't even bother watching The Lady In The Water.
 
hrthehappeningpostersk8.jpg


he's going to piss off more people this summer :)

long may it continue
 
Mihajlovic said:
Oh please man, that would be like saying it's idiotic for Darth Vader to speak like a crippled moron considering the technological possibilities of that time. It's all science fiction and fantasy! The Village is a fantastic story on many levels, it's about love overcoming fear or about the desire to create a perfect world without crime and hatred yet paradoxically the very peaceful harmony is being controlled by 'monsters'... etc etc. It's all something like a bed time story.

And dont even start criticizing 'aliens', there would be no end criticizing the logic of science fiction movies. That's like saying Star Wars is shit because there is no sound in space actually!
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Sorry Mihajlovic, you misunderstood me, my point was more about a huge plot hole that kind of makes a joke of the entire idea of the movie.

As for the Village - the story is good, as I said done a million times before in different Twilight Zone type shows, I just didnt think he pulled it off.

For me he seems so concerned with putting in Twists into his film that he loses sight of the plot. I do agree that if you focus on the love story it isnt a bad film, but this shows my point as he throws the twists in and loses sight of where he should be going.
 
...and with creating a perfect society, the elders use monsters as a way of keeping the public afraid of exploring their world. It's easy to draw similarities to our very own dark ages, no?
 
Mihajlovic said:
I like his style. Good entertaining movies. Lady in the water was boring, looked more like a children story or something like that. 6th Sense, whoever says that film sucked is a liar. Unbreakable, good comic like story and characters. Signs wasnt about aliens at all as much as Village wasnt about monsters. Spin, science fictions movies dont really have to make perfect sense, tool.
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They were shit, except maybe for 6th Sense, where the twist wasn't as obvious. I guessed the twist for Unbreakable, Signs and The Villiage about 10-15 minutes in for each one - any kid would have.
 
Maroon Lucifer said:
...and with creating a perfect society, the elders use monsters as a way of keeping the public afraid of exploring their world. It's easy to draw similarities to our very own dark ages, no?
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It is, I really thought that was an interesting aspect.
 
spinoza said:
They were shit, except maybe for 6th Sense, where the twist wasn't as obvious. I guessed the twist for Unbreakable, Signs and The Villiage about 10-15 minutes in for each one - any kid would have.
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From what moment on was Unbreakable shit? I avoided reading anything about the movie before I watched it, I also havent seen any trailers, so once you start watching it you havent got a clue whats going on up until the middle of the movie! And I think he really managed to create a dark, comic like atmosphere throughout the movie. I think the problem that people have with his movies is that they are very slow paced, but I got no problem with that.

You guessed the twist in The Village after ten minutes? Sure, you're just too fecking smart for this world. And as said before, the twists were his seconday intention, especially The Village was rich in symbolism. It's a fairy tale. Nothing wrong with that either.
 
Everyone says they guessed the twists for movies in five minutes. I'll bet few people actually do.
 
The Sixth Sense was the first Movie I saw where thet wist at the end was unexpected. He tried to use the formula on his other movies but thay can't quite live up to the hype and the twist is generally worked out long before the movies end.
 
Mihajlovic said:
From what moment on was Unbreakable shit? I avoided reading anything about the movie before I watched it, I also havent seen any trailers, so once you start watching it you havent got a clue whats going on up until the middle of the movie! And I think he really managed to create a dark, comic like atmosphere throughout the movie. I think the problem that people have with his movies is that they are very slow paced, but I got no problem with that.

You guessed the twist in The Village after ten minutes? Sure, you're just too fecking smart for this world. And as said before, the twists were his seconday intention, especially The Village was rich in symbolism. It's a fairy tale. Nothing wrong with that either.
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I guessed the "twist" in The Village from seeing the trailer it was so obvious. Not quite as rubbish as unbreakable or Signs but fairly dire anyway. Pointless, obvious and boring.

Unbreakable was just silly even if you did like the first half.
 
Wibble said:
I guessed the "twist" in The Village from seeing the trailer it was so obvious. Not quite as rubbish as unbreakable or Signs but fairly dire anyway. Pointless, obvious and boring.

Unbreakable was just silly even if you did like the first half.
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so you hated unbreakable and signs and just went to see the village to confirm your "guesses" from the trailer and to see the obvious, pointless and boring stuff....

oh, and unbreakable, of all his films until now, is the one that's almost without any flaws.
Not liking the story, the idea, is another thing and it doesn't equal "bad film".

the village is a love story first and foremost, then everything else
but not a horror, sorry

I think peterstorey got it pretty much spot on in his post somewhere above in this thread although I personally think he (Shyamalan) pulled it off a couple of times already. :)
 
TuTuHimm said:
I wonder if he'll: star himself, have a plost twist, make it about something extraordinary, make it happen in Philadelphia, use shots of people's reflections ion various objects.
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plot twists are very common in cinema and in literature, I'm pretty sure Shyamalan isn't the first one to use them but maybe I'm wrong.
 
Spammy said:
He's got some very nice ideas and uses some very watchable techniques, clearly has a good eye for a nice image.

However, he's lets himself down in almost everyother way. Preachy, always casting himself when he's a passable at best actor and he should probably try and find a proper screen writer so he stops writing twisting, frothy nonsense.

Lady In The Water was fecking laughable, he cast himself as a mild-mannered, modest revolutionary who's writing was destined change the world. Then he had the most awful and cringeworthy dig at film critics that showed him up more than the critics.

He's a bit of a pillock.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much it. His movies aren't as bad as some people make out (though they're not particularly good either). I get the impression that a lot of the flak his movies gets are just sideways snipes at the fact that he's completely up himself.
 
FreakyJim said:
so you hated unbreakable and signs and just went to see the village to confirm your "guesses" from the trailer and to see the obvious, pointless and boring stuff....

My wife rented it on DVD. And it wasn't so much a guess as accepting the bleeding obvious.

oh, and unbreakable, of all his films until now, is the one that's almost without any flaws.
Not liking the story, the idea, is another thing and it doesn't equal "bad film".

A rubbish plot is a major part of what defines a bad film IMO. The utter silliness of this one, especially since the film takes itself so seriously, doomed it from the start. Although Signs was the (unintentionally) funniest. The worst aliens since the 60's

the village is a love story first and foremost, then everything else
but not a horror, sorry

I don't care if it was a Film Noir comedy buddy romp musical crime thriller mystery. It was utter rubbish.

I think peterstorey got it pretty much spot on in his post somewhere above in this thread although I personally think he (Shyamalan) pulled it off a couple of times already. :)
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A one film wonder unfortunately. I doubt the others would have even been made, much less watched without The Sixth Sense. Once you have a name you can get away with murder in this industry.
 
FreakyJim said:
plot twists are very common in cinema and in literature, I'm pretty sure Shyamalan isn't the first one to use them but maybe I'm wrong.
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No hes the first one to use it, I've read every book there is and watched every movie there is.
 
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