the village

[TrunkMonkey]

i can't say too much about this movie without ruining it for anyone who plans to see it, but i give it a big A+. the ending may disappoint some people since it isn't quite the shocking surprise like the 6th sense, but nonetheless the finale is very unpredictable.

another gotta go see in my book.

-demetrius

[MainEvent212]

i hear it sucks

[fiznat]

I enjoyed it as well... although I sorta kinda called the ending-- I didnt know exactly what it was but I knew it was gonna be something sorta like that.

Did you catch M. Night's Shymalin's (sp?) reflection in the glass near the end? Pretty slick.

Good movie though, I would definetly reccomend it-- a hell of a lot better than some of the other garbage thats playing right now.

[Jesda]

Well worth the money. Go see it.

[navysnail]

i think im gona check that out tomorow when i go to best buy

[superhoss37]

the movie is terrible! don't even waste your hard earned money..you'll regret it it. go pump some gas in your car instead, well worth the money there!

[MainEvent212]

yeah...i got a bunch of otehr movies in line before it

1. harold and kumar go to white castle

eh, i cant remember any others...but i'll probably see #1 2 or 3 times

[rico05]

I was PISSED as I walked out. But then I realized something: Shamalan does something that no one else does: he gives you a movie that has an ending that you (usually) can't see comming. I plan to see it again.

[TrunkMonkey]

Shamalan does something that no one else does: he gives you a movie that has an ending that you (usually) can't see comming.

that's what makes him the man, and me a fan.

-demetrius

[TrunkMonkey]

Did you catch M. Night's Shymalin's (sp?) reflection in the glass near the end? Pretty slick.

i caught it. i tried to show my wife, but all i got was "shamalan...? who the hell is that?"

-demetrius

[Sopdadope]

i hear it sucks

Hate to be the lone dissenter here, but you heard right.

The glaringly obvious signs exposed the "twist ending" about twenty minutes into the film. I have mucho respect for M. Night Shyamalan- as far as modern directors go, few can match is ability in crafting eery, foreboding atmospheres, few utilize camera movements and sound like he does. Also, like his idol, Steven Spielberg, he's gifted at handling child actors (as evidenced by Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense and the Culkin kids in Signs). But this film was a complete trainwreck. To illustrate how this movie failed, it was hyped as another Shyamalan scarefest but was never, at any point, scary or tense. Shyamalan foregoes the typical filmmaking formula by foregoing the use of a separate script-writer and the movie direly suffers for it.

Of all his films, this one suffered from a screenplay oozing with corniness, for example:

"How could you let her go? She's blind.""She's led by love."

This screenplay is just teeming with schmaltz. It's a shame he wasted so many incredible actors by stymying them with cheesy dialogue and relegating them to wooden script-regurgitators, blathering out lines like "I saw you put your hands over yours eyes on more than one occassion." LOL

I'd hate to call Shyamalan a one-trick pony, but I think audiences are beginning to tire of his repertoire of ending films with a shocking, harebrained "twist" ending.

There are some positives though, the cinematography was brilliant. The acting by the female "heroine" was noteworthy. The rest of the cast pretty much sleepwalked throughout the movie, especially Joaquin Phoenix trying his best to channel James Dean. Everyone pretty much wanders throughout the movie, tight-lipped and shooting eachother the "evil eye", but with a script this bad, that might be a good thing.

There are some nice Hitch****ian moments as well, with the requisite howling and clangs behind closed doors. Speaking of which, it's funny how people hail M. Night as the "new Hitch****." Throughout his work, Hitch**** displayed a wicked sense of black humor. The Village is just about the most dreary, dull and humorless bore of a movie to come out of Hollywood in a long time. Very good concept (the manipulations of fear) but very, very poor execution. A huge disappointment.

Rating: 5/10

[fiznat]

I donno man... I didnt think the writing was THAT bad. The "she's led by love" bit really WOULD be a cheezy line, except it honestly does fit the characters, and the mentality of the elders perfectly. It seems like a cliche line, but what else would those people be thinking?

While it was obvious that "those we dont speak of" werent what they seemed from the get-go, I dont think it was perfectly obvious as to what they really were.. I do admit that the whole blind girl theme coulda gone out the window (I got really frustrated watching her fumble her way around those woods...)

I also enjoyed the editing, although it was somewhat obvious at times. Scenes were spliced together a little bit, cut short here and there and left long in other places-- like the "try not to scream" thing... I liked that alot.

I donno, I'm no film critic- but I definetly enjoyed it. Of course he's no Hitch****, but like I said before- it beats the hell out of the other drivel that's playing.

[Anand]

I personally lonked the movie..

I have liked all his movies.. YES, even signs.. it wasn't all that great but I still linked it.

His movies are thought pravoking.. and that is exactly what this movie did.

No one can sit here and tell me that they saw the end coming.. NO ONE! haha... you might have guessed other parts of the movie but he had more than one "twist"

I like his writing, Directing and Producing..

If you see the special ed DVD's then you will see what he invisioned for the movies and you will know what I am tlaking about.

I know the movie wsa not for a lot of people BUT.. I saw it last night.. Sunday at 10:20pm and it was still sold out..

if it sucked that bad. it still would not be doing so well..

[Sopdadope]

Yeah, the "try not to scream" scene was great stuff and I was dying to find out what she was shown.

The movie's not a COLOSSAL failure, it does have its moments. It's just a big failure from an otherwise talented filmmaker. I think M. Night can be a very versatile director if he wasn't so scared to death of veering from his usual routine of tacking on outlandish twist endings everytime out. Unbreakable was a damn fine movie until the twist ending. Signs was great up until the alien-meets-Lousville slugger scene.

If he really wants to be the "next Spielberg" he needs forays into other genres and can the twist endings (The Usual Suspects started this trend and is IMO still the standard-bearer).

BTW, I had a great time at The Manchurian Candidate (8/10 rating).

[Sopdadope]

I know the movie wsa not for a lot of people BUT.. I saw it last night.. Sunday at 10:20pm and it was still sold out..

if it sucked that bad. it still would not be doing so well..

Yeah and Britney Spears' albums regularly go multiplatinum.

[Anand]

Yeah and Britney Spears' albums regularly go multiplatinum.

movies don't follow the trends of the music world...

if a lot pf people don't like a movie.. they will tell others and so they tend to wait till they comeout on DVD..

Britney Spears music on the other hand can be seen as great for the people who actually buy them... that's why she goes multiplatinum

Just because you don't like something or doesn't meet one persons standards does not make something bad or a failur

[silkk]

i'm gonna watch it this weekend!

[TrunkMonkey]

some people take movies waaaaaay too seriously.

-demetrius

[gounc14]

Eh I thought it was really good, there WERE a few really tense moments in the movie that at least I and two of my friends jumped in....and believe me we watch a crapload of movies, they both worked in Regal for about two years, and when there's nothing else we rent two or three about 3 times a week. Eh Shyamalan's style is unique, and I've loved all of his movies I've seen so far, I think the problem people have with this particular episode is that it seemed advertised as something somewhat different from what it was.....*shrugs*

[Sopdadope]

movies don't follow the trends of the music world...

if a lot pf people don't like a movie.. they will tell others and so they tend to wait till they comeout on DVD..

Britney Spears music on the other hand can be seen as great for the people who actually buy them... that's why she goes multiplatinum

Just because you don't like something or doesn't meet one persons standards does not make something bad or a failur

No they don't, but the point I was trying to illustrate was that quality does not necessarily correlate to financial success.

If we were to base the quality of a film on opening weekend box-office, then White Chicks is a good movie considering it had $30million+ opening (huge by comedy standards).

Off-hand, I can think of at least a dozen films that are superior to The Village, yet their entire box office intake is only a fraction of The Village's opening b.o. The idea of obscurity is a byproduct of market forces that privilege one set of films over another set. Contrary to what you believe, it isn't a function of quality. M. Night Shyamalan's track record alone is good enough to propel a movie into the $100million range, throw in the obligatory media blitz and a strong cast and you've got the recipe for a blockbuster.

Besides, it's usually the following weekend's box office that truly indicates how a film's received by audiences. Many subpar films (Troy for instance) had huge openings only to see gargantuan drops the following weekend.

[Sopdadope]

some people take movies waaaaaay too seriously.

-demetrius

Why? Because I'm the lone voice of dissent? Because I've voluntarily weaned myself from the teat of mass culture and mass thought? I'm a self-professed movie geek, so what?

To me, movies aren't just a leisurely pursuit but film is a form of art and thus subjective to a kaleidoscope of a discordance of, sometimes passionate, opinions.

[StrangeLove]

I loved this movie...

How could you say it was bad

Maybe you walked into the movie expecting it to be a horror movie, and when it wasn't you got all pissed off and **** threw your open mind out the window... I don't blame you because the movie was marketed in a very bad manner

[Anand]

I saw some of the trailors adn saw that they DID market the movie as a thriller... I dunno if I got a horror movie theam out of it??

but then again, I knew what kind of movies M. knight makes and so I kind of went in with that in my head..

Loved the movie... the end tripped me out... haha

I like how me plays with the colors (especially Red) and camera angles..

[TrunkMonkey]

To me, movies aren't just a leisurely pursuit but film is a form of art and thus subjective to a kaleidoscope of a discordance of, sometimes passionate, opinions.

ah, i understand now.

i had to take an advanced english class in high school that (believe it or not) required us to dissect and analyze movies. we did this for an entire semester. i don't remember the purpose for doing this, but i do remember not being able to enjoy any movie for at least a year afterwards. with the exception of the LOTR trilogy, i wouldn't even remotely consider any movie made in the past couple of decades a form of art.

thank goodness i've forgotten just about everything i've learned in that class. i can enjoy watching the cheesiest movies with the biggest kool-aid smile stretched across my face.

-demetrius

[Sopdadope]

with the exception of the LOTR trilogy, i wouldn't even remotely consider any movie made in the past couple of decades a form of art.

-demetrius

Whew... That's a very, very bold statement. You need to watch more movies...a lot more.

Not every movie has to be high-art to be enjoyable, I just watched Harold and Kumar Goes to White Castle and had a blast.

[Touchdown038]

I just saw Harold and Kumar too, and man, was I in for a surprise.

I was expecting nothing more than a stoner comedy, and was instead dished a fairly light, hardly cheesy film that I actually had a good time watching.

[Sopdadope]

I loved this movie...

How could you say it was bad

Maybe you walked into the movie expecting it to be a horror movie, and when it wasn't you got all pissed off and **** threw your open mind out the window... I don't blame you because the movie was marketed in a very bad manner

I've already stated my gripes about the flick.

But here it is again in a nutshell:

- Last year's Best Actor winner, Adrien Brody, relegated to playing a bumbling village idiot, an annoying one at that too- lack of supernatural elements I expected to see in a film marketed as a horror film- zero emotional investment in response to lackluster, wooden characters- narrative inconsistencies abound- aforementioned preposterous "twist" ending that tried mightily to conveniently tie up the logical fallacies the script couldn't handle- oh yeah, the movie bored me to tears

[toki]

great acting on some parts, the camera work and angle selection was top notch, having said that.

the movie was lame, mainly because I was on a date with a girl expecting a "OMG HOLD ME IM SCARED" and only got her intensly concentrating on the movie waiting for something to happen. which never did. boo to making it seem like hollywood horror movie.

[Anand]

haha...

I agree that this was kind of marketed as a horror film..

BUT, if you look at this work, none of them are "horror" movies.

He has had supernatural things in his other movies that were tangable

well, in this movie he tried to break free of that trend and did something different.

That is what people hated the most about the movie was "The damn monsters were not real"

yea, they were not real because there was a reasoning behind it.

If you really look at the movie and allt he "twists" and step back from it, you will realise soemething.. it plays on this whole human mind game.

just based on that alone I thought the script was awesome.

Human mind is so vunerable (SP) that you can make it do and think and feel anything you want it to.

it's nuts... it's mass histeria that the "village elders" were spreading around...

I think this is true in our society.

try to guess where else this exactl senerio plays out in real life..

it's not this drastic but we live with it day to day!

[StrangeLove]

Quote »If you really look at the movie and allt he "twists" and step back from it, you will realise soemething.. it plays on this whole human mind game.[/quote]

I'm glad you said that!

In the credits, instead of listing the cast, He lists the cast as "The Players"

Anyone catch that? Even in the credits he was adding to the twist

I can watch ANY movie and enjoy it. (except for The Core, I turned off and brought it back to the video store)

I went to see it again yesterday, I liked even better than the first time...