The Village

[ChimpBoy]

You may find me posting lots of flick reviews at the moment - I'm alone in a big strange city and pretty bored  The local cinema's plethora of preview screenings is the only thing keeping me off the sauce at the mo

Like Shyamalan's previous fare, this is a film to divide cinema lovers.  For the record I love his work.  Sixth Sense is a great drama, twist or no twist.  Unbreakable is inspired, and shows how a true super hero would probably be in real life.  Signs initially disappointed me with it's plot holes, but after several previous viewings I find it to be a fantastic character driven story about a small town family caught up in wider spiritual turmoil.  It's a testament to the fact that folks are becoming bored with the normal Hollywood fare that "small", simple films like this can do so well

Shyamalan manages to create believable characters in emotionally rich and visually beautiful stories.  His films are original and almost totally devoid of CGI, and all the better for it.

The Village doesn't deviate from this winning formula.  I won't give any spoliers away, suffice to say that it draws great performances from Phoenix, Brodie, Pitt, Hurt, Weaver, and Bryce Howard.

I won't outline the story as you can read that in any number of places, but I thoroughly enjoyed this.  Never once does it rely on flashy showpieces, and instead slowly conjures up a sense of real menace, and I found myself really empathising with the community and their troubles.

Want to watch a dumb comic book film that is as devoid of substance and quality as the popcorn you eat?  Watch Hell Boy.

Want a film that engages whilst entertaining with an original story and great acting?  Watch The Village.

[Phog]

Yeah i really want to see this film, the trailers look like it could be in for a decent story line and hopefully some scares.

[smilodon]

This sucked like a big one. Shyamalan's career seems to be going in reverse. He starts off great and then with each sucessive installment it gets worse and worse. Sort of like a latter day Orson Wells - from Citizen Kane to Booze Adverts in one lifetime. And why does he have to do the big twist at the end every time he makes a movie? Skilled film making doesn't require these tricks, just make a good film mate.

6th Sense was a great idea well executed
Unbreakable was a great idea badly executed
Signs was a bad idea well executed
and The Village was a bad idea badly executed.

The real probelm is the premise which the whole film is based on. I can't mention what it is without giving everything away. In 6th Sense the underlying reality was shocking and profound. In The Village it was daft and obvious to anyone with half a clue. The sad truth is if you actually did know what the twist was before you went, then you wouldn't bother going to see it at all, it's so daft and pointless. Perfomances are wooden and uninspired. Speaking softly and looking meaningfully at each other isn't quality acting. Every cliche is well represented from intense young man to gutsy blind girl, from gentle patriach to village idot. It's slow, drab and overblown with it's own sense of self importance

This is a nasty, nasty film that reminded me of the scene in Dallas where they try to write Patrick Duffy back into the series but expecting us to believe the last eighteen months were someones dream! While the twist is not related to dreams it's just as insulting to the intelligence and proof that Shyamalan is fast running out of ideas. Miss it totally. 0/10

[smilodon]

Here we go. I watched this film again on DVD recently. I watched it on my own and I knew what the big shock was (Shyamalan always has to have one of these).

Now that I wasn't trying to second guess him, I was able to pay far more attention to the film as  whole. And it worked a lot better for that reason. I think this film might have been better if the secret was revealed at the beginning. Shyamalan hamstrung his story by having everyone in the audience performing mental acrobatics trying to work out what was going on. It might have worked better without the cleverness.

Being able to pay more attention the film revealed some depth to the characters and their plight. The dynamic between the elders and the younger members of the community stands out and the whole experience in far more enjoyable.

So my recommendation is get someone to tell you the plot and then watch the film (or just watch it twice).

Shyamalan now reads best to worst - The Sixth Sense, Untouchable, The Village, Signs.

I'd so like to see him write and direct a straight film and just drop the "Oh I'm so clever  I have a big twist you'll never guess" act.

[Dingo]

The usual tosh then Smilo........still if it makes some people think they are clever it can't be all bad?!! :blink:  :devil:  :whistle:

[ChimpBoy]

Originally posted by smilodon@Feb 11 2005, 05:28 PM
Being able to pay more attention the film revealed some depth to the characters and their plight. The dynamic between the elders and the younger members of the community stands out and the whole experience in far more enjoyable.

Shyamalan now reads best to worst - The Sixth Sense, Untouchable, The Village, Signs.

Quite right too  Great film, beautifully acted and shot.

But for the life of me I still can't work out why people say there's a twist in "Signs".  There isn't.  Just another case of lazy hacks and cinema critics jumping on the "Oooh he's the 3rd act twist guy" bandwagon.  For shame.

[smilodon]

SPOILERS FOR SIGNS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The twsit was...... there was not twist . It just ended with nothing really resolved. Did Gibsons mother forsee how they could survive the attack just before she died or was her death totally unrelated to anything that came late?. Was there any deeper meaning about the little girl keeping glasses of water all over the house?  Did humanity survive?

Were the crop circles actually made by aliens and so on and so on. We all expected a big Shyamalan twist that explains everything and we didn't get one nor did we even get a proper ending. The twist was the fact there was not twist.

My point is that Shyamalan hasn't made a traditional film that has a beginning a middle and an ending and that tells a story from start to finish with no big surprise at the end. That may not be a bad thing, but I'd like to see what he can do just making a traditionally structured movie.

[ChimpBoy]

Originally posted by smilodon@Feb 13 2005, 06:56 PM
The twsit was...... there was not twist

My point is that Shyamalan hasn't made a traditional film that has a beginning a middle and an ending and that tells a story from start to finish with no big surprise at the end.

Kevin Spacey and Kaiser Soze is a twist.  Bruce Willis being a ghost is a twist.  The absence of a twist is not a twist  

And he has made a traditional "non twisty" film (check IMDB) - unfortunatley it wasn't very good  

[Maus]

The trouble with this movie, in a nutshell, is that even though the "twist" is imaginative and pretty neat, it can't help but be a big disappointment. You're hoping for much more than what happens.

Pretty much like Signs, really.