M.N.Shyamalan's The Village

[SnoopDog]

I've just seen it four days after it started over here.

Since now I won't get a job as a movie critic (see other threads by me ) I'll make this a short review.

I liked it.

People say it is his worst movie so far and I agree. Yet, this doesn't mean it is a bad moviel.

At times it's a bit slow and boring, and it's no horror movie at all. Not scary. But it's well done, beautifully written and acted. Shyamalan is a great writer/director, nice camera work.

Close to the end I thought this movie would go in a direction that made me hate it but the end twist (which I think is not bad as many people said but in fact pretty ingenious) makes everything logical and reasonable.

Music is great in my opinion. Only Sigourney Weaver could have done more, should have had more scenes.

So I liked the movie and hope M.N. will keep up his good work.

Snoopy, sorry, this wasn't so short after all

 

[CrazyyAngel]

Haven't seen the movie so far and I am not certain I will ... so I can't comment on it.

But that caught my attention ...

Since now I won't get a job as a movie critic (see other threads by me ) I'll make this a short review.

Why give this up already, just because one university hasn't given you a place? That's why you will now forever stop thinking about movies and critizing them? There isn't just one way to do what you want. Write reviews, lots of them, even if its only for a internet message board or for yourself or friends. Sometime you may wanna send one of those to a local magazine, or online service or whatever. And hey ... you never know, it might get published.

Some years after highschool I finally gave up my dream of becoming a full time news reporter for a big daily newspaper, because I should have taken another approach to it ... but that doesn't stop me from writing. I changed my dream a bit ... now I want to be a published author. Right now I think that might even be the better choice. I can get to write what ever I want.

My point is ... don't give up goals or dreams, just because it doesn't goes exactly the way you planned.

CA

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Snoopy! You WANT to be a movie critic?

You don’t learn that in a university. They can only teach how to analyses.

Take a year or two and try to get grounded in some creative endeavor. Force yourself to act before an audience, even if it is only Little Theater. Go through the process of trying to build a performance, in the midst of others who are also collaborating in this attempt. Then, see how the audience responds, also how individual audience members or critics react.

That is something to do with your time, since you appear to be 0.2 away from whatever the heck it is that universities measure.

Even if you do not find a new direction, you will at least be better equipped to fulfil the duties of a critic.

 

[SnoopDog]

Thnx for the motivation but don't hijack this thread, it's about the genious that is M.N. Shyamalan.

Snoopy

P.S.: By the way, did I spell his name correctly? And does anyone truly know how to pronounce it?

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

... did I spell his name correctly? And does anyone truly know how to pronounce it?

Officially he takes his credit as M. Night Shyamalan and sometimes as Manoj Night Shyamalan but I have not seen any official phonetic pronunciation guide.

Asking an Indian friend to pronounce it might be of value, but Shyamalan was raised in Philadelphia, so there is no telling to what corruption of the original he has grown accustomed.

Whatever it was he no doubt has grown accustomed to whatever the majority of media mavens have agreed upon.

 

[GingerV]

I loved 6th Sense, and HATED Unbreakable. I was too conflicted to bother going to see Signs, especially after reading a really horrible review. The Villiage has captured my curiosity, however. I'm looking forward to seeing what other people have to say about it. Might be the push I need to go find it myself.

G

 

[Wicked-N-Erotic]

I have not seen this one yet, have been wanting to though. I was under the impression that it was a horror film. Thanks for letting me know it isn't, now I won't be so disappointed. I hate buying a movie cause I thought it was going to be a horror flick only to find it has no horror to it at all, The Butterfly Effect for example. I was so let down when I watched it, I thought it was horror and if I'm correct it was advertised as such. Unless my idea of horror is different than some peoples. The movie was good but not at all what I had expected.


Wicked

 

[SnoopDog]

Well, some people might call 'The Village' a horror flick but I don't.

It goes to your nerves, it has a lot of suspense and some 'shock moments' but it's not really a horror flick.
I watched the movie with 4 friends, three of them females who are scared easily. Only one of them said it was frightening.

M.N. Shyamalan's 'The Dog'

 

[fogbank]

I was initially really disappointed in it, but it's a film that has grown in my mind over the months since I saw it. A damn beautiful film to look at, and good acting throughout. My complaints are, firstly that I saw the ending coming a mile away, and I really hoped that there was some other, additional twist. There wasn't. Signs had a great ending, where it wasn't a twist, in the same way that unbreakable or sixth sense were. It was more an unpredictable tying together of things. With Village, Shyamalan's gone back to a simple twist; he could do more about it.
My second complaint is Adrien Brody's character, and the way that he's used in the story. His character is mentally challenged--probably autistic, though it's never exactly described as such--and I have a big problem with mentally challenged characters being used as simple plot devices. His actions early in the film (I'm trying hard not to give anything away here, so I won't be more specific) are understandable, if somewhat over the top. But then his actions later in the film are completely implausible, except for a 'oh, he's autistic so he can do something that doesn't matter if it's not really justified.'

Anyway, overall, the ideas in it are really interesting, and I like it when filmmakers explore a continuity of ideas between their works--for Shyamalan, these primary ideas being belief and fear, which are constants in all of his movies.

From a filmmaking perspective, I'd actually say this is his best yet. From a writing perspective, it's his weakest. I think his directorial abilities are outpacing his screenwriting abilities, which is why I'm really looking forward to his upcoming adaptation of Life of Pi--it'll be good for him to turn his attention to something he hasn't written himself.