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Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan Starring: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin Spooky and well-paced with a few genuine scares. Signs didn't break any new ground but it was fun seeing things like the invasion footage, or the home video on the news. At times the personal side of the movie was tiring (mainly involving the members of Gibson's family), and some of the plot gimmicks don't really work (the former-baseball-player swings at glasses of water to defeat the water-sensitive aliens, for one.). Gibson gives his standard performance which is neither good nor bad. Just acceptable. Shyamalan manages to create some scenes of real suspense and keeps the movie feeling fresh. The spooky alien invasion stuff managed to outweigh the religion crap, thankfully, but the movie would be so much better without it. RATING: 4.0 PROS: Spooky, well-told alien invasion story CONS: Not incredibly original, some sappy family drama, laughable plot elements ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286106/ Bloated Pussy fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Aug 4, 2004 |
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Jun 13, 2004 05:26
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This film was way overrated, mostly because of the director I thought. I don't know...I just freaking hated the ending. It had a good supsenseful sort of mysterious feel to it, and the ending just ruined all the mystery...it took everything away. i can't loving believe they SHOWED THE ALIEN...takes all the mysteriousness out of the movie I'll give it a respectable rating because everything leading up to the ending worked out very well, supsense, mystery, etc. Good try, bad ending. 3.5/5
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Jun 13, 2004 07:20
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I did not like this movie because I found it to be uninteresting and bland. It just wasn't exiting or suspenseful to me. Perhaps I am just a little too harsh on it because I had high hopes for it, which is my fault, but regardless.. ..I vote it 1. And as a matter of fact, as much as I hate to admit it, but I have to agree with Maddox here. Their weakness is water, so they choose to invade a planet whose most abundant resource is water? What? I found that to be just stupid. Bob The Ripper fucked around with this message at 09:56 on Jun 13, 2004 |
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Jun 13, 2004 09:53
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The movie started out ok, and was actually somewhat scary but the fact that it was more religious propaganda than a movie about aliens coupled with the extremely lousy ending just killed the movie for me. Pro: Joaquin Phoenix I'd give it a 2.5/5
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Jun 13, 2004 14:47
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The first half of the movie was genuinely scary, but then the ending ruined absolutely everything. DON'T SHOW THE ALIEN YOU FUCKWITS. I'd give it a 3, but it has Joaquin Phoenix in it so it gets a 3.5 instead.
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Jun 13, 2004 15:22
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I may be a bit partial to the subject of aliens, but this movie scared the hell out of me. Especially when the alien is revealed in the television's reflection. For the most part, this movie is a masterful example of Hitchcock's "less is more" philosophy of scaring the hell out of you. 5/5
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Jun 13, 2004 16:19
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I thought it had good acting and good suspense. It worked as a pschological thriller and the direction was very well done. The problem was that the theme was hokey and the end was gimmicky. It was like M. Night Shyamalan got so used to having surprise twist endings in his movies that he forced one on this movie. I really just don't understand how you can take a good alien thriller and put a religious undertone in it. 3/5
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Jun 13, 2004 16:26
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A good rebound from the neverending snoozefest that was Unbreakable. It's sort of sad that there are so many people out there that totally missed the point of the movie, even after it was spelled out for you halfway through, who continue acting as though the ending had a twist, or that the aliens were really all that relevant in the first place.
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Jun 13, 2004 22:15
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I've heard it said that Signs was supposed to be some sort of homage to Hitchcock's style, which is untrue in my opinion. The plot was mildly interesting but often went off in the wrong direction. I don't hold Mel Gibson in high esteem as an actor, and this movie didn't do a thing to change my mind. Joaquin Phoenix was excellent as always, however. While it's certainly better than Unbreakable, it's nowhere near as good as 6th Sense. 3/5
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Jun 14, 2004 06:37
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Ugh, such a poor movie. Overly-hyped. The plot was clever enough to hold my attention, as was the progression of the movie. But the con's reign over the pro's here. For one; I did not care for the characters. They had some stupid side plot about Mel's dead wife that was his reasons for not believing in God or whatever. Someone used to play baseball or something... That girl leaves glasses of water around or whatever... For an alien movie; this was out of place. Now I liked how they had all the suspense build; it took a long while until something would REALLY happen in the movie. But when you look at the ratio of 'on your seat OMG' scenes to 'uh I'm gonna go get a drink' scenes; I hope you like root beer. To end this, save yourself seeing another of M. Night movies by realizing that many were dissapointed with this for multiple reasons and gimmicks that are hard to be overlooked with a movie that got so much hype as did this. WTF aliens that look like they came out of Saturday morning horror shows. The second they had a clear shot of the alien for the viewer to see, most of the theater groaned in disgust as how dissapoined they were to see it. 1/5
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Jun 15, 2004 03:55
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Voted 1.5. I didn't go in attempting to hate this film... I loved the Sixth Sense and what I saw of Unbreakable wasn't particularly bad, so I figured Signs would be at least decent. Plus, I love alien flicks. Problem was, it sucked. I haven't seen this movie since the theater so my examples may be a bit rusty, but I hate it for pretty much the same reasons everyone else does: it was loving cheesy, the ending was terrible, and I just don't buy the whole "it's about a man and his faith, not aliens!" argument. Maybe it was just bad marketing, but I was fully unsatisfied. It wasn't the WORST film I've ever seen, and it had some funny/creepy/scary moments, so I didn't give it a 1 or a 0. Still... I would never reccommend this to anyone I didn't want to suffer for a couple hours.
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Jun 15, 2004 04:01
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Overrated, in every possible way. Watching this movie I found myself bored to death throughout the first hour, and ended up sorely disappointed when the invasion finally began. Okay so we see one get murdered by a glass of water. Wonderful. Normally I wouldn't be so cynical, it's just that this movie was really hyped up before it's release. The previews showed that creepy little scene where Gibson sees an alien leg in the corn field, among others, and I was expecting something at least moderately close to the Sixth Sense. Ended up with a bland, overly emotional movie. Waste of my $8, I give it a 1.5.
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Jun 15, 2004 13:37
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One of my all time favorite movies. Hokey? Yes. Laughable? Sure. But what I love about this movie is that it doesn't care. Shyamalan doesn't give a crap. What he created was a fun, scary, exciting, genuinely SWEET movie, and it bums me out that so many people couldn't like it because OH THAT ENDING ISN'T REALISTIC or OMG WHY DONT ALIENS AVOID WATER 5
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Jun 16, 2004 07:23
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Well, I'm a huge fan of this movie for it's simplicity in the whole "Aliens" aspect of "mind over matter" mentality behind it all. Not seeing the aliens or just catching a mere glimpse can really do more than just an all out display. I also gave it mad props for just showing you ONE family's aspect of a global event. Most movies of this nature have to incorporate tens of people in it. This just involved 4, and it kept it in contrast with the rest of world. The newscasts and everything were about as good as one can expect. The alien walking in the South American birthday party (the one in the alley) messed me up. At least the theatre I was in thoroughly enjoyed it, as did I.
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Jun 16, 2004 07:27
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Just watched this movie again lastnight and its still a great and gripping flick. I truely liked how they played religion(And the hatred of it) through the movie, as it made it feel more believable. Lots and lots of suspense. The whole water thing I can get over because they mentioned they weren't trying to take over the planet, they were just stealing people off of it to be probed in the rear end. And the news reports on TV were truely frightening. 4/5
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Jun 16, 2004 14:34
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This was a better than average movie. There are some really stupid aspects to the movie, such as aliens being vulnerable to water, and water being the most abundant resource on Earth. But overall, the movie is pretty creepy and well done. The focus on the one family rather than a bunch of people worked well. The baseball playing brother jumping when seeing the alien on the South American home video was funny. Anyway, the religious aspect sorta took away from what the movie was about 90% of the time. But overall, good movie. 4/5
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Jun 16, 2004 16:59
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HAY! LET'S INVADE A PLANET THAT'S COVERED OVER 2/3 THE SURFACE IN A LIQUID THAT MAKES US FALL APART! HELL, IT EVEN RAINS FROM THE SKY! I'LL BRING THE BEER! BUT WATCH OUT FOR THEM CHILD-PROOF DOORS! WE INTERGALACTIC SPACE TRAVELLERS CAN'T FIGURE THEM OUT! Where's Lowtax? This movie needs a shivving...
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Jun 16, 2004 19:05
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I on the other hand, liked this movie. It's no masterpiece, but I thought it was pretty good. Not tremendously scary, but I liked the plot twists and how all the elements came together at the end. Wish it had been someone besides Gibson playing that role, but then again, I wasn't in charge of casting. Joaquin Phoenix was good, and I like M. Night Shaymalan's films (yes, even unbreakable) so this one was a winner in my book. 4/5
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Jun 16, 2004 22:40
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I thought it was great in every sense of the word. Where a lot of people go wrong is where they're expecting this to be some alien movie. While aliens are a decent part of this movie, it's not about them. It's about a man trying to come to terms with his place in the world. To that end, the movie is amazing. It's well-acted, the suspense is really suspenseful (The shot of the alien at the kids' at the birthday party... drat.), and you really get a great sense of each of the characters. Hell, even the little kids did very, very well when it came to acting. Maybe it was kind of a gimmicky ending, but no more or less than War of the Worlds. Almost everything Shymalan does is an homage to something else. It's not like it just came out of left field. They made it clear that they weren't marking any fields near bodies of water. "But why would aliens attack a planet composed of 2/3 of their weakness??" Who cares? The movie's not about aliens, guys. If you're really concerned, take into account the vastness of space and the chance that you'll happen to come across an advanced civilization. 5/5
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Jun 17, 2004 00:56
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Reasons this movie is an absoulte piece of poo poo: -How many retarded plot holes can be fit into a single motion picture? I lost count, but surely there is an astute "Signs" hater out there who can tell me. Why the gently caress would an incredibly advanced race try to take over a planet that is almost entirely covered in a substance which kills them? Didn't they send out some loving R&D guys beforehand? -The Jesus thing. Oh yeah, the aliens invading were all it took to get a preacher to believe in god again. Just like in real life. -M. Night Shamalamadingdong is a loving douche. In promotional materials the director's name should not appear in larger font than that of the movie itself, not under any circumstances, and especially if the last film that director made was "Unbreakable." -The humor is the among the worst I have ever seen, anywhere. All the jokes fall so horribly flat that their unfunnieness stops being amusing after only the first few failed attempts. (In other words, there is no Save By the Bell factor of unintentional comedy to make this worth watching.) If you like preachy, retarded pieces of poo poo that try to get you accept a higher power by showing you aliens then this is movie for you.
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Jun 17, 2004 07:42
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It's not bad. The tension is held fairly well, there was enough scares to keep me on my toes, and the acting was fine. The ending is a dud though, and the preachiness does seem out of place. I get the feeling the God stuff was more Mel's idea than Shalamayadongding's.
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Jun 17, 2004 12:49
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Yes, the ending dropped the ball a bit. I really don't like having a movie transformed into a religious parable in its final minutes, but up until that point this was one of the most intense and suspensful movies I've ever seen. The way the alien invasion was handled felt completely REAL, and there were many poo poo-your-pants moments that had me literally jumping. Of course, as with all scary movies it doesn't work half as well on video. It's a shame that people look at the ending and the implausible water concept and dismiss the movie as a whole. Shyamalan's second best after Unbreakable. 5 Horseface fucked around with this message at 04:31 on Aug 4, 2004 |
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Aug 4, 2004 04:27
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3.5. The ending just ruined it for me, but the bulk of the movie was really very good.
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Aug 4, 2004 15:49
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