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M. Night Shyamalan

I didn't enjoy the Unbreakable; it’s not my type of movie. I saw the village but it didn’t impress me as much as Sixth Sense, but I really loved Sixth Sense …that reminds me of another movie I saw: The Others directed by d'Alejandro Amenábar
 
Wasn't Unbreakable originally supposed to be the start of a trilogy? But old Nighty decided not to because it wasn't very well received. Personally I thought Unbreakable works better as a first part of trilogy than as a stand alone film.

I am looking forward to Lady in the Water.
 
I absolutely loved The Sixth Sense when I first saw it, and the twist had me absolutely gobsmacked for the last few minutes of the film. Probably because I hadnt really heard much about the film, I didnt even know that there was going to be a twist (yes, I enjoyed my time in the cave on Mars very much, thankyou).

I expected the same kind of "smack-you-in-the-side-of-the-head" surprise from his other films, so I was disappointed on first viewings. I remember seeing The Village and completely missing the twist because I hadnt assumed the story was set in the past!

I am watching Unbreakable as I type, and having recently re-watched Signs I enjoyed both a lot better on second and third viewings. I think you kind of prepare your mind for a big twist and try to outsmart the movie, thus missing all the great character traits and subtle story points.

Wow, talk about waffling on. Sorry, I've been away for awhile, needed to shake the dust from my tailfeathers!
 
Stewart said:
Don't know; I've never met the guy. I couldn't even tell you what he looks like.
he shows up in every film! he is the guy who hit gibson's wife in signs

oh, and i've seen all but unbreakable and i liked all of them on different levels. interesting to see lady in the water.
 
I am a huge fan of Shyamalan and wondered if there were any other fans out there. I love all his work (haven't seen Unbreakable yet though). My favorite might be Signs. I get freaked out every time I see it. I also really like The Sixth Sense. It was the first one I saw. I loved how complex the plot was and how everything fit together so neatly in the end. The Village was good, but I thought the ending was bit of a let-down. It scared me silly though the first time I saw it. And, I just saw Lady in the Water tonight. It was different than Shyamalan's other works in that it could actually be said to have some comedic elements:
The poor fate of the inhabitant of apartment 13B
. It made me laugh at several parts and I really enjoyed the fairy-tale setting. It's not his strongest but I got wrapped up in the story. It was just a tad confusing.
So, what do you think of the works of Shyamalan that you've seen?
 
I love his work too. Unbreakable is definately the worst of the bunch, you havent missed much. I really loved Lady in the Water, that may be my favorite of his, either that or Signs.
 
The man has a great cinematic eye and was able to make two good films before his own heightened sense of worth caused him to overvalue his own increasingly slipshod scripts that rely on heavy-handed allegories to shroud the carelessly contrived nature of the plots.
 
I liked Unbreakable--although I agree that his others were much better, and he got a lot of the info wrong on the bone disease he used, Osteogenesis Imperfecta. My brother has the same disease, so I know. He described OI Type 4 as "not living very long." The type he was describing is actually Type 2, and as far as I know, there is only one person who survived past the age of two years who had that type. The same boy is between twelve and thirteen and has to be carried around on a pillow, and he's very misshapen. (In the severe cases, the bones bend and corkscrew and do all kinds of weird things because they're so soft.)

The man is described as having a very mild type of OI, with only 30-something lifetime fractures. I can assume, then, that he is Type 1, like my brother. My brother is sixteen and has broken around 56 bones, but he is well enough to participate in sports and many people do not know he is brittle. Most of his fractures have been fingers and toes, relatively small things that are easily mended, although he has broken his back two or three times, spiral fractured his leg once, and broken his femur. However, in part of the movie, Samuel L. Jackson's leg is said to have been broken in fourteen places. If he was that brittle, he would be one of the ones who can't walk. If it broke anywhere under five times, I'd have believed it, but not fourteen. Not from a middle-aged man who has only broken 30-something bones.

The disease, all in all, was not researched well enough for me. I don't know very much about it considering that I spent a great deal of my early years wandering through Shriner's Hospital looking at such patients while my brother had check-ups or had one of his casts removed. But the information is not very hard to find. The Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation has done all that it can to make sure the info is there for anyone who needs it.
 
I just saw Lady In the Water tonight and it was very good. Up there with signs as one of my favourites. I am a sucker for fairytales though. I would love to write something like that. Its been brought out as a book too.
 
My wife and I have both enjoyed his films, with Sixth Sense and Unbreakable topping the list. We haven't watched Lady in the Water yet, however. The bad reviews put us off from seing it in the theater, but I think we'll pick up the rental this week and give it a chance.

Has anyone heard anything regarding his next project?
 
Unbreakable is definately the worst of the bunch, you havent missed much

Wow... I feel 100% differently. I loved Sixth Sense and Signs, but The Village was a little... eh... and Lady in the Water was just a bit simplistic (and weird) for my taste, given what I've come to expect from Shyamalan. I thought Lady in the Water was aimed more at children, though, so I'm not holding a grudge.

Unbreakable is definitely my favorite of his films, though. The film's pace is really slow and at times when I was watching it, I thought it was just boring. But the payoff at the end was sooooooo well worth it, and it made the whole movie completely enjoyable for me.

I will be interested to hear your thoughts when you watch it!
 
I recently watched LitW and, while I did like it, found it nowhere near as enjoyable as his earlier films. The Sixth Sense was fantastic, left me stumbling out of the cinema in a kind of daze, and it is the kind of movie that you (or I, at least) can watch many times and pick up on new things (particularly if you cheat and watch the special features).

To me, Unbreakable is his best so far. I hated The Village, Signs is growing on me more every time I re-watch it, but Unbreakable was a great example of Shyamalan's talent in both the scriptwriting and directorial fields. Watch it again and examine some of the shots (including my favourite, when a young version of Sam Jackson's character - the name eludes me for now - has an entire conversation with his mother that we see reflected in a blank tv set). The dialogue is often unexpected, or non-existent. Just when you think a character should spout something cliche, they say nothing, and an awkward silence ensues. Great for the tension!

It also helps, when winning me over, to have a plot involving superheroes and to cast Bruce Willis as your hero.
 
His name was Elijah Glass. I've seen that movie once, but the movie, I suppose, has some staying power.

EDIT: I was wrong. Perhaps less staying power than I originally thought. :p
 
The disease, all in all, was not researched well enough for me. I don't know very much about it considering that I spent a great deal of my early years wandering through Shriner's Hospital looking at such patients while my brother had check-ups or had one of his casts removed. But the information is not very hard to find. The Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation has done all that it can to make sure the info is there for anyone who needs it.

Unbreakable was AWESOME! I do agree that a filmmaker should do extensive research as well as the actor/actress.

I love The 6th Sense and Signs they were amazingly thought out.

It went downhill from there I'm afraid. The Village was Horribly written and Lady in Water was nothing short of BORING!


But, that's just my opinion.:confused:
 
It was kind of funny, though. My brother, his friend, and I went to see Unbreakable. His friend had Type 4 OI. When they introduced that line about "Type 4 doesn't make it," he started to freak out. His mom shut him up when she pointed out where the mistake had been made...

And anyway, he had a lot of the symptoms wrong. Most people with OI have blue scleras and things like that...to someone who grew up with this in their house, even a mild case where I didn't learn much about it, it looks like Shyamalan just picked it off a list of brittle bone diseases and looked no further into it.
 
I liked the Sixth sense and unbreakable, but the signs has to be one of the worst movies i've ever seen. The story is completely over-the-top silly and i could not help laughing when i watched it. The films "message" was just hammered into you at every opportunity, yet failed to say anything significant.

I just watched Lady in the Water, and thought it was ok. Its really a childrens story so from that standpoint its pretty good actually.
 
I rewatched Signs yesterday and I agree with you, Zolipara. I felt like I was having "be spiritual, dammit" banged over my head. I'm not sure why this hasn't bothered me much on previous viewings.

I understand that it was a film about redemption (on a global scale as well as personally for Mel Gibson's character), but did it have to be so cliche? I felt like I was finally paying close attention to the film for the first time, and it was really annoying me (if it weren't for Joaquin Phoenix, I would've turned it off!)

It didn't help that I watched it with my brother, who has recently become a Christian. During the 'what type of person are you?' speech, he looked at me smugly, as if to say "you're not capable of seeing anything with joy". (I'm not badmouthing Christianity here, btw, just the film's black and white stance on 'belief')

Grrrrr.

So, now my list goes: Unbreakable, Sixth Sense, LitW, then The Village and Signs are tied last.
 
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