Signs
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Movie Reviews of Signs
Movie Review: Surprisingly Good
Summary: 5 Stars
After the huge success - critically and commercially - of "The Sixth Sense," director M. Night Shyamalan had a tough act to follow up. He failed with "Unbreakable," which I feel was an average film at best, but with his latest release, "Signs," he surpasses almost everyone's expectations in producing not only his best film to date, but definitely one of the highlights of 2002. As soon as a film receives huge success and makes hundreds of millions the world over, people are always there waiting to criticise. This fact stands the same with Signs; the film grossed a staggering $110 million in its first two weeks of release in the US alone, and in my opinion was well deserved. There aren't many films that deal with the subject of a sci-fi storyline, along with faith and religion, but Signs does - and to excellent effect...
Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He used to be a vicar, until six months ago when his wife, Colleen, tragically died in a car crash. He lost all faith in the church and abandoned his beliefs. He now lives with his brother, Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) and his two children, Morgan (Rory Culkin) and Bo (Abigail Breslin). Graham awakes one morning to find huge crop circles in his cornfields. He soon discovers he is not alone in all this; many more crop circles are discovered all over the world. The spontaneous reaction from the majority of the world is that aliens have finally visited us. Graham begs to differ. He acts very laid-back in front of his children, but deep down he knows that something isn't right. He wants answers. And he knows they'll come...soon. Over the course of the next few days, all his beliefs, fears and wishes will come true - with some life-changing and shocking results.
The acting in Signs is absolutely first-rate. Mel Gibson is outstanding in his role as a confused and upset father of two, struggling to live without the presence of his wife. Joaquin Phoenix is one of the biggest rising stars in Hollywood of the past few years, and I predict big things for him the future; he was superb in Gladiator and is even better in Signs. The success of his portrayal is that Phoenix finds the core of his character and plays upon it to brilliant effect. His on-screen relationship with his brother is very believable, and gives the film a more credible stamp overall. Rory Culkin is also brilliant as little Morgan, with his asthma problem. Culkin is mature beyond his years in Signs, and the portrayal is reflected in Morgan's adult flare. Culkin is slowly but surely following in his older brothers footsteps. He may never reach the crazed popularity and worldwide idolism that Macaulay did with the Home Alone movies, but he'll be big. Agibail Breslin is another superb young actress in Signs, and definitely one of the main reasons why I love the film so much. She instantly reminds me of the young Carol Anne in The Poltergeist. Her acting ability is superb for such a young age - only bettered by Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense." There are also very professional acting moments from Cherry Jones as Officer Paski. Her wisecrack jokes at the start of the film are replaced with more serious and outstanding emotional moments. Director M. Night Shyamalan also has a role as Ray Reddy, the other person who was in the car with Graham's wife when it crashed. He survived. She didn't. Cue hatred from Graham between the two.
There are so many brilliant scenes in Signs that make is such a unique film. The scene where Graham goes out in the middle of the night with his flashlight to investigate rustling in his cornfields (as if you would!) is just a classic - the leg that disappears into the crops is very creepy and his reaction is even more astonishing. There are also some brilliant TV scenes. The scenes where many bright lights are seen hovering over Mexico City and the birthday party scene in Brazil are just incredibly spooky - especially the latter. Imagine walking down an alley and seeing an alien staring back at you in a way that you'd feel like dying of total shock. The commotion of the birthday children also adds to the disturbing effect of the scene. The final half hour of the film is brilliant too. The family decide to stay in their house and board up all the windows and doors instead of leaving for good. There are many superb moments towards the end, and the highly dramatic musical score adds to this immensely. There are many symbolic meanings in Signs that make it all the more enjoyable. Bo's obsession with clean water leads to the source that rids the aliens from the earth and Morgan's asthma problem is perfectly handled, especially towards the end of the film. His asthma problem leads to Graham putting his faith back into the church and resuming his job as a vicar. The film has many emotional ties; while the rest of world is no doubt going crazy with horror, the film manages to keep most of the screen time on the family, and how they deal with such a situation.
OVERALL GRADE: 10/10
Director M. Night Shyamalan is definitely one of the best directors in today's world of film. The man is a truly unique writer/director who already has a trademark ability to hold the audience in suspense through twists and clever filming. He is fast becoming the new king of horror/suspense films much like Hitchcock, but with his own trademark signature. Signs rounds off a brilliant trilogy of hugely successful films from Shyamalan, and I'm sure there will be more to come from him in the future.
Movie Review: Masterful Low-Key Horror
Summary: 5 Stars
It's interesting, I'd always liked this movie a lot, but watching it again after a 3 year layoff I finally see just how extraordinarily well done this is. I've watched a helluva lot of horror movies in the past 3 years, and watching this again I really see how it's on a completely different level from the vast majority of them. When it comes to creating a slow rise in tension and simply inserting the supernatural into the apparently real world 'Signs' has few peers. This relates to a small flaw, perhaps: Once we get to the climax, once we've seen all there is to see, the reality proves a little too mundane. But, the strength of the journey itself more than makes up for this slight anticlimax. This is definitely one of the very best horror movies of the new millenium.
I've heard some complain that the film lacks sight of the big picture due to its exclusive emphasis on the central family but I think that's what really makes it work, what really makes it real. After all, who cares about the big picture? We don't experience the world as a city or nation, we do it as individuals. That and it just allows us to really get to know the characters, and for Shyamalan to create full, real characters rather than just having a pack of cliches in various cities spread out across the nation. (Like you'd see in something like 'Deep Impact', for example.) Phoenix and Gibson are both absolutely great in this film, particularly Phoenix. Gibson's Graham is a little to cold and distant for us to relate to him initially, so we really connect with Phoenix's Merrill first, though I definitely came around to liking Graham as the movie went on. They're both utterly naturalistic, and manage a real severe intensity in the most emotional scenes while still avoiding any histrionics. The two children, Culkin and Breslin, are fine. I'm always leery of children having prominent roles in movies, but Shyamalan largely avoids sentimentalizing them excessively (Morgan is kind of a whiny dork) or earning cheap audience identification. (In the scenes where the kids are in the greatest peril I identified far more with Graham then with the children themselves.)
Certainly, this won't be to everyone's taste as it is extremely low key up until the very end. And I don't mean this simply in the sense that it isn't violent or gory; that's true of a lot of modern horror films. The film simply refuses to show you much of anything through out the vast majority of the run time. There's a lot of noise related horror, obviously, and it goes light on the jump scares. (More amazingly, some of these scare tactics were actually surprising. Even after having seen it a couple of time before a few years back a couple of these were slightly surprising.) The film uses a particularly classic setting, the old siege on the farmhouse a la 'Night of the Living Dead'. Again, the primary siege is just so impressive because it manages real intensity despite the fact that they show you virtually nothing. The true climax is less effective, but it's still fine and is necessary from a thematic standpoint. Many people have complained about the `twist' in this film. I've got some news for you: This movie doesn't have a twist. Morons.
In the end, however, it may be the human element that really makes this movie standout. It's just a very tragic portrait of a family that has largely fallen apart. I'll admit it, it probably goes a little to far a couple of times, but it also manages a few genuinely moving scenes, which more than compensates. (Particularly note the great scene of Graham and Merrill discussing fate late one night, and Merrill's confronting Graham after the invasion night and so on.) As I always say, I don't really insist that my movies have realistic or likable characters, but the very best ones usually do. And 'Signs' has got that. Furthermore, Shyamalan's dialogue is generally leaps and bounds beyond what you usually see in a horror film, and it's also really quite funny much of the time.
I've heard a lot of morons complain that the aliens here don't behave in a realistic fashion. I had a long-winded rant worked out in my mind, but these people aren't gonna be convinced by that, or anything, as a matter of fact, so I'll just keep it simple: It's absurd to claim that the aliens in this behave in an unrealistic fashion because we, the viewer, don't know anything about them. There are an infinite number of potential explanations for why they act as they do, and 0 reasons to believe they would behave any other way. Any supposed logic you may have come up with relating to the aliens is irrelevant, because they are wholly of and within the movie. And perhaps more to the point, this comes with the territory. Complaining about the aliens in this film is like complaining about how hardly anybody has any guns in a contemporary martial-arts film.
Yes this is a great film. Definitely Shyamalan's best in my mind, as of this moment.
Grade: A
Movie Review: THEY DO NOT COME IN PEACE...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a superlative movie on many levels, and the director, M. Night Shyamalan, proves that he is a force with which to be reckoned. After his blockbuster hit, "The Sixth Sense', the viewing audience expected great things from him. When his next film, "Unbreakable", did not draw the raves that "The Sixth Sense" did, the viewing public anxiously awaited his next film to see if Shyamalan could, once again, hit it out of the ballpark. With "Signs", he confirms that he is, indeed, one of the directorial greats. This film is about many things. It is about loss of a loved one. It is about family. It is about relationships. It is about things that we cannot control. It is about the inexplicable. It is about destiny. Yes, it is most certainly about alien invasion. It is also ultimately about one man's crisis of faith.
The film is a wonderful, scary, and amazing film. It centers around the Hess family, who has recently sustained the loss of Colleen Hess (Patricia Kalember) in a terrible accident one night. Wife to Graham (Mel Gibson), mother to Morgan (Rory Culkin) and Bo (Abigail Breslin), and sister-in-law to Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), her death was felt on many levels. Graham, a minister in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was so distraught over the senseless (or so he thinks) death of his wife, that he left his ministry and is now living a purely secular life with their children and his brother, Merrill. Graham simply cannot understand why God has seemingly forsaken him. The death of his wife has divested him of his faith, and he finds himself struggling in the world without it.
One morning, Graham discovers crop circles in the cornfield in front of his house. Other strange things begin to happen, all while he is trying to maintain a sense of normalcy in a world that has suddenly changed in a way that he could never have envisioned. Worldwide, crop circles are mysteriously appearing, seemingly strategically, and, before one knows it, alien invaders are here. They are creepy. They are scary. They do not come in peace. The focus of the film is not so much on the alien invaders, however, but on how the family responds and interacts in this time of crisis.
There are some very frightening scenes in this film. They are all the more frightening for what one does not see rather than what one does see. There are some aspects of "The Blair Witch Project" at work here. Shyamalan certainly understands the concept that less is sometimes more and uses it to great effect. The effective use of tension by the director is one of the great strengths of this film. Sly, subtle humor is also used to great advantage. The other important component of the film is the acting.
There is not one bad performance in this film. Shyamalan, who normally gives himself a brief cameo in his own films, gave himself the part of Ray Reddy, the man who was the catalyst for the tragedy that enveloped the Hess household. He gives a more than credible performance. Abigail Breslin is simply delightful as little Bo, a child too young to fully comprehend what is going on around her, but who, nonetheless, reacts to its shifting permutations. Rory Culkin (yes, Macauley's younger brother in real life) gives a wonderfully intense performance as Bo's big brother. A somewhat singleminded child, he immediately becomes a believer in extraterrestrials and tries to gain an understanding on his own of what is to come.
It is Mel Gibson, however, along with Joaquin Phoenix, who ratchets up the ante. Mel Gibson gives a beautifully nuanced and sensitive performance, playing it totally straight with occasional flashes of humor. It is a performance of a conflicted man who cannot bear what has happened to him and does not reach an understanding until it is almost too late. In the end, he is able to see how some of what has happened to his family has had a semblance of a greater design. Even his wife's last words to him, so seemingly meaningless before, grow rich with meaning at the end.
Joaquin Phoenix is one of the younger generation's most talented actors. He infuses the role of Merrill with a vulnerability that is, at times, heartbreaking. Yet, somehow the viewer knows that the Hess family can count on him to be there for them one hundred percent. While he is not so conflicted as his brother Graham, however, he seems to need validation.
As the film barrels towards its climactic ending, scenes leading up to Colleen's last moments are woven throughout the film. This serves to show the viewer that the events of the present have meaning when grounded in the context of the past. It will come full circle in the end. This is a wonderful, beautiful, suspenseful, and scary film that is well worth seeing, and I eagerly await release of the DVD.
Movie Review: THEY DO NOT COME IN PEACE...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a superlative movie on many levels, and the director, M. Night Shyamalan, proves that he is a force with which to be reckoned. After his blockbuster hit, "The Sixth Sense', the viewing audience expected great things from him. When his next film, "Unbreakable", did not draw the raves that "The Sixth Sense" did, the viewing public anxiously awaited his next film to see if Shyamalan could, once again, hit it out of the ballpark. With "Signs", he confirms that he is, indeed, one of the directorial greats. This film is about many things. It is about loss of a loved one. It is about family. It is about relationships. It is about things that we cannot control. It is about the inexplicable. It is about destiny. Yes, it is most certainly about alien invasion. It is also ultimately about one man's crisis of faith.
The film is a wonderful, scary, and amazing film. It centers around the Hess family, who has recently sustained the loss of Colleen Hess (Patricia Kalember) in a terrible accident one night. Wife to Graham (Mel Gibson), mother to Morgan (Rory Culkin) and Bo (Abigail Breslin), and sister-in-law to Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), her death was felt on many levels. Graham, a minister in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was so distraught over the senseless (or so he thinks) death of his wife, that he left his ministry and is now living a purely secular life with their children and his brother, Merrill. Graham simply cannot understand why God has seemingly forsaken him. The death of his wife has divested him of his faith, and he finds himself struggling in the world without it.
One morning, Graham discovers crop circles in the cornfield in front of his house. Other strange things begin to happen, all while he is trying to maintain a sense of normalcy in a world that has suddenly changed in a way that he could never have envisioned. Worldwide, crop circles are mysteriously appearing, seemingly strategically, and, before one knows it, alien invaders are here. They are creepy. They are scary. They do not come in peace. The focus of the film is not so much on the alien invaders, however, but on how the family responds and interacts in this time of crisis.
There are some very frightening scenes in this film. They are all the more frightening for what one does not see rather than what one does see. There are some aspects of "The Blair Witch Project" at work here. Shyamalan certainly understands the concept that less is sometimes more and uses it to great effect. The effective use of tension by the director is one of the great strengths of this film. Sly, subtle humor is also used to great advantage. The other important component of the film is the acting.
There is not one bad performance in this film. Shyamalan, who normally gives himself a brief cameo in his own films, gave himself the part of Ray Reddy, the man who was the catalyst for the tragedy that enveloped the Hess household. He gives a more than credible performance. Abigail Breslin is simply delightful as little Bo, a child too young to fully comprehend what is going on around her, but who, nonetheless, reacts to its shifting permutations. Rory Culkin (yes, Macauley's younger brother in real life) gives a wonderfully intense performance as Bo's big brother. A somewhat singleminded child, he immediately becomes a believer in extraterrestrials and tries to gain an understanding on his own of what is to come.
It is Mel Gibson, however, along with Joaquin Phoenix, who ratchets up the ante. Mel Gibson gives a beautifully nuanced and sensitive performance, playing it totally straight with occasional flashes of humor. It is a performance of a conflicted man who cannot bear what has happened to him and does not reach an understanding until it is almost too late. In the end, he is able to see how some of what has happened to his family has had a semblance of a greater design. Even his wife's last words to him, so seemingly meaningless before, grow rich with meaning at the end.
Joaquin Phoenix is one of the younger generation's most talented actors. He infuses the role of Merrill with a vulnerability that is, at times, heartbreaking. Yet, somehow the viewer knows that the Hess family can count on him to be there for them one hundred percent. While he is not so conflicted as his brother Graham, however, he seems to need validation.
As the film barrels towards its climactic ending, scenes leading up to Colleen's last moments are woven throughout the film. This serves to show the viewer that the events of the present have meaning when grounded in the context of the past. It will come full circle in the end. This is a wonderful, beautiful, suspenseful, and scary film that is well worth seeing, and I eagerly await release of the DVD.
Movie Review: The Moose Hole - 'Signs' of Great Things to Come
Summary: 5 Stars
The Summer of 2002 has not been a generally good time for Touchstone Pictures or Walt Disney Studios in general. Bad Company, which starred Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock, and The Country Bears flopped at the box office while Reign of Fire barely recouped its moderate $60 million production budget. So it is no surprise that they are hoping that their last film of the summer finishes the season better then the previously mentioned films had started. Director M. Night Shyamalan has been described by many as the next Spielberg and for good reason. The Sixth Sense became one of the biggest surprises of 1999 when the film grossed nearly $300 million domestically on a relatively small $40 million production budget. His second film, Unbreakable, was met with less success at the box office but acquired a cult following when the film became available on DVD. Disney is obviously hoping that Signs will bring about Sixth Sense-like success or will this show the decline of rising director's prosperity?The story focuses on a man named Graham Hess, a former minister, and his family as the world faces a major conflict. Graham is the father of two children who lives on a farm just outside the city of Philadelphia along with his brother, Merrill, a former minor league baseball player. A car accident that took the life of his wife causes Graham to lose his faith and makes him question the ways of the world. One morning, he discovers a crop circle that has appeared in his corn fields. At first he dismisses the crop circle as a prank and nothing more. But soon news from around the world shows that these crop circles are appearing all over the world and in greater numbers then pranksters could ever create in a short amount of time. Soon mysterious lights begin to appear in the sky over major cities around the world. Everything that we had feared about life from other worlds is coming true and an invasion by these alien life forms appears imminent. Graham must now find the faith within himself in order to save the lives of his family. The story, which written by Shyamalan himself, is done magnificently. Humor is mixed with intense plot in well placed areas where it is needed the most. The length of the plot does not seem too long nor too short which is so rare in most movies today.
The cast of Signs is very well put together. Mel Gibson, who has starred in such successful films as Braveheart, What Women Want, and Lethal Weapon, is sure to have another huge hit on his hands with Signs. Gibson does a wonderful job with the crucial role of Graham Hess. He shows a great range of emotions throughout the film and one of the best examples of this is the scene involving the last supper with his family before the aliens invade. Joaquin Phoenix, who is probably best know for his role in the Academy Award winning Gladiator, is a great surprise as Graham's brother Merrill. His character adds well needed humor in certain places within the course of the film. Some child actors in films seem too cute and can often ruin the effect of a film but the children in Signs don't do that. Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin are perfect in their roles and make the audience both laugh and cry. M. Night Shyamalan, who made a cameo appearance in The Sixth Sense, takes on the role of the man who killed Graham's wife in a car accident, which shows that his genius goes beyond directing and writing.
Overall, Signs spells out another huge success for the rising director M. Night Shyamalan as well as for actor Mel Gibson. This is clearly the best film of 2002 and one the best films in recent memory. The aliens are not seen fully until the end of the feature but Shyamalan is the only director in the movie industry today that can scare the heck out of an audience with just noises. The musical score by James Newton Howard is one of the biggest highlights of the film. Howard, who scored such films as The Sixth Sense, Dinosaur, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, out does himself with the brilliantly exciting score from the opening credits till the conclusion of the film. There are so many wonderful things to say about this film that any negative comments seem trivial. Though the ending to Signs does seem a bit cheesy that is the effect that Shyamalan is trying to get across. Much of the film is a slight parody of the old 1950's B-movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the film does come off as a bit of tribute to those films. But Shyamalan makes the film his own and does so with excellent flare and style. Signs is sure to remain one of the best films of the year and everyone should make it their duty to see this film at least once. You never know when life from other worlds may visit. You would like to be prepared, wouldn't you?