The Digest
Reverand Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) has tragically lost his wife and as a result, lost his faith. He hangs up his cloth and retreats to his corn farm outside of Philly. With the help of his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) he is raising his two small children - 8 year old Morgan (Rory Culkin) and 4 year old Bo (Abigail Breslin). Life on the farm is a pleasant existence, he can forget about his wife and his religious past and throw himself into his farming. All this changes when he is woken up one morning by a blood curdling scream from his daughter. He finds her outside standing next to her brother. Morgan is standing next to the cornfield that now has several inexplicable crop circles.
Things are getting weirder still, one of the family dogs begins to act like it's being pursued by a predator. The dog becomes violent; it urinates on itself; it won't eat or drink. Noises in the middle of the night, strange encounters with "something" outside. Plus crop circles are popping up all over the world. Each circle appearing to be some sort of message or landmark. Talk of aliens invading come to the forefront. The big questions are; are these aliens friend or foe and can Graham regain his faith? Will he be able to comfort and protect his family?
The Dish
I really disliked Unbreakable but I loved Sixth Sense so this one was basically a toss up. I knew it could be really bad or really good. Within the first 30 seconds of the opening credits, I knew it was going to be good. While some people will think that the credits are over the top, I thought it was bloody brilliant in that it was homage to the old horror movies of the 50s and 60s. The music is loud and pounding and gets your heart rate up. These movies didn't always have big effects, but made you rely on our imagination to get the thrills across. You are not going to be spoon-fed a story, nor are you going to see big explosions and in your face effects like Independence Day. I, for one appreciated this. I didn't know what was happening outside of the farmhouse anymore than Graham and his family did. I only saw what they did and I couldn't only imagine what they were up against.
All of the acting was top notch, my only disappointment was that of M. Night Shyamalan's appearance. His character was important to the movie, but I would have liked to see someone else in that role. It's so much more fun when he does a small cameo ala Alfred Hitchcock. Plus the role needed a little more depth than M. Night Shyamalan was able to bring to the table - as an actor. Beyond that, M. Night Shyamalan is a master storyteller. Whether I like his movies or not, his characters are always multi-faceted. I enjoy how he usually has 4, maybe 5 characters and fully develops each one. It's almost like a character driven small independent film. I love how his characters always have some life altering revelation. In this Signs doesn't disappoint. I expect to see some kudos come Oscar nomination time.
The Directive
Bring your imagination and be prepared for deliberate pacing. It's going to take a while for some things to be revealed.
All signs point to awesome.
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Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2002
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