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[sitnspin]

I liked Lady in the Water.

I liked it too. I suspect ppl didn't like it cos it was marketed wrong. Trailers pushed it as a thriller when it's actually a modern faerie tale.

[explicit]

It's been awhile since I last watched it (I had only remembered it because I had a long conversation about Shamalan (sp?) movies). I liked the story, you're exactly right, it was a fairy tale. I think it bored people, and I can see that, but the story interested me a lot. And I think Shamalan movies are pretty horrible if you don't count 6th sense and unbreakable of course (though, 6th sense should have been more obvious in retrospect, I think audiences just weren't used to twist endings like that yet).

[J]

four of us!

of course, my favorite character is shamalan's straw-man film critic stand-in. shamalan tried to make the guy unlikeable, but i love him


honestly, i think the fact that shamalan cast himself as the savior/artist who was misunderstood in his own time rubbed a lot of critics the wrong way.

[J]

i actually remember guessing the twist of the 6th sense fairly early on in the movie, but the story/directing was so good at disguising it that i was quickly convinced i'd made a mistake until the end.

(click to show/hide)

the one-sided interactions between bruce willis and his wife were brilliant at that. i was that he couldn't be dead, because they were still having arguments. i didn't realize until someone pointed out to me afterward that she never spoke to him directly.

[explicit]

That's the problem, even while it worked that time, his movies are gimmicky. That can make for good movies, it's just much less likely than a movie that has, say, good writing/plot/likable characters/aren't stuck so far up his own ass.

Michael Bay would have made a better The Last Airbender film than him.

[Fig]

That's the problem, even while it worked that time, his movies are gimmicky. That can make for good movies, it's just much less likely than a movie that has, say, good writing/plot/likable characters/aren't stuck so far up his own ass.

Michael Bay would have made a better The Last Airbender film than him.

Let's not say anything we can't take back nor plant ideas in peoples' heads, now.

[explicit]

... I'm... I'm sorry

[J]

itt's rather unfortunate that shamalan became so closely associated with the twist ending. the thing he was really good at was atmosphere. watch the first few seconds of unbreakable: nothing but a sustained shot of bruce willis' face, but the bleakness and depression just fucking oozes off the screen and into your fucking soul. the 6th sense makes you feel the creeping terror and paranoia that only an imaginative 10 year old can feel. signs is a stupid fucking movie with a stupid fucking plot, but it's so well shot and edited and scored that you don't even notice how stupid it is until it's over.

i like to think that if the man ever gets over himself and teams up with a really good screen-writer, they could do something really amazing.

[Kugai]

... I'm... I'm sorry

*Puts bar of Soap away and turns off taps*

[Neko_Ali]

The thing about Shamalan is he did that association with twist endings himself. It worked in the Sixth Sense because of the long build up, careful directing and scene composition that led no one to suspect the twist until the end. He was just very good at setting it all up. But in the end, it was the story and acting that drew people in. The twist was a payoff. But somewhere, somehow he decided it was THE pay off and made it his signature. And then sadly started making worse and worse films, mostly based on a 'twist' that people were expecting to happen, and became to obvious even to casual view. The 'twist' concept really only works if people aren't expecting it...

[explicit]

Basically he can never do it ever again and has to start making actual movies. "After Earth" was not a good step (I didn't watch it, but apparently it sucked).

[Method of Madness]

I still hold that Unbreakable was a much better movie than The Sixth Sense, although admittedly I haven't seen either in like...a decade. Dunno if it would hold up.

[explicit]

But that's mostly because Unbreakable was a far better story and The Sixth Sense was all about the payoff. Repeated views would make the former a better watch.

[Method of Madness]

I've only seen both once. To be fair, I probably knew the twist in The Sixth Sense before I saw it. Kind of unavoidable, I didn't see it in the theater. That doesn't excuse it, though. Knowing the twists of Fight Club and The Usual Suspects didn't take anything away, or even take from the actual twist when it was revealed.

[Welu]

Something fun to do is watch Fight Club and constantly remind yourself of Marla's perspective.

[GarandMarine]

Unbreakable's a classic, and an origin point for modern, more self aware super hero media.

[pwhodges]

Titan A.E. I suppose a film that flopped so completely that it destroyed the studio that made it, and ended the career of Don Bluth, has to be regarded as bad. But I took my forum handle from the name of the lead female character Akima Kunimoto, so obviously I think it has something going for it.

I've just watched Titan A.E., and I wouldn't call it bad.  It's mostly good looking, and there's some pretty gorgeous animation.  The plot is straightforward, and doesn't have any unexpected twists - you could call it vanilla almost to the point of being dull, perhaps; and the instant formation of the planet Bob at the end, and the immediate arrival of the drifters to colonise it, can only be described as somewhat absurd.  But in spite of that, in the context of the whole film the end ties things up nicely enough.  So a pleasant 90 minutes spent, with no intellectual pretensions.

The one thing that did irritate me, though, was the animation of the humans.  It combined the awkwardness of dated computer graphic figures with an irritating exaggeration of their movement, making everything they did come over as a mannerism.

[explicit]

I just remembered this movie, and I don't remember if people thought it was bad or not, but I'm putting it here anyway.

The Invention of Lying

[Method of Madness]

I saw it, and I don't remember liking it, despite really wanting to.

[Thrillho]

Ricky Gervais has to my knowledge not made a single good film.

Speaking of actors, this isn't really the right thread for it, but goddammit Emma Stone will you please be in a film where you play someone other than the exact same snarky girl?

[Method of Madness]

Why?

[explicit]

She threatened to axe people in This is the End

[Method of Madness]

Wasn't that Emma Watson?

[explicit]

Wasn't that Emma Watson?

Oh wait, I saw the word "Emma" and my mind just went blank, my bad.

[Thrillho]

Why?

To show she actually has acting talent. Even Bill Murray eventually started acting.

[The Seldom Killer]

Ricky Gervais has to my knowledge not made a single good film.

Depends on your view on Stardust. I wouldn't say it was a bad film.

[Thrillho]

Not seen it. The rest of his filmography is like a fart at a gravedigger's funeral. Invention Of Lying? Ghost Town? Night at the Museum, repeatedly?

I've heard Cemetery Junction is good but I don't think he acts in that, does he? Also he wrote it.

[The Seldom Killer]

He does appear in it. I think he suffers from the Woody Allen effect. Good writer, nauseating actor.

[Thrillho]

See, I disagree, because I think both The Office and Extras are fantastic and he's the star of each.