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The Sixth Sense (Vista Series)

The Sixth Sense (Vista Series)

List Price: $29.99
Your Price: $26.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Sixth Sense Is A Master Piece!
Review: This movie has absolutely everything! A great writer/director, great actors, a great plot, and a brilliance not found in many movies. This movie, and its actors, have won and been nominated for numerous awards (including Oscar's), and they deserved to win every one of them.

Mystery, suspense, thrill, drama, excitement, intrigue, horror... this movie is FILLED with all of them! Explore the paranormal as you learn that gifts are not always pleasant from actor Haley Joel Osment, who delivered a performance that can only be described as stunning.

Watch this movie again and again, every time you watch you'll learn something new (especially between the first and second time)... This is an enjoyable movie, that truly has seeped into culture. A must see for everyone!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Scary and well written
Review: I heard some reviews of this movie before I actually got to watch it so I knew that there was a twist. Although the reviewers I heard didn't mention the exact nature of it I figured it out after a few minutes of the film. I think I might have enjoyed this movie more had I not known, but I will say that even the second time I watched it, it was still entertaining.
This kind of movie has to be really good to be enjoyable the second viewing, so I will say it's a good movie. The child actor had to be good and they picked a winner here. Willis is better and more entertaining in action flicks (at least that is my opinion) but here and in the movie The Kid, he is good, there is no doubt.
If you haven't somehow overheard the twist in this movie, hurry and watch it before someone ruins it for you. This is the kind of scary movie that can be watched with older kids as it is very scary at points, and while it has some gruesome scenes in it, it doesn't have outright gory violence like a slasher flick nor does it have any sex scenes. A strong recommendation for anyone that likes good drama and doesn't mind a couple of frightening images.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oh My God!!
Review: That's what you'll be saying when you finish watching "The Sixth Sense".

However, when you watch it again, you'll say that alot more often.

M. Night Shyamalan, director-writer of "The Sixth Sense" (later Unbreakable, Signs) is a genius. Night (as he likes to be called), set up this movie as a thriller in what seemed to be the wake of Blair Witch, which is why I personally didn't go see it in theatres. I'm not a big horror fan. Later when I saw it on TV it absolutly blew me away.

The movie really isn't a horror movie. It's much more of a deep, thoughtful psychological thriller. And I love deep movies. The movies opening ten minutes are a rush, and then the next half hour moves quite slowly. I got extremely bored watching this section the first time, but trust me, its all worth it. As the story progresses the last hour is excellent.

And the final five minutes... Check the bold print above.

This movie is 2 movies in one. It's one movie your first viewing, and a second the second time you see it. It's a movie you invite everyone who hasn't seen it over to see their expressions when it ends. And its a fine, fine DVD.

DVD:

The video quality on this DVD is pretty much flawless. Once and a while a single frame will have a white spec on it. The sound is also beautiful for non-surround sound + surround sound alike.
The movie is slightly widescreened on a normal TV, but not to the extent of "Pearl Harbor".

The Case: The case is unique to say the least. It's got an outer cover, that you pull out the case from. This case opens up into about 6 pages, with the 2 DVDs in the middle, and to the far right some drawings of the storyboards and a booklet explaining the special features + chapters.

The Trailers: There are 3 trailers included. 2 TV Spots, The 15 second one shows the 5 senses and the 6th sense as the kid. The 30 second one is a bunch of short clips of the infamous scenes from the movie. The Theatrical trailer is the best of the bunch, it makes out the movie to be a horror movie, and made famous the "I see dead people" line.

Reflections From The Set: One of the largest segments, about 40 minutes long. Well done interviewing Producers, Directors, and Actor/Actresses. I was amazed to see that the two female leads (Crowe's Wife + Cole's Mother) both had English and Australian accents respectively. I couldn't tell the least bit in the movie. This like most of the other features gives away the ending. I loved the Bruce Willis + (Vincent Gray Actor?) segments telling how they prepared for their roles.

Paranormal Special: I was expecting a "Sightings"-esque feature, but it turned out to be much deeper including interviews with Night, the writer of "The Exorsist" and my favorite interviewee The writer of "Ghost". It was very intresting to hear how the writer of "Ghost" developed the idea for his movie, and why he chose to write from the side of the ghost (Patrick Swayze).

Storyboarding: This segment shows how Night, unlike other writer/directors chose to draw out the entire movie on storyboards before actually taping it, saving him perhaps millions of dollars, but adding 12 - 16 weeks of writing time. It was intresting to see after the movie.

Music/Sound: This segment was actually one of the most intresting on the disk. I was surprised how many human "voices" they had put in the movie backround. Several of the scenes they took upcoming dialouge and played it backwords slightly before the actor said it. The more I listened to this, the creeper the movie actually got, while at the same time it increased the effort I saw being put in. It also explains why some scenes (namely the Cole tells Mom scene) don't have any music in the backround.

Hints/Clues/Rules: If you've seen the movie, you should know what this is talking about. If you haven't, watch the movie at least twice before viewing this excellent segment.

Reaching The Audience: This segment has the five or six producers + Night talking about how unexpected the 2 week #1 spot run + subsequent #10 grossing of all time was. It was hillarious to hear that the studio thought the movie would be a flop when no one clapped at the end of the inital screening (apparently, they were all still in shock with their jaws on the floor).

Deleted Scenes: all of these scenes were magnificantly done. Each is introduced by Night, explaining the scene, where in the movie it was located, and why it was taken out. Most were to stop the ruining of the ending, or stop confusion to the audience. I agree with Night's assesment of cutting the "Extended" ending to its current version, so it ends as a shocker and not a sobber.

Complaints:

1) No Director's Commentary
2) My 2 fav trailers before seeing this movie were the Pearl Harbor Trailers. This movie contains one that is superior to the 2 on the Pearl Harbor DVD, and yet once you view it at the beginning of the disk, there is no way to review it. Bah.

In Review:

MOVIE: 5 Stars
DVD: 5 Stars
OVERALL: 5 Stars (Excellent Movie, Excellent DVD, High Replay)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Haley Joel Osment's 2nd Best Movie
Review: Everyone knows that "A. I." is Haley's best performance--but "Sixth Sense" is a good runner up, of course, he was two years younger when he did this film.

"Sixth Sense" essentially tells the same story as the less popular and more humorous Elijah Wood film "North"--both films are about two boys guided by a strange Bruce Willis who feel that they are disconnected from their parent/parents.

"Sixth Sense" is basically about the fear of letting our loved ones know our secrets, afraid they wouldn't be our lived ones anymore if they knew. It is also just a darn good movie!

If you buy one DVD this year, make it "A. I.", if you buy two, make it "A. I." and "Sixth Sense".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome Child Actor
Review: Bruce Willis does a great job. But it is Haley Joel Osment who really makes this movie special. He gives a totally convincing performance with great depth of emotion. I suggest you take a look at another of his movies called "I'll remember April"

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A solid ghost story
Review: Before I had seen "Sixth Sense", I had only a few weeks before seen "The Haunting", a ghost-story remake (of a good movie) that failed to impress me. What impressed me about this movie was simply the fact that time was taken to invest in the characters and their problems (and that's not called "slow-paced" in my view, it's called "character development"). This is one of those ghost stories that goes beyond a run-of-the-mill thriller, both visually and emotionally. The DVD special edition here has pretty much what was available on the previous release (which was pretty good in itself), including three new documentaries on the film. My favorite in the bunch of documentaries is "Reflections From The Set", which has recent interviews with the stars about their involvement in the film. For those of you who didn't get "Sixth Sense" on DVD the first time, then this is definitely the one you have to get.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Who, exactly, are the dead people?
Review: Frankly, I have never seen a movie so misinterpreted by critics. That is, in part, the fault of its writer/direct M. Night Shamalyan. The Sixth Sense is a movie of separate, yet self-contained and authentic levels. On the surface, it is an effective ghost story in the truest sense, drawing on a long tradition of tales and with an ending that is both rewardingly unique and also of a kind with some of classic tales of haunting. (The Others, with Nicole Kidman, tries to pull off a similar effect, but falls woefully short. The Others is a nice enough film, but nothing more. In comparison, The Sixth Sense is as well-realized a film as I have ever seen.) Okay, then, so what is the other layer of this film? In my view, the power of this film is in its less obvious message: it is a haunting, evocative, and cautionary tale about middle age. About how easily we become the walking dead. In our work. In our relationships. Bound as we are in routine and rote, we see only what we want to see. We neglect those that are closest to us. We sleepwalk through life. And when those we care about truly die, we awaken just long enough to be filled with regret. This emotional undercurrent builds and builds and finds its release in several key moments. You'll know them by the uncharacteristically powerful emotions they evoke--the depth of which could only be achieved by this striking psychological tale so nicely concealed in a story of the supernatural. This is a very, very special film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Vista Series, excellent product
Review: I'd like to know who to credit for the wonderful, beefy package that comes with the Vista Series. They are quite nice compared to the regular snap-case, so I keep them in a drawer to protect them from the elements...

Searching for something different to watch on a lonely Monday, I spotted THE PACKAGING of "Sixth Sense" in a local store -- that's why I picked it up. I only knew that the movie was quite popular, and I had purchased and watched "Unbreakable" several months earlier.

I was skeptical about the child actor when I bought this DVD. As it turns out, the movie is quite remarkable and the Director: M. Night Shyamalan does a superb job. His movies are quite different and tasteful. Often the reviews or advertising compare him or this film to Alfred Hitchcock -- I think that's insulting to both of them. There's nothing truly exciting in "Sixth Sense" but it's such a fine film that you will want to watch it again soon. In fact, I plan to watch "Unbreakable" right away and then re-visit "Sixth Sense" to really get a feel for the director.

Is it really a thriller or high drama? I don't know; that's for you to conclude. I will say that the taste and skill of Director: M. Night Shyamalan probably will leave one groping for words, and that's what sets an artist apart from everyone else.

DVD picture is excellent and the sound is good, too, although there is nothing remarkable about it -- there doesn't need to be.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: "Whaddaya think I am: stoopid???"
Review: - Whaddaya think I am: stoopid???
Bruce Willis' line as John McClane in "Die Hard" echoes the question I'd like to ask Mr Shyamalan concerning his highly overrated "The Sixth Sense".
In his effort to cross all the "t"s and dot all the "i"s, telling the viewer exactly what to think about the existence of ghosts, and leaving no room whatsoever for doubt, Shyamalan generates a script whose middle name is "Plot-Hole".

The basic premise is that ghosts, being disembodied and from the Beyond, labor under certain limitations: they can't enter churches, manipulate solid objects etc etc. They have unfinished business among the living, for which they need the help of a specially-gifted human, the eight-year-old Cole Sear, who in turn is able occasionally to find sanctuary from them.
Enter Mr Superghost. He looks perfectly at ease in a church, is able to change clothes, open doors and throw rocks... Why him and not the rest? We don't know. But, just like other ghosts, he "doesn't know that he is dead" - i.e. he doesn't notice that he all of a sudden doesn't eat, can't get service in a store or buy a bus ticket, and doesn't need to go to the bathroom. Huh???
Personally, the idea that Crowe was dead occurred to me early on, but I dismissed it with a "Nah, it can't be _that_ dumb!"

And yet the cinematography, the acting, the well-crafted overall mood would suffice to compensate for the hole-ridden plot and the offensively obvious "symbols" (Yes, the color RED has a special significance, yes, clever girl has been paying good attention to Teacher Shyamalan and figured it all out!) if we were granted a sceptic's escape hatch, the benefit of a doubt, the right to assume an alternative interpretation where Crowe is simply a burned-out psychologist who helps Cole to deal with the bogeymen in his mind. Letting Crowe walk down the school stairs after Cole's theatre performance and ending the film there would have saved the day.
But ambiguity is a Bad Thing to the good Mr Shyamalan. He has to spell it all out while drowning the entire dish in sentimental syrup.

The extatic reception that "The Sixth Sense" has received says something about the sad current state of the entertainment industry. In all, the film is a bad waste of good talent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nice New Extras, But...
Review: It's nice to see The Sixth Sense out in a super deluxe edition. The new extras consist of three documentaries, one on making Sixth Sense, one on the paranormal, supposedly hosted by M. Night, but you mostly hear from William Peter Blatty and the guy who wrote Ghost. Oh, and the third one is an interesting look into how Night uses storyboards to help him in the film making process. These are generally excellent and worth buying the movie over again, especially since you get everything that was on the original version as well. With one notable exception. The segment from Night's first horror film, which I found amusing, is missing. Why oh why are "deluxe" editions put out that don't contain all the extras of the regular edition? Oh well, it's an annoying, yet small oversight. The packaging is superior and the movie looks and sounds great. Though it looked and sounded great already.


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