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Signs (Vista Series)

Signs (Vista Series)

List Price: $14.99
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Very entertaining and clever in spots
Review: Yes, the major complaint with this film is the whole "aliens-water" thing. That would be a valid complaint if the film was about an alien invasion, that was just a plot device used to explore the motivations behind Mel's character and themes about the power of faith. It succeeds on that level while providing some real suspense and excitement.

Signs is not as clever as "The Sixth Sense" but it is well worth a look.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pretty creepy and interesting movie.
Review: This is a creepy and interesting movie. The alien portryal and story line is a bit cliche though. I was expecting a little more creativity. The mood, perspective, and directing is awesome though. Overall, pretty creepy.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: If this is a sign, it's pointing to the EXIT
Review: To be charitable, I imagine the writer/director of this film thought he was making something suspenseful, yet subtle and delicate. In fact so much of the film is pure "talking heads" the biggest mystery of all is why an actor like Mel Gibson let himself be talked into taking part in such a staggeringly vacuous piece of nonsense.

There are just two story lines here, and even then they tend to occupy discrete sections of the fim rather than intertwining:

1. Mel Gibson was a priest until his wife was killed in a road accident six months before the film begins. Losing his wife caused him to lose his faith. In the final scene, apparently on the ludicrous premise that God gave his son asthma to protect him from the alien gas attack, he dresses up as a priest again.

2. Crop circles start appearing all over the planet, including one in the field of maize on Gibson's farm. Later on something big with lots of lights on appears over Mexico City. Then the earth gets invaded by aliens who are apparently intent on "harvesting" the human race, but are rather easily defeated because they cannot stand coming into contact with - Water!

The first question that comes to mind is: What kind of alien race, whose members are fatally allergic to water, is bright enough to travel vast distances through space, yet stupid enough to waste all that technology, time and effort by trying to harvest a race of beings whose bodies are 80% water?

Duh!

I see some reviewers reject this kind of criticism on the grounds that the film isn't really about crop circles or the alien invasion but is about beliefs, faith, family, etc.
Sorry, I don't see the logic. Maybe I'm being naive but to my mind, if you use crop circles, aliens and an alien invasion as the hook on which to hang your story then the crop circles, the aliens and the invasion should be as credible as the other elements of the plot.
If they AREN'T worth taking trouble over then why the heck are they there at all? Could it be that they are included in an effort to attract an audience which wouldn't be even remotely interested in the "real" story?

There may have been the basis for an interesting 20 minute TV programme here, but what we actually get is an hour and a half (approx.) of poorly lit (sorry, "atmospheric"), poorly recorded ("natural"?) nonsense. The special f/x are limited in every sense of the word, involving one pretty stereotypical alien (naked, humanoid, with silvery green skin, bald head and black eyes), and a still photo of a set of bright spots over some kind of urban area at night (Mexico City? It could have been Southend-on-Sea for all you could see). In fact (to save money?) the characters end up telling us all about the invasion. It's like watching the recording of a 1930's radio drama, except that the script really isn't up to the standards of a 1930s radio drama.

As to the DVD extras, there's plenty there, but what does all that examination of a thoroughly mindless, boring picture get you? Right, more boredom.

I personally liked "Sixth Sense" a lot, and I appreciated the slow build up of the plot to the final explanation of Bruce Willis' situation.
Possibly Mr Shyamalan was trying to do something along the same lines here. If so, I can only say that he needs to get back some of his earlier objectivity, because this film failed to match his earlier work in every conceivable way.

In fact, the only "sign" I found in this film was the one that pointed to the exit.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SpineTingling
Review: This movie scared me senseless.Im not a Mel Gibson fan, but he really did a great job in this movie.Joaquin Phoenix also was great as Mel's younger brother.The scenes where the Aliens appeared were frightening.Especially when Joaquin saw the alien on tv at the childrens birthday party...It scared the heck out of me.Great movie!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Mel Gibson
Review: Not a fast paced alien flick, but a great movie never the less. Slow mover and suspenseful, happy ending. Two thumbs up.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Scary Encounter of the Third Kind
Review: M. Night Shyamalan is a very talented filmmaker, there is no doubt about that. His Sixth Sense scared people everywhere, and revived in the process Bruce Willis's career with gusto, while Breakaway was a very intelligent and underrated thriller with a twist. I, therefore, very much looked forward to Signs, for fresh, original, and well written and directed films are few and far between these days, and any new output by directors like Shyamalan are a valuable addition to the art of cinema.

Well, Signs did deliver the goods on many levels.
Firstly it is a very well directed film, where the pace and tension starts from the first minutes and escalates steadily until almost the end.
Secondly, the writing is superb, and I very much liked the emotional and humane element of a family trying to cope with the loss of a mother, and the father(an ex priest,played flawlessly by Mel Gibson)trying to cope with the loss of his faith as a result. This is powerful writing.
The alien invasion of earth is done very smartly, the development of which is mostly seen through the eyes of this family, trapped in their farmhouse. Not since Spielberg's Close Encounter of a Third Kind, did a film handle an alien invasion/contact so brilliantly.
Yet,why do I give the film only three marks??
I was disappointed with few elemets of the film, and if you have not seen it yet, ps dont read on, as I do not wish to spoil any surprises for you.
The last scene when we get to see the alien holding the boy,(played very well by yet another Culkin, this time it is Rory)spoiled the tension and atmosphere of the film for me.
I would have very much prefered if the image and shape of these aliens remained firmly in the viewer's imagination, since throughout the whole film we only see shadows,or fews seconds glimpses or hear footsteps which hightens the suspense.
Moreover, the fact that the aliens in Signs are so smart they can read people's thoughts, yet they are afraid of water, the only element that can destroy them, which made me think 'Hmmm, they are not so smart after all, travelling galaxies to choose the one planet that is 70% water!!!
So while I enjoyed Signs very much, and there are few memorable and powerful scenes, it is a pity that it has these very few flaws that prevents me from giving it a classic status, one that a talented filmmaker like Shyamalan deserves.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not enough to go on.
Review: Aliens invade the earth, and now they decide to attack some lowley farmers, that's great. There is this spooky atmosphere, you never really know what is happening outside, but you hear the noises.

Mel Gibson plays a farm dude. He has 2 kids, and then theres that one teen guy, im not really clear on him. Anyways, these aliens come down to the earth, and are extremely hostile. Although most of the time I know what is going to happen, I guess the atmosphere was done great.

Major problems mdizzio? Well, there seems to be a profound use of how we say, dramatic speech. Every moment they can, Mel Gibson tells the kids some dramatic story about their birth or about life. I mean jeez, it isn't that sad or powerful, so just give it up Mel. Then you learn about his wife, the accident, and why he has this sort of thing against the lord.

The one cool part was the aliens hand, then lets go over to the stupidest part, "swing away". Yea, swing your bat to defeat the poison dudes or something. How they kill the alien is the most idiotic thing ever though. Who was the genius who thought of the death item? My dad came across me with a good point. The aliens sure did pick a great planet to invade, o yea, the thing that kills them is almost as abundunt as trees. The aliens sure thought this one out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great movie that deserved a better disc
Review: Signs is a very good movie and a worthy follow up to Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Mel Gibson gives an excellent performance as a man who has lost his faith in God and is trying to find his way raising his kids after the death of his wife. To tell more about this movie would spoil some of the fun but if you like suspense and scares without being treated like an idoit then i can't recommend this movie enough.

The only draw back has to be that the dvd is called a Vista Series but unlike previous vista series releases it's a single disc and not a two disc release. Because of this the quality of the dvd transfer isn't quite refrence quality but it's still pretty good.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Thinking man's ID 4
Review: POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

Shyamalan's "Signs" is a throwback to the alien invasion pics of the 1950's. The plot certainly doesn't smack of originality. Hostile aliens invade earth, humanity is on the brink of extinction, zany humans find a way to defeat alien menace. No "ET Phone Home" here. These xenomorphs are purely evil.
But Shyamalan chooses not to focus on the epic, ensuing struggle between the aliens and the humanoids but focuses on a single family living on a farm in the countryside.
Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) is a former pastor who has recently lost his wife (and his faith). Joaquin Phoenix and McCaulay's slightly more talented younger brother play his two sons. These are your main characters. Seems like any episode of "Little House on the Prairie" until those nasty crop circles start appearing.
Forget about the built-in morality play about faith. This is just a backdrop and an excuse for some boring ponderings about the meaning of life, faith, God etc. "Signs" is just a first class psychological thriller. Everything else is just the icing on the cake. The suspense is allowed to build up nicely. We don't find out at least a third of the way into the film that the aliens are hostile. In the meantime, more and more mysterious sightings are seen in the skies over various cities. All of this is revealed through the news playing on the Hess's television set. As a matter of fact, aside from a quick trip to the city, most of the film takes place in and around their old farm. This leaves you with that same sense of "what the (heck) is going on?" that they must feel.
There are some genuine "bump" moments when the aliens finally converge on the farm house. But once the ET's are revealed, they look remarkably generic, plastic. So by the time our heroes find out the alien baddies have severe hydrophobia, you may be left somewhat unsatisfied. The build up was better than the conclusion.
At this point, you might want to check out some of the extras on the DVD. Nothing remarkable but it will keep you amused for a bit.

What Signs lacks is that adrenaline-rush that ID 4 provides by the bucketful.

Three out of five headbutts!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Overrated
Review: I went into this movie expecting to like it; I liked the Sixth Sense a lot, and had enjoyed Unbreakable. Unfortunately, although Signs works on a visceral level, it doesn't measure up on an intellectual level to Shamalyan's previous movies. The movie's main question - whether there's some higher plan guiding everything - is dealt with in a completely artificial way. The "coincidences" that are put in to emphasize the point don't demonstrate a higher plan - they emphasize a director's plan. It's not so amazing if seeming coincidences turn out to be meaningful, because this movie was written by a person who specifically put them in there with a purpose. Maybe if the coincidences seemed a little more believable I'd like the movie more, but as it stands now, the movie's philosophy is too contrived. That said, if you don't care about a movie standing up to logic and are just looking for a fun time, Signs is worth the 3 bucks it costs to rent it.


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