Rating: 
Summary: Another excellent movie by Mr. Night Shyamalan!!
Review: I saw "Signs" three days after it released and I must say it was certainly a very interesting and suspenseful movie. I have to disagree with many people trying to compare Shyamalan to Spielberg; I mean, hello! just because a movie has a different intriguing storyline doesn't mean that people should think that the director is like a Spielberg wannabe, because everyone has their own unique way of making movies, so there shouldn't be any comparisons unless the storyline is 100% exactly similar between the two movies. Anyway, I wouldn't say that the storyline is a completly original one because there have been other movies like this..but the way M.Night Shyamalan has portrayed the storyline with the increasing depth and the relationship between the characters is excellent, and because of that, it is a must watch! True, it is not as good as "The Sixth Sense", it is much much better than the unbearable "Unbreakable". The story is about Father Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), who lost his faith in God ever since his wife passed away. He lives with his two children, played by Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin, and his brother Merrill Hess (played by Joaquin Phoenix). One day, they discover large crop signs in their farm and notice that there were made similar crop signs in various fields in different countries and starts to wonder what's behind them. The story then deals around how Graham and his family come closer and closer to finding out what's behind the "Signs" and what they really mean and what's about to happen, and during this time, how their relationship towards one another expands. Mel Gibson has acted excellently in the movie and so have the children. A good thing about M.Night Shyamalan is that he always chooses great child actors for all his movies, which is really interesting. Joaquin Phoenix also acted good as the funny guy in the movie, which game the movie it's moments.
All in all, if you would like to be entertained and have a liking for mystery/suspense movies, then this is a definite seeing for you.
Rating: 
Summary: strong characters, painfully lacking plot
Review: This movie was beautifully acted (with, I'm sad to say, the exception of Mr. Shyamalan himself). The characters have depth. There are some poignant and emotional moments -- "the last supper", the goodbye wife, the what-you-did-when born scenes-- and we have the actors to thank for the depth of these scenes. Nevertheless, my highest praise for this movie is that at no point did I seriously feel like leaving the theater. The plot was unbearably weak. Some scenes were painful back-fill (the recruiter's office "swing" scene) so obviously there to explain something later in the film that I squirmed in my seat. The "random firing of synapses" set-up line was pathetic. Here I'm going to go ahead and give away some "plot" points since I don't believe there were really any surprises in the movie anyway, but stop reading now if you think you may care. Do you really think that aliens would mount an inter-galactic attack force to a planet seven tenths water and not have a plan for that? The twist in the movie is that the crop circles actually were made by aliens invading the Earth -- in other words, the twist is that Mr. Shyamalan's new movie's plot has no twist. It is a character study, and that would be perfectly fine, but even a "pure" character study needs a story framework built of more than spit and sawdust to hold it together. Reverend/Father Farmer (was it his wife who planted all that corn?) discovers that all the random events and coincidences in life actually turn out to be "signs" and, even more usefully, helpful clues to how to react in the case of an alien invasion. Like we need a dead woman to tell us to hit the alien with the only weapon in the room. Or maybe the point is that the Reverend ultimately goes insane, seeing signs in everything; I'm sure that there is some clinical delusion that presents itself just like that. Boy, it must be tough to pick a breakfast cereal if your flakes are symbols of something. Sixth Sense was unbelievably good. Brilliant. Remarkable. Unbreakable was a disappointment, but a solid, light-weight movie. Signs is a sad waste.
Rating: 
Summary: Signs
Review: The suspense in this movie kept building up more and more and then at the end it just dropped. The ending of this movie was so bad! I could write a better one! There were plenty of scary parts in this movie, like the alien sighting shown on the news, the alien leg seen in the corn feild, when the alien grabs the son in the basement, but there was so much dissapointing ...! Like when you see the alien at the end, or even worse how they kill the alien, or how the aliens just decided to leave earth and everything went back to normal. I left the theater so mad. Go see the movie but leave 10 min. before the ending. You'll like the movie a whole lot more.
Rating:
Summary: I nearly peed myself.
Review: I'm a big fan of The Sixth Sense and M. Night Shyamalan's other underrated flick Unbreakable, so it was a no brainer that I'd go and see Signs. Let me tell you, I don't scare easily, but this movie was so creepy and so scary it had me jumping out of my seat. I know a lot of people thought The Sixth Sense had some pretty scary moments, but this one is so much scarier that it's beyond comparison. I wasn't expecting that. What I was expecting is more superb direction from Shyamalan, and I wasn't disappointed. The thing Shyamalan does is make the impossible seem plausible and then completely beleivable by telling a huge story through the perspective of relatively average people. It's this perspective that allows Signs to be more than an alien movie or the Sixth Sense to be more than a ghost story. The characters in his stories have more depth and soul than 99% of the straight-forward dramas that hit the theaters these days. You care about the characters, they don't just exist to be eaten by monsters or run away from the scary ghosts. They ARE the story. I'll go one further by saying this is probably the best movie I've seen this year. It was an emotional rollercoaster. The girl behind me went from screaming to crying to laughing back to screaming again in less than 10 minutes. It's that kind of movie.
Rating:
Summary: Certainly overated, but not all bad.
Review: -- MILD SPOILERS -- Reviews I've read of 'Signs' seem to either praise it up to the skies or lambast it as a complete waste of money. I'd say it was neither of those - simply a poor to average film. I enjoyed both 'The Sixth Sense' and 'Unbreakable', but not 'Signs'. All the elements of the previous films were there - MNS' slow, deliberate pacing, excellent performances from the central actors and the building suspense. But I could not care about the paper-thin characters, and without that, the suspense was meaningless. Sure, I was curious as to what was going to happen, but I didn't *care*. For the most part, the handling of the religious overtones was hokey and heavy-handed. Again, the poor character development might have interfered with my appreciation of these aspects. The ending to the film was distinctly unsatisfying, and raised more questions than it resolved. Finally, the poor special effects (if so they can be called) and 'alien invasion' plot aspects were ridiculous enough to be distracting. That being said, there were several redeeming moments scattered throughout the film - some of genuine humour, some of genuine fear. Scattered as they were, these moments were all entertaining. I was fortunate enough to be able to observe the reactions of the woman seated next to me in the cinema to some of the more frightening scenes - that was worth my $$$ all in itself. Luck or miracle? I've read elsewhere that the entire movie was a dream - that this was its 'genius'. If I were to ever give it another viewing, I might be persuaded that it was Bo's dream, but so what? It might explain the film's shortcomings, but it doesn't excuse them. I see a film to be entertained, and be it reality, fantasy, sci-fi or dream, I still want a quality story with characters I can make an emotional investment in. 'Signs' fails to deliver. 4 out of 10.
Rating:
Summary: So-so sci-fi
Review: If you're willing to overlook some ridiculous premises in the plot, you might enjoy this sci-fi thriller with spiritual overtones. The acting is passionate and convincing--and it has to be, because the alien threat is well, not too threatening. The direction also stands out--great pacing, lots of suspense, again despite the story. Finally, "Signs" has a magnificent ending--always an unexpected plus. The movie is basically a rehash of "War of the Worlds"; so much so that at one point Joaquin Phoenix actually has to clumsily reference that story, probably to prevent sci-fi fans from yelling "Foul!". What made "War of the Worlds" so thrilling is that the aliens were so formidable: they used their dark mastery of science not just for interplanetary travel, but for incinerating helpless earthlings. The "Signs" aliens, on the other hand, couldn't outslug a grandmother with a spritzer bottle. This leads to all kinds of absurdities with their global "attack". So, if you care about things like that, you won't be able to take "Signs" seriously. But, if you can suspend your judgment for a couple hours, there's enough of interest that you won't be wasting your money.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Movie Since "Ishtar"
Review: This was the worst movie I have seen in years. I stayed hoping that sooner or later it would have some redeeming quality. It was extremely cliche. If aliens are smart enough to come to Earth and stage a world-wide attack, surely they can break through wooden doors! The religious conflict for Gibson's character appeared to be more of filler storyline that was occasionally thrown in. Getting rid of the aliens was such a "Wizard of Oz" getting rid of the wicked witch thing. I expected better from Gibson and Phoenix. They are too good as actors to have deserved to be part of this "movie".
Rating:
Summary: SIGNS OF TROUBLE
Review: Think the WORST episode of the X-FILES you've ever seen, cross it with a BAD episode of NORTHERN EXPOSURE-and you get SIGNS.
Awful acting, stupid script, and a finale that'll have you falling off the edge of your seat-not out of suspense, but from your own raucous laughter at the stupidity of it all.
Rating:
Summary: Lacks real heart
Review: I really enjoyed the Sixth Sense with it's subtle approach to scaring the viewer, it's more restrained use of CGI techniques and its "got ya!" ending. With this first exposure to the work of Shyamalan I was expecting great things from Signs. Certainly the trailers and the reviews indicated that I wasn't wrong. My husband was just luke warm about seeing the film, but when friends expressed interest in it, the four of us went. Even good company was hard put to it to make up for the disappointing movie! Throughout I kept expecting something exceptional. When the photo on the wall indicated a priest with a family, I wondered if it was going to be some sort of defrocked priest suffers for his loss of faith film. Then with the introduction of the man sleeping alone in a double bed, I wondered if it would be about a priest who had given up his calling and then lost the love for whom he'd given it up. When someone in the film suggested it had been only six months since the hero had lost his wife and quit the priesthood, I thought you don't get two school age children in six months, okay, so she was his mistress? What gives? Maybe he's an Episcopalian priest. But when the girl in town wanted to "confess," I thought, ahh, okay now I'm really confused. Confession isn't a notable part of the Episcopalian faith; I know because I am one. It must make some sense to the person who wrote it, but it's not making a bit of sense to me. Maybe it's actually a world much like ours but not exactly like ours or a parallel universe. Then the invaders might actually be us, that is earthlings, sort of ala Twilight Zone. I kept watching for clues to see if this were the case, but they never came. Then with the various dream sequences I thought, maybe the alien invasion is actually the dream and the dreams are a reality that he's trying to avoid. Maybe alien invasion is actually preferable to what he has to face in reality. In short I really tried to see this as an exciting film that would ultimately provide that twist at the end that would make all the otherwise plodding plot worth while--at least three people at the theater left before the first half hour was up!--but no such luck. In discussing it with my friends after the movie, we agreed that the family was way too isolated from the actual horrors of the invasion for the experience to be effectively frightening or tense. There was no sense of the world devastated by attacks as in Independence Day, no "us against them" fight for home and family. Nor were there any moments of one to one confrontation that really made any difference. When the alien appeared in the living room carrying what I thought might be a fallen comrade, I thought maybe the alien had come seeking assistance and despite the fear, the family would come to his aid, but no he was holding the child. My husband thought the alien might have realized the child was in trouble and was trying to heal him, but again, nope. Even the episodic introductions of the alien creatures seemed contrived and borrowed heavily from Spielberg's earlier film Close encounters. The plot itself seemed indebted to Wells' War of the Worlds. Personally I can't see why anyone would have been afraid of such bumbling aliens anyway. They make it millions of light years to the Earth but need crop circles as a guidance system once they get here? I knew parking was difficult out east, but crop circles to reserve your space? And what's this problem with doors? You can destroy the world but you can't open a door? And I can't imagine why water would be toxic to an alien. Everyone who studies the subject of extraterrestrial life seems to feel that water is an essential ingredient. Even if it weren't, one would have presumed the aliens would have taken precautions against such an apparently corrosive substance, given that about 2/3 of our plant consists of the stuff! The film definitely had a problem with logic and continuity. I'm definitely a Mel Gibson fan, but I felt his character was wooden and immobilized. One can understand the woodeness at the beginning if he were a mourning spouse, but when it came to threats to his family, one would have expected more of a response. He even left to his younger brother the task of risking hand to hand combat with the alien to defend the family. And why was the family pet left outside to die? And more importantly, why was there so little emotional response from the family when it did, no move, even abortive, to save what might be considered "one of the family?" When the dog in Independence Day was running for cover and safety, his family was horrified that he might not make it and overjoyed when he did. I was on the edge of my seat. In Signs, one already knew the dog was going to die--in aide no doubt of the sagging plot--when the topic of its disposition was brought up and it was decided to leave it where it was until "after dinner" and even then it wasn't to be safe inside with the family, only locked up in the garage. Something's missing here. I think it's called heart. Maybe that's why I enjoyed Independence Day more than I did Signs.
Rating: 
Summary: Signs of the times.....
Review: Put Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix in a movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan and what do you get? A pretty good movie but not on par with Shyamalan's excellent spine tingler, "The Sixth Sense". Mel Gibson is good as the minister at the center of the movie, who after losing his wife in a horrific car accident, has lost his faith in God. Joaquin is his brother,Merrill, living with the ex-minister and his two young children. He was once a promising baseball player but became a washout and is now a gast station attendant. The creepiness begins with a large crop sign in the minister's corn field and the build up begins from there. We the viewers are treated to some interesting moments that leave you expecting that twist of an ending that made "The Sixth Sense" such a pleasure to watch. Instead, the climax of this movie is a bit of a let down and you will leave the theater wishing for more. Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix are good in there roles but it is the director's story that needs a little tweaking. I'm giving it 4 stars because it is worth seeing as a matinee. I'm hoping M. Night Shyamalan takes a little more time with the next project and deliver more chills and thrills.
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