Rating: 
Summary: Suspenseful and thought provoking.
Review: I am surprised at the negative ratings I have read here. My guess is these people were looking for a action packed, gorey popcorn flick of the Independence Day style. This movie is not of that genre at all. It has a Hitchcock flavor that will not disappoint the lover of subtle suspense and thoughtful intrigue. If you liked Sixth Sense, you should love this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Flattered to deceive :-(
Review: I remember the struggle I went through to get back to my dorm in the middle of the night after viewing "Nightmare on Elm Street" in the basement of another dorm.During the first half of "Signs", I had the impression that I would be in for another round of getting spooked by the shadows on the way back home. Thankfully, Manoj N Shyamalan spared me those, with his silly ending.
Rating:
Summary: Signs slips
Review: If Signs were 20 minutes less, it would be a great movie. The cast and crew do a great job, but the story is just too long and involved. I found myself bored about half way through. It takes a round about way of resolving itself, which makes it interesting. The lady who plays the police officer did a great job.
I recommend seeing it.
Rating:
Summary: does it measure up to the hype?
Review: "Signs" opened after a massive publicity campaign, and the movie audiences had great expectations. Newsweek featured director M. Night Shyamalan on its cover, touting him as potentially the next Spielberg. The first half of the movie seem to qualify for its hype, as we are introduced to strange happenings and to the complex character, former Anglican priest (Mel Gibson) who has lost his faith after the sudden death of his wife. He is left to raise his son and daughter alone, with the help of his younger brother, a failed minor league baseball player who has moved in with the bereaved family. The juxtaposition of their routine life with the supernatural is intriguing. The second half of the movie fails to deliver, as we are introduced to glimpses of "spacemen" who look like a fourth grader's idea of interplanetary invaders. There is one good, comic scene involving aluminum foil headgear. Overall the remainder of the movie is disappointingly trite and unsatisfying.
Rating: 
Summary: It's two! Two! Two bad films in one!
Review: You have to wonder what Shyamalan was thinking when he made this stinker. What we've got here is a really bad little green men film painfully stitched together with a really bad, completely insipid loss of faith film. From Mel Gibson's incredibly lame Episcopal priest to incredibly feeble aliens to cloyingly cute kiddos this is one long boring waste of time. At this point I sort of wish Shyamalan had stopped after he'd made "Sixth Sense." It seems clear now he only had one good idea.
Rating: 
Summary: Needlessly Incoherent and transparent
Review: First, let me say that I understand the movie is not (primarily) "about aliens". The main theme of the movie is that, no matter how random the universe appears to be, there is a divine order to the chaos. The protagonist (Gibson) discovers this truth and is able to recover his lost faith as a result--no problem there. The movie also kept me on the edge of my seat in spots, although it moved a bit too slowly. That being said, the movie had two big problems. First, the Aliens. Can anyone tell me how a race smart enough to master interstellar travel can't (a) deal with simple obstacles like locked doors and (b) aren't smart enough to bring protection against common Earthly threats (such as baseball bats and water)? Were they were supposed to be idiot savants? Clearly Shyamalan was looking for some plot vehicle to be both threating and mysterious--the problem is that the Aliens didn't pass the credibility test. The other problem is that Shyamalan assumes the audience is too stupid to see the final revelation coming (e.g., everything is part of God's plan). In fact, one could see it coming a mile away. The same was true with the "revelations" in his other recent efforts (Unbreakable and The Others). He's obviously trying recreate the briliant twist from the Sixth Sense ending. Unfortunately, he had yet to understand that he's lost both the advantage of surprise and the gift of subtlety.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Wonderful...A Breath Of Fresh Air!
Review: Mr.Shyamalan is brilliant and one of a kind. Thankfully, this is not a "show me" movie, but rather the "camera angles" feed the imagination, which can be more intense and frightening. The mood is created through the mind and not fancy-shmansy, in your face, special effects...This work is truely a breath of fresh air.
This is not a typical sci-fi movie with aliens running amuck, laser guns, & "rambo" type heros. The story has more depth to it than what is shown on the screen. It does address crop circles ("They are either a hoax or they are real") and an alien invasion, but he also addresses a family's struggle to get thru a tragic event together, which is non-alien related. Could the aliens really represent those trials in life? They remain disguised in fields of thought and then at some point try to find a way in. It appears that "boarding up the windows" will keep them out. However, the answer may not be a complex solution, but rather something simple that is right in front. Shyamalan's focus on the importance, strength, & support of family is to be commended. He shows us the unique quirks/characteristics of each of the family members and how life has brought them all together at that important time. A strong point in the movie is that there is no such thing as coincidence or irony. A powerful & intriguing concept meant to be shared with the audience to ponder.
This is a great movie full of meaning and insight. Mel Gibson did a great job as always! I was really impressed though with JOAQUIN PHOENIX's performance as Uncle Merrill. He should win an award for this role. His acting talent is truely amazing. Wow! Joaquin has really mastered the art of getting into character. You can see and feel the emotions in his facial expressions, voice, and body language that make Merrill come to life on the screen. He would have also been great way back during the silent film era for a good reason. He is able to convey feelings with facial expressions alone. He doesn't have to say a word and yet you know what the character is feeling. There are few actors in my mind that can do this. Usually the words are first and then the emotion or the emotion is sudden to reflect the scene. With him the feeling is genuine & flows, you know what emotion is going on before the words ever come out. True talent! What a brilliant actor!
Rating: 
Summary: READ MY REVIEW ONLY!
Review: First of all I say read my review only because I've read so many reviews that give so much of the movie away.....and I'm not going to do that. Like a trailer that shows you the whole movie, why see the movie afterwards?! If you've seen Shyamalan's Sixth Sense or Unbreakable see Signs, enough said. He doesn't disappoint. Shyamalan has a remarkable imagination and I look forward to many endeavors from him in the years to come. As for Signs....Mel Gibson is a widowed farmer, living with his two small children and brother, who discovers a crop circle in his corn field one day. After that things start to get weird around his farm, with strange noises, unexplained movement, "what's that" kind of stuff. And that should be enough to intrigue you. So many reviews have given away too much information and I won't. I went to see the movie blind with information and enjoyed it thoroughly. If I had as much knowledge about it as some reviewers want to give out it would have ruined the experience for me. I hope you enjoy the third of Shyamalan's many movies to come. Look for him in the movie, he once again plays a role, though a much bigger one. It's a fun ride, enjoy!!
Rating:
Summary: Prepared to be disappointed
Review: Watching this movie was just as much of a waist of time and money as making it. Filmmakers took unexplained events that actually took place in real life and explained them (very badly I should add). But if you are under impression that this is a movie about crop circles as suggested by previews, you are mistaken. Main storyline of this movie is religion. Mel Gibson's character (who used to be a reverent) looses his faith in God after the death of his wife. Throughout the course of the movie he obviously gains it back. Aliens were simply added as a secondary story to privet the movie from "GOD" label. As disappointing as that was, the Alien portion of this movie was almost laughable. The explanation for crop circles provided by this movie was Aliens (I've mentioned them couple of times by now). These visitors are hostile and use crop circles as a guide for landing. What's amazing is that life forms so advanced to travel thousands of light years to kill us happened to have impossible time handling locked doors, can be bitten by a baseball bat and killed by splashing water at them. I DON'T THINK SO. I know it's fiction, but it did not have to be this ridiculous. On the positive note, there were two parts in this movie that actually were pretty suspenseful, but they lasted only 3 min total (which is the only reason I gave this movie 2 stars instead of 1) and did not provide enough distraction from how bad the movie was. Thumbs way down for wasting a perfectly good idea for science fiction movie.
Rating:
Summary: Do you see the "signs?"
Review: Well, it's hard to add something to 200 plus reviews, but here goes... This is one of the best and most intelligent movies of the year. Usually, when I go see a movie, I am one of those people who already knows everything about it, that is, the entire plot, storyline and conclusion. But not so in this case. All I knew about "Signs" was what I had seen on theatre and TV trailers. I fully expected another "Independence Day" or some other version of "aliens attack earth and earth fights back" movie. This film is not about any of that. Simply put, it is about two things: (1) It is about one man's loss of faith, his finally remembering what faith really is, and then regaining it again. (2) The film is about providence in the classic christian and reformed sense of the word. To quote St. Paul, "[w]e know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called acccording to his purpose." Romans 8:28 (RSV). I am a big Sci Fi fan, but in the last 50 years Hollywood in general and Sci Fi films in particular have bashed traditional Judeo-Christian faith relentlessly. These attacks show a knowledge of Judeo-Christian faith that is simple minded and one sided. It is as though Hollywood directors and producers never attended church after their fourth grade Sunday school class, if they ever attended at all. Usually, if people of faith are depicted at all in Sci Fi, they are either buffoons or bad guys. For most of the Sci Fi genre, the future is just devoid of people of religious faith. This movie changes all that. I was amazed. The "signs" the movie title refers to are not crop circles. The "signs" are the events and circumstances of our lives when God is working with us and for us the most. Usually, such "signs," as in this film, are regarded by us and the film's characters as tragic, painful, and burdensome. Gibson's character (a former priest or minister) suffers horribly from the tragic loss of his wife, his brother (Joaquin Phoenix) is a loser who might have had a great sports career, and, as for the two children, one suffers from life threatening asthma and the other has a neurotic disorder. This all seems bizarre, and it is, but all of this is God's invisible hand working in the lives of these people in ways they (and we) can't understand. They don't understand--or see--the "signs." Just as they don't understand the crop circles, they have also not seen God's work--the "signs"-- in their lives. In the end, these "signs" in their lives all come together to save them all. If not for their "sufferings" and "burdens" they would be truly helpless. God's power is made perfect in their weakness. At one point in the movie, just before the onslaught begins, the characters portrayed by Gibson and Phoenix have a converstion about what is happening to them. It is a great statement about what faith is and the difference it does/should make. This scene is worth the price of the movie. This statment of faith--which Gibson's character doesn't yet appreciate--is consistent with anything that Augustine, Luther, or Calvin ever said on the subject. Those expecting and wanting pure "Independence Day" type Sci Fi are going to be disappointed. Hollywood is full of that already and it makes for an exciting movie, but none of it is new or challenging. Likewise, some of the criticisms of the film are just offbase, because they are from the traditional Sci Fi perspective. These are not superaliens, one gets locked in a pantry. This is no mistake. For all their sophisticated technology, these aliens have some serious flaws. Sounds ridiculous you say, well, if so, then you should focus more on science fact than science fiction. After all, it was our NASA scientists who recently crashed a 150 million dollar probe on Mars because somebody goofed and did the measurements in feet and inches when somebody else did them using the metric system. Superior technology doesn't equal perfection. This is a point we should remember. Only in science fiction can we indulge in "perfection." Remember, it was in H. G. Wells' classic "War of the Worlds" that he had the martian invaders succumb to earthly bacteria and viruses. The martians were technically superior, but they had flaws--they didn't think of everything. However, the point missed by so many critics is that the film really isn't science fiction. M. Night Shaymalan has done an outstanding job. He has presented the classical theological problem of our free will and God's providence. He shows--as Augustine originally argued--that there is no conflict. We are completely free to make the choices we make, but God is no less free to make choices as well. Do we see life as a neverending series of chance events and random occurrences or as something more? Does seeing it one way or the other make a difference in our lives and the lives of those around us? Classical Christianity and Shaymalan agree that life is not series of random events, and undertanding this is key to how we live our lives.
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