Home :: DVD :: Mystery & Suspense  

Blackmail, Murder & Mayhem
British Mystery Theater
Classics
Crime
Detectives
Film Noir
General
Mystery
Mystery & Suspense Masters
Neo-Noir
Series & Sequels
Suspense
Thrillers
Signs (Vista Series)

Signs (Vista Series)

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 .. 108 >>

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Sorry it is only a 2
Review: I have to say that this movie was a bit of a dissapointment, actually a big one. Myabe if the movie had been advertised differently I would not have expected something akin to War of the Worlds. It started out pretty interesting and almost at the end of your seat but then it took a nosedive! I mean we hear all about these aliens and when all is said and done we have the focus only on the family locked in together. Where was the community? How did they react to the aliens? We see all of these aliens in the previews and then we are left hanging about why they are there, more of how other people are reacting, that kind of stuff. I wanted more scary and less praying! If it was a movie about the loss of faith then maybe it should be packaged differently without aliens. Talk about unresolved! I believe M. Night should have saved all his movies and released the Sixth Sense for last. At least there would have been some buildup, and he would not have peaked at his first movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Dumb and dumber
Review: I do not understand why this film is so popular. Mel Gibson seems like he is walking his way through it and can't wait until he is finished. The premise is silly, the action is confusing and you walk out of the theater wishing you hadn't wasted the time. The flashbacks are disconcerting and the ending is almost funny instead of serious. It is very predictable. A disappointing film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gibson, Phoenix show Signs of Comedic Brilliance
Review: M. Night Shyamalan is well on his way to establishing himself as the Wes Craven of the new millenium and his latest effort, Signs, is testiment. Set amid the rural corn fields of Pennsylvania, Signs follows the Hess family as they are suddenly confronted with a mystery that threatens not only their family but the world as a whole. One day a crop circle, those strange glyph-like designs flattened into produce fields, appears in the Hess family plot. Right out of the shute, director Shyamalan takes great measures to point out that while there has been rampant hoaxing in the field (pardon the pun) of crop circles, these must be real because they are "too perfect". It seems that the past hoaxed crop circles so impressed a group of alien scouts that they decided to copy the idea and use it in an attempt to take over the world. Borrowing heavly from the tactics in "Independence Day", we see strange lights appear and hover in groups over many of the worlds major cities. Snippets of the reaction from the outside world are introduced by the younger Hess brother Merrill (Phoenix), a disgraced minor league baseball player, as he watches television in the closet for hours on end. The patriarch of the Hess clan (Gibson), a priest who has lost his faith in God after a pesonal tragedy, seems to meander through these earthshaking events with like a drunk looking for the saloon door at closing time. The audience is forced to gather clues from dialogue that is peppered with witicisms and the odd chuckler, but is also asked to disregard how really thoughtless and unprepared our protaganists are in the face of what could be the end of the world. I also found it desturbing that an alien race of clearly superior technology would choose for an invasion target a planet reeking with the one material that could prove fatal to them. Feeing more like "It's a Wonderful Life" meets "Invaders From Mars", "Signs" isn't the most well crafted and thought-out screenplay in recent memory. However, if you can get past the "Passion Play" aspects of the story, the film is very entertaining and there are several instances where the audience literally jumped out of their seats. Recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Signs" of Things to Come
Review: "Signs" take place in Bucks County, PA. It tells the story of a small family who lives on a farm, and witness strange occurences around the world, including the formation of a crop circle on their farm. Mel Gibson plays Graham Hess, a former Reverand who has since lost his faith due to his wife's death. Joaquin Phoenix plays his brother, Merril, a "would be" pro baseball player but has since quit playing ball. Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin play Graham's children, Morgan and Bo.

Let me just say that this is my favorite scary movie that I've ever seen in my life, that doesn't neccessarily mean that its the scariest, but it is the most enjoyable and watchable. I've seen it three times, and I liked it even more each time. It is an excellent film, with awesome acting, some very funny moments, some very frightening moments, and also very touching. Its from the writer/director of "The Sixth Sense", M. Night Shyamalan,who delievers yet another great film ("The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" are also his work, and worth seeing). "Signs" is hardly about crop circles, more so about aliens, but its mostly about the journey of a man's faith. "Signs" definitely proves the Shyamalan is a master storyteller and filmmaker who understands that what you don't see is what makes a movie scary. With the way his films are progressing, then the "Signs" tell of good things to come.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Melvin Gibson With One Hand Tied Behind His Back
Review: "Signs" is the sort of toss-off that Melvin Gibson can do with half of his acting ability tied behind his back, and superbly. The film itself, however, was pretty to watch but difficult to swallow. Beings are capable of interplanetary travel, yet they depend on crop circles for navigation? These aliens, undetected, can create massive ornate patterns overnight in cornfields all over the Earth, yet they don't have the tools/weapons necessary for penetrating some boards nailed over a window in an old house? They are technologically sophisticated enough to travel through space and find a planet that bears life, yet they need to "harvest" humans for some reason, and their reconnaissance didn't reveal the presence of a common Earth substance deadly to them?

All that saved this bland flick was Melvin Gibson's intense performance (though it sadly lacked the frantic eye-rolling that gave his "Lethal Weapon" series its delightful cinematic breakthrough qualities). Melvin's blank expressions, frowning, walking, running and driving vehicles literally added magic and new life to this stale old alien-invasion formula. That alone could garner for him a well-deserved best actor Oscar for "Signs."

It is a fine homage to Melvin Gibson's career that he gets to drive a vehicle at some point in every movie he makes, a terrific honor paid to his incomparable Road Warrior series. Melvin Gibson driving a vehicle in each of his films will take its place beside such great multiple-movie visions as Harpo Marx playing the harp, Chico Marx playing the piano, Olympic champion Johnny Weismuller swimming in a river, and Alfalfa being asked to sing at Darla's birthday parties. I just feel extremely blessed, though, in Melvin Gibson's case, to actually be a living witness, in the theater eating popcorn, as he engraves his name on the massive granite stone of cinema history.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An exellent sci-fi thriller
Review: One of the best sci-fi thrillers to date! The ratting for this film was perfect! pg-13 This movie was definatly not for kids.
The acting could have been a little better, But Mel Gibson did a exellent job!!! M. Night Shyamalan is a talented young director who should receive a acadamy award!!! I give this movie 4 1/2 or 5 ***** Stars. It rates with the Alfred Hitchcocks highest!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Signs -Terrifying
Review: Signs is a very well-done horror movie that is not only about the monster. This movie has a very strong plot, as well as being very scary. This movie is a non-stop rollercoaster of emotions from beginning to end, and besides fear, also has funny moments, and sad heart-moving moments in-between the scary parts. Very well done.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst Movie of the Year!
Review: And one of the worst movies of all time. It's mind-boggling to see any positive reviews. The writing, editing, and acting were awful. But worst of all was the directing. Why was the movie so bad? Here's a list:

1. The first hour was excruciatingly slow. Mel saw some crop circles on his farm and the family watched footage of more crop circles in India. The little girl didn't like the water in the house.

2. The opening credits hinted at great suspense to come but nothing remotely exciting happens until near the end of the movie - everything is just a buildup and then - and even then nothing much happens.

3. The dialogue. Wow. It really tried to sound deep. But the harder it tried to have some meaning, the more pretentious, wooden, and fake it all became.

4. The plot holes. Yeah, like the aliens had no idea there would be water on the earth... and they couldn't break down a door. Oh, and they came millions of miles to the earth and then felt it necessary to bother one family in the middle of nowhere.

5. The tying up together of a bunch of "signs". This is the most ridiculous of all since Mel Gibson loses his faith in God after his wife dies and then regains it after the invasion ends. Why does he regain his faith? Because he all of a sudden realizes that there were "signs" everywhere of what was to happen to him and his family. But the problem with this is that other signs - such as the picture of their family home burning down in the book the little boy had about aliens ...P> I could go on and on about what else is wrong with this terrible movie but hopefully this is enough to deter anyone else from wasting good money on the absolute stinker of a "movie". Two thumbs waaaaaayy down. 1 out of 10. Zero Stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Faith and Science Fiction
Review: This film offers a wonderful and truly unique fusion of faith and speculative fiction. Unlike awkward attempts fusion like Contact and just down right mutual insults like science fiction speculation that one saint or another was actually an alien, Signs harmoniously brings together these elements with a sense of synergy and wonder.
Gibson and Phoenix do an excellent job as brothers with contrary view points. We see Gibson's character, who has lost hope due to a recent tragedy, and Phoenix who's character tries at every opportunity to do something better and be something better - even when there really isn't an opportunity.
One of the major strengths of this film is it keeps everything on a personal level. The world view is something different and remote, especially when the threat is so very close to home.
I think and hope this film will go on to spark conversations among both the religious people and the speculative fiction fans - and those all too rare individuals who are a combination of both.

A beautiful film. A beautiful experience.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Alens invad e Pennsylvania cornfield
Review: This movie has a very unique premise: aliens are invading the world, and the attack is shown from the perspective of a farming family in rural PA. The whole film is rather quirky and offbeat, and in my mind those are positives. Mel Gibson is a corn farmer and embittered ex-minister (everyone calls him "Father," but he has a family - go figure)who is ticked at God for letting his wife die six months previous. While trying to raise his kids with the help of his younger brother, a failed baseball player, aliens show up in the middle of his cornfield and make big crop circles while stalking his house. The brilliance of the director was in taking such a wacky premise and making it into a good movie anyway. The film is heavy on suspense, with most of the terror implied or barely shown, which is another huge plus in my mind. Gibson does a great job portraying the main character, and the child actor and actress are superb; Phoenix is OK in his role. I personally did not care for the Sixth Sense, esp. since I figured out the "secret ending" in the first 10 minutes, but "Signs" kept me guessing till the end. Overall it is well worth seeing.


<< 1 .. 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 .. 108 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates