I would gladly and quickly buy any of his movies that make it to blu-ray. When I first saw Signs I did not like it much because I was looking at it from the expectation of an alien invasion thriller. But when I saw it again, and saw the 'signs' or coincidences that kept re-occuring I found it to be most thought-provoking.
I have not seen Lady in the Water yet but have enjoyed almost all of the other Shyamalan movies because he has us look at things from a different perspective. The Village was my least favorite.
Definitely Sixth Sense and Possibly Signs and Village but
Unbreakable was hard enough to sit through in the theater-I would
never own it on blu-ray or dvd.
Not action driven. it was driven through dialogue.
Unbreakable is an awesome drama and I think a lot of people didn't realise they were going to see a drama - I would buy it on Blu-ray immediately with a gorgeous high bit rate encode and 24-bit PCM.
Looks like 20th Century Fox has the next Shyamalan movie entitled The Happening. Sounds pretty cool so far.
In Downtown Philadelphia, we meet our hero in his early thirties ELLIOT MOORE, an aspiring musician (guitarist) who works as a science teacher. He gets into an argument with his wife ALMA MOORE who has decided to leave him. You see, Elliot’s problem is that he has a difficult time accepting things for what they are. He is in constant denial and that is his character arc which he must overcome by the end of the script.
Next scene at 8:36 a.m. in Central Park, a pair of women sit on a blanket at the dead center of the park. One of them is pregnant, the other has her hair in a bun. They each have a book. The wind blows the grass around them and the next thing you know, the woman with the bun in her hair starts stabbing herself in the throat!
Three blocks away from Central Park at a construction site in New York City at 8:59 a.m., the wind blows.
THUD! A construction worker falls to his death. Then another five more bodies crash down. The terrified Foreman looks up at the top of the twelve story steel framed structure and watches in horror as his workmen casually walk along the beams and step off the edge, one right after the other, like dolls off of a shelf.
Inciting incident time: In the next scene we are in Elliot’s classroom as he teaches a science class. The Vice Principal interrupts the class and takes Elliot to the teacher’s lounge where on page 10 the Principal tells us that there appears to be world events happening. Major cities in every country were hit with what seems to be a terrorist act.
It’s some kind of airborne chemical toxin that has been released. New York is one of the cities. They don’t know what the chemical does. They don’t know who is responsible for all this. All they do know is that the attacks originated in public parks in every city. The Principal spoke with the head of schools and said school is now dismissed.
In the same scene we also meet Elliot’s buddy, a math teacher named JULIAN. After Elliot dismisses his class, he meets up with Julian in the parking garage where Elliot tells Julian that Alma is leaving him. Julian is going to get his daughter Jess and wife Evette and meet up with Elliot at the train station.
At 10:04 a.m. on The New Jersey Turnpike (sidenote: Jersey drivers are the worst!) six miles outside of New York, both directions of traffic are crawling. Motorists inch forward down the highway. Most of the cars have their windows down.
Uh oh! A gentle breeze moves over the cars!
The highway is nestled by trees. They tower on either side. We see the reflection of the trees on the windshield of the cars as they move.
Suddenly, cars start crashing. One right after another. A man gets out of one car, walks up to another car with the windows up and smashes his face through the windshield!
Back at Elliot’s apartment, Alma is concerned at the news. She gets a call on her cell from her lover JOEY. Poor Elliot, Alma is going to leave him for another man. If he would have hit that correct, his wife wouldn’t be leaving him. You see, us Latin boys don’t have those issues with our women leaving us. My money says the JOEY character is a Latino who is hung like a water buffalo! LOL!
Anyway, she declines the call as Elliot comes in.
The news thinks it is one of three major terrorist groups but then again Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Nairobi and some other cities were hit. There is no political connection. Elliot and Alma pack their things.
At the Boston Music Institute in, of all places, Boston, Massachusetts (Ugh! New England!) at 10:36 a.m., we are at a student concert. The wind from the street blows through the windows. A handful of people start falling off their chairs. A young man takes his bow from his violin and shoves it down his throat like a sword swallower. Ouch.
Back in Philly, Alma and Elliot meet up with Julian and his seven year old daughter Jess at the 30th street train station. Reports have come in that the toxin being released is not synthetic but organic. Forty five cities have been hit now including Boston.
Jess’ mother Evette didn’t make it on time, she got stuck in traffic and is taking the next train. She was buying a dollhouse as a birthday gift for Jess. Aw shucks, or as us Latinos say, “Bendito.”
Julian, Jess, Elliot and Alma board the train.
At Rittenhouse Square Park in Philadelphia at 11:51 p.m., the wind blows through the park. More suicides. A police officer shoots himself in the head. Then a taxi driver picks up the gun and blows himself away. Then a woman walks over and picks up the gun to do the same.
Back at the train, Elliot, Alma, Julian and Jess discover that Philadelphia has just been hit and Julian is worried because Evette is still in Philly.
Julian text messages Evette and he finds out she has indeed made it out of Philly and is now on a bus headed to Princeton, New Jersey. We find out more about the neurotoxin that it effects speech first, then motor functions, then causes you the desire to hurt yourself.
The Crossing of the First Threshold scene/END OF ACT 1: The train stops in Filbert, New Jersey which is now the last stop because train service has been discontinued. Apparently, the train conductor has lost communication and contact with everyone. They are an hour away from Philly.
Our group heads into a diner where Julian is going to catch a ride back to Princeton to find Evette. He leaves his daughter Jess with Elliot and Alma. Sad and painful parting.
Now we all know that Julian won’t make it. He commits suicide by cutting his wrists early in Act II. One of those “Aw, man” scenes where a likable (the good dad) character doesn’t make it.
At the back of the diner, on the radio we find out that it is not a terrorist group after all. The trees, the plants, the grass, anything green is poisoning the air. It started at a Bio Lab in Alaska. People are being eradicated around the world by a poison made strictly for humans. It doesn’t affect animals.
Do Elliot, Alma, and Jess make it?
There is a 105 page draft floating around the internet, but no doubt there have already been rewrites of it since that January 7th draft.
Shyamalan is a story-telling perfectionist. I am not a fan of 'Unbreakable', but count me in on EVERY OTHER SHYAMALAN TITLE. They are all works of art.
Shyamalan is a story-telling perfectionist. I am not a fan of 'Unbreakable', but count me in on EVERY OTHER SHYAMALAN TITLE. They are all works of art.
Unbreakable is by FAAAAAAAAR his best movie to date. I love that movie.
The Sixth Sense was pretty good, the Signs didn't do anything for me, The Village pissed me off because I was expecting a different kind of movie, and The Lady in the Water was very interesting as well.
Having seen all his films, the only one I would get would be Signs. I think he's pigeonholeing himself with his movies. The Village wasn't worth seeing the first time, as were Unbreakable, and Lady In The Water. The Sixth Sense was a good movie, but I thought that Stir Of Echoes was better.
I really like Shamalamadingdong and his movies, and would probably buy all of them on BD. But I've only seen 1/2 of Lady in the Water because the Blockbuster copy I had was defective/damaged.
"What a twist!" (You Robot Chicken fans know what's up.)
I would gladly and quickly buy any of his movies that make it to blu-ray. When I first saw Signs I did not like it much because I was looking at it from the expectation of an alien invasion thriller. But when I saw it again, and saw the 'signs' or coincidences that kept re-occuring I found it to be most thought-provoking.
I have not seen Lady in the Water yet but have enjoyed almost all of the other Shyamalan movies because he has us look at things from a different perspective. The Village was my least favorite.
I really hope they make it to blu ray!
I was really disappointed with The Village when I saw it in the theatre. A year later it appeared on cable. I watched it again and really enjoyed it. The reason I grew to appreciate it is the characters and the values that were represented by some of the people. As a father of two autistic children, it was kinda painful to see the mentally handicapped character and how it turned out for him. So that film grew on me.
I do consider 'The Village' a work of art. It is a fantastic film. The reason that it tanked was because of the fact that there was no other way to advertise it. The advertising made it seem like a horror film. Had they tried any other way it would have ruined the twist. But, in protecting the secret of the film, they set their audience up for disappointment. It is a film driven by character and the concept of morality. 90% (rough estimates) of the people that I've asked about it have disliked it AND had seen the previews repeatedly. 10% liked it despite having seen the previews... but they were expecting a totally different type of film experience. 100% of the people I've asked about it who hadn't seen the previews loved it as much as I did.
It's beautifully shot, beautifully performed, incredibly written, and had a lot to say about the philosophy of human trauma and morality.
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