geez, RR....that's beautiful. brought tears to my eyes. and in prose, too??? i find your post to be a cornucopia of delicious mind nuggets.
Good point Rocket River. The whole Alien thingy was cheap way of hyping the movie bigger then it wasn't meant to be. It's like hyping Yao Ming is in town to play against Orlando but he ends up sitting on the bench the whole game.
this where i'm disagreeing. i don't think the alien thing was hype...i think it was an intentional bait and switch...plays in with the title of the movie, giving it a double meaning. created some real suspense. he doesn't show you the aliens at all, except for a glimpse, until the end. again...very hitchcockesque...or very rod serlingesque. that's what shaymalan is shooting for. he's not trying to do a big alien Independence Day summer movie kinda thing. that's not his deal. the aliens are nothing more than a backdrop for a bigger story. that's why i think those details are so beyond the scope of the movie. just my take.
I wasn't looking for ID4 kinda movie or ending. It was a deceiving movie to begin with. The whole freaking movie was basely on the whole suspense of the Alien invasion and he cheated the audiences with a simple message of one man. Oh yeah we understood he lost his faith when he lost his wife. But bringing in something more powerful and unbelievable character such as the Alien, you would expect soemthing as meaningful of the outcome.
cool...i just think that's shaymalan's schtick...the twist. and the outcome from the mundane was EXACTLY the point.
If what I'm reading about the "twist" is accurate (5 different websites) this movie is gonna suck shaved monkey nuts.
As far as "Signs" goes, I just can't get past the fact that this advanced species traveled across the galaxy to invade a planet that is over 2/3 covered in their only weakness, NAKED. Why didn't they wear any f*cking clothes?! They came all that way, with their advanced technology, and we could've decimated the dumbass f*ckers with water balloons. Sh*t, if one of the aliens had thought to put on a hefty bag before their great "invasion" of earth, he woul've been crowned th f*cking king of their entire sad-ass race. And the doorknob? Oh, god, don't get me started on that. They traveled across the galaxy, people. The GALAXY. You don't do that kind kind of sh*t on an interstellar 10 speed. They had to be operating some pretty damn complex machinery to get here. But one encounter with a pantry door and these genuses are f*cking stumped. The alien's dumb ass was probably sitting in there saying, "My god, trhoughout my travels across millions of miles of space, I've never seen anything quite like the advanced technology on the locking device of this hatch. It's far to complicated for me to operate. If that guy comes back with a glass of water, my naked ass is pretty f*cked!" That's not just bad writing, people. That's bad writing with the expressed purpose of pissing me off. I hate that kind the most. And in case you couldn't infer it from the above, I am also of the opinion that M. Night sucks donkey balls. Giant sweaty ones.
Great, now M. Shyamalan is subliminally pushing his political agenda on his audience. 'VILLAGE' FAILS TO DELIVER THE SHIVER BY LOU LUMENICK -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rating: Email Archives Print Reprint July 29, 2004 -- THE fourth major movie by M. Night Shyamalan, "The Village," suffers disappointingly from the progressively diminishing returns - and shocks - that have followed his first, the sublime "The Sixth Sense." And it doesn't exactly take a village to guess his trademark "surprise" ending - I did - by carefully watching the very first scene. A gifted director and visual stylist, Shyamalan's scripts sadly have gotten progressively clunkier, from "Unbreakable" to "Signs." Now, with "The Village," Shyamalan depicts a late 19th-century society of language and behavior that are way more stilted than required by the conventions of the period. Worse, the scares are very strictly rationed in what amounts to a heavy-handed political allegory about leaders who - without getting into any details - stir up fear (and restrict freedoms) to further their agenda. In case anyone misses Shyamalan's target, the chief leader's name is Walker - and the director goes to extraordinary lengths to mention the name, which also happens to be the middle name of a contemporary politician. All of which is pretty ironic for a would-be summer blockbuster from the hit-hungry Disney, which went to such lengths to distance itself from the Bush-bashing "Fahrenheit 9/11." Walker, played with great gravity and assurance by a bewhiskered William Hurt, is an elder in a remote village. A stone on a newly dug grave identifies the year as 1897. Walker teaches his young charges that they must not venture beyond village borders, which are marked with yellow banners that are apparently meant to evoke the Homeland Security's color-coded alerts. For beyond the valley in which they live, Walker claims, there are mysterious and murderous creatures with whom the villagers have forged a tenuous truce. But a young man named Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix) has a burning desire - and the courage - to venture into the woods. And when the simple-minded Noah (Adrien Brody) actually does transgress, the village's animals start turning up skinned - and there is a brief sighting of a red-robed creature, prompting the guard in the watch tower to sound the alarm bell. The village's buildings are marked overnight with red, a color the villagers shun for fear of provoking the creatures. When one of these two young men - rivals for the hand of Walker's sweet and pure blind daughter, Ivy, who loves but one - is mortally wounded, Walker reluctantly sends Ivy into the woods to bring back medicine. Suffice it to say the spunky Ivy is uniquely qualified for the mission, in which one of the creatures makes the only other - considerably less than terrifying - appearance in the movie. Ivy is played by Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard's freckled daughter, who is impressive in her screen debut - projecting strength, vulnerability and romantic passion in what amounts to the movie's leading role. But except for Hurt's Walker, Ivy is the only well-defined character in a movie that pretty much squanders the talents of Brody, Phoenix and a blue-chip supporting cast that includes such pros as Brendan Gleeson and Cherry Jones. Sigourney Weaver is given little to do as Lucius' mother, though she still shows great chemistry in her few scenes with Hurt, with whom she hasn't acted on-screen since 1981's "Eyewitness." "The Village" pours on creepy atmosphere, but this dud is too intent on delivering its liberal "message" to actually deliver the kinds of scares it promises in the terrific trailer. http://www.nypost.com/movies/18254.htm
I really enjoyed the movie. Ron Howard's daughter was awesome and Adrian Brody was excellent as usual. Joaquin Phoenix was great but his role felt minor to me... more Joaquin! Overall great cast and good story. If you like M. Night's previous efforts you'll enjoy this also. For the Star Trek fans who need to over analyze every minor detail.... don't bother. Shady - with regards to the article.... I got NO vibes about a political message, I figure I would have picked up on it with all the garbage being spewed out by the media now. That guy is nuts, he's reaching so badly....
With all our current technology, I bet I'd be hard pressed to find probably 2 people out of 10 who could create fire with 2 sticks. Just because they are highly technological doesn't mean they know how to operate primitive tools. I liked the movie signs. Surely there were things that didn't make sense and details that were could were probably incorrect but that still doesn't take away from the bigger part of the story. Besides the aliens were not aggressive and not destructive in nature it seemed.
They appeared to be there for whatever reasons they needed but did not expect such resistance. They probably killed the dog in self defense. Ah who cares. It's 2:30am in the morning. I have no idea what I'm talking about.
i only drink beer in places with other queers i hope you don't fear seriously though my problem with Signs was the whole movie was like a test from God of Mel's character's faith and that's including his wife's horrible death.
interesting....is it possible that death is more important to us than it is to God? if we see it as the "end", then certainly it takes on a much more grave (no pun intended) feeling than it would for a being that sees life as eternal, but with transition points. a being that knows the "whole" story...that is omniscient. but i'm certain, through prior discussions, that we might have different ideas about the nature of God. can you not drink beer in a place where sports are key not just getting some? Live Sports Cafe, hmm? Downtown, the train and Astros Beer is good there too!!
