THE SIXTH SENSE Part III

Rating: 1/10 (17 September 2002)

SPOILER ALERT Who told M. Night Shyamalan that it is really cool to make the same movie over and over again? Let's remember: (*Spoilers!*) In THE SIXTH SENSE we have a middle-aged man (Bruce Willis) with lots of personal problems who - with the support of a smart weirdo-kid - finds out that he is a ghost (Surprise!!!). In UNBREAKABLE we have a middle-aged man (Willis again) with lots of personal problems who - with the support of his not-so-smart weirdo-son - finds out that he is a super-hero (Surprise!!!). In SIGNS we have a middle-aged man (Mel Gibson) with lots of personal problems who - with the help of his two weirdo-kids - finds out that he is a kind of super-hero priest who uses his faith in God to destroy the aliens (Surprise!!!).
The worst thing about Shyamalan and these identical storylines is, that these seem to work very well for most moviegoers and that his movies make such lots of money... I was surprised when I read all the positive reviews of SIGNS in the US and compared them to those published in Europe, nearly all of which were bad ones. I wonder if there are really such deep cultural gaps between America and Europe and why some groups of people seem to be so attracted by these kind of paranoia-movies and some don't.
And another thing...
Well, I don't have a problem with kids given a main role in movies. Actually, Haley Joel Osment was great in SIXTH SENSE. But he didn't feel 'real', more like a superior being. That's OK because that was the character he played. The children in SIGNS are very similar to Osment's character... but they don't show any emotion!!! What's up with these kids? Is it the actors' lack of talent or does M. Night Shyamalan think that little children behave like that? Examples? - The family dog is killed by the son: No emotions. ([calm] "Dad, the dog is dead.") - The little daughter sees an alien at night: No emotions ("I can't sleep. Wanna drink some water.") - (*Spoiler*) Imagine a six year-old girl which has to see how an alien tries to kill her brother... What would she do? Scream? Cry? Lose consciousness? Well, in SIGNS she just watches the scene and mumbles some weird stuff about the water which will ultimately kill the alien.
What's a movie where all the characters feel so unreal that I don't care about them? A bad one, from my point of view.