these 'Signs' go the wrong way...

Rating: Null/10 (18 August 2002)

We've seen it a million times. A trailer that doesn't live up to the actual film. All the laughs are revealed, all the scares are revealed, all the whatever is revealed. But never has a trailer so unfairly disguised a movie as what it's not. An earlier poster brought up the old sales terms "bait and switch", which is exactly how you'd describe this. Here, let's show crop circles, and spooky figures lurking, and a creepy little girl who has a funny line. But once they're in the theater we'll make the movie about something else. Something totally monotonous. I was all keyed up that 20 years after "Poltergeist" we were finally going to get a genuinely scary haunted house (or at least near the house) flick. Even the opening music sounded Jerry Goldsmith-ish like in "Poltergeist". Instead it turns into an affirmation tale where a bunch of references earlier in the movie weave themselves into important moments near the end. Too easy. And talk about your false build-ups with ZERO payoff! Oh, boy, finally the big showdown with an alien and...a three-minute flashback by Gibson. Momentum buster!! I mean, I actually enjoyed the opening twenty minutes of COMEDY more than anything else! Although I will say that Shyamalan is masterful at getting the most out of his kid actors. We all know Osment and "I see dead people". Well, here he introduces us to Breslin, a terrific little actress who provides most of the film's good moments. And Culkin, though a much more impressive actor than his infamous brother, is hugely unbelievable as the equivalent of an Einstein in a ten-year-old's body. But, of course, good kid actors are never enough to propel an uninteresting drama to a recommendation.