for about 80 minutes...

Rating: 2/10 (4 February 2004)

"signs" is a reasonably well-made, somewhat suspenseful, and more or less forgettable high-budget mel gibson vehicle... but then it forces its audience to endure a mind-numbingly awful "surprise" ending that somehow manages to be pretentious and idiotic at the same time. about as clever as an episode of "scooby-doo"... the last 20 minutes of this film are truly anti-climactic. *obligatory spoiler warning* an invasion of unarmed aliens that are apparently unable to open bolted wooden doors and melt like grilled cheese when they are sprayed with water... how terrifying! a former minister who, seeing his son in the grasp of a murderous space creature, needs a supernatural warning to realize that smacking said creature with a baseball bat might be a good idea... most people probably could have figured that out without a cryptic message from their dying spouse.
there are, of course, any number of tedious and convoluted explanations for the glaring logical gaps in "signs"... but, as usual, the simplest of them makes the most sense... m. night shyamalan is an over-praised hack who knew that a movie starring mel gibson, shamelessly marketed as a science fiction thriller, would sell theater tickets... regardless of how awkward and lame the conclusion was.
the cinematic equivalent of those asinine "chicken soup for the soul" books... sappy, trite, and irritating. (2/10)