Great Summer Flick

Rating: Null/10 (3 August 2002)

I did not go see this alone, like the commercials advised me to do. The movie was definitely not what I expected from the trailers and commercials, but it was still very good. I don't think M. Night could have done a better job; he even makes a decent actor as a pretty important character. Unlike the person who posted a review above, I thought the movie was pretty intense, and had few dull moments. I was shivering through most of the movie; it definitely has its scary moments, and it is quite hard to escape from the movie once you get in, even though the actual plot is pretty hard to believe. It wasn't very hard to guess when the scary parts were going to happen (because of the music and camera movements), but I still jumped at most of those scenes.
I am glad to see a sci-fi movie that doesn't revolve around a hero who has to save the entire earth; I thought the aliens were an interesting (sub-)plot with the internal conflicts of the main characters.
The cinematography was excellent, the director set the mood very well. The writing was clever, and included some unexpected, humorous scenes. Although there isn't a huge twist ending like in the Sixth Sense, I still thought M. Night tied everything together. The simple, seemingly meaningless messages (signs, if you will) put forth in the beginning came up in the end and added to the plot. I guess one reason why I liked the movie is because it always kept me thinking, and I had to keep guessing what is going to happen next. I admit it's not exactly Oscar material, but it is very enjoyable to watch. It served its purpose for the two hours in the theatre, and even longer as I talked about with friends and now as I spend more time trying to express to you that if you enjoyed M. Night's style of directing/writing in his past movies, you will definitely enjoy Signs. It is a great flick to go see on hot summer day or night.