as a thriller it is very weak, as a good film, its very disappointing but I certainly laughed a lot

Rating: 4/10 (14 June 2008)

I think when your name is M. Night Shyamalan, people expect a certain quality from you and yet, here we are.
First of all, the writing was not very good. Which I think makes the actors look bad. Zooey Deschanel is generally speaking a good actress, or at least a believable one, (Winter Passing, Hitchhikers Guide) however, in this film, I am very conscious of the fact that she rehearsed these lines. Leguizamo was also given some awful lines and directions.
Secondly there are wayyyy too many close ups in this movie. Shyamalan was trying very hard to force us to connect with these characters through technical visual cue's rather than through their performances.
Third, there was definitely some over the top, and uncalled for acts of violence that were fairly useless to the plot line, shot in slow motion; again, shyamalan trying to force us to connect.
There is a scene where Wahlberg and Deschanel reminisce on their first date and the dialog is just awwwwful, not one ounce of believability.
the soundtrack was also a little over the top. the best part of the film though was that it certainly had some really funny moments.
with all of that being said, I had a good time watching this film, although, I would have preferred to wait for it to come out on DVD.