Simple, dumb, barely-R-rated fun

Rating: 6/10 (8 October 2008)

Let me preface this review by saying that I've enjoyed some of M. Night Shyamalan's films. Unbreakable was under-rated and I didn't think The Village deserved as negative as a reaction as it did.
However, I don't worship The Sixth Sense like some people, I've never seen Signs, and I can barely sit through 5 minutes of Lady in the Water.
If you do watch this movie, don't go in expecting a serious, thrilling commentary of the modern day world. If you're expecting anything like that from Night in his post-Village phase, you will be severely disappointed.
That's not saying this isn't a decent movie. At only 90 minutes, it's not too long at all. The movie hits the ground running and picks up speed from there. Sure, not everything makes sense, but using the "unknown" as a story basis gives Night freedom to do this. It's quite remarkable that if you were to actually remove the overly serious/dramatic scenes, you'd have a nice example of a brisk moving action movie.
Yes, despite all the death (sometimes more implied than visual) and the R rating, it definitely gave off more of an action movie vibe than horror to me, though the "outrunning the enemy" and "broken romance" threads seem to try and keep it conventionally tied into the horror genre. All the scenes with people going suicidal are more energetic than scary, and sometimes are (dare I say it) awkward-turtle-entertaining.
Mark Whalberg, Zooey Deschanel, and John Leguizamo do a decent job as the lead trio and based on their track records in film, you know if you like them or not.
Overall: You already know if it's your cup of tea or not. It's a matter of giving it a chance. I almost didn't bother with it, decided to give it a shot, and was thoroughly entertained. Some of it might of been pure dumb entertainment, but there are many worse ways to kill an hour and a half than this one. Judge it yourself. 6/10