I thought it was terrific

Rating: 9/10 (13 June 2008)

I'm with Ebert. This movie is mezmerizing. The last 30 or 40 minutes are kind of a drag, I kind of wish the movie was shorter, but the good really outweighs the bad. Of course Hollywood has been really big on disaster movies in the past 15 years or so. It seems like there's three or four that come out every year, plus all the superhero movies and stuff that's about the whole world in the balance. This one thankfully is more intimate, reminding me only of Spielberg's War of the Worlds and Tarkovsky's NOstalghia and Stalker. i thought maybe it SHOULD have had a trick ending, but I can't think of what. There are some parts that are stupid, like when the old lady starts to smash her face into the windows. Also it's weird how healthy (genetically fit) everyone looks in M. Night's movies. In crowd scenes everyone looks really tip-top, and they're always so well dressed. but I guess that's Hollywood for ya. Anyway, it's his best movie yet, even better than Lady in the Water and The village. I hated 6th Sense and the others.