***SPOILER!***

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2000)

If you haven't seen the movie and would like to without any plot points revealed stop reading right now. I'd also advise you to see the movie before you read any other reviews for that matter.
The Sixth Sense is one of the best thrillers in recent years. I didn't find it scary in the least, but the movie was so well made it blows most of the competition out of the water. There are two areas in which it excels: acting and direction. The acting is first rate. And its not the flashing kind of Al Pacino acting that gets all the attention either--just quiet, powerful understated performances from Willis, Osment and Collette that make you believe everything you see on the screen. Shaymalan's direction is fabulous, especially during the "ghost scenes" in which he has the ghosts move at the corners of the frame without focusing directly on them. Its a nice break from the shot-for-shot slasher film clones that we're getting so much of these days.
Of course, then there's the ending. As soon as I heard that there was a suprise ending I said to myself "Hey, Bruce Willis is going to be a ghost." Given rules for ghosts set up in the films I knew Bruce Willis would only interact with the kid. And as scene by scene went by I was proven right (even through some clever direction to force assumnptions upon the viewer--such as the anniversary scene). So the ending came as no surprise to me, but even without the third act's dramatic revelation, I found myself captivated by the movie. Definately one of 1999's best surprises.