Extremely bad

Rating: 1/10 (31 July 2004)

When I was eight years old, my family went to see "The Hunt for the Red October" together, and it was one of the most agonizingly boring experiences of my life; being a restless child watching a movie full of subtlety and intrigue. Now, 15 years later, I have an experience to top that, and I can't use a short attention span as the excuse this time.
When "The Village" started out, I could already tell it would be horrible because of the dialogue. The movie supposedly takes place in the late 19th century, but all the characters talk like a bunch of volunteers at a second rate Renaissance Faire.
Then, as usual, there is the "twist" ending that makes Mr. Shyamalan's movies his own. I must give the filmmaker credit. It only took me 2 minutes to figure out the secret ending of "The Sixth Sense." It took me a whole half-hour to decipher this one. However, the minute I though I had figured it out, I spend the rest of the movie hoping against all hope that I was wrong, because it was such an insanely contrived idea. I've never been so dismayed to be right.
Despite its flaws, there was one funny part of the movie that came at the end, and that was the retelling of the story of the woman whose husband had been killed, stripped naked, and thrown into the "Dirty River". I laughed out loud when I realized what she meant.
Pitiful Movie: 1/10