Ridiculous.

Rating: 2/10 (21 January 2005)

Up until this movie, I had been impressed by Shymalan's work and thought each of his films was an improvement over the last. 'The Sixth Sense', 'Unbreakable', and 'Signs' were intelligent movies, intriguing and original, the sort of intricate movies that demand to be watched a second time so that audiences can catch what they might have missed.
I was very disappointed with 'The Village'. It had potential, but the few good, suspenseful moments were never enough to save the film, only enough to make me wish there had been a few major rewrites. The cast should have been brilliant, yet those of us watching were laughing so much during the first half at the horribly silly dialogue (coyotes, indeed) that it was difficult to take the characters seriously when the story took a darker turn.
This was a movie full of itself, trying to pass for atmospheric and clever and chilling. Give it a miss and go back to 'Signs'; remember that Shymalan has given us good entertainment before, and have hope that he will do so again with his next film.