totally worth sneaking in to (for free)

Rating: Null/10 (30 July 2004)

the first parallel that came to mind after i saw "the village" was "the twilight zone". "the village" follows the classic show's "odd people, odd setting, twist ending" formula. unfortunately in a full-length (such as "the village") the formula doesn't hold up all that well. because the characterization is a little shallow and underdeveloped, the drama is so superficial it comes off as funny most of the time, and hardly any of the characters have names worth remembering.
additionally, the plot is very slow and most of the movie is spent establishing setting, character, and mood to an almost redundant level. while failing to actually establish the moods they need to be establishing. the scene on the balcony between Lucius and Ivy in which they discuss dancing at their future marriage comes completely out of nowhere, seeing as how she spent the entire beginning of the movie playing and spending time with Noah, the retard, and only had a single, short, totally unromantic conversation with Luscious before the one about marriage. perhaps if a little more dialogue or some more clever silent scenes showing the budding love between Lucius and Ivy had replaced some of those unnecessary establishing shots of irrelevant barns, houses, and creepy looking trees, their love wouldn't've seemed so contrived.
if this movie had been more economically edited and the amazing star-power more appropriately used and directed, this could've made a GREAT 30-minute, color episode of the twilight zone. but because it was fluffed into two-hours, loaded with melodrama, and took way to long to deliver it's points, the movie falls into that tragically mundane category of "good, but not great".