A Must-Rent

Rating: Null/10 (7 September 2004)

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.......
First of all, while M. Night is a talented screenwriter/director, etc., etc., everyone, EVERYONE has an "off" movie.
No, this isn't the worst movie by far, but I advise drinking a NoDoz Smoothie before watching it. All I can say is that the people who made the trailer were exceptionally good, to make most viewers assured that this was going to be a horror film and a "must see".
Of course, just like all of his previous films, none of them can have an atypical ending and MUST have some twist at the end. Unlike Hitchcock, even M. Night's "twist endings" are becoming a bit too predictable and formulaic.
He does have a knack for squeezing out every bit of talent out of his actors and making them get into their parts. I can't criticize the acting and the characters themselves were OK, but the movie could've stepped up the pace a bit without compromising the storyline.
Unlike 'The Sixth Sense', which had more suspense, this movie was weighted down too much with trying to get "the message" or point across. OK, so society has become too materialistic, self-involved and violent, but their 'perfect' society turned out to NOT be so perfect after all (it's called HUMAN NATURE). It's also a tragedy that basically everyone, minus the elders, were living a lie, so how moralistic is that? From what I know about another closed-off society, the Amish, they live a simple life but, are given the option of leaving.