MOre of the same from M Night

Rating: 2/10 (31 July 2004)

The Village is another M Night Shamylan movie in ever sense, its another attempt by an over inflated ego to try to "shock" us with a surprise ending that fails miserably. I went in to this movie thinking that the commercials and trailers told me the big twist but thought that my guess was too obvious but sadly I was right. I'm not going to ruin this for anyone who hasn't seen it and thinks they may be surprised although I'm not sure preschoolers frequent IMDb to begin with. M Shamylan's movies has gotten progressivley worse as they've come, Sixth Sense was horribly predictable but the acting was good, UnBreakable was UnBearable and Signs was one of the worst movies I'd ever seen. The Village doesn't sink quite as low as Signs but that is damning with faint praise to say the least. Like Sixth Sense the story is predictable but the acting isn't nearly as good, Phoenix, Hurt and most of the rest chomp through their lines as if they had gone to the William Shatner school of hyperbole. Bryce Howard is tolerable as Hurt's daughter, she's good but at times not believable as someone who is blind and Adrien Brody is good as the village idiot.
If you really want to see this disaster wait till it comes out on video and hope you can rent it for 99 cents.