Laughable

Rating: 2/10 (9 January 2001)

This film seriously p***ed me off. Up till the last 20 minutes I found myself liking this film despite its many flaws - there was something about the patheticness of the main characters, and the deadpan understated non-delivery of the lines that I found endearing. But then what a last 20 minutes - totally blew the film for me, and I nearly choked laughing at how poor the whole thing revealed itself to be.
There is so much wrong, but where to start? The writer probably had a good idea, but that idea probably wasn't worth the bother of scripting. I find it hard to believe that any more than one person felt it worth their while to involve themselves in this film.
So - Bruce Willis is a dull security guard, with a dull wife and a demented child. After being the sole survivor of a train crash Willis meets the odd Mr Glass who reckons Willis is a super hero. Somehow Samuel L. Jackson's character has made a lot of money out of selling old comic books - the first evidence that this film must take place in an alternative universe!
I won't spoil the twist ending for you. It spoils the movie, so I would walk out just before Bruce is in the station in his Security cape. Really. Leave then, and you may get off lightly with the feeling of watching a quirky but dull movie.
If you stay you will get more Hitchcockesqe posturing camera techniques, more music that is just plain wrong and more sulky faces from everyone on screen.
What really did it for me was M. Night Shyamalan's cameo. This guy really has a high opinion of himself that is totally laughable and pretty much sums up the whole movie.
If you remember one thing from this review it is this. WALK OUT OF THIS MOVIE!