Pure tripe

Rating: Null/10 (10 December 2000)

I usually like slow-paced films--the type that favor characterization over incident and ideas over carnage and violence. That said, my god! This had to be the slowest, most boring piece of pure tripe I have ever seen. It is obviously the work of a director who has overestimated his own talent and seems to believe it is his job to wow the audience with camera positioning and building atmosphere than in telling a story with any coherance or point. There was nothing about this film--not the acting, not the story, not the direction, not even the totally predictable, pointless "surprise" ending--that impressed me. And without providing any "spoilers" whatsoever, I must say the "surprise" at the end of this film is totally worthless, and makes absolutely no sense. Even the way it is revealed is astonishingly inept, in that it requires one character to know something about the other character that he has no way of knowing whatsoever.
As far as the performances, I thought Bruce Willis and his family were okay, but Samuel L. Jackson--an excellent actor if there ever was one--is absolutely terrible here. His line readings are stilted, his character charmless and the type of person anyone would run from the second they met him. Of course, all the actors seemed incredibly bored, as if they expected to be in another "Sixth Sense" and realizing after signing on that they were really in "Hudson Hawk" territory.
And the aforementioned directing! Entire scenes shot reflected through a television screen. Or flowing curtains. Or from the point-of-view of a child through the crack of a train seat. Pretentious, to say the least.
Oh, well. I've already spent more time slamming this movie than it was worth. Let's just say the maker of "The Sixth Sense" has followed it up with something truly boring, pretentious and nonsensical. * (out of ****)