Good Flick if You Like Quiet, Intense Movies

Rating: 7/10 (23 November 2000)

If you liked The Sixth Sense, you should like Unbreakable. There are certain aspects of Unbreakable that were very much in play in The Sixth Sense - Bruce Willis, a sensitive boy, Philadelphia,subtle music, shadows and a sense of isolation. This movie is even quieter than The Sixth Sense, so if you found Sixth Sense slow going, you'll find this more so. (In fact, you could pretty easily knock at least three scenes out of the movie and not loose a thing.)
That said, I think Shyamalan is one of the best commercial movie makers out there today. I like eerie, atmospheric movies that don't rely on grossness and hyperbolic action substitute for plot and character. Both Willis and Jackson are wonderful in their roles as a lucky security guard and an unlucky comic art collector.
Yes, there is an undercurrent of the fantastic in this movie; probably not enough to take the Dramatic Presentation Hugo from something "more obvious" like X-Men or Gormenghast. There were a few funny bits about comics fandom (by inference). Samuel L.Jackson's gallery was pretty tony for a comic art gallery. And there's another bit (the movie's most unnecessary scene) with Jackson in a comic store and the sales clerk has no idea who he is. Major comics or science fiction collectors are always well-known by the local sellers.
About the twist - I had two ideas about what I thought the twist would be. I was dead wrong on one, and half right on the other one. It's a great twist and works very well.