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Darth Siskel Calls UNBREAKABLE "Best Movie Of The Year With The Worst Ending"!!

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

Okay. Many of you have been writing me to say that you're glad I'm wrong and that UNBREAKABLE is going to be genius. Let's set the record straight. I never said this movie was going to be terrible. I said it was a disappointment considering how long I've been a fan of Shyamalan. Unlike most of you, I've been following this guy's career for about three years now, since my first exposure to his writing. I have utmost respect for his abilities as a writer, and I thought SIXTH SENSE was a wonderful step up as a director. By the way... I want to correct something DS says below, a common misconception. This isn't M. Night's second film. It's his fourth. PRAYING WITH ANGER and WIDE AWAKE both came before THE SIXTH SENSE. You just didn't see them. When Darth Siskel called me to say he'd seen the new film, I quizzed him at length about it, and there's still major issues I have with this film narratively. Will it look great? Will the performances be top-notch? Perhaps. Will this excuse the film's gaping narrative flaws? Well, it seems to have done so for many viewers so far, DarthSiskel among them, so maybe no one else cares about scripts adding up to something or characters having some sort of internal consistency or purpose. And watch out for that ending... it seems to have played havoc with DarthSiskel's evening. Here he is to tell you all about it in a review that's free of any major spoilage...

"UNBREAKABLE: THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR, WITH THE WORST ENDING OF THE YEAR" By Darth Siskel

Truebelievers,

Tonight I got to see UNBREAKABLE! It was THE movie I wanted to see more than any other this fall. I'm a fan of the Sixth Sense, but I went into that one knowing the big surprise, so I don't LOVE it. I probably would have loved it if I hadn't figured out the surprise from the commercials. Unbreakable is a different story. There's a big surprise, but I doubt many will guess it.

Unbreakable is a great second film for M. Night Shamalamadingdong. It's only simularity to the Sixth Sense is the dark, serious tone in which it plays out. A consistant tone kept up throughout it's 2 hours and change running time, UNTIL the last 30 seconds, when the movie suddenly turns RETARDED, followed by the credits rolling. More on that in a second.

* slight spoiler alert*

Unbreakable is a story about a real world comic book hero. Bruce Willis is a special man who has extraordinary powers, and with the help of another special person, Sam Jackson, he figures out why and how to use these powers. There is no flying in this movie, no heat vision, nobody punches asteroids away from earth, and there are no battles with giant robots. The powers aren't over the top, and are explained realistically. Willis was simply born different than most people. He can press alot more weight than the average person, never gets sick, and has never been injured, not even in the huge train wreck that killed about 170 people. Not a cut, bruise, or scratch. You could say he's a mutant, and one of his other gifts is a psychic ability to see evil things that people do.

I was completely drawn into this movie from start to finish. I was loving it. A huge comicbook fan myself, I really loved the idea of bringing a superhero down to earth so much that I could believe it was possible... that maybe we could have a Superman of our own. Superhero films have ranged from great fantasy to flashy campy crapfest fantasy, but Unbreakable never goes there. I don't look at it as a fantasy at all. It's about a superhero with super powers, but I was convinced it was real!!

My disapointment didn't come till the last minute...maybe 30 seconds. The whole movie is a buildup to Willis finally accepting his place in the world, realizing how he should use his gifts, and when we finally get there, the movie hits us with a big shocker surprise, which I LOVED, but then, it suddenly becomes fantasy. The movie doesn't outright explain everything, leaving alot to think about, but the whole tone of the movie changed suddenly, not because of the surprise, but how they wrap it up after the surprise. Rather than showing the exploits of Willis, now a full hero, we get a freeze frame on him and Jackson, with a title card explaining what happens to them. It was like Roger Rabbit suddenly popped in on the last minute of Silence of the Lambs and farted.

I think M Night was trying to give us a 'comic book' ending. I, and many in the New York audience I saw it with thought it was just a STUPID ending. It was sloppy, unsatisfying & anticlimactic. If the movie had cut away after the big surprise, and actually showed what the title cards had said, it would've been so much better.

I still really LOVE THIS MOVIE, but remain perplexed about the intentions of the ending. I really can't wait till it comes out so I can talk heavy about it...especially with comic book fans.

Darth Siskel ending transmission.

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Reader Talkback

Mouse
by dunsurfin
Nov 15th, 2000
01:26:52 PM
therefore its still a good movie
by i_can't_get_laid
Nov 15th, 2000
01:27:48 PM
are they in tights though?
by sundown
Nov 15th, 2000
01:37:10 PM
I hope I don't wreck the movie for everyone
by soylentphil
Nov 15th, 2000
01:43:15 PM
Movies with bizarro endings... your faves? Most hated?
by Roguewriter
Nov 15th, 2000
01:51:40 PM
Unfathomable
by Hud
Nov 15th, 2000
02:03:43 PM
Best endings
by Hud
Nov 15th, 2000
02:07:18 PM
I Agree With HUD
by Cooler-than-Thou
Nov 15th, 2000
02:13:10 PM
Various Ramblings...
by Dlhstar
Nov 15th, 2000
02:15:44 PM
My favorite ending...
by endo
Nov 15th, 2000
02:17:53 PM
Concur w/ APES and SHARKS...
by Roguewriter
Nov 15th, 2000
02:19:58 PM
Best Middle Ever
by Cooler-than-Thou
Nov 15th, 2000
02:29:20 PM
The best ending ever...
by squonk
Nov 15th, 2000
02:37:46 PM
Magnolia hands down strangest POINTLESS ending
by jetfire1814
Nov 15th, 2000
02:38:19 PM
And the name of the character is...
by haunted
Nov 15th, 2000
02:41:12 PM
Endings - Arlington Road and others...
by dunsurfin
Nov 15th, 2000
02:43:03 PM
endings
by rabidrandy
Nov 15th, 2000
02:58:20 PM
Best ending
by Ted Terrific
Nov 15th, 2000
03:01:32 PM
wait,wait
by rabidrandy
Nov 15th, 2000
03:04:59 PM
Best Endings?
by spenworks
Nov 15th, 2000
03:12:07 PM
No giant robots? Todd will be sad.
by Uncapie
Nov 15th, 2000
03:19:38 PM
Endings
by Henrik
Nov 15th, 2000
03:22:07 PM
Not just best, but weird, unsettling, bizarre...
by Roguewriter
Nov 15th, 2000
03:23:14 PM
Re: Best Endings
by FatWilllie
Nov 15th, 2000
03:31:16 PM
Re: Best Endings
by FatWilllie
Nov 15th, 2000
03:35:09 PM
Perhaps this seemingly shitty ending is a red herring?
by Toe Jam
Nov 15th, 2000
03:59:41 PM
Great endings
by BenReilly
Nov 15th, 2000
04:27:31 PM
Endings
by ThereIsNoSpoon
Nov 15th, 2000
04:27:52 PM
First-Act-only movies by M. Knight
by Matt X
Nov 15th, 2000
04:28:38 PM
Toe Jam I agree, but...
by Darth Yddet
Nov 15th, 2000
04:31:00 PM
Things to do in denver
by Ashen Shugar
Nov 15th, 2000
04:34:01 PM
Things to do in denver when you're dead
by Ashen Shugar
Nov 15th, 2000
04:34:36 PM

by jetfire1814
Nov 15th, 2000
05:15:44 PM
Unbreakable Ending & more on magnolia
by jetfire1814
Nov 15th, 2000
05:18:28 PM
You wanna talk puzzlers of an ending....
by tripod
Nov 15th, 2000
06:23:54 PM
surprise endings are cool and all...
by joesnuff
Nov 15th, 2000
06:31:13 PM
Night's First Movie
by Fluffhead
Nov 15th, 2000
06:52:12 PM
Best Ever Ending!!
by ralphvz
Nov 15th, 2000
07:23:42 PM
Best endings...
by Uncapie
Nov 15th, 2000
07:38:44 PM
Magnolia's Frogs
by Dannychico
Nov 15th, 2000
07:41:29 PM
OHMSS
by Norman Smiley
Nov 15th, 2000
08:25:27 PM
Best movie ending of all time.....
by newagegunn
Nov 15th, 2000
09:07:33 PM
The Last Broadcast???
by TheMadHatter
Nov 15th, 2000
09:32:23 PM
No Spoon, Glockula. Keep the Secret...
by Roger U. Roundly
Nov 15th, 2000
11:46:20 PM
Addendum. (actual Quote)
by Roger U. Roundly
Nov 15th, 2000
11:54:50 PM
retro?
by darthsanders
Nov 15th, 2000
11:57:37 PM
Addendum. (Aftermath)
by Roger U. Roundly
Nov 16th, 2000
12:07:04 AM
Aftermath Revisited...
by Roger U. Roundly
Nov 16th, 2000
12:12:21 AM
So what's the ending...?
by Mr_Intimidation
Nov 16th, 2000
01:22:20 AM
There Was That Movie Where It Turned Out The Guy Had A Penis...
by Buzz Maverik
Nov 16th, 2000
01:27:23 AM
Best Ending of all time
by Jedi 7
Nov 16th, 2000
01:50:08 AM
Man, I'm going crazy here . . .
by ol' painless
Nov 16th, 2000
04:26:02 AM
The best ending ever.....THE WICKER MAN
by Jon L. Ander
Nov 16th, 2000
08:13:13 AM
Endings
by Bobbafatass
Nov 16th, 2000
09:14:42 AM
Lets talk about WORST endings or NON endings ever!!
by Dash101
Nov 16th, 2000
10:12:17 AM
spank me
by myfavouritesock
Nov 16th, 2000
10:13:11 AM
My two pennies worth
by Creep_Thunder
Nov 16th, 2000
10:14:45 AM
Best ending
by Fred
Nov 16th, 2000
10:36:20 AM
Speaking of Endings
by Brooklyn Bred
Nov 16th, 2000
03:20:44 PM
Barry Lyndon
by FatWilllie
Nov 16th, 2000
03:30:14 PM
Frankenheimer knows how to end a movie
by Darth Brooks
Nov 16th, 2000
04:22:36 PM
The ending made it
by Thunderball
Nov 16th, 2000
05:44:10 PM
Jacob's Ladder
by BlueBomm
Nov 16th, 2000
07:51:17 PM
Best endings ever
by 2GOLD
Nov 16th, 2000
10:31:30 PM
The thing about twist endings...
by Robin Goodfellow
Nov 16th, 2000
10:58:00 PM
I second Robin Goodfellow's nomination
by Mitzi
Nov 17th, 2000
12:53:54 AM
I've changed my mind.
by Creep_Thunder
Nov 17th, 2000
08:09:29 AM
I've changed my mind.
by Creep_Thunder
Nov 17th, 2000
08:09:58 AM
I've changed my mind.
by Creep_Thunder
Nov 17th, 2000
08:10:56 AM
I've changed my mind
by Creep_Thunder
Nov 17th, 2000
08:12:00 AM
AAAARG GODAMMIT!!!!!
by Creep_Thunder
Nov 17th, 2000
08:45:38 AM
Seriously, THE weirdest are...
by Tracian
Nov 17th, 2000
05:15:45 PM

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