so... hit it...

for his defenders, i think what those of us who are haters really really hate, above all, is the arrogance of a filmmaker who thinks he knows about the human condition, and he's gonna tell us, and we're gonna like it. see, he thinks his films aren't supposed to be horror, they're supposed to be ART. he is SO ALL-KNOWING, and we are just a bunch of cretins who have to have it fed to us through a derivative story with a twist in it, a seriously lazy element of storytelling, just to put the nail in the coffin. i myself agree wholeheartedly that his films are always well-acted and excellently designed, and, of course, he gets awesome cinematographers and editors on the payroll as well. but an unassuming, poorly-designed, poorly-shot film like 'once' has more impact than m night's work because we're not being condescended to. i'll probably be taken to task for my somewhat circuitous logic, but that's ok, i'm secure in my hatin'.

richard, did you watch the 3 1/2-hour doc on the blade runner dvd? it's fascinating!

I liked: Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs.

I didn't like: The rest of them. They weren't terrible but they had enough problems that I couldn't give them a pass... At least M. Night movies always look and sound great, though.

horned one, i do know good movies. i also enjoy many, many bad movies; i am egalitarian. but i do not enjoy being preached to, cinematically. better to rent 'rope' and enjoy a real masterwork of the genre.

In only his Calvins...

Mr. Walberg knows how to pick a movie - I've yet to see one that I did not entirely enjoy watching.

I dont care if Mr. "Harry has a vendetta" Ratner was directing this, I'd watch it because Mr. Walberg seems to realize that any given movie could be his last, so he makes sure they're all movies he can be proud of.

klo, he's right, your idea is brazills. you should re-send it to spieley, and if he passes i'm sure romanek would love to have it, i hear he's out of a job. *tee hee*

The only solution: Burn down all the trees.

What are all the monkey's going to do? Hmm? They can't swing from shrubs.

The only solution: Burn down all the trees.

What are all the monkies going to do? Hmm? They can't swing from shrubs.

I don't agree, but it takes some stones to insinuate that M Night is on a different level than the audience, and THAT is why he has misfires.

did you SEE the village? did you wait all the way til the ending? what level was he operating on then?

From Roger Ebert's review of The Village:

"Eventually the secret of Those, etc., is revealed. To call it an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes. It's a crummy secret, about one step up the ladder of narrative originality from It Was All a Dream. It's so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don't know the secret anymore.

And then keep on rewinding, and rewinding, until we're back at the beginning, and can get up from our seats and walk backward out of the theater and go down the up escalator and watch the money spring from the cash register into our pockets."

pretty harsh, but most people I know over the age of 12 agreed. The Village was so god awful horrendous, he lost me for a while. I didn't even see Lady in the Water because it seemed to be more of the same.

that said, this one has Zooey Deschanel, my favorite actress. (maybe not the best out there, but very good and completely adorable). and that is instilling a feeling of cognitive dissonance in me that is reaching epic levels. I might actually pay to see this in theaters.

or I could just go see Cell with a picture of her. pretty close.

Zooey was SO cute in it, but I think it was just a noble failure. a few good moments, but it should have been a 2 hour theatrical release.

All I know though if I see a barrel of purple kool aid being passed around and the main character's name is Jim Jones then I am OUT!!!

Rated PG for Preetty GIIRRLL!!!!

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here every Monday night. Please be generous and leave tips for our waiters.

2) Airplanes. Where are they?

3) They are racist. They want to isolate themselves from the minorities. Sometimes I do too but you don't see me going to such lengths. I just go to the spa.

J/k ~~~~ It's ok to love the Shamanna..

Not a casual fan, though, are you Tivo? Seriously, what's the deal? It's pretty clear you're a plant; just be honest with us.

Tivo's posts

On MNS being a douche- "Never got how he comes off as a douche by TiVo1138 Dec 7th, 2007 07:55:24 PM Is there some sort of documentary or something where he's an asshole?

"While The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs were all about faith,--faith in one another, faith in one's self, and faith in something BIGGER than one's self--The Village and Lady in the Water are obviously protest songs. And Ebert's review of The Village completely missed the mark. The movie is ABOUT deception. Everything's a lie, including the supernatural. Shyamalan himself has acknowledged that that's why the movie angered a lot of people. In my opinion, it makes it no less great than his other movies."

PrettyNursePoppy by TiVo1138 Dec 7th, 2007 09:35:00 PM "That says nothing about Night's character. It just points out that Michael Bamberger had a ridiculous man-crush on him."

"I've read the book, so you don't need to take excerpts from it. Taken out of context, those would make him sound like a douche. While I found the author of the book to be all too adoring of Night, I still think it portrayed him as human, eager-to-please, and insecure. A conceited, egomaniac, asshole however, I don't see... at least not any moreso than other directors."

"It'll be competing against Hulk... by TiVo1138 Dec 8th, 2007 10:44:30 PM same opening weekend."

Man, Maybe you're just an avid fan, but my sixth sense is picking up chlorophyll here.

both were bloated vanity exercises that collapsed under their own perceived weight. I swear to god, anyone that didn't see the ending of the village coming is not too bright. and anyone that saw it coming but was still satisfied has very low expectations.

and not for nothing, it wasn't just Ebert who eviscerated it in reviews.42% at rottentomatoes, got panned by some major critics.

but hey, it made over $200 million worldwide, and Crash won an Oscar. there's no accounting for taste, I guess.

2) I know that Hurt paid off the gummint to keep the preserve fenced off and airplanes out, but at some point they will see something in the far distance. It's inevitable. Then the children will be worshipping dragons in the sky. Do we want that?

3) I know Shamoana is a minority but that doesn't excuse the fact there are none in the Village. Just a buncha crackaZ in holing themselves in da woods for fear of a black planet.

Everyone suddenly realizes they're in another shitty M. Night movie.

Just kidding, I love Night, but shit, that knitting needle thing was literally fucking ripped out of Cell. Why the fuck don't people admit that Cell inspired a lot of shit. And you can say well 'blah-blah' was finished before Cell was in print, but whatever, the story could have been done and in the hands of some fucking loudmouthed editors, or chatted about with some of King's friends, and they spilled the beans...What I'm saying is, this Happening sounds like a real rip-off. I liked Lady in the Water. I don't know why, I just did. There was a quirk to it that grabbed me. Southland Tales? Errrr....Still haven't seen it, but I'm going to slot it in there with Cremaster 3 and What Is It? Stuff I'll put on my bucket (of effete shit I better see before I get too old to give a shit) list.

Why is it when shit starts falling in movies, the guy just fucking stands there, looking shocked/sad/bewildered, instead of running his ass off to get to someplace with a nice thick ceiling to prevent human remains from hitting him? Dammit, movies, straighten this shit up already.

And, lastly, I figured out the Sixth Sense about twenty minutes into it when Bruce Willis didn't change his fucking clothes. He's supposed to be a goddamned professional, and he behaves like fucking Homer Simpson. Something was stinky, and it had 'Property of Denmark' on the nametag.

This will only be successful if at the end, it's Andrew Dice Clay looking into the camera saying, 'Hitchcock? I FUCKED him, OWWWWHHHHGGHGLGKLLGKLG!'

I'l l see this, though.

Honestly, I wish people would stop hating on him. He's one of the very few directors in mainstream Hollywood that consistently tries to do something from a different angle than we've seen before. I can't find fault in any of his films with the exception of his insistence on casting himself in every movie. He's not an awful actor, it's just distracting.

I sincerely wish he'd finish his promised "Unbreakable" trilogy. That movie has had more ongoing potential than any of his other films.

but wait... there's still noir and cowboy... those are kinda geek genres nowadays, arent they? can you imagine the twist ending in a m.night cowboy movie?

the horses turn out to be the dominant species on the planet, and are experimenting on human. they only pretend to be stupid so the human can ignore them.

"Sometimes he just operates on a different level than his audience and it backfires, a la Lady."

What a load of utter shit. I could film nothing but water running down a gutter for 2 hours and call it art. When it would be, deservedly, derided, I could then quote Mirajeff of AICN and say "Nooooo, you don't understand, you stupid people, I'm just operating on a different level to you."

Unbreakable: This is where all the problems come from, as it is a fucking good film- it set the bar much higher than the mediocre sixth sense.

Signs: Man, I hated this on sight, and age has only made me hate it more. It tells us nothing about faith, has the absolute abomination of "Swing Away", cheesy kids, a plot hole the size of the hole in the ozone layer and the cocksucker wrote himself into it. Not a good film at all.

The Villaige: just awful. Unforgivably awful,

Lady in The Water- No idea, refused to watch it.

The problem all you defenders seem to have, is that you have to find reasons to like his stuff, and they're usually fairly tenuous, (Mirajeff's "different level"), whereas the flaws in his writing are fucking huge and detractors can savage his later films effortlesly. When you need to reach to defend something, then chances are it isn't actually that good.

What he needs to do is direct something he didn't write. There is no doubt that he can direct, but he gets worse as a writer with each outing.

I think him directing a tarantino script would be a great idea

That's a good thing too though isn't it? world cleanses itself of the human stain. Guessing Marky Marks sinuses must be superior to normal folks.

they're happy, normal.. then boom! they turn into drunk soccer fans!

*lunges forward and stares into the TV camera*

Childe Roland! Where are you? Wherever you are, we need you! Come back! Come back and smite the Night lovers!

*General Zod steps forward from the shadows and smacks me*

I see IMDB has him as producer, but if he directs...DOUBLE FUCK!!!

I can't see King picking Roth, of all people, to direct the adaptation (probably a shit-headed studio suit). Aint it crappy news!