Last night, my wife rented "The Villiage" because she knew I wanted to see me and it was a sort of birthday night for me.
Having read Brews quite accurate review of the film, I thought I would give a quick review in responce to his.
Before I go on, I will have you know that after having read Brews review, I had no real desire to see this movie. His reviews are just that powerful friends!
I thought this was a fun and enjoyable movie. But, I can't see how Brew did such a long review on it. I can hardly tell you anything about the movie without giving away things about it.
For a brief synopsis of the film, see Brews review. In the early stages of watching this movie, I felt that the characters and the entire town was very stupid. Just in the way they talked and acted. I felty KIND of like I was watching a childs film. It all made sense about 3/4ths of the way through, which I guess is this guys way of making movies... where you end up going "OOOooooohhhh, I get it now" about an hour into the movie.
If you've seen the movie, youll understand it when I say that I felt decieved. Again, I hate to give anything away, but the movie made me think 'something' was real, when in fact it was not.
Crap, this is harder than I thought... I'll close with this line from Brews review:
"...Instead everyone goes into the theatre expecting, waiting on the surprise at the end. This is a distraction taken away from the whole of the film; it is a gimmick that has run thin. A truly surprising ending for the director now, would be no surprise at all."
I went in expecting just that, but I think the director did such a good job at "tricking" me early on, that I had abandoned this assumption and was still surprised at the end.
" In a sense the Village is really two stories. One is a suspenseful tale of creatures lurking in the dark, and the other of a quaint village dealing with extraordinary circumstances. I believe the fault lies with the merging of the two..." Another quote from Brew which I find accurate. I felt like the first hour was one movie, then the last 40 minutes or so I was watching another movie... the "2nd" movie was cool, but I was really hoping for the 1st movie to be the entire movie.
I cant for the life of me figure out why this movie is rated PG-13. There are a few jump scenes, and "Signs" was MUCH scarier. But there isn't ONE SINGLE curse word in the film and not a stich of nudity. Oh, one guy gets stabbed... it is kind of gross, but I think PG-13 was too high for this movie. Safe for a 9 year old.
I would and probably will watch it again.
Oh, and one thing that bothered me was that sigourney weaver's role was so small, and didn't take advantage of her acting ability (seemed like she was acting in a high school play, but that may be what the director was going for) nor her good looks.
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18 comments:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jamison! We can watch it tonight if you like, my friend. I'd really like to pick a little, too. I've been practicing my guitar every night. Rachel saw the movie and told me I'd probably hate it. I've heard luke warm and cold reviews on it, but nothing really saying it was a great movie. But, I'm game to watch whatever! Sounds like fun.
Nice review Jamison, even if you did steal most of it from me :) Remind me to post it on my blog as well.
It is a well made flick, but the trick really does spoil it.
Oh, and Happy Birthday. One more year and you're at the big THREE OH. How's that info treating ya?
Sipper, what with writing and practicing your tunage, how do you ever get a moment alone with your wife?
Um The Village sucked. I’m not sure that I remember reading Brew’s review because I didn’t care for the movie. I felt the eldership of the village was pretty cheesy. They actively were hard pressed to keep up the appearance of maintaining the village and for all their philanthropic ideals the whole thing hinged on one characters selfishness. All of those kids are going to grow up and file law suites against the town elders someday. I’m not sure what it is but I just didn’t care for the whole movie. I liked Signs because of one scene. I think M Night captured a very real fear when he showed the alien walk past the alley at the kids birthday party. That is actually how I imagine the world might find out about something like that. Though I had my share and jumps and cringes that scene watching something like an all news channel is the one that really set the whole movie into motion for me and gave it a real life application.
The moments are all interspersed in the action of everyday. We also have the GPs and get plenty of alone time that way, too. When you have kids, you just learn to enjoy what time you have and use it wisely and well. Being organized helps and being motivated does, too. The book I'm writing on the LT now is flying from my brain like lightening, man!!! And the music is starting to flow as well. It's fun.
good point mullins. That one scene with the home movie camera is so real feeling, it was the creepiest part of the film for me.
But what I liked about signs and this move was the subtle scary parts of it. I mean, hey, it isnt a blockbuster thriller, but when I turn the DVD player off and say "I enjoyed myslef" I think thats a sign of a good movie. I did feel decieved and robbed and angry, but it stirred up those emotions in me and was a fun ride.
Ah, come on, mullins, it wasn't that bad. There was some good acting, and some good goosebump scenes. It just doesn't really hold up that well
I've already had the movie related to me by several different people, but I don't mind watching something once. Who knows? I might think it's OK. Gosh, Jamison...you should do a review on Napolean Dynamite!!!
i thought it was the best never-came-out-in-the-theatre movie ive seen in a long time.
Brew, I will always remember my 21st birthday with fondness... you bought me a slice of lemon pie at waffle house. And I dont think you ate anything.
That was back in the day when money was scarce and if you bought ANYTHING for someone else, you were sacrificing much.
thank you!
Of course the ending of signs sucked too.
SPOILER AHEAD
Um hello, there is water everywhere on earth, why would aliens come there. I guess if a rainstorm happened to come by while they were destroying the earth, the jig would have been up.
Obviously Signs never focused on the south eastern United States. Had those aliens landed during the summer in the south the humidity would have nuked them. That part of the movie just wasn’t though out very well. So you're in space and looking for a world to take over and you realize that as a reptile creature you have a subtle aversion to water and the blue liquid covered planet is the one you choose to land on, really... The Village has some good moments it was just cheesy, W. Hurt and Phoenix were pretty good along with Cummins. Ron Howard’s daughter though very pretty was somewhat out of place I thought.
Yeah, water is not just in bodies on this planet. It's every frickin where! But, it was a nice story, anyway. I look forward to seeing Signs. Perhaps it will pleasanlty surprise me, but I sort of doubt it. I'm a pretty harsh movie critic most of the time.
are you refering to Ivy?
I thought she was one of the most pretty girls ive see on screen in a long time.
Certainly more have been sexier, cuter, and more beautifu, but she WAS pretty.
Yeah, that's Opie's daughter. Cool, huh?
We watched the movie. I thought it was pretty good from a story perspective. I went into it with the full knowledge that the monsters were a farce. I thought the dialog (which was fraught with pauses and devoid of contractions) was silly. But, the story and the idea were pretty cool, in my opinion! I think Shymalan (sp?) was trying to make a point that evil will find you wherever you go and that you have to do more than hide or set up man-made rules and boundaries to overcome evil. These people all ran from society and set up a community of fear to control the people in the town. In the end, it just wound up backfiring. So, I found the underlying message to be valuable. Hollywood marketed it in the way they always do, and it wound up seeming lackluster because everyone expected something scary and full of actions and aliens. Who knew there'd be a deeply cerebral, societal message involved?
i was so pumped that sipper would be blown away with the couple of twists and turns, but he ended up confessing that he had read spoilers on the net... STOP READING SPOLIERS!!!! They spoil movies, hense the name...
I didn't feel like it was spoiled at all, though. I really don't mind if I know some stuff going into a movie. It frees me up to think about other stuff. Like I said, I knew mostly what was going to happen, so I was able to think more about what it all meant. As a result, I really enjoyed it! Otherwise, I would have felt let down.
See, I hate knowing anything about a movie before I go in. If I know nothing then I can make up my own mind about everything and not feel influenced by some one elses opinion, etc.
In a film like the Village, I would have hated to know the secrets because it would have ruined some of the thrill.
And please, Sipper, don't spoil movies for others like you did in the comments. A little spoiler warning goes a long ways. Just because you don't mind spoilers doesn't mean everyone else doesn't
Dang, Brew! OK, so I'm a spoiler. I'll try to be more careful. I thought everyone had seen it anyway. I'm the type who asks someone to tell me the whole movie before I go see it and then enjoy it anyway. Like with Episode III. I knew what was gonna happen, but I still had fun at the movie. But, I'm weird that way. It's all just for fun anyway.
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