Topic: The Not Exactly Neverending M. Night Shyamalan Best Movie Poll

[SailorRipley]

Well... how is it possible this guy has turned out to be such a controversial subject matter in forums and websites everywhere? What is it about him? All of a sudden, he has become the filmmaker everybody loves to hate. As for me, well I don't hate him although I do concur this guy has an ego the size of Dolly Parton's chest. I mean, what else can you say about someone who said:

"I'm going to stop making movies if they end the cinema experience. If there's a last film that's released only theatrically, it'll have my name on it."

On top of that, his feud with Disney executive Nina Jacobson is well reported, as is the fact that he appears unable to accept any kind of criticism to his work. Also, he had the truly bad taste of casting himself in a major supporting role in his last film (Lady in the Water) as a writer who holds the key to bring humanity together thanks to his brilliant writing.

Come on, dude! Snap out of that nonsense!

I guess I still like good old Manoj after all. I had a tendency to defend his work because it is unusually well structured. However, Lady in the Water was such an utter letdown and almost unwatchable film, that I no longer have the high hopes I used to with this chap. He tried so hard to convey how sweet and true was his 'fairy tale' that it became annoying. It's ok to to have an intent in what you create, but shoving it down people's throats is not the best way to do so, in my opinion. Poor Paul Giamatti seems lost throughout the film and at the prospect of speaking out loud M. Night's magical creatures' names. I mean 'Narf"? "Scrunt"? Good heavens, my 5-year-old can come up with better names for fantasy creatures than that! I don't know about you, but every time I hear "Narf", the only thing I can think of is Pinky and The Brain.

My favorite film of his remains the little seen coming-of-age family film, Wide Awake, about a boy's search for God after his grandfather dies. It's a small film, with nothing really pretentious about it and very sweet-natured. Besides, any film that can turn Rosie O'Donnell into a likable character gets high points from me.

So what about you all? What do you think of this guy?

Brain: We're going to take over the world!
Pinky: Narf!

[Najemikon]

I haven't seen Wide Awake, The Village or Lady in the Water, but out of the others, Sixth Sense then Unbreakable. I really thought he was going to be one of the best directors around, but he lost me with Signs.

Sixth Sense and Unbreakable played to his dramatic strengths. Clever screenplays and well performed. Signs though annoyed me. The scenes where you catch glimpses of aliens were great, but I thought the premise overall was just too clever for its own good. And then in the finale, it needed an action scene, which I thought he completely failed at; the scene where the alien is stood in the room with Joaquin Phoenix about to fulfill the unwritten prophecy and batter it. They looked at each other for about 35 minutes before he slowly took the bat and slowly smacked the alien who was about as threatening as wet toilet paper anyway. Dreadful. The Village just sounded like he was going further up his own backside, though I may be doing him a disservice.

I hadn't heard that quote before though. What a git!

[Achim]

With The Sixth Sense the surprise ending gimmick was fresh and it worked great. In the subsequent movies it was expected and that doesn't play to the advantage of those movies. I stopped watchign his films after The Village...

I thoroughly enjoyed Unbreakable. The Village does have it's creepy, even scary, moments, but in the end it was a rather big disappointment. I thought Signs worked rather well, except for the ending, as Jon pointed out already; also, he shouldn't have played in it himself...

[Kathy]

With The Sixth Sense the surprise ending gimmick was fresh and it worked great.

There was no gimmick for me; I knew the shot was deadly and figured out the twist almost immediately.

[Najemikon]

I got the twist about half way. It suddenly dawned on me why she couldn't see him or react to him. But that's one of the reasons I still like Sixth Sense. It's a good film with lots to enjoy about it, even when you know the ending and it stands up to repeated viewings. Like Seven. I think that actually improves.

By the way, you should enjoy this sequence from Spaced (Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, pre- Shaun/Hot Fuzz). The girl at the end is Olivia Williams who played Anna in Sixth Sense ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlUGivPruV4

[m.cellophane]

I actually liked Lady in the Water.  I've not seen Wide Awake. Of all of the other films, the one that least appealed to me was Unbreakable.