I think Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable are good ones. Signs being my favorite for a long time. But nowadays I like the movie Split starring James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy as being my favorite M. Night Shyamalan.
shareThe Village is underrated, when you think about the deeper meaning of how we are kept in a bubble by the controllers lying to us about boogey men and scary things outside.
I think most of his films have really strong original ideas at their base but something goes way off point during production, either that or he's some next level cryptic troll and he makes them deliberately bad in order to get past the censors meanwhile injecting hidden agendas for the eagle eyed
Interesting. I also think The Village is underrated but that is not at all the message I took from it. I have always understood it as a meditation on innocence.
And I think he's only made a few bad movies. His run from Signs through The Village was epic.
'Interesting. I also think The Village is underrated but that is not at all the message I took from it. I have always understood it as a meditation on innocence'
It could well be, to be honest i haven't seen it for a few years but it could have both themes and still work.
But i kind of read it similarly to that old parable of the men in the caves with the shadows on the wall and one day one of them decides to go beyond and noone inside the cave believes what he tell them about the outside.
Also i have seen it listed alongside the likes of the Trueman Show which is similar in theme in that they lie to keep him on the island, it's seen as a bit of a 'truther' film like the Matrix and i do get the feeling MNS is spiritual and not exactly the Hollywood type
Deep down he probably hates the west but if you are going to make anti hollywood films then you have to be really really clever and while his intentions are honourable he may not have the knack for executing his ideas.
I haven't seen old because literally everyone said it's abysmal but there probably is a decent message in there somewhere
I think one of the key components to pay attention to in The Village is that, in the end, when Ivy returns, the elders of the village come together and ask themselves if the experiment they're involved in is worth continuing. They all agree that it is.
The elders retreated from the world due to evil, and they wanted to create their own private world where innocence was preserved and evil was kept at bay. By the end of the film, they realized that this wouldn't be entirely possible--Noah's stabbing of Lucius was seen as the evil they were trying to flee breaking into their world and damaging the innocence thereof--but ultimately they still conclude that their original vision was still one worth striving for.
There are other themes as well, but that for me has always been the most prominent: What is innocence, what is its value, and how can it be preserved?
The Village is actually my favorite M. Night movie.
In regard to Old, I saw it and enjoyed it. I gave it a 7/10. The Audience score on RT is 53%. That's not great, but it does show that the majority of regular moviegoers who saw it were overall positive on the film.
I agree with that explanation and that i accept that was what M Night was likely going for, i just think you can probably make the evil overlords analogy because it is a real feeling people get every day in real life but it's rarely depicted in films for obvious reasons bar a handful of films (Network, They Live, Truman Show) ect
I might actually watch Old now because i recently had a lightbulb moment where i realized most of the films that i have really rated in last few years all have a similar IMDB rating ranging from about 6.3 to 6.7 i know it sounds odd but there seems to be something in that they are divisive enough where people really hate it, but any lower and it's a majority, that range seems to be the sweet spot so now i don't overlook films the way i did in the past
Basically any higher and its too crowd pleasing and any lower it's an incompetent mess
They Live is a damn good movie, I've been trying to get a friend of mine to watch it for years.
I can see why some people might get those kinds of vibes from The Village, but I think it's obvious from the film that the elders/founders of the village were not nefarious characters. Quite the opposite, instead of trying to enact evil plans, they were fleeing the evil plans of others. Of course it is true that they were being deceptive, but I think it's a legitimate question as to whether the younger folk would be better off living in "the towns." I'm not sure they would.
In truth, I totally understand why the elders wanted to engage in this experiment. I often look around at the modern world and go, "This sucks."
In regard to Old, I do think you should check it out. Just go in with modest expectations and I think you should find it an enjoyable and interesting film. I would be interested in hearing what you think if you do watch it.
I agree that the elders intentions were good and they were all victims of awful things in the past, but it does throw up an interesting question about the ethical and moral impact this will have on your children and future generations.
While i agree with you that the modern world is a bit shit and absolutely mental at times there are still good people and good lives to be had within it. But they are knowingly limiting their childrens experiences and keeping them in a kind of infantile state.
It's obviously one thing to say as outsider and another if you were a victim of tragedy but objectively speaking part of living is that anything can happen at anytime good or bad and that unkown factor is what keeps us going and interesting.
I don't know if you have seen the Film Dogtooth it's a a cult film a bit disturbng but very similar in theory to what happens in the village with a father who never lets his kids leave the house and keeps up this drawn out facade with them.
I do weirdly admire cults on occasion even though every incident has almost always ended in tears but i understand the motivations for people joining but having children born into it who have nom idea or choice in the matter does feel a bit cruel
Why do you keep buying his movies if you don't like them?
shareYou buy them in the bargain bin!
shareI’ve only seen The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village and The Happening. I enjoyed The Sixth Sense, Signs was stupid, The Village was boring as shit and The Happening was hilariously awful.
share