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Awesome
I always found the hype for his movies overrated as they are never as good as people hype them up to be, but sure I'll check this out why not..
Since The Sixth Sense days I don't really think Shymalan is as respected as he used to be. His films are consistently troubling to many on the whole, resulting in some critics giving him playful nicknames, like "Shymalamadingdong," which I believe is a Mark Kermode original.
I've never been a fan personally, and don't really "get" his movies. It's always a strange experience to watch a film by a director who seems to think they're smarter than you are, showing off by being as twisty as they can instead of telling an interesting story.
It never helps when your films become better known for their twists than for any of their other qualities. I had a similar experience with the books of Chuck Palahniuk when I was younger, where the first few seemed pretty legit all around, and then as he kept going, the quality of the writing and the storytelling dropped off more and more until eventually it seemed like his books were relying on all his old tricks, trying to be shocking for the sake of shocking, and simply living for the twist at the end.
With Shyamalan, Unbreakable is the only film of his I regard as truly rewatchable today. The Sixth Sense is a great film too, but far less rewarding once you know the ending. Signs was a potentially great film with an atrocious ending. The Village was pretty solid, but again hampered by an ending that felt like it was trying too hard to be twisty, perhaps as that's the reputation Shyamlan had developed. I haven't watched any of his films since based on what I've heard of his decline as a filmmaker and the trajectory I'd seen his films taking already. I think things went south for him when he started trying to make every one of his films as twisty as possible to maintain his reputation.
http://variety.com/2017/film/news/david-fincher-world-war-z-2-director-1202399978/
@Some_Kind_Of_Hero, yeah Shyamalan walked himself into a trap with that one. He had a twisty start to his career, and relied so much on those kinds of story structures that that's all people expected of him. Which is kind of ironic, since the man who was known for having unpredictable endings soon became one of the most predictable directors ever because of those same twists.
And now, if Shyamalan ever wanted to make different films that had no twists to speak of, people would be waiting all film to see what the bigger idea or twist was, only to be disappointed when he didn't deliver one. He lacks the kind of variety of creation old masters like Hitchcock had, who did twisty films but also had a larger body of work that showed they could do different things stylistically, which made audiences understand they wouldn't get one of those endings every time. With Shyamalan, he doesn't really have that to fall back on because his style is so fixed on this particular style. And that's all his doing, nobody else's.
True. He certainly has directorial talent, as evidenced by his early films; it's his stories that have been lacking. Perhaps by working with material from another writer he could begin to reinvent himself.
This is one of my big movie must see's this year!
Did wonder if they would ever do a sequel? Should be interesting to see what he creates for the second instalment!
Thanks to @ClarkDevlin
http://www.slashfilm.com/the-boondock-saints-origins/#more-413109
The thought of spending $600 for a TV show you know nothing about is absurd, but I'm sure someone will do it.
Just like old times. I'll be seeing this for sure. Van Damme's still got it.
+1 on this, I agree 100% with this. That's why you shouldn't rely on one thing in your movies.
RE: That Lundgren/Van Damme trailer
That movie looks like it could be the next big box office hit of 1988 :D :-))
http://deadline.com/2017/05/triple-frontier-ben-affleck-casey-affleck-netflix-jc-chandor-mahershala-ali-1202080418/
He does seem to be having a comeback lately though. Missed Split at the cinema but I've heard nothing but good things (and from what I can tell there isn't actually a twist in that one, just a hint at a sequel/crossover with Unbreakable).
And I really really liked The Visit. The twist there, which I won't spoil, was actually very understated and well done imo, it added a lot to the film. I was expecting a same old found footage horror film but instead I got a weird, gripping black comedy. I'd definitely recommend it.
On the whole I'm a fan of the films of his I've seen. Enjoyed both of his Bruce Willis films and I loved Signs, I think that's a criminally underrated film. I wasn't a huge fan of The Village and After Earth was awful but from what I've seen he seems to be more hit than miss imo.
@thelivingroyale, maybe the twist in Split was that there was no twist? Eh? Eh?
I'll see myself out...
Pleasantly surprised by Split though, and looking forward to Glass.
Shymalan really missed a trick with that one by not writing a demonic lifeguard into the script as his major twist. It's what Hitch would've done, and we all know it.
1st trailer for The Dark Tower