Ladies and gentlemen, M. Night Shymalan has finally produced his HEAVEN'S GATE, his ONE FROM THE HEART, his 1941.
I mean he's made financial flop of a movie that people will usually cite, and all times as the punchline of some joke in Hollywood.
Shymalan seems to either have rapidly devoting fans, or many more that despise him. I'm neither. He's never done a real satisfactory movie for me, but hes done some nice ideas or shots that I dig. Though now I'm sure his ego has gotten ahold of him. Sometimes falling on your ass is good for you.
Yet ROBOT CHICKEN's slap against Shymalan is brilliant. "What a TWIIIIST!"
THE SIXTH SENSE was a pretty fun, if overrated, thriller. UNBREAKABLE was a great idea of a movie, if pooched by a script screaming to be rewritten 2-3 more times and an outright pathetic ending. SIGNS was preachy and at times ridiculous, but I still liked the basic geist of it.
Now THE VILLAGE, its not a bad movie. Its just not good either. It wants to be a mind-bending social commentary of a TWILIGHT ZONE episode. Its a nice ambition. Yet we knew Shymalan was going to pull a twist...and those with a functioning brain guessed it a hour at least before the finale.
But LADY IN THE WATER is just mediocre in its writing, direction, creative excercise, editing. The only thing that excels is Shymalan's ego.
Its a pity because Giammati is doing really good acting here. He will survive this. Maybe even Ron Howard's kid too, but its not certain for her.
Perhaps the biggest reason why LADY drowns is because its so...how I say...self-aware. A movie critic, to symbolize Shymalan's pissing on critics(usually those that hate him) and the monster movie formula. ZZZZZ At least Shane Black had the courtesy of making his Hollywood-pisser KISS KISS BANG BANG rather funny in the process.
But maybe the most annoying thing in LADY is Shymalan himself. His cameos in previous movies were in the tradition of Tarantino, Huston, Kevin Smith, Spike Lee, etc. Yet now, he plays a character thats destined, by Ron Howard's kid, to write a book that will earn world peace, but he will die because of it.
If that isn't hubris, then I need to boast my own arrogance.
Shymalan is lucky though. Warner Brothers had a bigger stinker of a financial disaster in the summer with POSEIDON. So Night can come back....but he can kiss his high amounts of money and creative control good bye.
