Signs

Reviewed by Justin Colburn and Keayn Dunya

Cast

Mel Gibson....Father Graham Hess

Joaquin Phoenix....Merrill Hess

Rory Culkin....Morgan Hess

Abigail Breslin....Bo Hess

Summary

M. Night Shymalan story of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) is the town's ex-reverend who lost his faith with the death of his wife. Merrill Hess, his brother, moves in to help Graham with his two children, Morgan (Rory Culkin) and Bo (Abigail Breslin). When Graham finds a 50' foot crop circle on his farm, the family's pain comes to light as they try to deal with the truth behind the circles and how they got there.

Justin:

I was a little skeptical about this movie when I first saw the previews for it. M. Night Shymalan has directed two good movies and has received a lot of acclaim from a lot people. Since I'm naturally suspicious of anyone successful I had some doubts walking into the theatre. I am happy to say I was very pleasantly surprised. In your average X-Files-esque alien story you'd have to sit through the mandatory Roswell explanation and listen to all the conspiracy theories about the government covering the whole thing up. Thankfully they didn't see the need to include that part in Signs, unless it was on before the scratched up Wehrenberg trailer. M. Night Shymalan took the alien genre and breathed new life into it by looking at it from the perspective of simple everyday people. This isn't a movie about fighting aliens it's a movie about boarding up windows and hiding in the cellar. In Signs you see an average American family deal with an outside force threatening their way of life.

I have two complaints with the movie, but I can only talk about one without giving anything away, so here it is. If it was me, and I thought my family was being threatened by aliens I'd have a gun or a bat or pointed stick or something. Boarding up windows and hiding in the cellar is fine, but you need to be prepared for them breaking through and taking them on bare handed is just stupid. They could have anal probes or know some kind of alien martial arts or something. Through the whole movie anything they thought they were in danger they'd make a fist like they're getting ready to fist fight with the aliens or something. I mean, c'mon the movie took place on a farm, go to the barn there's got to be all sorts of things you could improvise into weapons, like a Jackie Chan movie.

I definitely recommend Signs. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll feel cheated as you walk away from the concession stand. Very few movies come out of Hollywood these days which will stand the test of time. It thinks this will be among those few.

Keayn:

There is a large genre out there that play up to the "unexplained". There is a whole sub-culture devoted to the science behind the circles. M. Night Shymalan takes that frenzy, that crazed and manic energy to tell a different kind of story.

Crop circles are nothing new. They have been everywhere from the X-files to prime time news, and the speculation has always been on if there is a meaning to them. The executive producer, Kathleen Kennedy explored M. Night Shymalan's use of crop circles. "There's been speculation about if these signs were done by some prankster or were in fact a sign from outer space," says Kennedy, "and that was Night's original concept, to combine that with a character who is clearly facing his own demons." In fact that seems to be the beauty of Signs, a movie more about the effect on the average family more than the exploration of the aliens.

Shymalan's movies, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs all seem to take a common, simple premise and take it one step father. This type of storytelling takes a clich(c)d subject matter and makes it more personal and fresh, of course with the twist endings that are becoming his trademark. Signs incorporate that simplicity, using the supernatural to tell how regular people work through an emotional struggle in light of things they don't understand.

I felt Signs was a great movie, worthy of a place in my DVD collection beside all the classics, War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Night of the Living Dead, all of which seemed to be paid homage to in Signs. Shyamlan's use of a down home feel kept the movie interesting. One could feel the tension that never seemed to break nor overwhelm. Although there are a few instances in which the actions of the character would seem a little less believable it all comes together in the end.

There isn't a lot about Signs I can write about here for fear of ruining the movie for someone. Every scene is almost critical to the movie, another Shymanlan trademark, nothing superfluous is left in. Also is not as scary as it's been made out to be, even though I was startled a few times, it was more of an Orwell or Hitchcock type of suspense as opposed a horror type of feel. The focus stayed on the family and how they tried to cope as opposed to a "let's-go-kill-us-some-aliens" mentality. All of these thing lead to great movie, respectfully placing M. Night Shymalan in the limelight.