Tag: Suspense

3SMReviews: The Sixth Sense

3SMReviews: The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense remains M. Night Shyamalan’s directing triumph twenty years on. It’s still scary, still packed with great performances,* still brings the tears. While I mourned a little that I knew the big secret** I spent my time both looking for things I could now see because I did know the secret and fondly remembering my first viewing.

Cost: Monthly Netflix fee ($7.99)
Where watched: at home, as part of Filmspotting’s 9 from 99 series.

*Haley Joel Osment has so much going on with his eyes; this comes from Bruce Willis’ late 90s peak; Toni Collette is, as ever, the actor who is going to do so much with her performance
**As does probably everyone by now, but if you don’t I suggest watching this tout suite, before someone spoils it for you.

3SMR: A History of Violence

3SMR: A History of Violence
http://www.impawards.com/2005/history_of_violence.html

David Cronenberg lays it on thick in A History of Violence. For most of the movie every move that every character makes, everything that every character says, is dripping with “notice what I’m doing!” I found this distracting, (also distracting: the music over the end scene) but what made this good movie was one moment with Viggo Mortensen.

Verdict: Good

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home in preparation for Filmspotting’s March Madness 2019

3SMR: Children of Men

3SMR: Children of Men

Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men is a good action movie, of the regular-people type.* For me though, it suffered from me having read the book which goes deeper into the relationships than the movie does.** The movie achieves a tense vibe throughout, but I found I didn’t care about the people because I knew too little about them.***

Cost: Free from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home in preparation for Filmspotting’s 2019 March Madness: Best of the 2000s

*Any of the Bourne films? I couldn’t do all that stuff. I could do the action stuff in this film.
**I read the book over 20 years ago, which is a sign of a book with staying power.
***This also suffers from the White Guys in Suits problem (although in this case it was a Radical Insurgents in Black problem) in that I couldn’t tell some men apart and a key plot point flew by me.

3SMR: Donnie Darko

3SMR: Donnie Darko

I remain firm in my conviction that the movie I watch should tell the whole story while I am watching it; Donnie Darko does not, and so it fails as a movie. Jake Gyllenhaal is very good as Donnie, and the movie achieves a satisfactory creepy and confusing vibe. But when the movie ends and the speech bubble over my head is filled only with “????” this is a movie that has failed.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home, as part of preperation for Filmspotting’s Best of the 2000s.