teel@modernevil.com says: (9:14:35 PM)
I’m working on a better non-spoiler review for The Village (where I reveal that it is, in fact, a dramatic romance, NOT a Thriller, as advertised!) and … well, a comic for today.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:14:43 PM)
hehehe
iain says: (9:15:42 PM)
I agree, I am about to post my own sort of review of the Village, where I reveal that people will probably not ever have the same experience as they had with Sixth Sense while attending a M. Night movie, and how that’s okay
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:16:01 PM)
Good, good.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:17:19 PM)
Interestingly for me, considering that Unbreakable barely had a twist and as far as I can tell Signs didn’t have a twist at all, expecting that sort of thing seems silly to me.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:17:58 PM)
Have you see the Village, then?
iain says: (9:18:17 PM)
yes yes
iain says: (9:18:23 PM)
I thoroughly enjoyed it
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:19:18 PM)
Also, I have spoken to more than one person who, apparently missing the gravestone, thought we were looking at a modern, secluded, Amish-type community, it never occurring to them that it was supposed to be set in the past, and thus, thinking the only “twist” was that the elders were the creatures.
iain says: (9:20:06 PM)
I think the twist in Signs was that there actually were aliens, and that it wasn’t anything else, it was… just aliens
iain says: (9:20:12 PM)
pesky aliens
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:20:44 PM)
I liked it a lot. I think I liked it more the second time than the first, because I knew what to expect, more. Less twist, less thriller, more romance and drama and excellent acting. Really, less expectation, but more accurate expectation.
iain says: (9:21:35 PM)
I was actually spooked by the movie a lot. And thought it was a good thriller. But, having someone clawing my arm off half the movie may have had some influence on that
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:21:42 PM)
Huh. I uhh… I thought it was assumed that it was an alien movie, with … aliens. And then I watched it and … there were these alien things going on, and at the end, an alien, and … well, a good enough movie, but … nothing surprising there.
iain says: (9:22:13 PM)
I watched it thinking it was really about the Rapture for some strange reason….
iain says: (9:22:19 PM)
so when it wasn’t that was a twist lol
iain says: (9:22:42 PM)
and now I watch it and I am really interested in the different characters coming to grips with their beliefs
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:23:11 PM)
The spookiest thing for me were the creatures themselves. When I first saw them and thought “oh no, they’re real! I have no idea how that’s going to work out, they’re clearly monsters!” and then when it was revealed they weren’t real, but there was one threatening her again! Damn!
iain says: (9:23:18 PM)
and ultimately, I thoroughly enjoy his movies, over and over again
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:23:31 PM)
YES. Signs is an excellent movie about faith.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:24:13 PM)
That scene where Merril… errr.. Lucius ducks around the corner and you first get a good look at the creatures, MAN. Got me both times.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:24:43 PM)
Like “Oh my gosh! There are really real monsters!” Even when I knew there weren’t.
iain says: (9:25:48 PM)
yes
iain says: (9:26:35 PM)
when they had shown the suit, and she was out in the woods, and then she was all freaked because her cloak was muddy and we were reminded that there were rumors of the creatures in the woods, I was all “OMG there might really be creatures still!”
iain says: (9:26:41 PM)
he got me
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:26:56 PM)
Yes. Exactly. I was almost in tears the first time, emoting with her.
iain says: (9:27:01 PM)
then I saw how the creature was moving, and instantly recognized it was Noah
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:27:28 PM)
Oh, I didn’t. But … what clues?
iain says: (9:28:03 PM)
the way he moved was just like how the creature moved, all sort of.. off
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:28:08 PM)
I was confident or … mostly confident that she knew it was him … but assumed so on her superior senses.
iain says: (9:28:32 PM)
we should post this conversation as a Spoiler Review
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:28:37 PM)
Excellent.
iain says: (9:28:42 PM)
shall I?
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:28:51 PM)
Let us finish it, maybe?
iain says: (9:28:55 PM)
okay
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:29:14 PM)
I’ll post it later, with my no-spoilers whatsoever review. Then I’ll have three levels of spoilers.
iain says: (9:29:16 PM)
she was, as the reviews all said, fantastic, Ivy that is. Stole the show
iain says: (9:29:21 PM)
heh
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:29:28 PM)
Yes. Bryce Howard is amazing.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:30:23 PM)
I am tempted to just keep watching it. If not for the whole money issue, I probably would see it several more times in theatres. As it is, I shall simply have to patiently wait for the DVD.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:31:01 PM)
(Oh, and probably try to dl it – so I can see it between now and the DVD release, like I did with the matrix Reloaded.)
iain says: (9:31:59 PM)
heh
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:32:03 PM)
And mostly for her performance. She is mesmerizing and excessively … believable? I mean, she draws me into the picture in a way Joaquin failed to.
iain says: (9:32:13 PM)
yeah
iain says: (9:32:17 PM)
not that he was bad
iain says: (9:32:29 PM)
but I can imagine others maybe doing as good a job in the role
iain says: (9:32:32 PM)
and I cannot with hers
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:32:38 PM)
no, no. Just that … his character was not the sort that would draw anyone toward them in so short a time, I think.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:32:50 PM)
yes, that is a reasonable and agreeable statement.
iain says: (9:33:17 PM)
oh, and I recognized M. Night’s voice immediately
iain says: (9:33:28 PM)
that was fun
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:33:44 PM)
Absolutely. My sister didn’t recognize him at all, even when they “showed” his face in his trademark reflection shot.
iain says: (9:33:49 PM)
lol
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:34:24 PM)
I’m quite interested to know what the originally shot ending was like. Hurt is quoted as preferring the original cut better.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:34:42 PM)
I suspect, from watching the film, that it is something subtle.
iain says: (9:36:40 PM)
and there was supposedly more explored with Sigourney Weaver’s character that the let in]
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:36:54 PM)
But it could be something as major as (my favorite of speculations I’ve read) this: When Ivy kills the creature, Noah’s face is not shown, there is no scene of his escaping/having a suit, and the last scene is a little different (with the elders), plus a shot of Noah in the quiet room (perhaps having injured himself somehow – that being an idea I’ve just had now). Implying that the creatures are real.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:37:07 PM)
that definitely seemed cut down.
iain says: (9:38:09 PM)
or it was really all about the Rapture
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:38:17 PM)
perhaps even with one of the elders missing from the final scene.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:38:44 PM)
implying that one of the elders tried to kill her, Noah’s father, perhaps, to prevent her from contacting the outside world.
iain says: (9:39:58 PM)
oh, and Judy Greer, whee!
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:40:09 PM)
Of course! But when isn’t Deadly girl excellent?
iain says: (9:40:18 PM)
I didn’t know she was in it until I showed up at the theater and saw her name in the opening credits
iain says: (9:40:23 PM)
right, well
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:40:34 PM)
I saw her face in a trailer, and was excited.
iain says: (9:40:56 PM)
I saw her a million times in the trailer and didn’t notice it was her
iain says: (9:53:46 PM)
oh, and the doctor’s ethnicity seemed odd to me for the setting and supposed time period when I was shown him, and some of the things they had seemed a bit much. Like their greenhouse
iain says: (9:53:58 PM)
but I still didn’t guess the secret “twist” outright
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:54:06 PM)
ethnicity?
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:54:23 PM)
What ethnicity should a doctor have been?
iain says: (9:54:38 PM)
he didn’t look European, I mean.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:54:52 PM)
You know Leeuwenhoek had greenhouses in the 1700s, right?
iain says: (9:54:56 PM)
everyone else seemed like the sort that would have settled that area
iain says: (9:55:05 PM)
no, I did not
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:55:16 PM)
I think that’s right.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:55:51 PM)
Actually, here: “The earliest recorded greenhouse was built about 30 AD for the Roman emperor Tiberius.”
iain says: (9:56:02 PM)
huh.
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:56:11 PM)
So the tech existed.
iain says: (9:56:16 PM)
kk
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:58:36 PM)
Actually, upon further research, all-glass greenhouses like the one seen there were not popular until the early 1800s.
iain says: (9:58:57 PM)
okay
teel@modernevil.com says: (9:59:10 PM)
sorry. Google is too useful sometimes and too useless others.
iain says: (9:59:15 PM)
lol
iain says: (10:03:41 PM)
well, I suppose I should sleep now. sigh. stupid @#$%^ sleep
teel@modernevil.com says: (10:03:53 PM)
okie-dokie. I’ll get this up soon-ish.
iain says: (10:03:58 PM)
k, seeya
teel@modernevil.com says: (10:04:02 PM)
night
