Signs

To me, it had tremendous potential, but was ultimately disappointing. Although I liked 6th Sense better than Unbreakable, I'm definitely not in the "intense hatred of Unbreakable" camp, & that movie seemed to inspire a big backlash from the 6th Sense lovers who were hanging their hopes for the "next great director" on MNS. However, Signs seems to have been crafted with input from Ron Howard or some other big time director who thinks that in order to make a film acceptable to everyone, idiosyncratic style needs to be levelled out via the maudlin. MNS is at his best when his characters seem distant & the events don't seem quite real. Signs is every bit as creepy as the first two, but during many of the "warm, accessible" moments, MNS seemed be a trying too hard to be funny & "family-oriented", & this detracted from the overall impact. I think MNS has shown us he does one thing as well as anybody has ever done it, & as far as I'm concerned, that's nothing to be ashamed of. I hope that he learns from this movie and comes back with his best one yet. I give this my half-hearted recommendation, meaning that it's worth the price of a discount matinee, but not full price. However, I think that people who found the first two films too distant & stylized may like this one better.