SptJR414

In this movie I went in simply looking for M. Night Shamylan to prove himself to me a third time. The Sixth Sense was absolutely amazing, and Unbreakable, although not nearly as good, wasn't as bad as critics made it out to me. Yet with Signs, Shamylan has really written a screenplay that proves he can do great things. His direction is extraordinary. Once again he has made children, not ordinarily great actors, shine...and he has mixed comic relief in with masterful suspense. The film is thorougly entertaining, and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. Well-written parts include a film laced with the question of faith, of the existence of God...and the movie is layered with an element of hope even in its darkest moments, something I believe to be symbolic of God. Extra terrestrials are seen only a few times in the film, but when they come they make you jump and they come at exactly the right times. Also, hand it to the people behind the scenes who worked on the sound. This film's sound is among the best of the year, and the music score, which is composed of mainly three notes played in a haunting and beautiful way is great and makes the film terrifying in a way that movies like Scream and Halloween couldn't do with their violent predictible moments blotched all over. While I am glorifying this film and making it out to sound perfect, there are still plot incositincies and moments that aren't quite as great as others. Still, this movie, while not as good as Sixth Sense, has proven Shamylan can tell a story as well as anyone in Hollywood. 8/10.

With Clerks Kevin Smith made himself. With Dogma he reestablished himself as a man who could make cheap movies, good movies, and money. And with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, as far as I'm concerned, Smith ran himself into the ground. This is absolutely the worst movie he has made so far. Perhaps it's just that I don't particularly like the two characters all that much in leading roles, and they're just better as occasional comic relief, as they do in Clerks, Mallrats, and others. But mainly I think my hatred for this movie is due to Kevin Smith's strong potential, which he does not use in this movie. This movie is uninspired, constantly bringing out overdone spoofs of scenes like lightsabre fights in Star Wars and the gutter scene in The Fugitive. This film also brings out stupid lines and random scenes of extreme stupidity. It was almost as if Kevin Smith decided to write a sequel to Dude, Where's My Car? instead of using his writing talent to put Jay and Silent Bob away in a nice way. Perhaps, however, he can redeem himself. 2/10

I gave this movie a 6. And why? Why give The Blair Witch Project, a deserving winner of so many Razzies, and other "worst films of 1999" awards, a rating reserved for films that are simply "not bad." The reason is, The Blair Witch Project is one of the most original movies ever made. The "acting" is awful, but you have to give major props to a horror movie with no music. You have to give major props to a movie that doesn't make itself, but sits back and lets a movie be made. Its' original in that no other movie has sent a buncha kids out in the woods with CAMCORDERS and seen what they get out of it. No other movie has paid their stars in sandwiches. These props made what probably should've been a 3 or 4 movie a 6.