[Shyamalan] looks only to sideswipe the audience with twists, even if they don't hold up to close scrutiny.
Comment
07/30/04
The Village (2004)
42
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:194
Fresh:82
Rotten:112
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: The Village is appropriately creepy, but Shyamalan's signature twist ending disappoints.
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan's THE VILLAGE finds the renowned writer-director crafting a suspenseful story of a small community whose inhabitants are plagued by fear of the unknown forest that surrounds... [More]
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Reviews for The Village
141 - 160 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
The Village is M. Night Shyamalan’s best work since The Sixth Sense.
07/30/04
[A] genuinely spooky stories that'll rattle you to the bottom of your popcorn tub.
07/30/04
Top CriticNot only is The Village not credible, its shallowness makes it dislikable.
07/30/04
The Village proves two things: [Shyamalan] is a master of the old-school film craft that emphasizes atmosphere and character over action; and he is riding a one-trick pony and that poor pony is nearly dead.
07/30/04
[The characters] are victims of the outer structure -- the plot, and its requisite rug-pulling, becomes the focus, overshadowing the characters the audience had invested in.
07/30/04
A maddeningly miscalculated hack job.
07/30/04
Offers the ultimate conundrum. A complex motion picture that demands a second viewing, yet doesn't offer enough that's scary or emotionally resounding to be worth the first.
07/30/04
A monumental disappointment. I love Shyamalan's films but this one is only cable worthy.
07/30/04
Let's face it. Shyamalan knows how to wield the cinematic fear factor. ... Maybe he's just running out of things with which to rattle us.
07/30/04
The heart of the movie is Bryce Dallas Howard as Ivy. Every moment she is on screen is fresh, touching, and real.
07/30/04
When you find yourself bored and wishing a movie would speed up and get to the TWIST ENDING already...well, that's not a particularly good movie, now is it?
07/30/04
Shyamalan has followed his own template, but neglected to fill in the most important parts. The movie is a disappointment.
07/30/04
[F]rustrating and tedious and then -- bam! -- slams the audience with the knowledge that they’ve been had, and maliciously so.
07/30/04
The film is rarely suspenseful, frequently cheesy and oftentimes dull. Shyamalan didn't even bother to rip-off good movies, this time.
07/30/04
Gets off to a sluggish start and then takes a while to get to anything jump-out-of-your-seat-worthy.
07/30/04
The ghosts of Sixth Sense continue to haunt Shyamalan… For the first time he has created characters we can't identify with, living in a world we can't relate to.
07/30/04
Don't go to The Village to be surprised, shocked, waylaid or titillated. Go to think hard about the human project.
07/30/04
An enraging bit of nonsense that is made all the worse by Shyamalan’s apparent delusion that he has created something extraordinary.
07/29/04
Shyamalan should certainly be given credit for wanting to make films that dare to inject some philosophical ponderings [but] THE VILLAGE is a concept, not a film.
07/29/04
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