IronParrot
09-10-2000, 02:08 AM
I was sure there's a thread on it here somewhere but I can't find it. Anyway, here's my spoilerless review from my board:
JUST TELL ME IF IT'S GOOD OR BAD
Excellent, but don't make the mistake of seeing it with overly optimistic preconceptions.
PROS
The Sixth Sense is a compelling and touching journey into the life of a troubled, "different" child trying to cope with his surroundings. The kind of kid who has a secret so disturbing he has to hide it from everyone, even his mother... kind of like a kid who goes to grade school but still wets his bed, except the problem is taken more than just a few steps further.
In that respect, it's a wonderful film about a boy overcoming his fear.
For his age, Haley Joel Osment was a pretty good actor as the boy - as in, he never stuck out as being annoying or anything, and was... convincing, shall we say, as a realistic child. He was not a brilliant, great-actor-by-any-standards child like Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! or Jonathan Ke Quan as the inimitable Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but he was still convincing - and that's what counts. In fact, nobody in the cast ever stood out as being particularly annoying - and that does this film quite a great deal of credit.
The screenplay, while not immensely quotable to quasi-classic levels of memorability, was at the very least clever and effective. It served this film well.
This was also a very well-directed, well-edited film. In a movie like The Sixth Sense, almost every shot right down to every angle does matter, and here they pulled it off. However, keep in mind this is from the perspective of looking at this film as a story of a troubled child with a rather unusual problem. This film never once thrilled or "scared" me, but I don't hold that against it because I did not go into this film expecting a so-called "horror movie". I saw it as more of a film of intrigue.
And it succeeded.
CONS
Don't you just hate it when early into a film, a little "what-if" prediction pops into your head... and that plot twist, which was certainly intended to be a "twist", comes true? I saw this film completely unspoiled because I was told there was a surprise of some sort at the end, and the whole movie would be ruined for me. So I expected a twist. However, instead of giving me a real ending twist like in Arlington Road (poor film, great ending)... it gave me something that was certainly intended to be unpredictable, but turned out to be blatantly predictable in an extremely disappointing manner.
This is not to say the ending wasn't clever. However, this is to say that it was certainly "not all that".
I also seriously hope this film wasn't intended as a "horror film" or even a "thriller" as the marketing suggests, because if it was... then this film sucks. There is nothing scary or thrilling about it. However, it is a very good drama involving the supernatural, like The Green Mile.
OVERALL
A brilliant film, and quite clever. However, don't expect too much out of it. This is a very overrated film, and certainly wasn't as great as its supernatural peer The Green Mile. Also, I'd like to say Twelve Monkeys remains the superior film with Bruce Willis, a character named Cole everybody thinks is crazy and a number in the title, that is set in Philadelphia. (I also just remembered, after looking at the IMDB, that in addition Twelve Monkeys boasts the line "All I see are dead people." Coincidence? I think not.)
JUST TELL ME IF IT'S GOOD OR BAD
Excellent, but don't make the mistake of seeing it with overly optimistic preconceptions.
PROS
The Sixth Sense is a compelling and touching journey into the life of a troubled, "different" child trying to cope with his surroundings. The kind of kid who has a secret so disturbing he has to hide it from everyone, even his mother... kind of like a kid who goes to grade school but still wets his bed, except the problem is taken more than just a few steps further.
In that respect, it's a wonderful film about a boy overcoming his fear.
For his age, Haley Joel Osment was a pretty good actor as the boy - as in, he never stuck out as being annoying or anything, and was... convincing, shall we say, as a realistic child. He was not a brilliant, great-actor-by-any-standards child like Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! or Jonathan Ke Quan as the inimitable Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but he was still convincing - and that's what counts. In fact, nobody in the cast ever stood out as being particularly annoying - and that does this film quite a great deal of credit.
The screenplay, while not immensely quotable to quasi-classic levels of memorability, was at the very least clever and effective. It served this film well.
This was also a very well-directed, well-edited film. In a movie like The Sixth Sense, almost every shot right down to every angle does matter, and here they pulled it off. However, keep in mind this is from the perspective of looking at this film as a story of a troubled child with a rather unusual problem. This film never once thrilled or "scared" me, but I don't hold that against it because I did not go into this film expecting a so-called "horror movie". I saw it as more of a film of intrigue.
And it succeeded.
CONS
Don't you just hate it when early into a film, a little "what-if" prediction pops into your head... and that plot twist, which was certainly intended to be a "twist", comes true? I saw this film completely unspoiled because I was told there was a surprise of some sort at the end, and the whole movie would be ruined for me. So I expected a twist. However, instead of giving me a real ending twist like in Arlington Road (poor film, great ending)... it gave me something that was certainly intended to be unpredictable, but turned out to be blatantly predictable in an extremely disappointing manner.
This is not to say the ending wasn't clever. However, this is to say that it was certainly "not all that".
I also seriously hope this film wasn't intended as a "horror film" or even a "thriller" as the marketing suggests, because if it was... then this film sucks. There is nothing scary or thrilling about it. However, it is a very good drama involving the supernatural, like The Green Mile.
OVERALL
A brilliant film, and quite clever. However, don't expect too much out of it. This is a very overrated film, and certainly wasn't as great as its supernatural peer The Green Mile. Also, I'd like to say Twelve Monkeys remains the superior film with Bruce Willis, a character named Cole everybody thinks is crazy and a number in the title, that is set in Philadelphia. (I also just remembered, after looking at the IMDB, that in addition Twelve Monkeys boasts the line "All I see are dead people." Coincidence? I think not.)