Favorite twist?

[Tyyr]

Yeah, Fight Club and Sixth Sense. Two of the few times you get hit with a twist and its not just idiotic writing.

[Nutso]

V'Ger.

[Mikey]

Yeah, Fight Club and Sixth Sense. Two of the few times you get hit with a twist and its not just idiotic writing.

Except, The Sixth Sense was.

[Tyyr]

No, Sixth Sense was actually a very good movie. The problem is Shamalamadingdong felt he kept having to have a "twist" at some point to match Sixth Sense's. Unfortunately a combination of not doing it quite as well as SS and the audience looking for it kind of ruined the whole bit.

[Tsukiyumi]

I saw the twist in The Village coming a full hour before the reveal. Pretty weak sauce, that.

[Tyyr]

He's not a bad movie maker, he's just trying to repeat that schtick and it killed him.

[Mikey]

No, Sixth Sense was actually a very good movie. The problem is Shamalamadingdong felt he kept having to have a "twist" at some point to match Sixth Sense's. Unfortunately a combination of not doing it quite as well as SS and the audience looking for it kind of ruined the whole bit.

Are you saying that The Sixth Sense was the way it was because it was trying to match The Sixth Sense, or are you saying that's why the rest of his movies were so annoying?

Anyway, it wasn't very good. The "twist" was as subtle as being run over by a semi-rig, and that Osment kid ranks, in the list of great child actors, about equivalent to potted plants.

[Tsukiyumi]

He's not a bad movie maker, he's just trying to repeat that schtick and it killed him.

Yeah, I hope The Last Airbender will redeem him. It looks cool, at least.

For the record, Unbreakable is one of my favorite movies.

[Tyyr]

or are you saying that's why the rest of his movies were so annoying?

That.

Anyway, it wasn't very good. The "twist" was as subtle as being run over by a semi-rig, and that Osment kid ranks, in the list of great child actors, about equivalent to potted plants.

Looking back on it, yeah. However the first time you watch it unless you are looking for a twist it catches you off guard and is actually very well done throughout the movie. Unlike most twists where there's nothing leading up to it. As much as I like "I am your father," it's out of left field with really nothing to back it up.

[Mikey]

Yeah, I hope The Last Airbender will redeem him. It looks cool, at least.

Yeah, I'm gonna see it no matter what. My daughter's a big Avatar fan.

Looking back on it, yeah. However the first time you watch it unless you are looking for a twist it catches you off guard and is actually very well done throughout the movie. Unlike most twists where there's nothing leading up to it. As much as I like "I am your father," it's out of left field with really nothing to back it up.

IDK... I'm not a big proponent of my own intellect, but I saw it coming a mile away - the first time. Maybe just a chance assembly of cues in my odd little brain, but there it was nonetheless.

[Tyyr]

IDK... I'm not a big proponent of my own intellect, but I saw it coming a mile away - the first time. Maybe just a chance assembly of cues in my odd little brain, but there it was nonetheless.

Unless you just pull something out of your ass like, "N,IAYF," the possibility exists that someone will get wise to it. However I don't hear that many people catch onto SS's early unlike one like the Village where EVERYONE saw it coming. So if you caught onto it early, great. I felt someone was up but I wasn't quite sure myself and I think that's the mark of a good twist. Any idiot can pull a "N,IAYF" moment and blindside the audience. It takes some skill to do what SS did and leave 99% of the audience completely in the dark until the reveal.

[Graham Kennedy]

Shamalamadingdong's fondness for twist endings is a bit odd, I always thought.

I've nothing against twists, but they're an element of moviemaking, nothing more. Like any element, used well - as in the Sixth Sense - they can be great. In fact I think the Sixth Sense is probably one of if not the definitive use of a plot twist in at least recent cinema history.

But I'm puzzled as hell as to why he then seemed to have decided that that's his "thing", and ALL his movies have to go this way.

Unbreakable, I actually like, and again the twist worked for me. I'd heard a bit about a twist ending, and I figured that it was the twist that Bruce really is this indestructible super hero type after all. I really didn't see the actual twist coming. But it didn't work quite as well as Sixth Sense because you didn't really get time to let it sink in. In Sixth Sense you get a scene or two after you realise he's a ghost, you get to reappraise the movie and take a mental breath before it ends. In Unbreakable it's just there, in your face, then there's a caption or two and it's done. It does work for me, just not as well.

Signs... Signs was crippled by just being a damn poor movie. And it's further crippled for me by the fact that Mel Gibson's character makes a big speech about how atheists view the world half way through. A speech which is (a) almost totally wrong, and (b) quite insulting to atheists. It's not often I watch a movie where the star lectures me about what a bad person I am in the middle of the movie. And quite apart from all that, the twist itself is also bloody stupid. Aliens that can't handle water invade EARTH?!?! So much has been said on it that I can't add much.

The Village... and by now people are going "a twist ending? Again? What the hell, dude?" I've never watched this movie all the way through, and the twist is obvious even to me. It's also another stupid one.

He'd have done a lot better to have given up on the twists after Unbreakable. I think personally he'd have done far better to make Signs about demons attacking Humanity, rather than Aliens. It would work better in so many ways. Like for instance the demons would attack the farm and places like it, precisely because Gibson's character is the kind of person they want - the believer who has turned his back on god. Demons don't want the likes of me, as far as they are concerned they already HAVE me, and true blue believers are immunised from Demons by Jesus... but Gibson is right on that line, ready for plucking, and maybe with his children to boot. And then at the end, maybe it's not water but holy water that harms them. Or maybe it's simply that the person attacking them does so with faith in his heart that god will make him succeed, no matter what the method. Whatever, the point is that Signs is basically a movie about religious faith and how it's justified in the end, so if that's going to be your story then why not TELL that story? Most of the movie's flaws result from the stupid logic used to justify the aliens actions, when the movie just didn't need aliens anyway.

And The Village... why not real monsters and an ACTUAL dark secret? Like the village elders poison somebody every few years, making them ill, then pretend they've died when in fact they sneak them out and give them to the monsters as a sacrifice to keep the peace.

Anyway, enough bashing. The guy's sold more box office tickets than I ever will...

[Mikey]

Robot Chicken did a slightly humorous bit about M. Night Shlemiel's obsession with twists.

[Tyyr]

Aliens that can't handle water invade EARTH?!?! So much has been said on it that I can't add much.

You'd think that the super advanced aliens would have noticed that 70% of the surface was poison to them, the air was saturated in it, and every human had access to it at multiple places in their home.

I think personally he'd have done far better to make Signs about demons attacking Humanity, rather than Aliens. It would work better in so many ways. Like for instance the demons would attack the farm and places like it, precisely because Gibson's character is the kind of person they want - the believer who has turned his back on god. Demons don't want the likes of me, as far as they are concerned they already HAVE me, and true blue believers are immunised from Demons by Jesus... but Gibson is right on that line, ready for plucking, and maybe with his children to boot. And then at the end, maybe it's not water but holy water that harms them. Or maybe it's simply that the person attacking them does so with faith in his heart that god will make him succeed, no matter what the method. Whatever, the point is that Signs is basically a movie about religious faith and how it's justified in the end, so if that's going to be your story then why not TELL that story? Most of the movie's flaws result from the stupid logic used to justify the aliens actions, when the movie just didn't need aliens anyway.

And The Village... why not real monsters and an ACTUAL dark secret? Like the village elders poison somebody every few years, making them ill, then pretend they've died when in fact they sneak them out and give them to the monsters as a sacrifice to keep the peace.

Ya know, I think I'd like either one of those movies.

[Mikey]

I think Signs should have opted for some input from Gibson himself. That way, instead of extraterrestrials, the family could have been attacked by Jews. They could come raiding his home, trying to convert his children and sticking him with DUI summonses, until he finally encounters the enemy leader - Elie Wiesel, of course - and defeats him, not with water, but with a ham.

Sorry. You may have guessed that I've lost a great deal of respect for ol' Mel in recent years.