I think that we all pretty much know that I like the new job and that the only bad part is the commute. However there is a silver lining and that is that I have good friends that live close by to where I work and I get to stay with them once a week. The best part about that is that I get to see David & Apryl, and Jeff & Becky almost every week. If I wasn’t working in Reston I wouldn’t see them but once in a blue moon. Last night I stayed with D&A. Tonight I stay with J&B. David and I have taken to spending our evenings watching a movie and so far it’s been films that I have not seen. Last night we watched SIGNS by that director guy with the Indian name that no matter how many times I hear it I just can’t fricking pronounce it. W also polished off a half bottle of Saki and half a bag of Oreo cookies. Anyway, David IM’ed me this afternoon asking what I thought about the flick and here’s our conversation.
David: So what did you think of the movie last night
Will: I don't think it's a Science Fiction or horror movie. It's a redemption story told in a scifi setting
David: good observation
David: I bet Jeff would like it
Will: maybe so. I would not say it's a great movie, but I wouldn't say it sucks. If I recommend it I would preface it by telling the viewer what I said above
Will: As a redemption story it's not bad. As a scifi film it leaves much to be desired.
David: really?
David: hmm, I really like it myself
David: really
Will: Please don't take me wrong. I did kind of enjoy it and I enjoyed the company as always. I just went into it with totally different expectations
David: Ahh
Will: I was expecting Scifi/Horror and what I got was a story of faith lost and regained through a series of synchronicities
Will: told with scifi as a backdrop
David: a good way to sum it up!
Will: Not a bad film. Expectations just colored my view of it. Remember last night I said that I didn't know at the time how I felt about the film? It was because of those expectations and the fact that I was trying to make sense of the science fiction part. Looking back the scifi part was really weak.
David: good point
David: I liked the suspense
David: of course I always like his movies
Will: I really like Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. I like Unbreakable the best because it's a super hero story with out being overt like Superman. It was unexpected. The Sixth Sense is good, but watching it more than a few times seems pointless because the best part - the big surprise plot twist - is known
David: I look forward to "the village"
David: comes out in july
Will: I don't know much about it and I don't want to. I don't want to succumb to hype or false expectations. LOSER!
David: HA!
What Signs did for me is to reinforce what I figured out from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other Scifi/Horror flicks – but has been never used, except once in Lost Boys (Did you see it? Beauty flick) - and that is to always have a fully loaded Super Soaker water gun handy in case of alien or vampire attack. Make sure it's Holy water though. Not for the aliens, but for the vamps! Defend yourself and attack with Holy water, which is deadly to space aliens and vampires and harmless to humans... except my evil younger brother. His skin would fester and boil if he was touched with holy water. His feat actually burned once when he walked into a church!! Anyway, should the aliens or vamps take your holy water gun and shoot you with it you can shrug it off like Superman does with bullets, and that's pretty sweet.
I found this review and summation of Signs that I think you’ll enjoy. I know I did. Although he focuses on the weak Scifi aspects of the film and leaves out all of the redemption elements.
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It sucked. I have spoken.
Posted by: mm on June 23, 2004 04:04 PMIt rocked. I have the special edition copy.
Posted by: Randy on June 23, 2004 07:00 PMwell, now i'll have to rent it. I'll put it on my list of things to do. The Hub and I really looking forward to The Village.
Posted by: lynn on June 23, 2004 08:13 PMLOL, David called it right. It's not on my top ten list or anything, but it's my favorite Shaymalin flick.
I think it's a matter of expectations. I didn't know a thing about the movie going in, except that it had crop circles in it. Probably because of that, the movie struck me as intriguing and fresh rather than silly and anticlimatic. Shaymalin's minimalist approach to the climax may have worked against him-we are trained to expect something earth-shattering to happen, not merely watch a bunch frightened of people huddle in a basement listening to uncanny sounds in the house above. But if you can project yourself into the situation the sheer wierdness of it all touches a primal chord. Maybe you had to grow up in the country to get it.
Posted by: Jeff on June 24, 2004 07:41 AMI am spending too much brain time on this movie. The more I think about it the more I lean on the 'it sucked' side. The trailers sold me on a really scarey scifi/horror flick, so I expected and wanted a really scarey scifi/horror flick (BTW horror does not mean excessive violence, high body count and barrels of blood). What I got was bait and switch sales because the product was a redemption story with a weak scifi back story and weak scares at best. I feel that Signs just didn't know what it really wanted to be and it wandered about lost in the corn field. It appeared to me that the director - I still can't pronounce his name and the Indian guy in my office has said it like ten times for me - tried to make a "jack of all trades" (scifi, horror, redemption) film and it mastered none of them. I really can't recommend this film, not even as a redemption story. There are better redemption and faith stories out there. For me Signs can stay on the shelf in the rental store.
Posted by: Will Burnham on June 24, 2004 10:29 AMI just xxx out that movie! A true person of the Force said forget it!
Posted by: Joe on June 24, 2004 11:29 AMI think for me, growing up in Rural Pennsylvania this movie hit fairly close to home. Our house was also surrounded by corn fields and nights could be a bit spooky out there with your nearst neighborgh being far away. This movie hit a core, primal scarry spot for me.
Posted by: Dave on June 24, 2004 01:38 PMI never minded the corn...I used to walk in it late at night when I was a kid, just for a cheap scare.
The orchard bothered me more. The old gnarled trees looked like something out of a halloween picture book. Sometimes you would look up into the trees and see a pair of red or green animal eyes staring back; or worse yet, something really big would jump out of a tree and lope away in the shadows.
But the movie hit some kind of a primal fear spot for me, too.
Posted by: Jeff on June 24, 2004 02:58 PMDave and Jeff, I come from a suburban background (big city and then mid-size town) so where you can both relate to the corn/orchard because of personal experience, I can not. Dark alleys and empty buildings with busted and boarded up windows scared me as a kid. I remember that orchard behind Jeff's house well though. We used to play Laser Tag in that orchard at night. It was cool. I still have all of my Laser Tag gear too.
Peace, --Will