Reviews

M. Night Shyamalan needs to stop. NOW! Every movie he makes is worse than the previous one. "The Sixth Sense" was classic and is in my, and many movie lover's, top twenty. "Unbreakable" was good, not as good, but entertaining and interesting and with a good surprise at the end. "Signs" was OK, at best. "The Village" was overlong and incredibly boring and I had the ending figured out after fifteen minutes. "Lady In The Water" was so bad that I never finished watching it, and wanted the hour of my life back that I had wasted.

"The Happening" is actually worse, if only because I was forced to watch the entire thing. The premise was interesting, plants are getting even with the humans that are destroying the planet, but the script, the acting, the direction, and the characters are so bad that I rooted for the plants. This film was not worth the dollar I paid to rent it!

This movie will grab your attention immediately and will keep you, not only interested, but on the edge of your seat for the entire movie. It is a true action-thriller. It has a villain so incredibly evil that you are never able to look away. He has an internal honor code that he adheres to, but with no moral or ethical basis. The characters Llewelyn (Josh Brolin), Carson (Woody Harrelson), and a corporate executive with ties to drugs (Steven Root), who believe that they are capable of challenging him, find out, to their misfortune, that no one is. He kills without hesitation or remorse and even kills a truly innocent person simply because he had promised he would.

But this story is really about Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). It begins with him and ends with him. He is an aging west Texas sheriff who has realized that he has lost his edge as an lawman. He is unable, no matter how much he wants or tries, to save anyone. He has the wisdom, but no longer the ability to be effective.

Some people will find the end disappointing or call it a non-ending. It ended perfectly!

Why does everyone feel they must rave about a movie simply because it was not made by a major studio? This isn't just a movie about teenagers and starring teenagers, it looks as if teenagers wrote, produced, directed, filmed and edited it. Kids with a video camera could have made a film that looked better. There are way too many holes and credibility gaps in the story and far too many unsympathetic characters. They finally show Brendan in some pain, although he probably should have died from his untended to internal injuries a third of the way into the film, and the "profoundly moving" and carefully kept secret revealed at the end was hardly a secret, and not very meaningful. The use of a single key word as a title has become rather annoying, but there is a common street term for excrement used in the movie that would have served just as well.

I have always loved the Greek myths. I also love the epic movies that deal with Greek, Roman, or biblical history. "Troy" is classic! It is well-acted by Brad Pitt as the self-serving but caring Achilles and by Eric Bana as the noble but ill-fated Hector. (After "The Hulk" I had a really low opinion of Eric Bana's talent, but he is really good in this.) Diane Kruger and Orlando Bloom are good as the two beautiful young lovers whose love and lust destroy thousands of lives and an entire city. Brian Cox and Brendan Gleeson are excellent villains. Peter O'Toole may well be our finest living actor.

"Troy" is well-photographed, well-acted, and thoroughly entertaining.