M. Night Shyamalan... What Happened?

[Tigercat]

Originally Posted by RendeR

No Rum, not sensitive, just pointing out hte hypocrasy that runs amok here. One person says something one way, people jump his shit and beat down his opinion. Someone else says the EXACT SAME FUCKING THING in a more polite manner and no one says word 1 about it.
[/IMG]

Nearly every discussion forum in the world works like this? Well maybe not a bad sports talk radio show that gears only towards homers who will stick with "our team sucks" or "our team is great" based on the times. But beyond that, as human beings we generally want to evolve to complex or reasonable sounding discussions rather than negative orpositive primate grunts. Or in the case of this discussion, something beyond "he just sucks." Just my two cents.

[cthomer5000]

I still feel the 'one hit wonder' theory is far too simple. If he had turned in the Sixth Sense and then 6 Uwe Boll movies, we could admit he pulled one out of his ass. But again, most of these movies were very successful commercially, and at least reasonably well-received critically.

It hasn't been one-and-done really.

[RainMaker]

I was forced to see this today due to showing up late to a movie I wanted to see. Plus I had the dumb GF with me who thought it sounded interesting.

Holy shit was this horrible. I spent the 2nd half of the movie fucking around on my phone. I have seen some bad movies in my day, but this may be the worst one I've ever paid to see in a theater.

[stevew]

M. Nigh Shyama Shamala...oh fuck it Shamalain'tgoingtobedirectingin3years.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I don't know why everyone thinks Signs was a good movie. Most ridiculous aliens, possibly ever.

Don't feel bad, I still haven't figured out why anyone thought Sixth Sense was worth a shit. One of only two movies I've ever walked out on.

[sabotai]

....okay, I'll bite. What was the other one?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sabotai

....okay, I'll bite. What was the other one?

I figured someone would end up asking that.

It was The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai ... but that wasn't actually the fault of the movie.

The movie gets going, I step out for popcorn or something, I come back and I realize that what I'm watching makes absolutely no sense. After about 20 minutes of being lost I just gave the hell up & hit the bar next door to the theater. As it turned out, and I discovered later, that they had switched the reels or something and actually did show part of Buckaroo then part of some other movie, and then switched back to Buckaroo, explaining why what I saw (the last part of the wrong reel) made no sense to me.

[CrimsonFox]

Three words: What a twist!

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

How do you go from Oscar nominated to looking up to Uwe Boll in 13 years?

[DataKing]

The Last Airbender was complete crap with some nice special effects. Save your money.

And am I the only one who did not see "the catch" coming in The Village? I actually rather liked that one.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

Three words: What a twist!

Isn't it more like.. What a tweest!

[DataKing]

Please...

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by DataKing

Please...

Nope...

[JediKooter]

Nice.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Isn't it more like.. What a tweest!

Yes Mustang, you are right




Thanks DK! THat made my day!

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by DataKing

The Last Airbender was complete crap with some nice special effects. Save your money.

And am I the only one who did not see "the catch" coming in The Village? I actually rather liked that one.

i guessed what the twist was from the previews. kinda easy to figure out if you just used the twist from 6th Sense (which was a great twist). if you know to expect a major plot twist in his movies you could've seen that coming in the Village. never saw the movie though, just heard i was right.

[Logan]

Just came back from seeing Inception, and as amazing as the movie was, the best part of the night was when the preview for "Devil" came on, and towards, the end the screen flashes "from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan" and everyone in the sold out theater groaned in unison.

[sterlingice]

Bump since I noticed he was making a new movie for next year.

It's called After Earth starring Will Smith and his son with the following plot on IMDB: "One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind's new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai's craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like his father. Today, he gets his chance. "

I really want him to do well. He had such a good streak going and I enjoyed what seemed to be an attempt to emphasize storytelling and, for the most part, likeable characters. I loved Unbreakable and greatly liked Sixth Sense and Signs. I think the Village was predictable from minute one and the quote I told a lot of people at the time was if he signed up as "N. Day Smith, director", reception would have been much better as the audience would not have been looking for the twist at the end. He then tried to do a fairy tale (Lady in the Water) and a remake of an old horror classic like Day of the Triffids (The Happening) but his casting choices keep getting worse with each movie. He went from Bruce Willis (twice) to Mel Gibson to William Hurt to a miscast Paul Giamatti to Marky Mark, Zooey, and Luigi. I haven't seen The Last Airbender but I expect it to be bad.

So, if he bombs a Will Smith movie (granted, from the plot summary, it sounds more like a Jaden Smith movie), is he done done?

SI

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

So, if he bombs a Will Smith movie (granted, from the plot summary, it sounds more like a Jaden Smith movie), is he done done?

SI

If you check out the box offices from his films, the only financial bomb is Lady in the Water.

Just going off wiki:

Sixth Sense: $672M
Unbreakable: $248M
Signs: $408M
The Village: $256M
Lady in the Water: $72M
The Happening: $163M
The Last Airbender: $319M
Devil: $62M

The only film on the list that cost more than $75M to produce was Airbender (listed at $150M) and Lady in the Water is listed at $75M, so it isn't like he is a bad bet for studios to invest in. I can't find what Devil cost to produce, but I cannot imagine it was much, as it had no notable actors (although Logan Marshall-Green and Chris Messina have been getting more popular, I guess) and didn't seem to be too heavy on scenery or special effects (75% of the film was inside an elevator car).

Despite the lack of recent, critical success, he still has an audience and is a pretty reliable, bankable director. I'd guess this new film will have a bigger budget, but I wouldn't bet against Will Smith. He hasn't had a film gross less than $150M in over 10-years and outside of a couple of more artsy films (Ali and The Legend of Bagger Vance), you have to go back almost 20-years.

[sterlingice]

The Last Airbender made $319M worldwide. Color me surprised. It made $131M here and had a $150M budget.

SI

[chadritt]

When there are books written about you being tough to deal with you better do more than occasionally make your money back. Especially when you are somehow given reigns to what is supposed to be a franchise in the airbender movies.

Also those numbers are either WAY off or his movies make a ton of money internationally, which is less important anyway.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by chadritt

Also those numbers are either WAY off or his movies make a ton of money internationally, which is less important anyway.

Money is money IMO. That said I don't really care about M. Night. I do care about money though! Sign me up for a million from Zimbabwe for all I care!

[chadritt]

my point was that international money means less to the people bankrolling his films, they get less of it.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by chadritt

When there are books written about you being tough to deal with you...

That's the exact same word on the street that I heard about him in my neck of the woods. In addition to complete absenteeism in post production, makes for a bad combination.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

So it's like After Mash, but different.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by M GO BLUE!!!

So it's like After Mash, but different.

Yes, but, Klinger doesn't marry Soon Lee in this version.

[chadritt]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

That's the exact same word on the street that I heard about him in my neck of the woods. In addition to complete absenteeism in post production, makes for a bad combination.

I dont get that. How can you be so involved in the process for so long and then just vanish for post production? Even if you dont want to be there every day, which is FINE by the way and usually a good idea if youre not doing the cutting yourself, you need to check in every so often or youre not going to get what you want out of something you just worked years on.

In my mind it would also explain a lot about why his movies havent been turning out so well the last few times.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by chadritt

I dont get that. How can you be so involved in the process for so long and then just vanish for post production? Even if you dont want to be there every day, which is FINE by the way and usually a good idea if youre not doing the cutting yourself, you need to check in every so often or youre not going to get what you want out of something you just worked years on.

I don't get it either. My only source is from the Last Airbender. We did the bulk of the effects work and sound design. Review dailies? Maybe. Give feedback on confirming the final look of creatures or other effects shots? Rarely. Approve the sound design? I don't think he cared. Most of this is second hand knowledge, but, it comes from a rather high ranking employee (in addition to others that worked on the project) and that M.N.S. would not be welcomed back to the studio for quite some time.

[Julio Riddols]

With a character named Cypher Raige, its bound to be retarded.

[NorvTurnerOverdrive]

felt like airbender was 'here's a franchise i can hook my wagon to that'll pull my name out of the muck commercially'

didn't that 'devil' movie come out around the same time? and he took his name off that so people would actually give it a chance

iirc he's got a syfy show coming too

[Suicane75]

Call me crazy but I've liked every movie of his I've seen (Airbender and Lady In The Water being the ones I haven't). I thought Devil was solid, Village was awesome and I may be the only person on Earth who thought The Happening was an amazing film.

[21C]

You are crazy.

[chadritt]

He didnt direct devil, i would imagine he was just a name attached to it to try and get some funding.

[stevew]

I thought that James Cameron getting the title Avatar was criminal, and it probably cost the Last Airbender 20-50M at the box office

[NorvTurnerOverdrive]

if you edited all his movies down you'd have one really good twilight zone episode

[Groundhog]

I loved 6th Sense and Unbreakable, liked Signs despite its cornyness, thought Lady/Village were woeful, and haven't seen anything else of his since. As others have said, he screwed himself by boxing himself in to big reveals... when you KNOW there's a reveal going to happen, it dramatically reduces the impact of it once it occurs.

To be honest I sorta think the real M. Night Shyamalan died right after Signs and was replaced by a semi-competent body double.

[CrimsonFox]

It isn't just the "big reveals" and "twists". It is that every scene has this forced tension. It just doesn't work in every scene.

[Passacaglia]

I'm still waiting for the big reveal of what the M stands for.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

I'm still waiting for the big reveal of what the M stands for.

Manoj........... OR IS IT?!