# Am I supposed to laugh at the preview for the new M. Night Shamalayan movie?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763 "2006-06-30T15:58:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/41 "2006-07-01T23:55:18Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] a shirtless Paul Giamatti [/QUOTE] AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaahhh ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/42 "2006-07-02T05:17:44Z")
FTR, I think _The Sixth Sense_ was a fantastic movie. I’ve (unfortunately) seen all of MNS’s efforts since then. _Unbreakable_ was pretty poor, whereas _Signs_ and _The Village_ were some of the stupidest and trying-too-hard-est movies I’ve ever seen. The dialog alone in _The Village_ is perhaps the most annoying and stupid of all time. [QUOTE=Ellis Dee] I’m a big M. Night fan. I think many of you are just haters. [/quote] The “Ya’ll just haters” line is _so_ IMDb message boards. > [@](#): > > There was no twist in Unbreakable. Sure there was:Samuel L. Jackson turns out to be Mr. Glass. It’s a big ol’ twist done in much the same way as the twist in _Sixth Sense_. > [@](#): > > I’m not really sure what the underlying point to that movie was, but it was his first effort anyway. Yeah, the point was pretty stupid, whatever it was. And it’s by no means his first film; MNS had made three before it (including 6thS). Are you sure you’re really a “big fan”? > [@](#): > > The Sixth Sense was partially reliant on the twist, which was intentionally put in there as a “gotcha ya!” A great twist for which no apologies need be made. > [@](#): > > But that movie was more about grief and not being able to let go; getting hung up on the twist is to miss the underlying point. > > Signs was about faith. Um, no. Whenever anyone tries to defend MNS’s _godawful and retarded_ movies, they always say “It’s about this [important thing],” as though dealing with an important topic makes it art, makes it good. If MNS’s purpose is truly to deal with these weighty topics, at best he’s ham-fisted in his approach. > [@](#): > > Getting hung up on details about the aliens is missing the point completely. I suspect he made their weakness so blatantly silly simply to make it perfectly clear that you shouldn’t be focused on the aliens at all. Right, how could we be so dense? He made the movie retarded _on purpose_ so we could just look past the ham-fisted symbols and drink in the TRUTH! he was offering us. A skillful auteur, however, would have made a damn fine sci-fi flick and a meaningful allegory _at the same time_. Got it? > [@](#): > > The Village was a love story, plain and simple. So is a Harlequin Romance, which I’d prefer for its lack of pretentious twaddle. > [@](#): > > The goofy monster business was merely backdrop for the lengths we’ll go to for those we love and the loves we’ve lost. A plot is not a “backdrop.” What, the Twilight Zone ending was just in there for kicks? Sorry, your guy tried to elicit a wow and got an ugh. Face that fact. > [@](#): > > Really, when I hear people pin the smug meter railing about how easily they saw the twist coming, I wonder if we saw the same movie. Um, everyone in the world (except you?) saw the twist coming and nearly vomited at how stupid and unoriginal it was (except you?). > [@](#): > > It’s about as retarded a nitpick as complaining that you knew that Dorothy’s trip to Oz was a dream because it was shot in color. Could you imagine somebody saying that they thought the Wizard Of Oz sucked and the filmmaker was a hack because of that obvious and glaring tell? There is no plot twist in tWoO, and indeed not everyone has praised the “It was just a dream!” device. > [@](#): > > And I won’t worry about whether or not there is a twist and how obvious that twist is, because the unexpectedness of the twist will be completely unrelated to the quality of the film. Then why does this idiot bother to put twists in all his films if they matter so little? Also, learn what “special pleading” means. If your average B-movie thriller had a stupid, easily guessed plot twist in it, I doubt that you would praise it for its “quality.” And I think there’s about as much quality in an MNS movie (6thS excepted) as a cheap B-movie. Yeah, fake directing, crap for scripts, ludicrous dialog, and sliced ham performances: frickin’ Bill Hurt in _The Village_, about which Roger Ebert had this to say: > [@RE](#): > > A colossal miscalculation, a movie based on a premise that cannot support it, a premise so transparent it would be laughable were the movie not so deadly solemn. It’s a flimsy excuse for a plot, with characters who move below the one-dimensional and enter Flatland. Hah! > [@](#): > > I mean, really. Did you think that Fight Club was an essay about mental illness? It just occurred to me that those who get hung up on the twist of a movie share the same mindset as the studio suits who only care about a movie’s hook. _Fight Club_ sucked. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/43 "2006-07-02T05:32:35Z")
[QUOTE=Aeschines] _Fight Club_ sucked. [/QUOTE] Them’s fightin’ words, mister! FC was by no means a cinematic classic, but it was an enjoyable film, which is more than can be said about most the dreck Follywood spits out. (Tom Cruise, I’m looking in _your_ direction.) ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/44 "2006-07-02T05:39:34Z")
It looks like some people haven’t seen any Animal Planet Original Movies. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/45 "2006-07-02T05:40:59Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] Them’s fightin’ words, mister! [/QUOTE] Rule #20: Don’t talk about Fight Club! OK, that was a great line. Tiresome, pretentious film, though. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/46 "2006-07-02T06:05:38Z")
[QUOTE=Aeschines] Rule #20: Don’t talk about Fight Club! OK, that was a great line. Tiresome, pretentious film, though. [/QUOTE] Hey I liked it… had some funny moment in it. A few clever lines and a twist that made no sense once you thought about it. (Why the hell would anyone join a club run by a guy who beats the shit out of himself!!!) Not a plus, but I still enjoyed the film so nyahhh! Oh… yeah Liked Sixth Sense haven’t really liked much since. I think the big success got him into a panic mode where he thinks to replicate it he must come up with more outlandish (IE Stupid) twists. He’s got good atmosphere but that alone isn’t enough. ---
**Author:** ![Rachael\_Rage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Rachael\_Rage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachael_Rage)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/47 "2006-07-02T06:37:13Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] Oh… yeah Liked Sixth Sense haven’t really liked much since. I think the big success got him into a panic mode where he thinks to replicate it he must come up with more outlandish (IE Stupid) twists. [/QUOTE] This is _exactly_ what I’m talking about in my earlier post (that apparently nobody read). I don’t think it’s M.N.S. who feels he needs to “replicate” his big ‘gotcha’ moments, but the audience who refuses to accept anything else. I repeat: Shyamalan writes stories which include varying degrees of perspective changes. This is his signature style, like Quentin Tarantino’s extreme-violence-mixed-with-humor. This doesn’t mean that his movies are always (or ever) brilliant, but they are (mostly) interesting, quirky little pictures that are worth seeing. If you don’t like the movies or the way Shyamalan writes or directs, fine. That’s fair. What’s not fair is blaming MNS for trying to sell us his movies based on earth-shattering plot twists. From everything I’ve read about him or his movies, he is just writing the stuff he likes. It’s the _studio’s marketing and publicity_ that has hammered the “twist” angle ad nauseam, and led people into erroneous expectations of what the movies are going to be about. Of course, that’s their job. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/48 "2006-07-02T07:07:06Z")
[QUOTE=vaderspal] This is _exactly_ what I’m talking about in my earlier post (that apparently nobody read). I don’t think it’s M.N.S. who feels he needs to “replicate” his big ‘gotcha’ moments, but the audience who refuses to accept anything else. [/quote] I gotta call bullshit. We’re not talking about audiences reading twists into _subtly_ and _delicately_ crafted plots here. We’re talking about BIG OL’ TWISTS! Sides of barns. Sledgehammers to the brainpan. Mae West-size melons! > [@](#): > > I repeat: Shyamalan writes stories which include varying degrees of perspective changes. Quit trying to whitewash the turds. His perspectives, plots, and poses are no more “quality” than Rod Serling’s. Rod was at least original in his day. > [@](#): > > This is his signature style, like Quentin Tarantino’s extreme-violence-mixed-with-humor. Uh, Tarantino _sucks_. For basically the same reason: He makes faux, poseur (and unoriginal and derivative and vulgar and cheap pop-culture-based) bullshit and people call it art. Not that I dislike cheap and vulgar movies. It’s the pretending they’re more–the fuckin’ pretentiousness–that I can’t abide. > [@](#): > > This doesn’t mean that his movies are always (or ever) brilliant, but they are (mostly) interesting, quirky little pictures that are worth seeing. I don’t think we need to talk in generalities; he hasn’t made that many pics yet. IMO, 6thS great, the rest inept duds. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/49 "2006-07-02T11:40:31Z")
**Aeschines** , you clearly can’t get past the twists. You are a perfect example of the hater mentality I referred to. Also, your taste in movies is so contrary to mine that I find your opinions easily disregardable. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/50 "2006-07-02T12:51:11Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] Why the hell would anyone join a club run by a guy who beats the shit out of himself? [/QUOTE] I suppose anyone who needs to ask that question wouldn’t like _Fight Club_. As for me, I have no problem with the concept, and I also love _Fight Club_. Heck, I would have created such a club in real life if only I weren’t, well, you know, a coward. ---
**Author:** ![nameless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/779978/32.png) [@nameless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nameless)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/51 "2006-07-02T13:01:39Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] Them’s fightin’ words, mister! FC was by no means a cinematic classic, but it was an enjoyable film, which is more than can be said about most the dreck Follywood spits out. (Tom Cruise, I’m looking in _your_ direction.) [/QUOTE] I’ll one up you. Fight Club _is_ a cinematic classic. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/52 "2006-07-02T13:10:43Z")
[QUOTE=Ellis Dee] **Aeschines** , you clearly can’t get past the twists. You are a perfect example of the hater mentality I referred to. Also, your taste in movies is so contrary to mine that I find your opinions easily disregardable. [/QUOTE] What is with this “Hater Mentality” crap. He doesn’t like most of the guys movies so his opinions, which he readily explained and qualified, are dismissed as “Oh you just hate the guy” Sheesh next thing you’ll be saying “he doesn’t get it.” Get over it. You are allowed to like something and others are allowed to dislike it. There is no mentality at play here!!! You may feel persecuted for being in the minority but hell that’s the way these things can go. But get this… It is not an attack on you, personally. You have to seperate your oppinions from your identity once in a while after all no matter what these are just films. Accept the fact some people will dislike a film for reasons you may not agree with but as likes and dislikes in any medium are subjective each person’s oppinion is valid. By the way I saw the trailer… I found nothing in it that would make me want to see the film. And before you dismiss me as a “hater” (whatever the hell that means) realise I am very picky about dropping huge sums of money to enter a theatre to watch 45 minutes of commercials and being interupted by morons on their phones or idiots whispering obvious plot points to each other as if they are teh first to discover the language of film. The film has to appeal to me personally before I endure such inconvienences ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/53 "2006-07-02T15:44:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Accept the fact some people will dislike a film… I agree with Ellis Dee. Idon’t see mere dislike in Aeschines posts, I see hatred. I’m seeing shouting in 48 point font and use of words like _godawful, idiot, retarded_, and I get the feeling there is something personal between the two, as if MNS used his movie as a means to get Aeschines out of the house so he could break in and piss in the linnens closet. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/54 "2006-07-02T16:26:16Z")
[QUOTE=Ellis Dee] **Aeschines** , you clearly can’t get past the twists. You are a perfect example of the hater mentality I referred to. [/quote] It seems you were incapable of engaging with what I wrote. A pity. How can I be an SNM hater? I loved the 6thS and will continue to do so. > [@](#): > > Also, your taste in movies is so contrary to mine that I find your opinions easily disregardable. You know **nada** about my tastes except that I loved the 6thS and hate the rest of SNMs movies. So your disregarding is gratuitous and obviously comes from your being too weak in position to argue. Good day, sir. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/55 "2006-07-02T16:26:57Z")
[QUOTE=Aeschines] _Fight Club_ sucked. [/QUOTE] **Fight Club** is an excellent film. I think this pretty much negates (in my eyes) anything negative you have to say about MNS or anything other movie. We’re obviously on different planets regarding movies and filmmakers. It’s like Ebert and me. If he likes something I’ll listen and might check it out, because he does have good taste in movies, but if he doesn’t like something, I’ll weigh the factors surrounding the film and get other opinions, because I don’t trust him. He’s hated some of my favorite films (Blue Velvet, Return To Oz, Raising Arizona). **Fight Club** sucked?? I can’t trust the opinion of someone who says that **Fight Club** sucked. Never. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/56 "2006-07-02T16:36:59Z")
[QUOTE=Aeschines] Uh, Tarantino _sucks_. [/QUOTE] Oh, I should have read on down the page to see this gem. Lordy be, do you even LIKE movies? Never mind, I don’t want to know. **Fight Club** and Tarantino both suck, and so does M. Night Shyamalan (except for the 6th Sense). Got it. While I’m sure we’d agree on a lot of films, I’d no more trust your negative taste in movies than I would a 2nd grader who said that **Citizen Kane** was boring or a church lady who thought Goodfellas was a horrible movie because it was too violent. Aeschines=2nd opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/57 "2006-07-02T16:42:40Z")
I hate typos. Argh. Just in case my posistion isn’t clear, Quentin Tarantino can do no wrong in my eyes. He hasn’t yet anyway. I keep giving him chances and the man just keeps being pitch-perfect. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/58 "2006-07-02T17:07:24Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] Oh, I should have read on down the page to see this gem. Lordy be, do you even LIKE movies? Never mind, I don’t want to know. **Fight Club** and Tarantino both suck, and so does M. Night Shyamalan (except for the 6th Sense). Got it. While I’m sure we’d agree on a lot of films, I’d no more trust your negative taste in movies than I would a 2nd grader who said that **Citizen Kane** was boring or a church lady who thought Goodfellas was a horrible movie because it was too violent. Aeschines=2nd opinion. [/QUOTE] Actually, I find that not just 2nd graders but most young folks these days (I know I sound like an old coot, and I am) would say that **Citizen Kane** –or any other movie that doesn’t contain an explosion, a beating, a bloodbath, or a car chase every five minutes-- is boring. Interesting that this thread somehow morphed into the Fight Club-Pulp Fiction-Sixth Sense tussle. (I own them all.) Anyhow, I would be willing to see Night’s newest, though I must admit that the name Cleveland Heep makes me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/59 "2006-07-02T17:17:59Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] **Fight Club** is an excellent film. I think this pretty much negates (in my eyes) anything negative you have to say about MNS or anything other movie. We’re obviously on different planets regarding movies and filmmakers. [/quote] Eh, this claim is entirely illogical and shows a complete lack of understanding of set theory. I’m sure there’s a lot of overlap in the movies we like. Hell, I’ve said I like (more like completely adore, find ingenious, have seen multiple times, etc.) _The Sixth Sense_ many times in this thread. For all we know, there may be a ton of overlap in our tastes but I just happen to hate a few movies you really love. Thinking with subtlety is difficult, but with a little effort you can do it too. ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763/60 "2006-07-02T17:33:29Z")
[QUOTE=Aeschines] Eh, this claim is entirely illogical and shows a complete lack of understanding of set theory. [/QUOTE] Well, I’ll be the first to say it. WHAT IN THE HOLY HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Please…explain set theory and Fight Club ignores it or whatever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-supposed-to-laugh-at-the-preview-for-the-new-m-night-shamalayan-movie/362763.md?page=4)