I get suspicious when a movie becomes famous for its twist.
Sure there’s the kind of twist that makes you want to watch the whole thing over again right away (like in The Sixth Sense, Memento, and A History of Violence). But when the best running gag in a movie is the character doesn’t like to be called an “asshole,” you can’t rely on a twist to give the film more juice.
Hancock hits a point where you can practically feel the filmmaker say, “Oh shit, this is going nowhere, so we better surprise them.” And then the twist comes with the subtlety of saying “Oh by the way, I forgot to mention…”
M. Night Shyamalan has become the master of the BTW twist. “Oh by the way, Samuel L. Jackson’s a bad guy,” (“They called me Mr. Glass!” Scary.) “Oh by the way, this Village is in modern times.” And now Peter Berg pulls a Shyamalan: “Oh by the way, Will Smith and Charlize Theron have been married for 3,000 years.” (Any reason for 3,000? It’s longer than shit, but just shy of eternity?)
Will Smith’s new superhero movie, Hancock, may be receiving terrible reviews, but it’s sure to make a lot of money. It is a Will Smith movie, after all. The fact that it’s an original superhero title (meaning not adapted from a comic book or other source material), however, means that if it is a success, it will be the rare movie of its kind to be such. Superhero movies may be huge right now, but really only the pre-sold properties, those with a build-in audience, make the big bucks.
A number of original superhero movies are just as worthy of your attention as the Spider-Mans, the Iron Mans, the Batmans and the X-Mens. Sure, much of the time, non-adapted superheroes are lame, as in the cases of Blankmanand My Super Ex-Girlfriend. But just check out any of the following ten titles and see why it sometimes pays off to put your trust in an unfamiliar hero.
The Incredibles- This one did it all: won an Oscar; received favorable reviews across the board; did blockbuster business in theaters and ancillaries (its the sole original superhero movie to break $100 million, domestically, a feat it far surpassed by actually grossing more than $260 million); and featured the single greatest superhero gag (above) ever seen. So there’s proof that a superhero movie can be good and do well without being based on another property. …Read more
I hate twist endings, especially those in the films of M. Night Shyamalan. Maybe it’s because I was told the twist of The Sixth Senseprior to seeing it and haven’t been able to appreciate the filmmaker ever since. It’s not so much that I believe films shouldn’t have twist endings, it’s that I believe films that have twist endings should be enjoyable even when you know the secret (Psychois still great after a thousand viewings, for example). The only one of Shyamalan’s movies to hold up even with the spoilers revealed is Unbreakable.
So, I had no problem reading about the big secret of Shyamalan’s latest, The Happening. An early review of a rough cut of the thriller has shown up on Collider, and in addition to claiming the thing is “a terrible, terrible movie,” and that, “Mark Wahlberg might very well give the worst performance I’ve ever seen in anything,” the critic includes a complete plot synopsis, including the big revelation of what is causing people to suddenly kill themselves (surely you’ve seen the trailer).
I won’t write out the spoiler here (but here’s a hint: the film has something in common with both The Wizard of Ozand Harry Potter), but you’re welcome to head over to Collider (or Vulture blog) to ruin it for yourself.
Some movies are violent, some are disturbing, and others are just plain wrong. Paul W. S. Anderson’s Death Race is a fun ride with some gnarly crashes, but it can’t hold a candle to its demented predecessor, Roger Corman’s Death Race 2000 (1975).
Cinema’s favorite weirdo, Cripsin Glover, is taking his film across the country, personally [...]
I get suspicious when a movie becomes famous for its twist.
I hate twist endings, especially those in the films of M. Night Shyamalan. Maybe it’s because I was told the twist of 
