HTF REVIEW: "Signs" (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Jason Hennigan]

My impression is similar to what Chris has mentioned. This is not a Vista release, it's a standard release with a Vista label.

I don't see DTS as an extra, but some people may, and that's ok. Being that DTS has been a staple of the "Vista" series, I think that it's not complaining to note the lack of a DTS track.

And as others have said, with the featurettes, and whatnot, on the disk the transfer isn't as good as it could have been. As much as the quality of the film is important, if it doesn't look good, and doesn't sound good, I'm usually inclined not to buy it. Especially when you know that it COULD have looked good and sounded good.

 

[WilliamG]

I just read in my Sunday Best Buy circular [sound of rushing stampede to trash can to retrieve it] that this can be purchased as a "2 for $25" if one buys it along with either the Vista Series The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable. I guess I'll break down and finally get Unbreakable now! (I already have SS. ...)

 

[TonyD]

i also noticed how bad the movie looked on dvd.
i really noticed during a scene in the house when a close up of a reddish wall i could see blocky looking effects like and old spec effects shot were you can see the square shape of the F/X around the spaceships.

i wont buy this because of how bad the transfer is, not because it doesnt have dts.

as far as features, it does have a set of making of docs that can be played as one long doc.

m. night does not do commentary so i dont expect to see that on any of his dvd's.

 

[Neil Joseph]

I have ordered this sight unseen so I am hoping I made the right move. Your review makes me feel better.

 

[BrentJ]

This is the first M. Night Shyamalan film that I have been disappointed with. :frowning:
I'm glad I chose to rent this one first.

 

[BarryS]

There is probably already a thread about this in the Coupons and Bargains forum, but I just wanted to mention it. Best Buy is having a special deal this week where you can get Signs and either Unbreakable or The Sixth Sense for $25. That's $12.50 each. Hell of a deal.

 

[Francois Caron]

About the water thing (will this become the equivalent of Speed's 50 foot jump? )...
Have you noticed they were being injured with TAP water? The harmful substance may not be the water itself, but possibly the chlorine inside the water. In large concentrations, chlorine can kill you. But in small amounts, it acts as an excellent water purifier and is reasonably harmless. But on an alien creature, any amount of chlorine could be crippling to them.

As for the movie itself, I loved it! I successfully avoided acquiring any information about the movie that could have spoiled the entire storyline. I'd turn the sound off whenever the commercials were playing, I'd turn away from any images or print reviews... I stonewalled this flick knowing that Shyamalan hasn't dissapointed me in the past and that I'd appreciate this flick even more if I knew the absolute minimum about it. And it paid off!
I did have a worry that he'd repeat the same storyline formula as in his previous movies, but was glad he steered clear from that style for the most part. This movie doesn't sidetrack you from the main storyline.

 

[David Von Pein]

As usual, DDD has lowered its price on release day! Now cheapest on-line. A sign from above tells me to jump on it. .....
Fourteen Ninety-Nine.

 

[Malcolm R]

Francois,
Out on a farm in rural America, their water source is likely a spring/well on their nearby property and therefore not treated with chlorine. Usually only municipal supplies serving large populations are treated with chemicals.
There has been some speculation that there is something in the water that affects them, and is also the reason Bo never seems to finish a glass. See the discussion thread in "Movies" for the full debate.

 

[Aaron Cohen]

Oh good god....... I loved the film but this is the first time in quite a while that the picture quality has actually ANNOYED me. I was watching it on my computer screen's 15 inch lcd flat panel monitor and after 30 minutes I had to stop. I moved on to my 15 inch flat screen trinitron television and sat further but was still annoyed. I ended up watching it on a 8 year old 27 inch television and still the artifacting stood out particularly where others have mentioned, on one red wall towards the beginning it lookds like it is melting.....

I don't even want to see what this film looks like sitting very close (I like to with the widescreen set) next to my 34 inch widescreen Sony HDTV.........

What REALLY annoyed me is that when watching the documentary section which I believe is about 45 minutes long total, the bit rate seemed to be THROUGH THE ROOF! I wasn't using the dvd player I have that shows me the bit rate so I did not check but I could tell that it was significantly higher than most of the other documentaries I have seen on other sets......

When I saw this dvd sitting on the shelve today in a one-disc release I still couldn't believe it. Even though I heard it was one disc I refused to believe it until I saw it. Why the heck would they drop the ball on such a big release? UGH. This is my 354th dvd and I believe that this is the end for me. I seem to be unhappy with every one I purchase now...

 

[Daniel_M]

Having loved Shyamalan's last two features I was absolutely shocked at how bad this movie was. SF is my favourite genre and I'm always complaining Howllywood doesn't put out enough Science Fiction, so I'm pretty easy to please (I loved Dune)
but this film is tedious, badly written, with incredibly cheesy special effects. It's pacing is glacial and I found my eyelids getting heavy ten minutes in. I also suddenly realized that Mel Gibson can't act.

Shyamalan's defenders may speak of "depth" and "hidden meanings" but in my opinion this is the work of of director/writer/producer who's ego has been stroked a little too much by the Hollywood money men and they have made him think he can now do no wrong. He needs to take a step back for two or three years and reconnect with real people again. Otherwise what we have here is another Spike Lee situation.

 

[John Nelson]

I'm having trouble getting through this DVD.
Not because of compression artifacts or because I think it's boring, but, like Declan in Northern Ireland, I live in an isolated house out in the country (by myself!) and this movie gives me the heebie jeebies. I've got coyotes that howl at night by the pond below my house and that doesn't bother me. I can watch slasher flicks and laugh at the absurdity. But the knowledge that some bizarre, otherworldly hideous thing is out there observing you gives me goose pimples when I see the reflections in my windows at night. I think the fact that Shyamalan unfolds the story in such a low key naturalistic way is what gives it it's impact when it becomes apparent to the characters that something unreal yet undeniable is happening. He creates a palpable atmosphere of inexorable isolation, claustrophobia, and barely contained dread and panic despite the plot having holes you could drive a truck through. As always, the scariest parts are the ones grounded in every day circumstances and left to your own imagination. If you disagree, you just might not live out in the dark countryside where your home is just a little pool of light in the large deep darkness.

 

[Chris Rock]

this is the work of of director/writer/producer who's ego has been stroked a little too much by the Hollywood money men

The only thing I agree with is "but in my opinion". To each his own. I choose to respectfully disagree. I thought Signs was fantastic, and I found the "hidden meaning" to be very "connected to real people".

 

[Tim Glover]

Agree with you Chris. Signs was my #2 rated film of 2002. Fantastic movie. And a great message.

 

[WilliamG]

Having seen this movie at the theater, we bought this yesterday, and we watched it last night. I personally thought it held up well, it still made me jump on cue (!), and the layer change was a WHOLE lot better than I imagined after reading about it here. I have a Panny RP56 and the change only lasted a split second. Not enough for either me, my wife, OR my HT-savy 17-yr.old daughter to even whine about!

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I think going into this film expecting a sci-fi movie may be a mistake.

Although the publicity material does feature crop circles which may lead one to think it's sci-fi, there weren't any of the other ID-4 type indications that this was going to be a special-effects fest popcorn extravaganza.

What I saw was more of a Hitchcock-like suspense film with an underlying theme of spirituality in which the antagonists just happenned to be aliens.

Far from being an ego trip on the part of an overindulged director I saw a very well crafted story involving real human beings dealing with a deadly threat in a believable way. No Earth-Saving heroics, just normal folks doing their best to deal with a cataclysmic situation in a human way.

The same story could have been set in a Polish village in 1939, with invading Germans instead of aliens.

 

[Daniel J]

sigh...

I saw the Sixth Sense on TV a few years ago, and though I don't really go for the "supernatural thriller" genre, I loved the way it was written and produced.

The Unbreakable came out, and I was hooked. Everything about the movie screams of style, imagination, depth, and insight. The commentary track was awesome, the dts track is top-notch, and the packaging is cardboard&plastic euphoria. I was very impressed by BV's new "vista series", and looked foreward to more outstanding releases. (Pearl Harbor was the best DVD release of last year, BTW, if only because of the detail in the packaging)

Now I see that BV has left this film "outstanding in a field", if you get my meaning. Single disc. No commentary. Pedestrian (even ugly) packaging. No dts. Low bitrate.

I get the feeling that someone high up the chain at BVHV is unimpressed by the added value special releases contain. One need only look to the situation Lilo & Stitch is in to see that something is going down over at the mouse club. I hope thing will get better in the future.

 

[Paul_Scott]

just got done watching it.
it was a blind buy for me, and as far as i'm concerned, M. Night is 3 for 3.
in contrast to the poster who found it tedious going 10 minutes in, not me- i was enthralled the whole time, and remember glancing over at the dvd display during the basement scene, to see what time it was, becuase i was hoping there was at least another hour to go .
i'm so happy to see a filmmaker take his time telling a story- so rare these days.
in this way, M. Night reminds me of Spielbergs early films, the way he takes genre elements and uses these to tell character driven stories.
(i can just imagine how many of todays gamers would complain about their eyes glazing over during the Indianapolis speech)
very tense movie...& well done [/stands up to applaud]
as far as the disc goes, i've been reading the last couple of weeks about how bad this transfer is, and wow- what a pleasant surprise. i wish all bad transfers looked this bad.
i thought it looked pretty good.
for the $16 i paid, i'm one happy aluminum-foil-wearing-camper right now

 

[Stephen_L]

Steve your comments are right on. Too many folks are expecting this film to be a science fiction film. While it does use a scifi gimick to create the threat, the film is centered on this particular family, the extraordinary threat is faces, and the resolution of the father's crisis of faith. The enemy could have been ghosts, German soldiers in Poland, any overwhelming and unfamiliar enemy. I found it very satisfying.

On a separate note, I really appreciate the suspence and atmosphere M. Night creates. Like Hitchcock, he understands that by keeping the threat unseen, the fear plays IN MY HEAD and not on the screen. The flash of the shadowy figure on the roof, the glimpse of a foot, the blurred video, the hammering and banging on the house, the reflection on the TV screen all let my imagination fill in the blanks. If anything I might have shown a bit less of the alien, had him more in shadows.

 

[Ron-P]

Watched it twice now. The second time around, I had 6 neighbor's over this past Saturday night for dinner and the movie. It was a blast, 2 of the 3 girls screamed (loud) at several scenes and the third just covered her eyes or turned away many times. One of the guys jumped a few times as well. Nothing more fun then having 30+ year old women screaming like teenagers. One of the most well done film's I've seen in a long time, very effective in the creepy/suspense department.
Peace Out~