THE VISIT - M. Night Shyamalan's Latest - September

[AndyDursin]

Looks like a kids' version of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, nothing more or less...aimed at kids.

[Monterey Jack]

Shyamalan...

[mkaroly]

^^Lol...I can't believe this dude still gets finances to make movies. I imagine if I saw it I would laugh through the whole thing as I did THE HAPPENING. At least there might be a good JNH score that comes out of this.

[Monterey Jack]

I can't believe this dude still gets finances to make movies.

I don't think he's made a movie that has lost money to date (inexplicable as that may seem)...even The Happening made well over $100 million w/foreign box office taken into consideration.

When Shyamalan botched the Last Airbender movie, that was pretty much the final straw as far as I was concerned...to be handed this wonderful animated series that should have been a home-run movie franchise and to utterly whiff on every creative level (casting, humor, storytelling) was nothing less than appalling (and yet that was actually a step up from turkeys like Happening and the deeply egotistical Lady In The Water). Sad thing is, we'll never be rid of him until he makes a John Carter or Lone Ranger-sized mega-bomb, and his films are never expensive enough for that to happen.

[AndyDursin]

That's the whole thing. This movie probably cost next to nothing, and will turn a profit after the first weekend if he kept the budget low, which I'm sure he did given his track record. And this is a found-footage cheapie with no stars at all and probably a minimum of special effects.

He's probably never going to get the keys to make another LAST AIRBENDER, with good reason, but if all he wants to do is turn out/produce/occasionally direct cheap genre fare, someone will bankroll him. Even if the movie's terrible, it'll likely be profitable.

And, if he DOES keep making profitable projects, eventually someone will give him more leeway. Doesn't he have a Fox mini-series coming up too?

[Monterey Jack]

Reviews for The Visit are actually...pretty good. 66% on Rotten Tomatoes for a Shyamalan film is like 90% for any other filmmaker. Doubt I'll see it in theaters, but who knows...maybe even Shyamalan has become self-aware of how much of a joke his name has become over the last decade.

[AndyDursin]

Looks like a moneymaker if nothing else. Variety didn't like it but even they said it was the best thing he had made in a while and also that the film has lots of comic (!) relief. No music score either, but in keeping with the single-camera/found-footage/whatever-you-call-it genre.

Will check it out on video...

[AndyDursin]

Actually reading the reviews, it sounds pretty good! If I can get out to it, we might check it out.

I will also say that the movie's trailers are very effective, even my wife wants to see it. I get the feeling it will overperform at the box-office.

[mkaroly]

Well, I hope that it is good for his sake. His movies have been so irritatingly bad (my favorite was SIGNS, I didn't mind THE VILLAGE...everything after that for me is garbage, to use the technical term...lol...) that it is hard to think positively about anything his name is on.

[Monterey Jack]

No music score either

Removing the sole redeeming factor of his later films? This can definitely wait for Netflix.

[Monterey Jack]

2/10

As appealing as having a doody-filled adult diaper smashed in your face (which -- I poop you not -- actually happens in this movie ), Shyamalan's latest embarrassment is not only as tone-deaf and laughable as anything else he's made in the last decade, but hanging a movie's would-be thrills on senile dementia is nothing less than offensive. And, as usual, the "found footage" gimmick is stretched to the limits of plausibility and beyond (like when a character places one of the cameras on the floor...and takes pains to Dutch the angle for no discernible reason). Shyamalan has made lots of terrible movies at this point, but this is the first one to literally make me ANGRY.

[mkaroly]

Glad I skipped it - I am done with him.

[AndyDursin]

MJ's take aside, this movie did get decent reviews and was his biggest hit since UNBREAKABLE (unadjusted). They didn't send me a copy so I didn't see it, and I have no incentive to do so lol

[Monterey Jack]

I have no idea why critics gave Shyamalan a (mild) pass on this, as it's every bit as bad as Lady In The Water and The Happening. At least those films had the modest pleasures of James Newton Howard's fine music.