Signs

After a brief pause....

We saw "Signs" this last weekend. Excellent, if not perfect, film. I think we've found the heir apparent for Hitchcock; M. Night Shyamalan gets my vote right now. Harry probably sums it up best. (I especially love Quentin Tarantino's desire to film a Godzilla flick, and the kind of film he'd like it to be.)

Shyamalan has a consistent theme in his films to date, namely one of redemption mixed with recovery of faith. This is rather blatant in "Signs," which is all right since that's precisely what the film is about. All the crop circles, apprehension, aliens, etc., are all window dressing for Mel Gibson's loss of faith...and whether he'll recover it or not.

The science fiction fan/writer in me asks a ton of questions, but it gets told to shut up since the point of view of this film wouldn't have the answers, maybe wouldn't even ask the questions.

About the only persistent problem(s) I have involve weapons and their use. Namely, are there really farms in Pennsylvania without a gun in the house? And...throughout the film, no one seems to fight back; they just crawl deeper into their rabbit holes, waiting to be found. Odd and rather annoying.

Still, all in all, great little thrill ride, with at least one or two scenes that should make you jump. Go see!