User reviews

The latest madcap offering from the filmmaker who has made a career out of coming up with truly insane & ambitious ideas over the years (whether he is able to make them work or not in execution being a whole another debate), Old finds the (in)famous writer-director once again experimenting with a crazy concept but the end result is a mixed bag as the film fails to make the most of what was up for grabs.

Written & directed by M. Night Shyamalan (Signs, The Village & The Visit), the story follows a group of tourists who find themselves ageing rapidly on a mysterious & secluded beach. With a lifetime passing in the matter of a single day for all the involved characters, the possibilities worth exploring are endless. However, Shyamalan's erratic direction & bland characterisation prevent the key events to blossom to their full capacity.

There are nonetheless hints of brilliance scattered throughout the picture. It just never unifies into a satisfying whole. The rapid ageing & its debilitating effects is rather unsettling to watch but then the dialogues & performances are so idiotic & over-the-top that we aren't really sure what tone Shyamalan was going for. The film is silly yet serious, fun yet terrifying, thrilling yet amusing, ludicrous yet genius, and is often a cinematic ride of sharp contrasts.

Overall, Old features a premise that not only exhibits promise & potential on paper but is also instantly appealing & downright ambitious. Still, Shyamalan is unable to explore his zany idea to its fullest by failing to weave a compelling narrative around it, thus resulting in a frustrating & confusing experience. He tries to do too much yet only ends up doing too little. All in all, Old has its merits & moments but the ride as a whole feels more or less underwhelming in the end.

What to watch? The new gi joe? How about f9? No I think we will settle for old.

This movie is unlike any movie I've ever seen, the acting is strange, the plot is strange, the camera work is nauseating at times. And some of the reveals are not done amazingly.

But at least its original, the plot makes sense, and when talking about it to my friends I found I always had the proper answer for peoples actions and decision making.

The best characters are midsized sidan and the crazy doctor and his wife.

The movie has many scenes of exposition that is not hid very well, but overall I think its a movie that begs being seen. I in no way regret watching it and in fact want to watch it again to solidify my opinion .

In a time with a lot of movies that you have already seen I guarantee that love it or hate it, you haven't seen anything like it.

I have read several really bad reviews about this film, and the last film or two I watched from Shyamalan were average at best, but there was something about this film that I did enjoy.

It flew by, it wasn't slow or dull, nor was it particularly scary, instead it relies on the primal fears many have (self included) about the ageing process, and the passing of time, if you are someone who has the slightest worry of time passing, this will resonate.

The location work is awesome, and the production values are superb. Great acting throughout, it's always great to see Rufus Sewell's cheekbones.

Not sure if it was my ears, but I found some of the dialogue a little muffled at times.

All in all, this was good, 7/10.

M. Night Shyamalan has been a director I have admired, but have only connected with a couple of times. Nearly every movie buff praises his film The Sixth Sense as his best, and rightfully so. It's definitely up there for me, but his grounded work with Unbreakable is truly his crown jewel to me. He then had his string of blockbusters like The Last Airbender, After Earth, and The Happening. This is when everyone began to realize his heydays were over. With that said, his return with The Visit, Split, and Glass were all very commendable. For that reason alone, I had some newfound excitement for his next project. Old is now playing in theatres and here are my honest thoughts on what is easily one of Shyamalan's worst films.

The concept of this film is quite simple. A family on vacation is invited to a secret beach for relaxation. Joined by a few others, everyone realizes that there is more to this location than meets the eye. As they all begin to rapidly age, their children are now teenagers within hours and some of their health conditions also rapidly return. The first act of this film is very intriguing and it had me hooked, aside from the terrible dialogue. Even though the idea hooked me though, this is the prime example of a film that has a cool idea and never does anything with it.

It was at about the halfway mark that I started wondering where this film was truly going because it never felt like it was building to anything. Yes, the mystery of this beach looms over the entire film, but again, the script never dives deep enough to really care about the events on-screen. On top of the fact that the script needed a lot of work in terms of plotting, the dialogue is also atrocious from beginning to end. I understood the fact that these actors had to act as if they were still young children, but none of what they were saying was either believable for that age or it ended up being too cheesy.

One of my biggest problems with any film that sets itself up with a crazy concept is that it needs to focus on delivering at least some answers for its audience. A film that remains ambiguous can be amazing if the characters and story are all great enough to make that not important. Sadly, Old falls into the category of a film that delivers answers while also not really giving you enough to understand. I completely understood the point behind how the film concluded, but it was also quite dumb. Again, this is coming from someone who will always give an M. Night Shyamalan film the benefit of the doubt.

In the end, Old has a few scenes that I really enjoyed. One scene in particular that I really latched onto was one that involved an elderly couple with dementia, but once again, I instantly forgot about it because it was poorly written. If this concept had been sold to someone else to write and direct, I feel like the reception of this film would've been much higher. It's a very neat idea that goes nowhere and the experience almost felt completely pointless to me. Still, I'll give some minor compliments to the overall concept and a couple of noteworthy scenes. Other than that, Old is easily one of the worst films I've seen in 2021.

... and select every film you watch accordingly. Because you never know when you might get the chance to visit Fantasy Island (not the one in Skegness) and live your life like Ben Button, but a bit faster and in reverse. Not the worst film from the genre and would have been a cult classic if made as a 'B' Movie in the 1950s.

When I saw the ridiculously low rating it got on here I was already suspecting I was going to like this movie. It's not the first time this happens and I'm sure it won't be the last time. I must have a really bad taste in movies (and so does my wife apparently). When I saw the director was M. Night Shyamalan I really doubted this movie was going to be that bad, like the hate reviewers tried to convince the rest. In my eyes M. Night Shyamalan knows what he's doing, making most of the time interesting movies with a captivating story. Old isn't different, in fact I thought it was one of his better ones. Intriguing plot, nice build-up, good acting and cinematography, and a more than decent and surprising ending. I really can't fault anything in Old. So yes, once again I have to totally disagree with the people that thought this movie was bad, it's quite the opposite and I'm glad there are other people that can enjoy a good movie like me without having the urge to bash it for no reason.

A strange movie that certainly has many flaws but still one that makes you think. There is some cringy child acting and some of the horror (the broken bones lady) is over the top, but it's an original story that holds your interest for the runtime of the film. Not one of Shyamalan's best but it's a pretty good film and one that is at the very least different from the endless action flicks that are produced these days.

If you knew you were to die today, what would you wish to change about the way you lived your life?

This is one of the themes Shyamalan explores in this astutely-directed, mostly tense, high-concept thriller, and it does result in some genuinely intelligent, emotionally resonant character beats that I did not expect.

Unfortunately, some clunky dialogue, a couple bad actors, and too many repetitive scenes that seem to only stretch the runtime prevent this from being the great film that it could have been.

This movie will definitely be polarizing. I find myself on the "meh" side of this movie. It was interesting and somewhat original, but as it progressed I found myself giggling and sometimes donwright laughing instead of feeling scared or intrigued in any way. I'm not sure if he intended this movie to be funny, but some of it was just silly. Some of the acting was pretty bad and over the top, and the ending was a huge letdown. It was not horrible, but I wouldn't watch it again. I mean, I've even rewathed The Village and Signs, and lots of people hated those. This one is definitely a one and done.

I personally think people are being too hard on this movie. It may not be the best from Shyamalan but it kept me entertained the whole way through and had an intriguing and original enough premise to keep me invested. I thought the acting was good and the writing was fine. The dialogue was maybe unnatural at times but overall didn't bother me. I do wish that the reasoning behind it all was a little deeper and more thought through. Seemed a little surface level to me, especially coming from Shyamalan. Overall, good but not great movie. Certainly doesn't deserve a 1/10.

The camera angles, the acting, the story, the directing, the writing, the effects... Completely insulting, to the point where I genuinely feel like it would be an enormous effort to make something this bad. It felt like a joke. One of the character is called Mid-sized Sedan...

One of the worst films I have watched in recent years. It has a very good concept, but it was just overwhelming overshadowed by horrible acting and a very lousy script.

I usually never write reviews, but this film forced me to write this as a warning message: please don't watch it.

OLD (2021) is another M. Night Shyamalan film spoilt by his over the top direction. I love THE SIXTH SENSE and there are others in his filmography I like too, but he seems to miss more often than he hits. This one tells the story of a cursed beach that causes anyone who visits it to age rapidly, and it's a neat premise that would have worked well in an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE or somesuch. But in Shyamalan's hands this is a mess, with awkward and stilted performances, too many uninteresting characters standing around and chatting or just doing nothing, and a "twist" ending only included because the running time comes up short. As for the "inventive", anything-goes camerawork...give me a break!

Not sure why this got so many bad reviews! I really enjoyed it. The story was interesting and the directing and acting good. I think people over analyzed this movie, instead of just enjoying it.