Unbreakable

For me, The Sixth Sense is M Night Shyamalan's best film, but Unbreakable comes very, very close. Maybe it is not a movie for everybody, due to some parts dragging and rambling on just a tad, but it is a thoughtful, moving and compelling film.

It is a very well made film with beautiful, brooding cinematography and striking scenery. Unbreakable also features my personal favourite James Newton Howard score for any of his collaborations with Shyamalan, it is so gorgeous and subtle. Even with the odd draggy moment, Unbreakable does have a very enthralling story that resonated with me a lot. Like The Sixth Sense, it deals with the supernatural genre but takes it to a thought-provoking and surreal level.

The pace is measured, and for the most part it works. The script is thoughtfully written as well, the characters are interesting(I don't think Willis has had a more involving character than the one he has here) and Shyamalan's confidence and assurance further adds to the many impressive things about Unbreakable. Bruce Willis and Samuel L.Jackson are both fantastic, and one wonders why they didn't do more together.

Some have been dismissive of the ending, I actually thought it was fine, though I was underwhelmed by it on my first viewing a few years back. I did say before that The Sixth Sense's ending was the only one of a Shyamalan film that worked, after re-watching Unbreakable I take that back. I still think though the others were either needlessly melodramatic(Signs), laughable(The Village) or both(The Happening). All in all, a great film and one of Shyamalan's better ones. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I love this film. I'm the only person I know who doesn't hate it, but I cannot fathom why it gets such a bad rap from everybody. It seems that Shyamalan's films have this a running theme - with the notable exception of the Sixth Sense, which pretty much everyone seems to get. He makes movies that are very subtle, and which seem to need you to focus on them just right to fully grasp what he was trying to do. I've enjoyed all his movies, but for me the alien part of Signs takes a lot away from what I believe to be the central storyline and as such the whole movie suffers a little. Yet I know other people who think Signs is his best, specifically because of the way the alien plot line accentuates the central one.

Unbreakable is a beautifully simple film, but I think it has to hit you just right for you to completely get it. All the actors nail their parts, particularly Bruce Willis and his kid. Shyamalan takes an interesting (if slightly fringe) theory and puts it in a real world context, with a real family. Somehow he manages to never go overboard with it and - for me at least - it gripped me from the first moment to the last. Samuel L Jackson's character history is really nicely crafted in the middle of the other plot lines and you get genuinely involved in the people Shyamalan has created.

Don't get caught up in all the talk of the twist ending. The ending is good, but if you spend the whole movie waiting for this tumultuous twist you'll inevitably be disappointed, and the movie stands alone without it.

Don't go into this movie expecting another Sixth Sense or Signs. It's very very subtle and very understated. If you don't like slow movies, just don't watch this because it moves at a very sedate pace, but I personally think you'll be missing out. You'll likely either love it or you'll loathe it, but at least it will make an impression.

This is a much better film than I ever thought it would be, and intrigues me every time I watch it. Samuel L. Jackson's role is what mainly inspires me to watch this multiple times. His character is amazing and just leaves me shaking my head.

This is a pretty low-key movie with the other star, Bruce Willis, playing an extremely subdued role for him, almost too subdued. There are times in here when you keep waiting for him to say something, and he says nothing. Half the time he's barely audible.

But he and Jackson play off each other well, and this is very suspenseful film, even if a lot doesn't happen. To explain the story would almost ruin it, because it's preposterous. I'll just call an interesting fantasy-horror film with a little family story tied in with Willis' wife (Robin Wright) and young boy (Spencer Treat Clark).

"Unbreakable" is beautifully filmed, has very little profanity in it, and a strange, strange story with a great twist at the end....one of the best I've ever seen in a movie. This movie is done by the same man who did "The Sixth Sense," M. Night Shyamalan, so if you enjoyed that you probably would like this, too.....although it's so different I wouldn't want to predict who would like this film and who wouldn't. If you're open to try something different, give it a look.

Willis finds out some strange things about himself after being the sole survivor in a train wreck. Jackson tells him he's special. Is he really?

Unbreakable really is an act 1 superhero story stretched to feature lenght (Night tells us in an interview). Genius. For once I believe Willis is the person on screen, not that he's playing Bruce Willis, the cool actor. Night uses colors (mostly blue, purple and green) and well chosen camera-angles as imagesystems (word is that the storyboard read like a comic). Most of them really work out well. I loved the slow pacing of the film. It really takes it time to tell us what's going on. As usual Shyamalan puts human drama first in his script. The first scene where Willis meets the woman in the train... You have to see the genius of it. In a few lines of dialog Shyamalan let's us discover the character Dunn.

Another reason why I love this film is because Shyamalan shows he has courage to make THIS after the enormous success of The Sixth Sense, which I think is inferior to this film. I just know the studio execs where pushing for something more tangible than this, but he chose this instead. A homage to comic books. And it works! BEAUTIFUL!!

The final plot twist in "The Sixth Sense" made me wonder whether its director could repeat such a stunt, in "Unbreakable". Force us to follow the path he wants us to take, by telling his story, slowly, subtly leading us. Make us start to believe we know what will happen next, make us love the characters, then make us *want* things to happen next. Yes, tonight when seeing "Unbreakable", all that happens, again. And then, exactly like in "The Sixth Sense", he pulls the carpet right from under us, in the final seconds of the movie takes away everything, every expectation, he first gave us. Many people will be so disappointed by this that they will end up hating the movie. So did I, for about five minutes. Now I know the movie will make me think, literally move my thoughts, for a long time after tonight. I want to see it again, right now. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Hollywood has a new master storyteller. His name is Manoj Night Shyamalan.