Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood? - Defamer Comments

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Admore — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:03:12 PDT

The legend is that MNS rewrote Sixth Sense 35 times. I'm pretty sure he hasn't done that with anything since. (And I liked Unbreakable, even if it was pretty slow.)

Admore

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Kdoggy — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:58:15 PDT

The mass suicide scenes were actually of people who saw the first cuts of the film. Good film making is no longer relevant in the USA. I did enjoy Sixth Sense and Unbreakable quite a bit though. Hey, the guy is a two-hit wonder...not so bad these days.

Kdoggy

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Creasy — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:40:54 PDT

Wow, that's one of the most pathetic posts I've seen on this site.

Creasy

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

jrhys — Sun, 18 May 2008 11:18:27 PDT

[video.google.com]

jrhys

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

jrhys — Sun, 18 May 2008 11:13:45 PDT

So sad to see my beloved Mambo Mouth stooping so low... As for evil plants, I like this one so much better:

jrhys

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Omelas — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:37:17 PDT

I know I'm a little late to the party on the racial inclusion/exclusion debate, but when you have as many movies as M. does, I think it's fair to look at his overall repertoire and ask if, over six or seven films (is that right?), they more or less mirror the societies or communities about which he's telling stories. Not sure if his movies do or don't meet this test, but I think that it is a fair one, if you look at a range of a filmmaker's projects.

Omelas

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Tiger_Tanaka — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:21:05 PDT

@Sweet Panda Love: Or a pointed stick? (shudder)

Tiger_Tanaka

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

mcgeorge — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:14:37 PDT

@Edward Bulwer-Lytton: Well, that and the fact that Chernin is Carrot Top-jacked. I knew where my onion-baked sourdough roll was (deliciously and sinfully) buttered!

mcgeorge

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

kylo4 — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:09:25 PDT

Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. After that for some reason he's become one of the worst writer/directors out there. In the Village, they sent a blind woman into the forest. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Lady in the Water, awful. This new film? Mark's acting looks terrible and the plot is laughable.

Give him 2 more bad movies and he'll be tied with Uwe Boll.

kylo4

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

SugartitsMcFirecrotch — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:52:16 PDT

@SugartitsMcFirecrotch: Well, that was supposed to have the image appear here for all to enjoy . . . whatever happened to that fancy-schmancy new and improved commenter interface with the user-friendly image/video posting capability, hmmmm?!?

SugartitsMcFirecrotch

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

SugartitsMcFirecrotch — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:50:26 PDT

[www.intriguing.com]

SugartitsMcFirecrotch

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Edward Bulwer-Lytton — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:08:11 PDT

@mcgeorge: Wow...nice polite society Nuremberg Defense for not ridding the cineplex of the Night.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Edward Bulwer-Lytton — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:05:00 PDT

@KingHater: Come on - you're like my dry cleaner - you find the one hole in my favorite shirt and you proceed to rip the shit out of it with your logic/sardonic machine! You're killing us King hater...you're killing us.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Little Mintz Sunshine — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:49:39 PDT

Oh, no! Plants taking over the world and me without a gallon of gas, a match and a Home Depot credit card.
But have no fear. We can just call my mom. She can kill any plant in two days, three at the max.

"The Un-Happening: Revenge of the Arborist"

Little Mintz Sunshine

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Sweet Panda Love — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:46:01 PDT

@SugartitsMcFirecrotch: @Tiger_Tanaka: What would you do if the larch came at you armed with a banana? Now that's a horror movie!

Sweet Panda Love

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

gangrenejean — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:34:02 PDT

@WGARefugee:
I totally agree, and M. Sham has done this time and time again. I love monster movies, but only when they have an actual monster. And also, now I want to have your monster babies.

gangrenejean

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

SugartitsMcFirecrotch — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:32:26 PDT

@Sweet Panda Love: Also, don't forget:

- The Turkish little rude plant: a remarkably smutty piece of flora used by the Turks

- The Walking tree of Dahomey (Quercus nicholas parsonus): the legendary walking tree that can achieve speeds of up to 50 miles an hour, especially when it's in a hurry

SugartitsMcFirecrotch

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Cam/ron — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:09:41 PDT

@KingHater: Indeed, well at least it scared the shit out of my cousin.

Cam/ron

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

WGARefugee — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:00:44 PDT

@maggiesfarmer:
1. Overpromising and underdelivering on a monster you can't deliver visually. This is a bind you get into when you forget you're not writing a novel.
2. Creating a story where the monster has no relationship to the characters. The result is action adventure, not horror, which means relying on spectacle for thrills. Spectacle gets you traction with the gross-out demographic and is the main way the US achieves product differentiation in foreign markets. I think this is why I find foreign horror films much scarier than domestic ones.

Hope this helps!

WGARefugee

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Detective Zito — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:52:22 PDT

@mcgeorge:

Wow! That Fox Studio tour seems to have much more authentic content than say that "made for tourists" Universal Tram Tour.

Detective Zito

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

mcgeorge — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:46:38 PDT

@lrubemp: Studios fund him because A-list actors still want to be in his films. He made Bruce Willis relevant again after he spent all his Pulp Fiction capital. Didn't do so bad for Mel Gibson, either (this was before "Passion" and zany anti-Semitism, remember). That's a hard reputation to shake, no matter how many turkeys you drop.

Plus, studios want brands. A Shyamalan film guarantees a minimum audience moreso than, say, an Andrew Adamson film. A Shyamalan film with Mark Wahlberg, or Bruce Willis, or Mel Gibson...well that's a nice short on an expensive bet. And tons of people will go see to prove to themselves that it does indeed suck. Meanwhile, Fox executives have grinded your cash into powder and actually snorted it off the backs of dead Thai hookers (this was in the studio tour, so I know how it happens).

PS. Some dude invited me to lunch at the Fox Commisary about a month ago. Night was the next table with Peter Chernin. Though I would like to say that I lunged at him with a fist of righteous anger, I knew my place and kept my sniveling nose in my Ceasar Salad, thank you very much.

mcgeorge

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Detective Zito — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:42:46 PDT

@NoWireHangers:
I'm not sure how you even notice something like that. A movie's gotta be pretty bad for me to sit there and spend time counting the racial inclusion or exclusion. Cinematic affirmative action seems like a slippery slope. I grew up in Suburban Philadelphia where Night sets all his films and it is about as white-bread as he paints it in his movies. Regardless... saying that he should put minorities in simply for the sake of doing so seems to be the flip-side of the same coin. Also... He gave Sam Jackson the [supporting] lead in Unbreakable (not an excuse, simply stating a fact).

Detective Zito

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Tiger_Tanaka — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:41:17 PDT

@NoGrumpys: Sequels:

What's Happening Now
This Can't Be Happening
It's Happening One Night

@Sweet Panda Love:

The..............larch

Tiger_Tanaka

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

maggiesfarmer — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:21:34 PDT

@WGARefugee:
Alright, I'll bite - lay em on me. What are your two pitfalls for horror-writing?

maggiesfarmer

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Julio Allison — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:12:46 PDT

@Cam/ron:

Signs really doesn't hold up. At all.

Julio Allison

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

BrandonGK — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:59:30 PDT

@Cam/ron:

Yeah but still, they can be killed by a super-soaker, I mean how can you possibly live that down?

BrandonGK

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

lrubemp — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:57:22 PDT

Night's been mining The Sixth Sense for a goddam decade now (and even that overpraised yarn was full of holes). How does he keep getting funded after all the junk he's perpetrated since? Why do the suits like this guy? SOMEBODY EXPLAIN!!!

lrubemp

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Cam/ron — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:52:32 PDT

@KingHater: Yeah but those aliens can release poison gas, from their fingertips!

Cam/ron

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

WGARefugee — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:35:56 PDT

When u write a horror film, there's two fundamental missteps that can sink you every time. I won't bore you with the details but it seems like the 6th Sense is the only film where M. Night doesn't wander into the quicksand. If they had a 3rd party cut the trailer and this is the best they could come up with, it looks like they're in trouble.

WGARefugee

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Julio Allison — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:33:17 PDT

@Cam/ron:

And why would they invade a planet whose surface is 70% covered with a substance they're allergic to -- where said substance literally falls from the sky?

Julio Allison

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

pureblarney — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:08:26 PDT

Fuck. If Mark Wahlberg's acting wasn't so bad, and the score weren't so cheesy, I'll be the first to admit that minus what we just learned of fucking arboreal plots against the world, that clip had the potential to scare the shit out of me.

To M. Night Shyamalalamalanmalan: 28 Days Later.

pureblarney

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

monkeyrotica — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:07:52 PDT

This would have been so much better had the killers been Raj and Rerun.

monkeyrotica

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

NoWireHangers — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:05:37 PDT

@DexterRiley: Oh, and I almost forgot, that "his movies are stinking turds" part was fact too.

NoWireHangers

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

NoWireHangers — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:04:56 PDT

@DexterRiley: I'm not in favor of quotas, I'm simply stating a fact. There are few people of color in his films [fact], which I find to be disappointing [opinion] since he is a minority in a position to make a difference in a whitewashed industry.
[www.backstage.com]

NoWireHangers

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Sweet Panda Love — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:59:44 PDT

I will say that clip does portray an eerily accurate account of SEPTA conductors and how little they give a shit when the trains stop running.

Sweet Panda Love

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Oxycontinmoron — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:56:34 PDT

A parting thought, Seth. MNS should be so lucky as to have Johnny Depp play him in a movie about his life.

Oxycontinmoron

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Sweet Panda Love — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:55:33 PDT

The larch.

Sweet Panda Love

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Shemp Baldwin — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:54:29 PDT

@Jaguares: Pauline Kael once said of somebody, I forget who, that he had "one arrow in his quiver, and he shot it with 'Movie X'"... I think M. Night is a talented director, but as a screenwriter he really only had 1 and 2/3rds of movie in him, ie THE SIXTH SENSE and UNBREAKABLE.

No matter how suckass this movie is, it will be IMPOSSIBLE to beat the scene in LADY IN THE WATER when Paul Giammati curls up on the sofa and sucks his thumb and blows milk through his lips - don't ask - for sheer, WTF, transcendental awfulness.

Shemp Baldwin

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

sean98125 — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:41:24 PDT

I haven't seen that many suicides since sitting in the theater during his last movie.

sean98125

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Cam/ron — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:31:44 PDT

Gawd, I just remembered "Signs"'s lame-ass climax: Hmmm....space aliens are allergic to water, oh wait! Let's make the girl have a weird habit of leaving half-full glasses of water around the house so that our hero can splash the monster with them!

Cam/ron

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Cam/ron — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:23:37 PDT

@Greasy Thumb Guzik: Ditto, Plan 9 and Glen or Glenda are still entertaining as hell no matter how awful their scripts and production values were. Many of M. Night's movies have scary moments but they're ruined by shaggy dog story endings.

Cam/ron

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

JudgeFudge — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:22:39 PDT

Rumor has it that Shaymalan's next film will be "The Dionsaur and the Hamburger Forest", an orginal folk-tale/spirit vision, inspired by an activity page that M.Night's son half-completed from a Denny's kids menu.

JudgeFudge

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

el smrtmnky — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:20:31 PDT

this better have someone in a bear suit punching girls in the vagine

el smrtmnky

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

DexterRiley — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:14:22 PDT

@NoWireHangers:
Seriously? What's the breakdown then, percentage-wise, for an acceptable quota of "color," as you put it, in films?

DexterRiley

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Hallux Valgus — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:11:02 PDT

I doubt it says much of anything for Universal, since it's a Fox movie. And I'm sure Fox is okay with it, since pretty much all Fox movies swallow.

Hallux Valgus

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Greasy Thumb Guzik — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:09:53 PDT

Ed Wood made all of his movies while wearing angora.
He claimed that as a Marine, he was in Pacific island landings & wore his beloved angora.
At least Wood's movies are funny, horrible awful, but funny.
Let's see that pompous, pretentious Shayamalan top that one!

Greasy Thumb Guzik

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

jackvinyl — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:08:47 PDT

@disinterested 3rd party: She;s gone to the town of Princeton!

jackvinyl

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Jaguares — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:07:13 PDT

I cannot hate this man because of The Sixth Sense. How does one explain that kick-ass movie? HUH? It really frustrates me, there has to be some talent, or does it come out once every decade on him.

Jaguares

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

kookla — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:05:11 PDT

I'll wait for the DVD to come out.

The last movie I saw in the theaters was The Village. They should have called it The Village Idiots and based it on the morons in the audience.

kookla

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

TurdBlossom — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:00:34 PDT

Ooooooh look out it's an Oak tree! EVOL! (And yes I'm aware of the irony of mocking this seeing as how my avatar is a flower with a shit eating grin)

TurdBlossom

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

shutupitsmine — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:59:06 PDT

I think Marky Mark said it best. "We just have to be alive when it is over."

shutupitsmine

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

spankhaus — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:58:44 PDT

@CourageousCoward: Today on Maury: Hack on Your Back? Our addiction counselors are here to help!

spankhaus

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

disinterested 3rd party — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:56:08 PDT

@NoWireHangers: Yeah, he splashed some color around. Unfortunately he's introduced what my friend likes to call "The Leguizamo Factor" into what might be an already bad movie.

disinterested 3rd party

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Oxycontinmoron — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:55:19 PDT

@spankhaus: Are you sure that wasn't an episode title for Dr. Phil?

Oxycontinmoron

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

Oxycontinmoron — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:53:50 PDT

When he said "it's the scariest move I've ever made" he meant it in terms of either how much money it's going to lose or what it's going to do to his career.

It's obvious he has no regard for us, the audience.

Oxycontinmoron

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

spankhaus — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:53:39 PDT

Someone made an awesome comment at /film that his/her relationship with M. Night Shymalan is like an abusive relationship - "If I love him enough, he'll stop hitting me."

spankhaus

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

NoWireHangers — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:51:40 PDT

One of the things I dislike about M (aside from the obvious), is that as one of the few "auteurs" of color in Hollywood he has the whitest casts around--that is with the exception of his own masturbatory cameos. Looks like he splashed some color into this flick, but then we return to the larger problem of the movie being a rancid turd.

NoWireHangers

Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation's Ed Wood?

NoGrumpys — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:50:30 PDT

Originally titled "What's Happening"

Hey Hey Hey

NoGrumpys