MovieChat Forums > Signs (2002) Discussion > Criminally Underrated Movie

Criminally Underrated Movie


People got pissed off just because it didn't have any jaw-dropping twist.

Its brilliantly written, shot and directed with a subtle but great climax. To me, it stands 2nd best after 'The Sixth Sense'.

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Nah, this movie is a 6.5/10 at most.

The CGI was terrible even for 2002 standards... having the aliens being allergic and defeated by water is kinda dumb... M Night's scenes were also quite cringe.

It's a 'good' movie though.

My favorite scene is when they are cursing at the intruders in the middle of the night running outside the house.

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It's not as bad as Lady In The Water, The Happening, Last Airbender or After Earth, but that's not saying much.

This movie is pretty stupid.

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I agree 100%.

I still watch out of curiosity though.

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Oh I had seen the reviews for the Happening and I just had to see it, if you watch it as a comedy it's actually not complete shit.

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Indians aren’t funny.

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Imagine ranking The Village over this. A movie where Adrien Brody goes full retard and a blind girl tricks him into falling into a spike pit

That movie is way stupider

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Saying a movie is less stupid than The Village isn’t saying much.

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Oh really?....CGI ????

The movie is great because of its build-up.

We cant comprehend Alien mindset. May be the bunch were sent to research the place before they could take over.

What if we were went to some alien planet and got allergic to some substance which we never knew. Its because we live on Earth and know they we are living amidst abundant water. You cant compare the scenario.

It's a 9/10 movie and brutally underrated.

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I agree about the build-up. I like the slow build up to the invasion and how it drops more clues as it goes along that they are malevolent beings. This is the best part about it. The invasion itself and the corny link to the memory of the dead wife's last words is just silly and kind of cringe. I mean it's laughable that you're to believe this intelligent alien race could have been defeated by water pistols, and it's daft that you would need to recollect a memory to give you the idea to use a baseball bat against a home intruder, never mind having the whole Meryl baseball backstory just for that moment.

It's funny how this is the only film I can think of that latched on to the crop circle/alien mythology, because I remember this was quite a talked about topic once upon a time.

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I thought it implausible that aliens capable of interplanetary travel would not realize their mortal vulnerability to water before trying to invade a planet that is 70% water.

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The thing is this movie is nothing but buildup to a climax that never really happens.

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I'd put Sixth Sense and Unbreakable ahead of this, but I still think it's underrated.

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Same.

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It's a great film and probably my second favorite M. Night film after . . . wait for it . . . The Village. Yeah, I'm sure that's surprising but I think The Village is even more criminally underrated than Signs, especially since the majority of people who have seen Signs seem to like it.

The water twist is a little dumb, but Signs has great characters and atmosphere, great performances, and a story that is overall pretty interesting. Plus, the "demon theory" actually seems plausible and adds a new dimension when watching the film.

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I liked this much much more the 6th sense. In fact i dont like the 6th sense, but love throwing this one on late at night

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The problem with The Sixth Sense is that once you've watched it twice, there's no real need to ever watch it again.

You watch it the first time blind. And you watch it the second time knowing the twist to see exactly how M. Night pulled it off. (It's really quite impressive how he structured some scenes.)

But after that, the movie has very little replayability, or at least that's true for me. Signs on the other hand, and also The Village, are films that I've watched several times.

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It's too weird for my taste. I only watch it because of Mel. If Mel wasn't in it it would have been a one and done for me.

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I am going to watch this tonight and see how it holds up. It has been a long time, but I remember liking this movie. I think it was actually received pretty well when it came out (although there were some criticisms about the twist not being as good as the Sixth Sense). Or maybe my memory isn’t all that accurate.

I have been noticing the IMDb scores can be on point, but sometimes are either bombarded with hate-trainers or unreasonably lifted to god status due to nostalgia, excessive publicity or something along those lines. It makes for a good reason to revisit a movie.

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Signs, to me, is a 7.5/10. It's not quite as perfect as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable is the 2nd best Shyamalan film, but Signs is still a good movie. Yes, it had problems, like some of the cheesy dialogue, the CGI on the aliens looking pretty below average, and the plot twist involving the aliens' weakness being water was pretty dumb.

That being said, it had a lot of great buildup, the suspense was done very well (the birthday in Brazil sequence included), the cinematography was superb, James Newton Howard's music score is both creepy and atmospheric which suited the film very well, and it was well acted especially Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, and Abigail Breslin. I know many people have criticized Mel Gibson in this movie, but I thought he wasn't that bad at all. Yes, some of his dialogue isn't quite as strong, but there are moments in the film including the dinner scene where his character is reluctant to say a prayer and gets a little distraught where the actor actually shined in the drama (then again, Mel Gibson did star in other films that have drama too).

Signs may not be one of the best hollywood films and it's not quite as strong as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, but it's still a good movie that has *really* effective suspense.

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Great movie. Great humor. Juaqin and Mel have great chemistry and are really funny.

The movie has several scenes that are really burned in your head. The leg disappearing into the corn field. The alien on the roof. The video from the bday party in Brazil.

For a movie so simple it’s quite memorable and always a great rewatch. Sixth Sense is better but not a movie worth watching more than twice.

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