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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
Salesrank: 13200
Released: January 11, 2005 |
| Our Price: $3.96 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A truce kept between the inhabitants of a small community in Pennsylvania, circa 1890, and the creatures that live in the woods surrounding it is threatened when a young man is determined to explore beyond the boundaries of the village.
Genre: Suspense
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 13-DEC-2005
Media Type: DVD
Description of The Village (Full Screen Edition) - Vista Series:
Even when his trademark twist-ending formula wears worrisomely thin as it does in The Village, M. Night Shyamalan is a true showman who knows how to serve up a spookfest. He's derailed this time by a howler of a "surprise" lifted almost directly from "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim," an episode of The Twilight Zone starring Cliff Robertson that originally aired in 1961. Even if you're unfamiliar with that Rod Serling scenario, you'll have a good chance of guessing the surprise, which ranks well below The Sixth Sense and Signs on Shyamalan's shock-o-meter. That leaves you to appreciate Shyamalan's proven strengths, including a sharp eye for fear-laden compositions, a general sense of unease, delicate handling of fine actors (alas, most of them wasted here, save for Bryce Dallas Howard in a promising debut), and the cautious concealment of his ruse, which in this case involves a 19th-century village that maintains an anxious truce with dreadful creatures that live in the forbidden woods nearby. Will any of this take anyone by genuine surprise? That seems unlikely, since Emperor Shyamalan has clearly lost his clothes in The Village, but it's nice to have him around to scare us, even if he doesn't always succeed. --Jeff Shannon
The Village (Full Screen Edition) - Vista Series Reviews:
Brilliant and clever 
2008-10-01 - I've read some of the many critiscms from other people on this board about The Village, and really can't understand it. Those who say it's not scary enough are really missing the point. OK, so it's being marketed (rather inaccuratly) as a thriller, but it's so much more then that. It's deep and philosophical, and very very clever, and I for one couldn't see the big twist in the story coming. I don't know why some people could as it wasn't the most obvious thing at all. Brilliant brilliant film, and those who keep banging on about it being rubbish really are not understanding the film at all. The performances are first rate, and though it took me a while to get into, once things kick off, it really is something you could discuss all day. A first rate film.
Underappreciated 
2008-09-27 - I consider myself somewhat of a fan of this director, and I can't help but feel that "The Village" was somewhat slighted by the mainstream. I found it scary and captivating, as so many other of his films. Not his best work, but it does make for a marvelous period piece that is more intelligent than it is credited. The story itself is not as creative as other pieces, but Shyamalan works well with it, making a truly horrifiying piece of film.
AMAZING. DONT LIE! 
2008-09-26 - Wow so many people that rate this movie are dumb and have no vision for a good movie! This movie is so damn good! Between the writing, the acting and the music which is so angelic, this is one of my favorite films ever! I hear so many people say they thought this movie was stupid because it wasn't scary. Have they seen M. Night's other movies people? They aren't supposed to be just scary or just one thing, they are always suspenseful, emotional, funny, a little of everything. I look at it more as love story than anything really myself. And in that light it is so beautifully written. Whether you admit it or not, you are shocked at the end and you think "wow could this really happen?" I think this one is tied with Sixth Sense and Sings for me as far as M Night's films go and how emotional they are. 10/10 for me. M Night is a genious!
Dreadful. 
2008-09-23 - The Village is a complete mess! Even Joaquin Phoenix and Judy Greer can't save this beyond slow, confusing, and pretentious "thriller". M. Night Shyamalan thinks he is a fantastic writer and actor but he is too lost in his arrogant head to write a true horror flick. The only film of his that I do like is The Sixth Sense, now that movie is pure brilliance. You can't create magic twice and this stinker may be even slightly better than The Lady in the Water, ugh! Hope you can get through this film without shutting down your DVD player, good luck!
Yawn 
2008-09-21 - I seem to be the only person who recognizes how poorly written M. Night Shyamalan's films are. Is it because I'm a Hitchcock aficionado? No. I just have an ability to read narrative arcs and see where things are going. It was obvious that Bruce Willis was dead in The Sixth Sense, that Samuel L. Jackson was the bad guy in Unbreakable, and that, well, Signs sucked altogether. Perhaps I demand too much, ot perhaps it's because I see in MNS a burgeoning Spike Lee or Steven Spielberg- i.e.- someone with a great eye but no knack for storytelling. My advice: become a cinematographer, or write better tales! This, especially, goes out to MNS, since he writes his films, and all are `twist ` films- dependent upon that final reveal.
This film had potential to be as great a work of art as that other great fictive The Village- from the 1967 tv show The Prisoner, but it fails miserably on all levels. MNS wouldn't know a well-written script if you beat him with it. Am I repeating myself? Let me range a little more- I am tired of mere cinematographers posing as auteurs. Learn narrative arcs. Perhaps I do expect too much- like character development, plausible plots, etc. and tales not based on a twist, but situations that logically and/or organically grow out of situation.
Yet, a quick review of professional critics' reviews was astounding, for most seemed to miss that this was a film not set in the 19th Century- instead believing that some time tripping had occurred. As for the extras? There's no commentary, thankfully, for the featurettes are fellatric enough- including a heinous diary by Bryce Howard, and an execrable bit of another of MNS's bad home movies from childhood. He seems to put far more care into his childhood films selected for the DVDs than he does his actual grown up films. In short, MNS delivers another film with a good premise, but lousy execution in all aspects. I've given up on him as a film director, but I'm sure he's got his next twist film already in the works. (Sigh!)
