Mel Gibson Movie:

Editorial Review:
This B movie with noble aspirations is the work of a gifted filmmaker whose storytelling falls short of his considerable stylistic flair. While addressing crises of faith in the framework of an alien-invasion thriller, M. Night Shyamalan (in his follow-up to The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable) favors atmospheric tension over explanatory plotting. He injects subtle humor into expertly spooky scenes, but the story suffers from too many lapses in logic. The film's faults are greatly compensated by the performance of Mel Gibson as a widower whose own crisis of faith coincides with the appearance of mysterious crop circles in his Pennsylvania cornfield... and hundreds of UFOs around the globe. With his brother (Joaquin Phoenix) and two young children (Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin), the lapsed minister perceives this phenomenal occurrence as a series of signs and portents, while Shyamalan pursues a spookfest with War of the Worlds overtones. It's effective to a point, but vaguely hollow at its core. --Jeff Shannon

Signs [Region 2] Reviews:
Good Character Study
2009-11-16 - An alien invasion of Earth makes a lapsed clergyman reexamine the doubts he has about his faith. Sort of a cross between "War of the Worlds" and "ET", except the focus is not so much on the aliens (must they always be slender and bug-eyed?) as on the Mel Gibson character, whose wifes' accidental death had led him to leave the ministry. Plot is a bit incoherent, but characters are compelling.

Won't Sleep For Days!
2009-10-27 - I saw this movie in the theaters once when it first came out and I haden't seen it since that day until the other night.When I first saw Signs I was scared out of my mind.I couldn't do anything without thinking that some alien was outside of my roof or one was going to pop out from behind a tree in my backyard.I couldn't even stay calm watching it in the theater,I was so freaked out.Anyway a few days ago I decided I needed to cure myself of this fear of aliens that I have and get the sounds and faces of these aliens from Signs out of my head.(keep in mind that I'm 21 and I live alone...I get creeped out by my own shadow)So I watched the movie and in all honesty I can see why I was scared of the movie back then,it's not so much a scary,OMG,horror movie,it's more suspense,sci fi.This movie isnt showing aliens from begining to end and the aliens arn't killing and eating everyone.It's just suttle things that make you jump.You get chills before you even see the aliens,the fact that you know their there and you can't see them is the scary part.Finally I have gotten over the Signs curse and I'm ok watching the movie now.I'm not freaking out and honestly this is now one of my favorite Shyamalan movies.You have to see this movie.

A truly scary yet wholesome and meaningful thriller/drama.
2009-10-20 - Signs, directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village) is of course about the threat of alien invasion, but there's much more to it than just that. Mel Gibson stars as Graham Hess, a simple farmer and former reverend who has recently left the church in the wake of his wife's tragic death. He and his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) wake up one morning to the screams of the children (Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin), who have just discovered a 500-foot crop circle in their rural Pennsylvania field. Soon a string of strange events, or 'signs', unfold that suggest the possibility of alien invasion. However, this movie doesn't feature the mindless action violence of Independence Day or War Of The Worlds, but instead focuses on this one family and the challenges they are facing. To quote movie critic Richard Roeper, "It's easy for a filmmaker to blow up the world - but what Shyamalan does is much riskier; he tries to blow our minds". Indeed, the film has many important messages, such as 'everything happens for a reason' and 'there is always someone looking out for you'. These messages are foreshadowed throughout the movie, but are made clear in the emotional surprise ending. Signs is an intelligent and suspenseful thriller which understands that we are scared most by what we can't see and that a movie doesn't have to be bloody and violent to be truly terrifying. This is a movie the whole family can watch together and is only rated PG-13 because it is scary and for brief, mild language. Good Morning America called it "A suspense-filled twilight zone thriller" and Rolling Stone proclaimed it as "A dazzling white-knuckler", whatever that means. According to CNN, "You will have to see it twice". Special features include deleted scenes, a six-part making-of documentary, a multi-angle storyboard featurette, and even a clip from Shyamalan's short film 'Pictures', billed as his 'first alien movie', made when he was 'just a little kid'. This DVD is well worth buying and I strongly recommend it to fans of any type of movie.

Ugly Evil Aliens
2009-10-12 - Signs is a great Sci-Fi drama. It has suspense and a very good transition until the end of the movie. It is a great Sci-Fi movie to own for your collection.

WHY can't hollywood make a believable alien invasion movie?
2009-09-07 - What is it about hollywood that they cannot make a decent alien invasion movie, every one of them just seems to stink. About signs:

1. Reverend looses faith after wife is tragically killed in a car accident. Couldn't have been very faithful to begin with, most people of faith that I know personally do not lose their faith because some loved one dies "before their time", much less a reverend. I realize this is largly anecdotal but it still may be accurate.
2. No one ever seems to have a gun. Would someone care to explain to me where in middle America there is a corn farmer with no shotgun, ever hear of crows anyone. This actually seems to be a recurrent theme in these movies. There are 80 to 100 million guns owned by Americans, but they never seem be anywhere in the movie when the aliens invade. Are we actually supposed to belive that when aliens invade the earth that no one ever seems to have a gun handy but the police (who are usually portrayed as way to competent) and the military (who are usually portrayed as way to incompetant). If a average American actually does have a gun they are usually portrayed as some kind of whack job (Tim Robbins in War Of The Worlds).
3. Aliens invade to supposedly take us for food but are so allergic to water that it burns them. Okay this has been talked about endlessly in the 1 star reviews but they are going to eat people that are made up of more than 90% water, can I have a glass of suphuric acid please.
4. The baby monitor. This is even worse than Independance Day's signals being deciphered by the cable guy.
5. The aliens are not armed with anything other than a poison gas squirted from their wrists. See point #2
6. Alien is so lame that it cannot break down the pantry door. Again, see point # 2
7. Just where is the military? Lame aliens should have been kicked off earth in less than a day by the military of even the smallest third world country.

This movie is so bad that cannot waste anymore time talking about how lame it is and I cannot give it no stars. They tried to rely to much on the star power of Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix to try and salvage this piece of crap. My disdain for this movie goes farther than just Signs itself but to the whole genre of alien invasion movies, They all seem to stink.