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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
Salesrank: 8299
Released: January 11, 2005 |
| Our Price: $4.95 |
| Used Price: $0.48 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
M. Night Shyamalan (SIGNS, UNBREAKABLE, THE SIXTH SENSE), the director who brought you the world's greatest thrillers on DVD, now creates his most thought-provoking triumph yet ... breaking international records and dazzling audiences around the globe! THE VILLAGE is a smart, edge-of-your-seat chiller crawling with terrifying surprises and frightening twists and turns. An isolated, tight-knit community lives in mortal fear of an oppressive evil inhabiting the forbidden forest just beyond their tiny village. So frightening that no one ventures into the woods ... until one villager dares to face the unknown. With unforgettable performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, and newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, this powerful motion picture is one of Hollywood's best psychological thrillers and ranks with the best of Hitchcock!
Description of The Village (Widescreen 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 (Widescreen Vista Series) Reviews:
Interesting setup is ruined by bungled "twists" 
2009-12-25 - 'The Village' is the exact point where M. Night Shyamalan started losing his mojo. By this point, 'The Sixth Sense' had become a bit of a millstone around his neck, and Shyamalan clearly felt pressured to deliver the "twist ending" yet again. But unlike his previous three films, his trademark twists and turns are badly bungled, and they end up ruining a film that would have been much better off without them. The film actually relies on a succession of "revelations", but once the first one is known, you can pretty much guess what the others will be. So the entire second half of the movie (including the Really Big Revelation) is simply confirmation of what you already half-expected, making it a big let-down.
It's a shame really, because the basics of the film are pretty good. The main cast, especially Bryce Dallas Howard as the blind heroine Ivy and Adrien Brody as the disturbed (and disturbing) Noah, are good in their roles (although William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver are a bit wasted). And Shyamalan does a reasonable job of setting the period and mood, giving the first act a brooding, slightly Gothic quality. The film actually would have worked much better had it simply continued as a straight period piece, as concept of the creatures attacking an isolated village is a great premise for Gothic horror. There was simply no need to throw all these (fairly predictable) curveballs at the audience, and to turn the film into something completely different.
Unfortunately, it seems Shyamalan was stuck in a rut by this stage, and could only fall back on the same old tried-and-true "twists" he's done before. The interesting setup, and some of the performances, keeps this from being a total disaster, but it's fair to say that `The Village' is one of his weakest.
Very intriguing 
2009-12-23 - Very thought provoking and entertaining. A little weird in spots with a very good ending that you don't see coming.
village
2009-12-11 - The movie ''The Village'' by M. Night Shamalon was one of my first and best scary movies I have even seen. It takes place
in a secret village unknown to the world; where a monster kills anyone who trys to leave. which keeps the towns people from knowing anything of the
outside world but one blind girl discovers that its all lie that she was rasied to believe about the village and the town elders. her being blind actually
helps her to ind her way out and save her love. This movie is great for people who are into detail and deep story/plot lines.
review by Zerah Theodore
Excellent movie!
2009-12-07 - Excellent movie! I don't think that a lot of people got it. But we certainly did! I could totally live in a world like this. It's about love, courage, and dealing with grief and the world. It's not about escaping reality, but about getting back to the basic simple pure lifestyle.
CS 
2009-11-11 - Great customer service. Very pleasant experience. I will definitely do business with them again.
