The Sixth Sense (1999, PG-13)
Written and Directed by M. Night Shaymalan
Starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment
As Reviewed by James Brundage (MovieKritic2000)
In my review of Naked Lunch, I attacked the egghead set (a caste in which some people have placed me) with their stubbornness in saying a film or book or piece of art is incomprehensible. Now, it's the Everyman's turn. If you didn't see the end of The Sixth Sense coming (which I thought was impossible until my Uncle John, whom I hold in rather high esteem and who uses words I do not yet know on a regular basis, did not), then you too fall victim to the need to praise movies you do not get. If you saw the end coming, like I did, you needn't bother.
Movie connoisseurs will see the ending about ten minutes into the movie. They will hit a point when it just clicks. People who are not film buffs will not pick the ending up, because the knack probably isn't in them to do so. Either way, however, you probably won't enjoy this film. I know the box office speaks against me with the fact that only this week it has dropped out of the #1 spot, but the fact is that The Sixth Sense is a poorly constructed film.
It spends half of its time trying to be a tear-jerker, the other half trying to scare you. Neither scares nor screams ensued from this critic… or his date. The film goes at about the pace of a slug on a sidewalk. The performance by Bruce Willis is reminiscent of his earlier days… say, summer of 1998 in Armageddon. Newcomer Haley Joel Osment seems around to annoy me and people like me.
In the words of Nancy Kerrigan, who's knees were busted up with a hockey stick, "Why me?"
The answer lies once again in the faulty school of thought that if something flies over your head, it must be good. The Sixth Sense flies not too high over the mainstream audience's head… just high enough that, when they finally do figure out the ending, they feel like really smart people. When the ending finally comes if they haven't figured it out, they feel pretty spiffy in a "horray-for-their-side" sorta way.
But, all of those people who did enjoy the movie The Sixth Sense, ask yourselves "why?" From the dry eyes and generally silent theatre I can say quite honestly that, although some people were impressed, The Sixth Sense accomplished none of its tasks. It didn't make you cry, laugh, scream, or evict any other emotion. What The Sixth Sense trafficked in was special effects of the mental variety. Tricks of the mind. It gave the illusion of being intelligent. And, because it gave the illusion of being intelligent, people sang its praises.
Leave it to a business all about illusions to try to act intelligent, for that is exactly what The Sixth Sense does (and actually succeeds at). It acts as if it were a well thought out and constructed piece when in fact it was probably one of those screenplays thrown together on the fly in six days with a how-to-write-your-bestseller book in writer/director M. Night Shaymalan's hands.
Hollywood is all about magic, and it is a great piece of magic indeed that this film pulled itself off. A lesson to be learned for this nowadays is that all you have to do to make a movie that will gross $200 Million is act smart. But, of course, that's only for the next sixth months of short-term memory that studio heads have. After that smart will be passe, and stupid will once again be en vogue.
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