gerber-review©

The Sixth Sense

There was this shrink from Nantucky, who dealt with people and money, but meet this young lad from Kentucky, who make him remember the yuckie.

There is a definitive problem with some directors that write their own scripts - instead of having two people who can correct each others goofs and lameness, there is only one and, more often then not, that one is progressing mistakes.

If the script was better maybe the movie would be better, and on the other hand, if the director were better maybe the script would have a chance. And if the main actor was other, the film would definitely be better.

But as it was Sixth sense ended as script that by filming showed all of its holes, clichés, and lack of fresh ideas, and having Bruce Willies in it, did not help at all.

So we have this kid who is seeing ghosts all the time and is frightened, and the Bruce is there to help him. And there are some nice scenes with dead people. But can anybody explain why and how there were two of these kids who are haunted by the dead, one being the former patient of Bruce (one he did not help, one that confronts him at the beginning of the movie and commits suicide). Maybe because writer needed some counterpoint in the story, that old cliché--once failed, and now trying to prevail, and certainly the director knew not how to make a better one. Particularly as there is no other interesting plots in the movie (almost the entire movie is comprised of scenes that want to tell you something, but are finished almost before they have begun).

And does anybody have an inkling why of all dead people that haunt young Cole (who will maybe, later on, go to watch jets taking of from La Jette and will see Bruce dies in 12 Monkeys), asking him to help them, film deals with only one - and lamely at that. OK, it deals with two of them, but the second is for the viewer to see, as it will be talking. That second one, was meant to be the highpoint of the movie, that final punch, great revelation and "I would never have guessed" coming out of the movie line. It is not badly made, at that, but it has been seen before, and in much better movies, that were not made just for the single punch line.

Bruce Willis is evidently trying to change his carrier, to prepare terrain for his oncoming pre-golden years, but if this is a sample of his non-action parts, then maybe we do not want to see Bruce getting old and playing "serious" parts. His facial expressions are limited to one or two (second being almost identical with the first), and there is very limited range of parts in which those expressions are adequate for the whole duration of the movie.

On the scale of 0 to 4 grapes, this movie gets 1 grape and 1 stem.