Signs [Blu-ray]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Following the smash hit The Sixth Sense (1999) and the under-performing follow-up Unbreakable (2000), directing phenom M. Night Shyamalan returns to the summer box office landscape that served as the backdrop for his cinematic breakthrough. In Signs, another paranormal outing for the writer-director, Shyamalan explores the eerie implications of a 500-foot crop circle that mysteriously appears on the Bucks County, PA farm of reverend Graham Hess (Mel Gibson). As Hess and his family (Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin) try to take stock of what the sign means, and how its message incorporates into their faith, they start to get the feeling they are not alone in the fields behind their house. Shyamalan re-teams with producers Frank Marshall, Sam Mercer and Kathleen Kennedy, and produces the project in association with his Blinding Edge Pictures banner and Touchstone Pictures. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: ABC
• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Screen: Color
• Features:
  • Deleted scenes
  • Making Signs: Looking for Signs, Building Signs, "Making Signs: a commentary by M. Night Shyamalan", the effects of Signs, "Last Voices: the music of Signs", Full circle
  • Storyboards: multi-angle features
  • Night's first alien movie

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Mel Gibson - Graham Hess
       Joaquin Phoenix - Merrill Hess
       Cherry Jones - Officer Caroline Paski
       Rory Culkin - Morgan Hess
       Abigail Breslin - Bo Hess
       Patricia Kalember - Colleen Hess
       M. Night Shyamalan - Ray Reddy
       Ted Sutton - Cunningham
       Merritt Wever - Tracey
       Lanny Flaherty - Mr. Nathan
       Marion McCorry - Mrs. Nathan
       Michael Showalter - Lionel
       Rhonda Overby - Sarah Hughes

• Director:

  M. Night Shyamalan

• Producer:

  Frank Marshall, Sam Mercer, M. Night Shyamalan

• Screenwriter:

  M. Night Shyamalan

• Cinematographer:

  Tak Fujimoto

• Composer (Music Score):

  James Newton Howard

• Editor:

  Barbara Tulliver

• Production Designer:

  Larry Fulton

• Art Director:

  Keith P. Cunningham

• Executive Producer:

  Kathleen Kennedy

• Set Designer:

  Douglas Mowat

• Set Decorator:

  Douglas Mowat

• Costume Designer:

  Ann Roth

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Tod A. Maitland, Richard King

• First Assistant Director:

  John Rusk

• Casting:

  Douglas Aibel

• Animation Effects:

  Industrial Light & Magic

• Visual Effects:

  Industrial Light & Magic

• Visual Effects Supervisor:

  Eric Brevig

• Additional Cinematography:

  Patrick Capone

• Second Unit Camera:

  Patrick Capone

• Visual Effects Supervisor:

  Stefen Fangmeier

• Supervising Sound Editor:

  Richard King

• Second Unit Director:

  Brick Mason

• Set Dresser:

  Jim Williams

REVIEW:

• It's kind of amazing that no one had previously attempted a spooky movie about crop circles, given the ominous portent of these unexplained phenomena. M. Night Shyamalan harnesses that unrealized potential and then some in Signs, his fifth and most mainstream release, which makes the much-revisited topic of alien invasion freshly eerie, yet also showcases a heretofore unseen strength in the director's dour oeuvre: humor. Shyamalan actively bucks the trend of films like Independence Day, shunning pyrotechnics and scenes of chaos in the world's capital cities. Instead he focuses on one rural Pennsylvania family, in turn keeping with his trademark emotional intimacy -- which, when it doesn't consume him, allows the audience to experience the crisis with an equivalent sense of mounting anxiety. Shyamalan makes sublime use of news footage as a means of imparting chilling glimpses of alien avidence, rendered hyper-real through the medium; in fact, the director deepens the impact by drawing a visual link to September 11th, in the form of engrossed viewers huddled around televisions, absorbing the unspeakable. Though Signs is certainly an original vision, boasting a full complement of clever yet unobtrusive camera tricks by Tak Fujimoto, it comes with a price. Namely, Shyamalan travels so deep into the psyches of his characters that he sometimes loses the big picture, dwelling on a past tragedy at the expense of the imminent emergency, and becoming a little too touchy-feely. There's also considerable effort to bear fruit from all the foreshadowing -- as a wise musician once sang, it's "signs, signs, everywhere signs." Still, Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix contribute some of the most naturalistic acting of their careers, and Shyamalan has created a gripping cinematic experience that reminds viewers of when being scared was a kind of intoxication. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi