The Sixth Sense

I haven't been so captivated, chilled and surprised by a movie in years.

Willis puts his action-hero stereotype on the back burner to deliver one of his most intriguing roles since "12 Monkeys."

Teeters on the brink of New Age ludicrousness, but it never goes over: Like Kieslowski and others, Shyamalan knows that what makes for lousy metaphysics can make for powerful metaphor, and in the end he creates a deeply, surprisingly affecting film out of a little bit of smoke and brimstone.

If this isn't the single best performance ever by a preadolescent male (Osment) in a motion picture, then it's tied for whatever is first.

Ultimately, it has less in common with "Blair Witch" than with such quivering lumps of sentiment as "Ghost" and Field of Dreams."

At least tries to disturb us, rather than shock us or gross us out, and that is admirable. But it doesn't pull it off, and the movie is indicative of the trouble Hollywood has these days making that most frightening kind of movie -- the kind that lets the audience frighten itself.

Because it unfolds like a garish hybrid of Simon Birch and What Dreams May Come, with some horror-movie touches thrown in to keep us from nodding off, "The Sixth Sense" appears to have been concocted at exactly the moment Hollywood was betting on supernatural schmaltz.

"The Sixth Sense" (1999) was one of those movies i couldn't get enough during upon its release almost 17 years ago. The mystery, performances, script, directing, horror and THAT unforgettable and once in a lifetime twist at the end that left me speechless - this is definitely one of my all time favorite movies. This is still the best movie M. Night Shyamalan has ever created, and seeing his movies now, he will probably unfortunately won't top this one. That said, i liked many his movies post "The Sixth Sense", but nothing came closed in comparison to this masterpiece. Every scene in this film works. Every scene in this film has its purpose to tell a story. The storytelling itself is brilliant. At running time 1 h 45 min this is a perfectly paced film. Acting by Haley Joel Osment was phenomenal - he should have won Oscar as Best Supporting Actor in 1999. Toni Collette was amazing as a loving mother, and Bruce Willis does here what great actors do - they do not overshadow great performances around theme. He is very good here. Music was very beautiful by James Newton Howard. Cinematography by Tak Fujimoto is minimalistic, yet superbly crafted. But at the end of the day, "The Sixth Sense" is M. Night Shyamalan crowning achievement. Writing and directing here are, simply, perfect. Its a brilliant film about letting it go, fear, hope and love for loved once while they are still here. Overall, as you have probably seen this movie more then once, there isn't anything new that can be said about it. It's definitely one the best movies of all time for me personally. It works equally good as a mystery, horror, drama and character study. One of the kind movie experiences.

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"The Sixth Sense" equates to little more than M. Night Shyamalan trying to compensate for his script's narrative shortcomings with an audacious twist ending that is illogical and does not make sense. Sound familiar? The atmosphere is built effectively enough for some chills, but the narrative is poorly thought out and meandering, and completely undercuts what suspense Shyamalan creates. With a placid, probably miscast Bruce Willis in the lead and Toni Collette performing well in an underwritten role, it is Haley Joel Osment who salvages the film with an empathetic and star-making portrait. It's a shame the rest of the film couldn't live up to his example.

In a key scene in the movie, Dr. Crowe performs a magic trick whose ludicrousness is meant to get a laugh out of his young deranged patient: he keeps a penny in his closed hand while making shaky gestures and pretending the coin is elsewhere. Cole doesn't find it funny. Shyamalan pulls the same kind of trick on his audience. But his magic — though as lousy as Crowe's — is meant to impress. He unfolds before our eyes a series of sequences designed, using less-than-subtle techniques, to keep us on the edge of our seats and, at certain moments, increasingly so as the end draws near, to bring a few tears to our eyes: a clever, nerdy little boy, who is scared when he goes for a wee at night, is bullied at school; a mum who's a bit overwhelmed, but full of love for her disturbed child, is always ready to promise that she'll never think of him as a "freak" even though he's obviously freaking out like a schizo; a loving husband estranged from his wife (when she's not falling asleep watching VHS footage of their wedding, she's considering cheating on him with the young employee of her engagement ring shop), wants to help the little boy although he can't help himself; there's always a bloody wounded ghost, à la cheap Shining, who pops up in the empty moments (often) and Bruce Willis plays a deadpoetssocietish psychiatrist full of clever little games to get in touch with his patient ("let's play mind-readin': if I know what you're thinkin', you can sit down and tell me what you're thinkin', wanna play?"), and Latin dictionaries (he writes "de profundus" and struggles to translate a quote as cryptic as "carpe diem"). so we can see he's as credible in this role as Stallone would be in that of a Buddhist hippie fan of Allen Ginsberg's poetry. All this doesn't make a magic trick, just a hackneyed Hollywood drama (at times unintentionally laughable) like we've already seen thousands of. What makes the difference is the last plot twist (the 90s were the decade of flashy plot twist movies). In the long-standing cinematic tradition of the sprinkler being sprinkled, the exorcist eventually turns up to be... a ghost. His communication issues with his wife and the grocery store cashier become understandable. But wait... it's easy to see why Shyamalan only shows us a few glimpses of his character's intimate life, and nothing of his day-to-day existence: If we had seen him sleeping in the marital bed in his ghostly white unwrinkled sheets and bloodstained pajamas while his widow consoled her grief in the arms of her clerk, or the hard times he has in making himself heard by the cashier, or when he orders a beer at the bar, the magic would have been somewhat lost. The bottom line is that Shyamalan's movie needs you to take what it gives you at face value, without thinking off-screen or even thinking at all. This circus wizard tells us a mediocre story, then gaslights us at the last minute to make us believe it was different (it was worse). You can get the idea by trying and watching the Sixth Sense a second time. All that's left is a huge jumble of clichés and a dropped penny rolling on the table.

Watching it for the first time and I’m a horror veteran. I think it’s like a 70 something. I haven’t finished it yet but half way through movie it’s not picking up enough yet. Noway it’s a 84 by the user score.