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5/10
Shyamalan desperately needs the services of a dialogue-writer [+48%]
arungeorge1324 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I'll give it to Shyamalan for his innovative one-line ideas, some of which translate well onto the screen. Old boasts an original concept and sumptuous cinematography (by Mike Gioulakis), but the writing and performances fail to see it through. Once the ageing aspect is set in motion, the film loosens its grip on the viewers, eventually settling for a tame finale. The characters fail to connect due to their weak portrayals and artificial-sounding dialogue.

The beachy location is indeed a treat for sore eyes. I cannot get enough of listening to waves in the background, and this film proved to be an unexpected respite in that regard. Getting old fast is a scary notion when you actually give it some thought. But in the movie, it is told in such a way that the science-fiction aspects come second to convenient plot holes. The climactic twist also doesn't land well. Old is ultimately a forgettable fare.

P. S - Can we stop killing Eliza Scanlen in every movie? Like, seriously.
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6/10
I aged 2 hours watching this
elliotjeory23 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Good story, intriguing enough to keep your interest, kind of freaky and unintentionally funny in places. The actors were a bit random, it's a strange kind of film but it was ok. What's annoying is the lack of explanation to the cause so it loses points for that.
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3/10
Enticing premise but terrible dialogue and writing ruin it
MovieWarfare2 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
M. Night Shyamalan is such a fascinating director, you never know what you're going to get with him. He has made some of the most memorable movies with the best twist in cinema history and he has made some of the worst movies I have ever seen. It's like a flip of a coin, the head is good and the tail is a bad movie situation. The premise of Old is "A family on a tropical holiday who discover that the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly reducing their entire lives into a single day". So does Old (2021) land on heads or tails?

Firstly, I love the idea and concept of this movie. The idea of a thriller and mystery story about a beach that ages people is such a unique concept. I also like the themes that are explored, such as people being too focused on the past or the future instead of the present, people's mortality and family dynamic changing with time. There are also some genuinely unnerving scenes, such as a surgery scene and some deaths that are just unsettling to watch. M Night also succeeds in creating a tense situation with the characters. They try a bunch of logical stuff to try and get off the island but it doesn't work so you're engaged on how they are going to get off the island. Additionally, some other characters are acting weird which makes creates a tense situation for our main leads. I also have to praise Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie who play aged up versions of the kids. They have to maintain the young kid mentality which they certainly conveyed from their performance.

However, every other actor just gives such an unconvincing performance with terrible delivery. The actors all give such a bland performance with barely any tone in their voice, like a robot. This is partially due to the terrible writing and dialogue. No one seems to speak like an actual normal human being which makes the movie very off-putting. Some dialogue is so cheesy that it is actually kind of funny, even though the scene is clearly not meant to be. There are some exposition scenes where the characters are in a circle and discussing what is going on, which is just ridiculous. A fair amount of the characters make points about what is going on that is definitely right but is something people would not logically jump to at first thought. M. Night also returns with a twist ending, if you could even call it that as it was quite predictable. The ending is very lacklustre and even ruins the tone that was set throughout by making the movie become something different instead.

Overall, Old (2021) lands on the tail this time. By this point, I believe someone should let M. Night direct and create the ideas but not let him write the script whatsoever. It is still disappointing to see that even after all these years M. Night still doesn't understand how to write dialogue as Old is one of the worst in terms of dialogue. The enticing premise is able to keep you engaged but everything else is so poor that it's difficult to completely recommend this movie. Hopefully, next time M. Night is able to deliver a good movie because this is not it, unfortunately.
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Interesting Concept, Uninteresting Execution
CinemaClown10 October 2021
The latest madcap offering from the filmmaker who has made a career out of coming up with truly insane & ambitious ideas over the years (whether he is able to make them work or not in execution being a whole another debate), Old finds the (in)famous writer-director once again experimenting with a crazy concept but the end result is a mixed bag as the film fails to make the most of what was up for grabs.

Written & directed by M. Night Shyamalan (Signs, The Village & The Visit), the story follows a group of tourists who find themselves ageing rapidly on a mysterious & secluded beach. With a lifetime passing in the matter of a single day for all the involved characters, the possibilities worth exploring are endless. However, Shyamalan's erratic direction & bland characterisation prevent the key events to blossom to their full capacity.

There are nonetheless hints of brilliance scattered throughout the picture. It just never unifies into a satisfying whole. The rapid ageing & its debilitating effects is rather unsettling to watch but then the dialogues & performances are so idiotic & over-the-top that we aren't really sure what tone Shyamalan was going for. The film is silly yet serious, fun yet terrifying, thrilling yet amusing, ludicrous yet genius, and is often a cinematic ride of sharp contrasts.

Overall, Old features a premise that not only exhibits promise & potential on paper but is also instantly appealing & downright ambitious. Still, Shyamalan is unable to explore his zany idea to its fullest by failing to weave a compelling narrative around it, thus resulting in a frustrating & confusing experience. He tries to do too much yet only ends up doing too little. All in all, Old has its merits & moments but the ride as a whole feels more or less underwhelming in the end.
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3/10
This movie has some of the worst acting i've ever seen from everyone honestly...
Neptune16519 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Great atmosphere and setting. Dialogues are terrible in some scenes. Makes you wonder if Night rewrote them to deal with prior criticism. This movie is the definition of "terrible". Horrible and exasperating movie, Besides the kid actors and their older version,the actors were horrible. Terrible movie I got a headache I hated the spinning camera the ringing it was awful. I didn't really like the way it was filmed, it felt very slow when turning the camera and i wish they would have shown more. This had all the potential to be something very interesting an engaging. Yet, the acting, timing and some of the shots were absolutely atrocious. BTW, how did nobodies hair or finger nails grow! If this was a first time Director with a low budget and production constraints, then may have been less critical....however, given his reputation and budget this was inexcusable.
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7/10
An enjoyable movie.
Sleepin_Dragon28 July 2021
I have read several really bad reviews about this film, and the last film or two I watched from Shyamalan were average at best, but there was something about this film that I did enjoy.

It flew by, it wasn't slow or dull, nor was it particularly scary, instead it relies on the primal fears many have (self included) about the ageing process, and the passing of time, if you are someone who has the slightest worry of time passing, this will resonate.

The location work is awesome, and the production values are superb. Great acting throughout, it's always great to see Rufus Sewell's cheekbones.

Not sure if it was my ears, but I found some of the dialogue a little muffled at times.

All in all, this was good, 7/10.
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3/10
A Cool Concept that Goes Nowhere
kjproulx4 August 2021
M. Night Shyamalan has been a director I have admired, but have only connected with a couple of times. Nearly every movie buff praises his film The Sixth Sense as his best, and rightfully so. It's definitely up there for me, but his grounded work with Unbreakable is truly his crown jewel to me. He then had his string of blockbusters like The Last Airbender, After Earth, and The Happening. This is when everyone began to realize his heydays were over. With that said, his return with The Visit, Split, and Glass were all very commendable. For that reason alone, I had some newfound excitement for his next project. Old is now playing in theatres and here are my honest thoughts on what is easily one of Shyamalan's worst films.

The concept of this film is quite simple. A family on vacation is invited to a secret beach for relaxation. Joined by a few others, everyone realizes that there is more to this location than meets the eye. As they all begin to rapidly age, their children are now teenagers within hours and some of their health conditions also rapidly return. The first act of this film is very intriguing and it had me hooked, aside from the terrible dialogue. Even though the idea hooked me though, this is the prime example of a film that has a cool idea and never does anything with it.

It was at about the halfway mark that I started wondering where this film was truly going because it never felt like it was building to anything. Yes, the mystery of this beach looms over the entire film, but again, the script never dives deep enough to really care about the events on-screen. On top of the fact that the script needed a lot of work in terms of plotting, the dialogue is also atrocious from beginning to end. I understood the fact that these actors had to act as if they were still young children, but none of what they were saying was either believable for that age or it ended up being too cheesy.

One of my biggest problems with any film that sets itself up with a crazy concept is that it needs to focus on delivering at least some answers for its audience. A film that remains ambiguous can be amazing if the characters and story are all great enough to make that not important. Sadly, Old falls into the category of a film that delivers answers while also not really giving you enough to understand. I completely understood the point behind how the film concluded, but it was also quite dumb. Again, this is coming from someone who will always give an M. Night Shyamalan film the benefit of the doubt.

In the end, Old has a few scenes that I really enjoyed. One scene in particular that I really latched onto was one that involved an elderly couple with dementia, but once again, I instantly forgot about it because it was poorly written. If this concept had been sold to someone else to write and direct, I feel like the reception of this film would've been much higher. It's a very neat idea that goes nowhere and the experience almost felt completely pointless to me. Still, I'll give some minor compliments to the overall concept and a couple of noteworthy scenes. Other than that, Old is easily one of the worst films I've seen in 2021.
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6/10
The Anxiety Of Aging
statuskuo1 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
For those of you who claim to blink one day and your whole life is behind you, this movie may give you major anxiety. The story is of a mysterious island where certain visitors are chosen and carted off to a special place where you age quickly. By quickly the math turns out to be 3 hours would equal 10 years. Having discovered this phenomenon too late the "castaways" soon become desperate in trying to find the escape path. If there is one.

It's a tragic story of (sometimes) undeserving victims. As if the mysterious resort is giving human sacrifices to appease the God of Youth. Instead it's something a little more than that. If you've seen "The Village" you get an inkling of it. In the short amount of time surrounding these poor souls...much is discussed. Regret, love, forgiveness. In that message of "say the important things to the ones you love before it's too late" this seems to hang over its head. The rest is just typical Shymalan. Depending on where you sit with him. It may grate on you.

I will say this.... I stumbled upon watching this in a room full of, what looked to be, teenage girls. They were silent the entire time. My guess: trying to unfold the mystery. To that, I would say it's a win.
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6/10
like the idea
SnoopyStyle19 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Guy (Gael García Bernal) and his family have been given an exotic resort vacation. They and other guests are brought to a secluded closed beach. Soon, they realize that the kids are growing older by years and nobody can escape.

Like a lot of M. Night Shyamalan movies, he has a fascinating idea and a twist. The idea is really good. The twist explains some of the idea but in reality, it's not actually necessary. It would be more compelling to have the group stumble upon a mini Bermuda triangle from which no one can escape. As for the group, I do have an issue with them not doing everything to try to escape. They often feel stuck by their own inaction. The only one truly figuring out stuff seems to be Jarin. What got me is when Kara tries to climb out. Instead of helping, almost everyone is trying to stop her and stop Trent from joining her. First of all, one of the adults should have tried climbing before then. I also wonder why they don't try to tie together a rope or MacGyver something. The pool noodles are meant to be funny but I just wondered why that's the first time we're shown them. Then there is the passing out bit. The story yadayada a lot of that away. Nevertheless, I still like the idea. It's a fun Twilight Zone episode. M. Night continues to do the twist at the end and this one is fine. This is interesting.
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3/10
Your character motivation? Stare blankly.
rmmil6 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Typical M. Night film, interesting concept with poor execution, poor writing/character motivations, and a few WTF absurd moments.

Plot holes? Yeah, we got em! Here are a few notable ones I noticed:

-They mention nails and hair don't grow rapidly due the cells already being dead in them. Okay. Then why did all the dead bodies rapidly decompose?

-The fact that these 6-11 year old kids made the connection from that word puzzle that they should swim thru the coral was extremely far fetched.

-The 2 6-year old kids...did it? Really? In like 2 minutes?

-Apparently you can perform MAJOR abdominal surgery to remove a huge tumor with a hunting knife and it'll just be no problem at all?

-You're telling me 72 previous groups went missing on their vacations and it NEVER led back to this place? No questions asked by hundreds of loved ones?

I don't think the actors in this film are actually that bad of actors, I just think M. Night had such horrible direction for them they seemed bad. Way too many sequences of people just...standing there and starting. A multitude of accents all speaking at once. Or how about all the nice weird camera angles in an attempt to create fake suspense?

All this wouldn't have ruined the film for me by itself, until the film just fell in on itself towards the end.

The knife slashing insane guy who was very clumsily "fighting" the lead protagonist? Or his model wife...twisting herself into a pretzel because she had a calcium deficiency? No. Sorry Mr. Night, nothing like that would be remotely physically possible, even in the context of this film. It looked absolutely ridiculous.

And then at the very end we get "scientist guy" who literally explains the entire plot like the director thinks the audience are complete morons. I guess I am? I paid to see this.
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1/10
Insulting
noawareness18 October 2021
The camera angles, the acting, the story, the directing, the writing, the effects... Completely insulting, to the point where I genuinely feel like it would be an enormous effort to make something this bad. It felt like a joke. One of the character is called Mid-sized Sedan...
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4/10
Messy direction
Leofwine_draca7 March 2022
OLD (2021) is another M. Night Shyamalan film spoilt by his over the top direction. I love THE SIXTH SENSE and there are others in his filmography I like too, but he seems to miss more often than he hits. This one tells the story of a cursed beach that causes anyone who visits it to age rapidly, and it's a neat premise that would have worked well in an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE or somesuch. But in Shyamalan's hands this is a mess, with awkward and stilted performances, too many uninteresting characters standing around and chatting or just doing nothing, and a "twist" ending only included because the running time comes up short. As for the "inventive", anything-goes camerawork...give me a break!
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1/10
Decent Concept, Horrible Execution
MamadNobari9722 September 2021
There's literally nothing redeeming about this movie.

First of all, what are these dialogues? Who wrote them? They are so bad that even DiCaprio would get Razzies for them, they're awful. I literally had to pause at one point to laugh for 10 seconds straight at the dialogue.

Secondly, I don't want to to be rude to the cast, but who casted them seriously? Half of them sound like they just learned to speak English yesterday. Granted the dialogues are atrocious and anyone would seem like a terrible actor reading them, but the actors still seemed really bad to me. And yes, my own English speaking isn't very good and I'm not even half as good of a speaker as them, but I'm also not an actor working on a movie.

How can a director who made Split and got that amazing performance of James McAvoy, have these terrible acting in his movie? I still largely blame the abysmal writing and dialogue, but the acting was still bad.

The camera work was also really weird and I don't know wtf they were thinking with some of the pointless "shoot the actors, then pan to the rock wall then go back to the actors again." NOTHING HAPPENED when the camera panned to them again, they didn't even age, WTF was the point then?

Also since when did aging become synonymous with better medicine? Is that what's stopping the medical industry from making breakthroughs and curing diseases? REALLY?

This movie is a total joke, the direction is a joke, the acting is a joke, camerawork is a joke, the writing and dialogue is out of this world (by that I mean from the trash planet in Thor Ragnarok).

Watch is for the Lols.
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4/10
You might find yourself wishing away the time watching this one.
BA_Harrison27 February 2022
M. Night Shyalaman's directorial career skyrocketed with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, but the majority of his subsequent movies have failed to match the impact of those two films. His 'Twilight Zone'-style storytelling got old really quick.

Which brings me to Old, in which a group of vacationers at an exclusive resort visit a private beach where they rapidly age, a novel idea that might have suited an episode of a TV show but which feels like a lifetime in movie form. Once the viewer has an understanding of what is happening to the characters, the plot goes nowhere for an age until the director eventually reveals his obligatory twist in the final act.

It doesn't help that the script for the film is rather laughable, with the poor cast having to deliver some atrocious dialogue. Shyalaman's direction also feels 'off' throughout the film, perhaps as an attempt to increase the unsettling atmosphere, but all it did was make me question his film-making decisions.

Perhaps if the revelation at the end had been a real doozy, I might have been a bit more forgiving of the preceding nonsense, but the whole corporate conspiracy concept felt like a rather lazy way to wrap things up.

4/10, solely for entertaining me with its stupidity, which isn't really much of a recommendation.
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6/10
Dafter than the Dharma initiative.
bob-the-movie-man28 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
"Old" is the latest from the gloriously inconsistent writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. Will this be great Shyamalan (à la "The Sixth Sense") or dire Shyamalan (à la "The Last Airbender")? The answer, in my view, is somewhere in the middle. It's a curate's egg of a movie.

Positives:
  • The premise feels very familiar (desert island beach; time slips; weird things happening.... "Lost" anyone?). But as a shell for a big-screen adventure it kept me well-engaged.


  • Shyamalan and his "Glass" cinematographer Mike Gioulakis use some novel techniques to portray the ageing effects. The angles used feel quite Hitchcockian at times. Shyamalan supports this with the sound design, which makes this a REALLY good movie to watch in a cinema with good surround sound. Often the camera will be spinning showing nothing but ocean or rocks, with the character's conversation rotating behind you in the cinema. It's really quite effective.


  • Shyamalan knows that no visual effects can improve on the horrors your mind can come up with. Although a '15' certificate, the "sustained threat, strong violence and injury detail" referenced by the BBFC pales into insignificance (in terms of what you actually see) compared to the equally rated "Freaky".


  • I've seen other reviews comment that the "twist" (no spoilers here) was obvious. But, although not a ground-breaking idea, I was sufficiently satisfied with the denouement. It made sense, albeit twisted sense.


Negatives:
  • I enjoyed the movie's leisurely set-up, introducing the characters and the movie's concept. (In many ways, it felt like the start of one of Irwin Allen's disaster movies of the 70's and 80's). But then Shyamalan turns the dial up to 11 and the action becomes increasingly farcical. Add into that the fact that you can see some of the 'jolts' coming a mile off, and the movie becomes progressively more disappointing, with a high ERQ (eye-rolling quotient) by the end.


  • In particular, there are inconsistencies to the story that get you asking uncomfortable questions. For example, wounds can heal in the blink of an eye.... but not stab wounds apparently.


  • The cast is truly global in nature: Vicky ("Phantom Thread") Krieps hails from Luxembourg; Bernal is Mexican; Sewell is a Brit; Amuka-Bird ("David Copperfield") is Nigerian; Leung is American; Eliza Scanlan is an Aussie; and Thomasin McKenzie (so good in "Jojo Rabbit", and good here too) is a Kiwi. But although it's clearly quite natural that an exotic beach resort would attract guests from all over the world, the combination of accents here makes the whole thing unfortunately sound like a dodgy spaghetti western!


Summary Thoughts: 'Time' and 'ageing' have of course been a popular movie topic for many years. I remember being both gripped and horrified by George Pal's wonderful 1960's version of "The Time Machine" when Rod Taylor threw his machine into fast forward and the dead Morlock decomposed in front of his eyes! Ursula Andress did the same as the rapidly ageing Ayesha in 1965's "She". And, more recently and with better effects, Julian Glover did the same in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".

Unfortunately, "Old" isn't likely to join any of these classic movies in my consciousness. It's a diverting enough movie, with fabulous views of the Dominican Republic (which the local tourist board will no doubt be delighted with). A "less is more" approach might have made this a classic. But unfortunately, that's not what Shyamalan delivered here. Since what we get is a 'Lost-lite' with farcical elements.

And, by the way.... The movie that Charles (Rufus Sewell) refers to starring Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando is "The Missouri Breaks". It has a very unusual John Williams soundtrack, which I have on vinyl somewhere and is probably worth a few bob!

(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on t'interweb, Facebook and Tiktok. Thanks.)
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4/10
Amateur hour soon gets old...(after 10 mins)
omendata2 October 2021
Dreadfully dull acting, story that soon becomes stale and is badly paced with a truly contrived ending replete with so many logical inconsistencies. M. Shyamalan produces yet another turkey (and its not even Christmas yet).

Not even worth reviewing in depth, just do not waste your time on this as it is dreadfully dull and poorly acted with no redeeming features whatsoever and has actually been done before in another 1980's movie whose name eludes me for now and it was far, far better and done on 1/100th of the budget too!
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6/10
Live Every Day as if it's Your Last...
Xstal10 October 2021
... and select every film you watch accordingly. Because you never know when you might get the chance to visit Fantasy Island (not the one in Skegness) and live your life like Ben Button, but a bit faster and in reverse. Not the worst film from the genre and would have been a cult classic if made as a 'B' Movie in the 1950s.
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6/10
An often profound, sometimes stupid, but ultimately original thriller.
benjaminskylerhill23 July 2021
If you knew you were to die today, what would you wish to change about the way you lived your life?

This is one of the themes Shyamalan explores in this astutely-directed, mostly tense, high-concept thriller, and it does result in some genuinely intelligent, emotionally resonant character beats that I did not expect.

Unfortunately, some clunky dialogue, a couple bad actors, and too many repetitive scenes that seem to only stretch the runtime prevent this from being the great film that it could have been.
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2/10
What the hell M. Night?
AdrenalinDragon23 July 2021
Is Old a Comedy? Am I supposed to take this seriously? The performances are usually either weird or terrible, and it has some of the worst dialogue and line delivery I've ever heard. None of the Aging gimmick makes sense and just ends up delivering unintentionally funny moments. There's no good reason to care about any character here. It's all done so poorly.

The camerawork is terrible in places where the shots are out of focus and many faces and objects are poorly positioned, plus M. Night kept doing long spinning camera shots over and over again. Why? No idea felt pretentious to me. Simply awful, and there was me hoping M. Night was making his big comeback, but this was more on The Happening side of things.

2/10.
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4/10
Watching Shyamalan movies is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.
jack_o_hasanov_imdb18 September 2021
Watching Shyamalan movies is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. Although I like the trailer of this movie, the movie was very bad, friends. The script and dialogues of the movie were very bad and stupid. I think the casting was good, but they didn't show good acting performances because it was a bad script.

Overall a bad and boring, silly movie full of logical flaws.

Thanks Shyamalan -_-

4/10.
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7/10
Help me, help ... others
kosmasp2 August 2021
It's funny that I read so much about a "return" of M. Night .. I thought his last movie had that covered. But then again, that was a few years ago, so maybe some already forgotten about that or he vanished again for them.

Having said that, you have to suspend your disbelief in many regards and there still may be things that you have to swallow and not liking them. One of the biggest things I had issues with is the wife of "Guy". It's not so much her accent (others have one too), it is that she does not convey most of the feelings her character is going through. I understand those things, but not because of her performance, rather despite it. You may see it differently and just because I didn't like her performance here, I am not alleging that she can't act. Maybe it is a fish out of water situation - no pun intended.

And then there are small things, like when the rapper uncovers ... I think it is in the trailer, but let's just say somethng truly horrific. M. Night should have taken a look at the behind the scenes material of Jaws. Spielberg had a similar scene where the boyfriend of the girl that goes skinny dipping, finds her the next morning with the Sheriff. His reaction to the finding was never satisfactory ... and the same can be said about the scene on hand here. So I am not blaming the actor - it is just a rather "impossible" thing to achieve. I almost started laughing at the scene - very inappropriate I know.

And yet still you will say, why a 7? Because through all those things that I might find disturbing and did not like, I was able to suspend my disbelief and was able to enjoy the idea this movie is based on. I personally am surprised there are so many Youtube videos "explaining" the "twist" ending ... I do think it could not be clearer ... and I dig it overall.

Of course there are themes of aging, about what our journey is, about family and other things. It's philosophical at its core - what you make of it, is totally up to you of course. But because it is Shyamalan you also will get scenes, that some may have problems with visually (shock effect wise). Think top model (I like her craziness, in the context of the movie, same is true about her husband and doctor) and you'll know what I mean by the end of ... it! Pun maybe intended.

Is this predictable? Yes. Dialog and performances sometimes cringe-worthy? Also yes ... fight through it and just enjoy this for what it is. A thriller with a "message" (or two)
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1/10
Move Over Gigli and Battlefield Earth
Her-Excellency10 August 2021
Move Over Gigli and Battlefield Earth; your reign as worst movies ever, has finally come to an end with the twisted (not in a good way), ridiculously-scripted, boring/yawn-inducing, cringy, jaw-droppingly-bad "Old" from never-again-to-be heard-of director, M. Night Shyamalan.

--------------

Honestly, if you have ever thought any of Shyamalan's films were bad, OLD screams: "HOLD MY BEER!"
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7/10
Interesting, Different From Most Movies Being Made Today
cagebox1119 August 2021
A strange movie that certainly has many flaws but still one that makes you think. There is some cringy child acting and some of the horror (the broken bones lady) is over the top, but it's an original story that holds your interest for the runtime of the film. Not one of Shyamalan's best but it's a pretty good film and one that is at the very least different from the endless action flicks that are produced these days.
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Something's missing
Gordon-1122 September 2021
The story is interesting, but there's not enough suspense. There's something missing.
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9/10
Confused by all the negative reviews?
CubNutButter10 November 2023
I have found Shyamalan's work to be hit and miss and truth be told I've not enjoyed much else from him since The Village (which I loved), but this film in particular I thought was fantastic. Brilliant mix of mystery and thriller with good social commentary that got me thinking throughout. I found the script was a little inorganic at times and acting was slightly off at moments (Bernal's acting goes a bit awry when he's performing in English but not in his native Spanish, I have found), but minor flaws aside... I was throughly entertained throughout and was mostly satisfied with the twist/explanation at the end. Very confused to see that I'm part of the minority, it would appear, but each to their own. I would fully recommend a watch.
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