The Sixth Sense at 20: the smash hit that remains impossible to define

By Scott Tobias

 

Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. M Night Shyamalan’s film was – and remains – unclassifiable. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

 

For major studios, August is where the bodies are buried.

 

The blockbusters they felt confident about releasing in May, June and July have mostly come and gone, save for a few still ravaging the landscape, picking off repeat viewers still lured by the air conditioning.

 

The new movies tend to be mistakes or misfits, gambles that have either come up snake eyes or are shrouded in uncertainty, because they don’t fit into the usual boxes.

 

If one of them turns out to be a late-summer sensation, there will have been no precedent for it, no tried-and-true formula for what constitutes a Hollywood hit.

 

Full Story: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/aug/06/the-sixth-sense-at-20-m-night-shyamalan-bruce-willis

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The new movies tend to be mistakes or misfits, gambles that have either come up snake eyes or are shrouded in uncertainty, because they don’t fit into the usual boxes.

There is a new box, and it is for movies that are suppurating piles of horse poo, like the Hobbs and Shaw disaster ( Fast and Furious ), and it is already full, and is now overflowing with all the garbage that has hit our screens.

The hits are movies like Yesterday, but they are not going to be pulling the sort that go for movies about dumb and dumber blowing things up and killing people.

Big movies used to be like A Bridge Too Far, which was original and well made, not just breaking things- now all they can do is remake horrible versions of once loved movies/ tv series. Eg. the new Charlie's Angels, complete with a change to satisfy the PC mob. Guess who won't be going to see it! I don't have to spend money to know it's going to be PC rubbish, like all the other rip offs that have come out. Try a bit of originality!

 

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

If one of them turns out to be a late-summer sensation, there will have been no precedent for it, no tried-and-true formula for what constitutes a Hollywood hit.

 

Rubbish. They know what makes a hit, but they don't want to make them because they won't make as much money as a blow everything up and kill everyone piece of <deleted> like the last Avengers movie.

Cant resist, but one of the finest movies I had the pleasure of watching was The Sleeping Dictionary which nobody seems to know about, I just loved it, and I believe it's based on a true story to boot!

1 minute ago, CanadaSam said:

Cant resist, but one of the finest movies I had the pleasure of watching was The Sleeping Dictionary which nobody seems to know about, I just loved it, and I believe it's based on a true story to boot!

Yes, Jessica Alba was stunning in it......and I don't mean her acting.

The Sixth Sense was just a rehash of a 1940's Orson Wells radio episode.

When people were comparing M Night Shyamalan to Hitchcock, I nearly fell out of my chair.