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M. Night Shyamalan, the young director who directed and wrote “The Sixth Sense” has another movie I’ve recently seen on T.V. called “Signs.” It stars Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, and Rory Culkin who is Macaulay Culkin’s brother (Home Alone).

The movie starts out with a father of two children (Mel Gibson) who finds signs in his crops… as shown in the poster on the left. Kind of football-field sized cut-outs. The T.V. then shows them that they are not alone and there are 18 things just like theirs in India. Then the aliens come.

The movie is very well directed and keeps you interested throughout. Mel Gibson plays a good religous man who gave up his faith after his wife died 6 months earlier, Joaquin Phoenix plays Mel Gibson’s brother, Rory Culkin plays his son who has a book that seems to describe how, when, and where the aliens will attack, and Abigail Breslin plays the little sister who… well, you’ll see. The acting is terrific, especially by Rory Culkin and Mel Gibson.

The movie is very much a thriller, but it also has a few funny scenes, but not so it takes away from the plot. M. Night Shyamalan did a great job of building up the movie one thing after another till the climatic ending. You only see the aliens briefly until then, and even at the end your not entirely sure what they looked like.

The soundtrack is done by Jame Newton Howard who also, more recently, did music for Batman Begins and King Kong. The music is a great accompany to the slowly building situations in the movie, and uses strings to scare you. Very well done, perfect for the movie.

[rating:4.5]