JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

I can't even think of the last time any film scared me?

Are you saying the lovely ladies at MainTitles aren't hot?

Watch yer step lad

**shudder**

Too scary for me.

I'm pretty sure it is, right? I mean, it's got a cello solo and all.

No, sorry. Unfortunately no sound clips yet!

But I just got the information that my "Happening" CD got shipped!!! One of my most looked forward scores at the moment... This'll better be good! ;-)

Why does it seem terrible??

I loved the trailer they showed with Indy. I love all Shyamalan movies and doubt he´d fail this time. The trailer looked like great stuff and fantastic atmosphere.

No, thanks. I know I am a very lonely guy loving Lady in the Water as much as I do, and I am so done with comments like "the last good movie he did was Sixth Sense."

I love Lady in the Water too. And The Village.
So I had every reason to believe this new one would be good...until I saw what I saw...I do hope it is just a hoax.

If you ever try out LitW, do it with an open mind and think "fairy tale in a modern setting", then you have a chance of liking it. The score, however, is as good as they come. A typical Howard, but without a specific effect he usually likes to embrace for MNS´s movies.

James, you really should have that Annoyance Gene looked at.
Apparently they can do wonders with laser surgery these days.

I'm skeptical of any film starring Marky friggin' Mark!

I must say I disagree there, James. I've watched THE SIXTH SENSE twice, and on the second viewing I found it played very well. I think the true main character on the second viewing is Haley Joel Osment's character, and you watch the film in light of his struggle to deal with these ghosts that keep coming to him for help, including a persistent one that thinks he's the child's psychiatrist. People make much of the fact that it's a film about ghosts, but to me it's one of the more successful attempts to find a narrative delivery for issues of child loneliness, abuse, trauma and neglect, disguising these real issues with a mystery. And the film is skillfully made - Tak Fujimoto's compositions and lighting do some marvelous work. While the use of sound design is not as effective as THE VILLAGE, it's certainly the work of someone whose made a film or two before. I know film student work because I've made some myself and I've tried to patch up others, and this is far far far above it. They know what they're doing.

I do wish however that on the first viewing I had not known there would be a twist. If you know there will be one, and the foundations are well laid in the narrative, it changes the way you watch the film. You're constantly looking for evidence of something that isn't being said, and you're bound to figure it out somewhere before the ideal moment. (I certainly did in this one, and in THE OTHERS, another film which plays well both ways.) To me it was a failure of the publicity engine and the film-makers, who should have suppressed the importance of the twist to fresh audiences.

It isn't actually a very scary movie is one thing I would say about it, despite a few intimidating moments. It belongs with ROUGE, THE OTHERS, THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR and many more films in the domain of the 'supernatural melodrama'.

I'm interested in films which play differently depending on whether you know what's coming. Watching ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND last night during dinner, I was immensely impressed with the way Kaufman's script shifted the perspective of scenes even as they were happening.

I would still have rather known NOTHING whatsoever on my first viewing of the film, it would have made a second viewing that much richer.