Plot: What’s it about?
Pardon the pun, but if you were alive last Summer, then chances are you heard the catchphrase “I see dead people”. It seemed like the entire world was all caught up on this movie about a little boy who could, in fact, see the dead. Now I don’t want to say I disliked the movie, I saw it after the masses just to see what the fuss was all about and I think it’s a very well-made movie. I just don’t see, and still don’t, what all the fuss is about! To me, it moved very slow, fast enough to keep your attention, but that’s about it. It’s one of those movies that pays off in the last five minutes, so for the 95 minutes you “suffer” trying to figure out what’s going on, the last scene tells you (but I won’t). Now I have to admit, that the second time I saw the movie it was a bit better, and I also knew what to look for (and if you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about). So on with the story… Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) has just been honored with a very snazzy certificiate from the city of Philadelphia, that recognizes his work as an acclaimed child psychairist. He and his wife, Anne, are in the midst of celebrating only to be assulted by one of Crowe’s former child patients (who is now grown up). Crowe is shot, and the story cuts to the next Fall. We get a chance to meet young Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) who looks just like any normal kid, except for his “gift”…(yes) he sees dead people. Cole has dealt with his gift in ways that only he can understand, he hangs out in churches, surrounds himself in religious paraphanelia and what’s worse is that no one really knows what his problem is. Crowe quickly attatches himself to his young new patient and forms a very strong bond with him. Crowe, though, has problems of his own. He has become so involved with his new patient, that he has begun to neglect his wife and fears that she is having an affair with her much younger co-worker, Vincent (Donnie Wahlberg). The time comes when Cole admits to Crowe what his secret is, but it’s not until Cole convinces him to listen to the ghosts (instead of being afraid of them), that things really start to happen. Cole discovers that not all the ghosts are bad, and that eerie feeling of being cold is only when the spirits are angered. Seeing that Cole’s life is starting to get back on track, now that he has literally confronted his demons, and is doing better socially in school, Crowe closes the book on the case. Cole also makes peace with his mother, who has no idea as to what is going on with him, and then…that last five minutes of the movie I was talking about!
Video: How does it look?
Disney has been doing DVD for over two years now. With this release, though it is 16:9 enhanced, is one of I don’t know how many that is so. So while Disney constantly teases us with the promise of anamorphic enhancement, and even puts it on the box and doesn’t do it in some cases, this one actually is. A very dark movie, the picture looks pretty good, some minor artifacting in some areas, but nothing too bad. Most scenes are very sharp and have a sharpness that only a 16:9 picture can deliver.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Sixth Sense isn’t something to say to your friends “Hey, listen to this!”. It is mostly dialogue and varied surround effects. There are several scenes that there is no noise at all and you can just hear the hiss of your speakers. Still, the dialogue is very clean and surround effects, when appied, add a lot of emotion to the movie.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Now I could swear that I read, probably even reported, that there would be a commentary by the director on this disc. Maybe I was wrong, or maybe I’m just not smart enough to find it, but I couldn’t. Still, this disc has a ton of special features, and I’m surprised that Disney isn’t making it a “Collector’s Series” so they can get away with chanrging $35 for it. Included are some production notes and cast bios, deleted scenes, some trailers (and teasers included) the director, M. Night Shyamalan’s first short movie, the “Rules and Clues” is very interesting though unless you want the movie totatlly ruined for you, watch this after it. There’s also a conversation witht the director (Shyamalan), some filmaker bios, storyboards and some publicity materials. Now if I could only find that commentary, this would be a great disc. And if it turns out that they didn’t do a commentary, why NOT? They threw everything else in, why not take 100 minutes and do one? Overall, if you like the movie, there’s no reason not to like the disc.
