Year:
2000
Studio:
Touchstone Pictures
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
3/5
M Night Shyamalan's movies are fairly good. Perhaps I'm not as
impressed with the movies as other people, but they are pretty well
done. I think that his movies are a bit too dependent on having a twist
that changes the whole reality of the movie. But overall they're
entertaining movies.
Unbreakable is
about David Dunn (Bruce Willis), who is the only survivor of a train
crash. Remarkably he has no broken bones or any serious injuries. David
has a son and a wife and marriage troubles. He works as a security
guard at the college football stadium. There is nothing in his life to
explain his survival.
Enter Elijah Price (Samuel L Jackson). Elijah has a rare bone disorder
where his bones are brittle and break easily. He has spent his whole
life dealing this his frail body and thinking. Elijah supposes that if
there are people like him, there are also people on the other end of
the spectrum, people with incredibly strong bodies.
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Ok, so this is
supposed to be a superhero origin story in the real
world. For some reason I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough. The
biggest thing is the people at the upper end of the spectrum bit. Most
mutations by far are harmful. People are supposed to die and not pass
on those bad genes. So just because someone has a bad genetic trait
doesn't mean that there are people with the good genetic opposite.
In any case, it's a fairly good movie. Not only is it about David
dealing with his disbelief and coming around to the superhero calling,
but it is also a human story about a man and his family. Willis and
Jackson put in a lot of effort and come out acting great.
The DVD has no commentary track and is a two-disk set. Disk 2 has a
bunch of deleted scenes with intros. There are some documentary
features. And there is one of Shyamalan's early films as a kid.
What I liked: a realistic superhero movie.
What I didn't like: and yet not realistic enough.
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