Review: Old


Guy and Prisca (Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps) take their young children on an island vacation to get a quick reprieve from some family issues. When the helpful hotel staff directs them to a "secret beach" with a few other guests. They soon realize that they cannot leave, and that they're rapidly aging.

I'm fairly sure when I reviewed Glass I said I was going to quit giving director M. Night Shaymalan chances, but there I was with a babysitter booked thinking The Green Knight came out a week ahead of time. Old was what we ended up with. Thankfully expectations were low. 

Truth be told, the concept of Old isn't bad. The plot itself is actually very interesting and I was never bored, but god these characters have NO depth. I can't speak to this film's source material but Shaymalan seems to have put zero thought into them aside from writing an outline. The trophy wife is vain, the doctor is a dick, a child literally asks people what their occupations are and that's essentially the most we learn about anyone. It was just so lazy. He had an interesting premise, but he wastes such talented actors with this garbage writing.

And for a film that over explains everything, the characters verbally walk us through everything, there's a big part of the ending (no spoilers) that he doesn't explain at all. He literally wraps the "why" part of the story up with a neat little bow but completely leaves out the "how" which is just comical. Almost as comical as how they try to pass smeared makeup off as "aging" at one point.

If I ranked Shaymalan's filmography, this would probably be #3. I didn't leave this film utterly annoyed as I have in the past, It's just more of his bullshit, and here I am lining his pockets for some reason. I only have myself to blame.

Recommended: No

Grade: C-

Memorable Quote: "oh my God, it's Mid Sized Sedan!" - Alexa Swinton (Maddox, age 11)

Comments

  1. I'll admit this one wasn't good, but Shyamalan's movies are guilty pleasures for me. I know how much you're looking forward to The Green Knight though so having to watch this instead must have been extra painful!

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  2. LOL i, like you, mistakenly give him chance after chance - hoping he will replicate the goodness of The Sixth Sense. But, he definitely has not. I didn't think this was overexplained. I just thought there was so many ways he could have gone, but he just didn't. And the explanation at the end is... LOL.

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    1. The ending was like "Okay..how though?" then crickets. lol. Did he give up?

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  3. oh man....you like to live dangerously. I saw the trailer and thought, "This sounds intriguing." Then I heard of is from M. Night and I thought...nope. Maybe when it is on tv and I am sick and have nothing else to do.

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    1. They should just stop advertising his name with these movies. They might lure more people in lol

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  4. I'll probably wait for it on TV or something though I heard there's some goofy shit in this film.

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  5. I'm not sure if I want to see this, maybe when it's free to rent one day. The trailer seemed intriguing but it seems M Night is a hit and miss. I wonder if he'll make good movies again as I really like Signs and Unbreakable, oh and The Village.

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    1. I'm starting to think an AD directed The Sixth Sense lol

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  6. Nice review! I haven't seen this yet, but I still want to give him more chances to get it right like he used to - the problem is, can anyone remember when that was? lol I guess I'll look forward to how this didn't live up to the anticipation then.

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    1. What it is about this dude that makes the collective us keep giving him chances? Are we in an abusive relationship? lol

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  7. I'm assuming this is based on a graphic novel I read a while back. I was very annoyed with it. Not sure I could chance this.

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  8. I understand people not liking MNS films, and this is a FAR CRY from being great. But I had a good time with it, dopiness and all. LOL

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    1. I mean, compared to some of the other shit he's put out I didn't have a bad time either. lol

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