Signs 2002

Critics score:
74 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: [Shyamalan's] Big Idea raises a Big Question: So what? Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Interesting, entertaining, and good. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: It's a B movie with an A-list cast and the kind of deliberate pacing and visual design that might have impressed Stanley Kubrick. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Brooding, gripping movie that held a recent preview audience in such rapt attention, you couldn't hear a single candy wrapper crinkle. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's easy for a filmmaker to blow up the world -- but what Shyamalan does is much riskier. He tries to blow our minds. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's a smart, skillful movie from a writer-director who's only 31 years old, but already a master of blending the chills of fright with the warmth of love. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: The film boasts dry humor and jarring shocks, plus moments of breathtaking mystery. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Skillful as he is, Mr. Shyamalan is undone by his pretensions. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: One creep fest of a movie. Read more

Hank Sartin, Chicago Reader: Individual sequences generate an eerie tension that's always deflated, creating a jarring stop-and-go rhythm, and the atmospheric trickery never strays beyond a lot of smoke and mirrors. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Offers an exceptionally intriguing premise and a flat follow-through. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: As they used to say in the 1950s sci-fi movies, Signs is a tribute to Shyamalan's gifts, which are such that we'll keep watching the skies for his next project. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: A heartfelt movie that deals more nakedly with [Shyamalan's] core concerns than any of his other Hollywood films, and it doubtlessly will deeply touch many people as well as frighten them. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: A thrilling ride that will make you both scream with fear and shriek with laughter. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: The soul-searching deliberateness of the film, although leavened nicely with dry absurdist wit, eventually becomes too heavy for the plot. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A very well-crafted tease. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The problem is that Signs manages to be both so terribly serious and so unimportant at the same time. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: For most of its footage, the new thriller proves that director M. Night Shyamalan can weave an eerie spell and that Mel Gibson can gasp, shudder and even tremble without losing his machismo. Read more

Hazel-Dawn Dumpert, L.A. Weekly: There's plenty here that testifies to Shyamalan's exceptional talent. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: A refreshing summer movie. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Shyamalan wants to be the metaphysical poet of movies, but he's dangerously close to becoming its O. Henry. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Shyamalan fuses the fictional evidence of his extraterrestrials with the presumed righteousness of God in a way that will make no sense to anyone who has ever questioned either. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The same old same old: dull and recycled, with no surprises. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The movie is almost completely lacking in suspense, surprise and consistent emotional conviction. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: In many ways, it is Shyamalan's most accomplished film to date. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The work of a born filmmaker, able to summon apprehension out of thin air. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Shyamalan is a considerable talent, but he's become too powerful too young. The sign I discern hanging over his career at the moment reads Wrong Way. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Turns out to have few thoughts and no thrills. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Ultimately, Signs -- as original, interesting and ambitious as it is -- is a post-9/11 movie of possibly the most dubious sort. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: Shyamalan is technically a superb film-maker, for all that he's picked up most of his tricks from Spielberg and Hitchcock. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Shyamalan's by-now trademark spookiness is starting to play like a CD consciously designed to duplicate the success of an album that sold 10 million copies. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: It's fair to speculate whether Shyamalan's persistence in replicating the otherworldly formula of The Sixth Sense might not be a futile and self-defeating exercise. Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: Sitting through the last reel (spoiler alert!) is significantly less charming than listening to a four-year-old with a taste for exaggeration recount his Halloween trip to the Haunted House. Read more