The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense, 1999

Righto, before we get underway this reviewer has to declare something. I love Bruce Willis, I believe Toni Collette is a very talented actress and I don't mind a sniff at M Night Shalalalalah.

However I hated this movie.

It felt the like watching two bottom of the ladder football teams run around the field clumsily, and by the time it came to the result, i was beyond caring.

Don't get me wrong, the M Night 'twist' is a corker but that's about all this movie has to offer. Willis is a cardboard cut-out of his usual self while I just hoped that Haley Joel Osment would join his 'dead people' (in hell, i suspect) for the duration.

There is no movie in history that depends SO heavily on its last 5 minutes to to justify the audiences' attention for the previous 102.

If you have somehow missed this, please run along to rent it ONLY if you are a fan of CBS dramas featuring Jeniffer Love Hewitt.

In a snapshot - poorly acted, amateurish script and at least unbreakable had samuel l jackson.

3/10 (2.9 for the ending)

Midbus

The Insider

The Insider, 1999

Michael Mann follows up the razzle dazzle of 1995's Heat with an explosive-free look at Big Tobacco and life inside Amercia's current affairs world.

The prolific Al Pacino plays a Sixty Minutes producer hungry on finding the next great yarn and stumbles across a greying and vulnerable Rusty Crowe.

The boy from Romper Stomper wrestles with whether he should blow the whistle on the Tobacco industry for much of the next two hours.

It's long, intricate and lulls a couple of times but is ultimately worth the effort. Pacino is more subtle than in his previous outing (The Devil's Advocate, 1997) and Rusty looks ready to explode at any minute.

Christopher Plummer and the excellent Phillip Baker Hall are right at home as media types while it's nice to see Vinny Chase's publicist (Debi Mazar) not shrieking obscenities down the phone for once.

At 151 minutes it's no walk in the park but The Insider is worthy of your prolonged concentration.

8/10

Nutbuckle