Problem: 1. Unadulterated poppycock.
2. M. Night Shyamalan's films are so different from the rest of the multiplex population that it surprises me that contemporary, supposedly impatient audiences would sit still for them.
3. Sets a new standard for genre pictures.
4. It is especially delightful for those who like puzzlers and think they can gather enough clues to take a stab at guessing the outcome.
5. During a conversation between an astonished doctor and a miraculously unscathed Dunne ... it's a measure of Shyamalan's restraint and his uncanny knack for storytelling.
6. Well-crafted, even thought-provoking film that's seriously marred by an awful ending.
7. Extremely competent in the hands of its crew.
8. Unbreakable is a compelling yarn.
9. Until the last-minute letdown, Shyamalan does a superb job of setting up his scenes.
10. If you can manage that precious, tentative suspension of disbelief, you'll find Unbreakable a rewarding meditation on the nature of heroes, both comic book and otherwise.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: With a weaker ending, Unbreakable is not as a good as The Sixth Sense. However, it is a quietly suspenseful film that intrigues and engages, taking the audience through unpredictable twists and turns along the way.


Problem: 1. Disco drama is not just daaancin' yeah!
2. It's a remarkable drama...
3. Saturday Night Fever is wonderfully honest and completely accurate when it comes to depicting that stagnant environment that keeps young people like Tony pinned down.
4. This is one tough picture - bristling and raw, with an aggression more attuned to angry-young-man British kitchen sink dramas than Hollywood's quickie music-fad cash-ins.
5. Travolta's characterization, given the script and directorial demands, is okay. It will please the already-committed; but it won't win him any new fans.
6. A small, solid film, made with craft if not resonance.
7. Today, it's like a kind of '70s jukebox that hasn't quite aged that well.
8. Saturday Night Fever's heart is actually in the right place. It's ears, though? That's another story.
9. In the end, the real killer is the movie's abject sincerity.
10. John Badham's film (his best to date), a zeitgeist picture that captures the disco subculture of the 1970s like no other work, features a star-making performance from John Travolta who dominates every frame.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: Boasting a smart, poignant story, a classic soundtrack, and a starmaking performance from John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever ranks among the finest dramas of the 1970s.


Problem: 1. This has no contextual structure at all. It is essentially the archive footage slapped together.
2. Conscientiously, if conventionally edited re-hash of the Oscar-winning "We Were Kings."
3. In addition to the expected shots of Ali and Don King in all their megalomania, the intimate portraits of James Brown, Bill Withers, and B.B. King in his triumphant homecoming are as powerful as their performances.
4. Passionate fans of the music will relish these archived images while regular moviegoers will be entertained, but not moved by what they see.
5. As the record of a cultural event, Soul Power is a hit-and-miss affair.
6. Gluttons for these artists and for music festivals in general might wonder, as I have, whether there's any way the filmmakers might share more of the remaining 123 1/2 hours.
7. A non-stop head-bobbing knee-bouncer.
8. Some may complain about the lack of contextualizing material but what is on the screen is so exciting and energetic that most viewers will probably be too busy tapping their feet and swaying their heads to the beats on display to notice or care.
9. Documentary about the three-day music festival preceding the famous Ali-Foreman fight has its moments, but plays too much like what it is: outtakes from the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings.
10. A thrilling time machine that lets you travel to Zaire in 1974 to see legendary performers bringing it all back home.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer:
Featuring some incredible performances from many 70s soul legends, Soul Power is an exhilarating snap-shot of a bygone era.