Has Anyone Seen M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap"?

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Pink Freud
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Has Anyone Seen M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap"?

Post by Pink Freud »

There's a huge story about Shyamalan in the current The Atlantic, titled "How M. Night Shyamalan Came Back From the Dead". Part of his being "dead" was moving away from Hollywood to a farm in Pennsylvania just down the road from crazed John DuPont's notorious Foxcatcher farm and wrestling playground.

Personally, I've never bought into the M. Night genius auteur cult since seeing the 1960 "Twilight Zone" episode "The Hitchhiker", starring the gorgeous Inger Stevens, with the exact same plot twist....repeated 39 years later in "The Sixth Sense". I did really enjoy "Unbreakable". I've heard good things about "Old". And "The Village" is, essentially, an updated horror tale about his very Pennsylvania farm community's legendary monsters who supposedly lived in the woods centuries ago.

Interesting note in the Atlantic story about Shyamalan's name: "He became fascinated with Native American history, compelled by the idea of finding the divine in nature. Shyamalan’s given name is Manoj, but one day, while reading about the Lakota, he happened upon a name that translated into English as “Night” and decided to claim it." OK, cool. It also imparts a mystery about darkness, which his films freely exploit.

So, we come to "Trap". I have read several synopses and find the plot interesting. I haven't seen Josh Hartnett since he donned a trench coat and fedora and looked like it was Daddy Dress-Up Day at the office for the godawful "The Black Dahlia", a pure Los Angeles movie filmed....in Bulgaria. :x I know there will be, at some point in "Trap", the usual M. Night plot twist, so I'll just wait for that and hope I enjoy the journey.

Opinions, please, from those who have seen "Trap"?
FrankTheTank
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Re: Has Anyone Seen M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap"?

Post by FrankTheTank »

I have not seen it, but it could be interesting.

I loved Unbreakable, and still do, I think it is a very underrated movie. Amazingly, he has directed (21) movies. Signs was good IMO, Glass was just okay, I was hoping it would be better, but it was still cool how it tied the movies together. His more recent stuff; Knock at the Cabin & Old were just okay, one and done watches.

The Visit is one of his, if not THE, most underrated movie he has done. I enjoyed it. The Happening is probably one of, if not THE worst movie I have ever seen. What a pile of garbage.

As far as Josh Hartnett goes, check out Lucky Number Slevin if you have never seen it. IMO it is criminally underrated, and a great story and has some great actors in it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425210/?r ... g_t_36_act
dutch
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Re: Has Anyone Seen M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap"?

Post by dutch »

I took my two teenagers to see Trap. I'm probably a little bit more of a MNS fan that most but there are some movies of his I just can't watch. This movie was a decent thriller. I like Josh Hartnet too. I'm a fan of this genre so I liked him in The Faculty, Halloween H2O, and 30 Days of Night. I'm not great at describing my thoughts without potentially spoiling things so I'll use the spoiler function.
Spoiler
The movie was an hour and forty five minutes, yet somehow felt longer than that. It should've been a shorter movie. There are numerous scenes and scenarios that are just unbelievable-even for a fictional movie. BUT like I said, it's still a fun thriller and Josh does a good job in his role. You have to do everything in your power to watch the movie without constantly thinking about what the "twist" is. That will do you no good. It's a traditional thriller where things are revealed, but sorry, left-out glasses of water will not kill Josh Hartnet (he's already dead, duh!...kidding). Just watch it ignoring who the director is and you'll have a good time.
3dender
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Re: Has Anyone Seen M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap"?

Post by 3dender »

I'm not a Shyamalan fan. The bulk of his movies are mediocre to bad, and at the extremes we have 2 great ones, 2 decent ones, and 3 of the worst made this century (if not all-time). His problem is he takes himself way too seriously, and I don't see that changing from the materials/reviews I've seen of this one.

Hartnett otoh is a pretty cool actor. I'm a fan of former pretty boys who learn to do a lot more as they age (see Chris Pine and Colin Farrell). His work in Penny Dreadful is solid and different. I don't like him enough to see this movie, but I doubt he'll be the main problem with this movie (or any that he's in).
Pink Freud
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Re: Has Anyone Seen M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap"?

Post by Pink Freud »

Art imitates life, imitates art: "Trap" is about a police manhunt for a mass murderer at a huge pop concert....while Taylor Swift's 3 concerts in Vienna are cancelled due to detection of a mass murder plot at her shows.

The filmmakers behind "The China Syndrome" can understand.
3dender
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Re: Has Anyone Seen M. Night Shyamalan's "Trap"?

Post by 3dender »

Pink Freud wrote: 13 Aug 2024 12:02 pm Art imitates life, imitates art: "Trap" is about a police manhunt for a mass murderer at a huge pop concert....while Taylor Swift's 3 concerts in Vienna are cancelled due to detection of a mass murder plot at her shows.

The filmmakers behind "The China Syndrome" can understand.
"Serial Killer" and "Mass Murderer" are different.
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