Writer/Director M. Night Shyamalan is the focus of this pairing, and the trio are going back to look at his first two breakout hits, starting with 1999's "The Sixth Sense." Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) tries to help Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a very troubled young boy, discover a way to heal from his illness. It turns out, however, that his illness isn't so much sickness as it is paranormal ability! Written and directed by Shyamalan, the film also stars Toni Collette, Olivia Williams, and Donnie Wahlberg in a role you won't recognize him in! Couple that with the amazing cinematography Tak Fujimoto and the beautifully disturbing score by James Newton Howard, and you have a film that keeps you interested, unnerved, and fascinated right through the very end, which we don't discuss (in full) in this episode, but in a separate supplemental episode, so as not to spoil the experience if you haven't seen this film yet! Check out the next episode to hear the spoilers about the ending!
SPOILERS AHEAD! The trio split the review into two parts, and this is the part with the spoilers! It's a supplement to the previous episode (138A) and contains only the discussion of the ending of the film!
Our second episode in our "Films that made directors famous" pairing hit in 1975 and scared a nation away from any of the ocean beaches for a time! We are, of course, talking about Steven Spielberg's break-out hit, "Jaws!" Based on the Peter Benchley novel and starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, and Susan Backline, this is the story of a great white shark who decides to make the waters off the small resort town of Amity its private feeding grounds, and the three brave men who set out on a small ship called "The Orca" to stop it once and for all. This film also made John Williams a household name, and netted Williams an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1976! And finally, hear which on-again, off-again director the trio will be reviewing films from next week (the good ones, of course)!
This episode begins our "Films that made directors famous" pairing, and we start in 1973. Fresh off his critical success with "THX 1138," George Lucas decided to create an homage to the last year Americans lived in blissful ignorance of the turmoil to come, when boys and girls, rock and roll, and hot rods were everything, and life was just a little easier. "American Graffiti" was Lucas' first huge box-office hit, and it started the careers of so many actors who would go on to become household names! Directed by and co-written by Lucas, along with Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, the film features Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, and the one and only Wolfman Jack, in a tribute to the 50s lifestyle, which had carried over into 1962. And while the film doesn't exactly follow a traditional three-act structure, the individual stories are held together by the incredible 50s rock soundtrack!
The second film in our 1972 Blaxploitation pairing arrived in November of 1972. Directed by Ivan Dixon, and written by John D.F. Black (who the classic Star Trek series episode "The Naked Time" in 1966), the film follows "T", sometimes called "Mr. T" by those who respect him, as he works to protect the people in his neighborhood, help them through their hardships, and see that their life is generally just a little better. But when he gets framed for the murder of a crime boss, he has to go to great lengths to find the solution to his own trouble! Starring Robert Hooks, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, Paula Kelly, and Gordon Jump, this is one of the best of the genre, made even more great by the only film score ever written by Marvin Gaye! And find out what films the trio will be reviewing next that catapulted George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg into the Hollywood spotlight (and it may not be the movies you think)!
Writer/Director M. Night Shyamalan is the focus of this pairing, and the trio are going back to look at his first two breakout hits, starting with 1999's "The Sixth Sense." Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) tries to help Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a very troubled young boy, discover a way to heal from his illness. It turns out, however, that his illness isn't so much sickness as it is paranormal ability! Written and directed by Shyamalan, the film also stars Toni Collette, Olivia Williams, and Donnie Wahlberg in a role you won't recognize him in! Couple that with the amazing cinematography Tak Fujimoto and the beautifully disturbing score by James Newton Howard, and you have a film that keeps you interested, unnerved, and fascinated right through the very end, which we don't discuss (in full) in this episode, but in a separate supplemental episode, so as not to spoil the experience if you haven't seen this film yet! Check out the next episode to hear the spoilers about the ending! 
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