Finally saw Signs. Good frickin' movie, like a cross between Close Encounters and Poltergeist (two of my faves), except done by someone a little too into mood and atmosphere, not to mention badly timed anvillicious flashbacks. But still a good movie. It's a good old-fashioned movie too, the kind in which the scariest part of the movie is the noises you hear the things you don't see. Couple of scenes even reminded me of The Blair Witch Project, a movie I still think was really good despite it's nauseating over-hype. Even better, you gotta love a movie in which the special effects are held back, played down, and not really a big part of it. That's what made Jaws so good, the fact that you never actually saw the shark until halfway during the movie. Movies like that you have to like because in a time in which a lot of movies are made for the entire reason just to have the special effects, this isn't like them. And it takes real talent and imagination to pull it off. For whatever his faults, M. Night Shamalamadingdong, or whatever his name is, is a pretty talented young dude.

It's also one of those movies that makes you want to scream things at the screen. Like the fact that the family has a crop circle in their back yard, see weird things all over the place, and see on TV that crop circles and UFO's are popping up all over the place, but do or say a thing. If I were them, I'd not only be telling the local Sheriff (which they did do, but who somehow disappeared when the shit started coming down), but the FBI, the Army, every damn news channel in the area, and the X-Files. There'd be no way I'd be hanging out by myself and my family if it was well known that Crop Circles were turning into landing pads for nasty little aliens.

Here's where I'd have another little bit, but it might be a bit too spoilery, so I won't say anything.

I will say this, though, that another thing I kept on saying to myself is about the fact that all of this is going down in Bucks County Pa. I know Bucks Country Pa. I used to live there. There ain't shit there. There's no reason why the Aliens would be appearing all over the major cities of the world as well as Bucks County Pa. And frankly, they can have Bucks County Pa.

One more thing. If you have a baby, and we're talking needing a baby stroller, waking up in the middle of things to cry, baby, do not take them to a movie. Especially if it's an atmospheric, moody, creepy little movie in which every sound, every moment builds upon itself. Because not only does the audience have to sit there and listen to a baby babble away during really important scenes, but you have to sit through nasty comments being directed at the mother of the baby, comments which were entirely appropriate. Ugh.