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Summary: M. Night Shyamalan, the director of "The Sixth
Sense", brings us this supernatural drama about a man who is "Unbreakable".
Bruce Willis gives an impeccable performance as this man who searches for
meaning and an explanation of how he could have been the sole survivor of a
horrific train crash. Though this film doesn't measure up to the
highly-acclaimed phenomenal blockbuster hit, "The Sixth Sense", it
does make its own mark in style, substance, and story-telling
artistry. The "Unbreakable" DVD is Buena Vista Home
Entertainment's first venerated Vista Series DVD. It is a 2-disc set
that promises to "celebrate the filmmaker's vision with imagination and
content." However, I was not impressed with the
quantity of bonus features, as it falls quite short when compared to the
premium brands and collector's editions from other studios.
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The Story
When you write, produce, and direct a superb psychological
thriller such as "The Sixth Sense", your fans naturally expect a lot
from your follow-up film. Well, M. Night Shyamalan delivers a new
supernatural tale about a man who miraculously survives a
deadly train crash without a scratch. Though it does
not quite achieve the status of Night's last film, in my opinion, "Unbreakable"
holds its own and makes its own mark in terms of style, substance, and
story-telling artistry.
Bruce Willis stars as David
Dunn, a security guard, who is coming home to Philadelphia on a train from a job interview from New York
City. When the train derails and crashes, just about everyone on board
tragically dies. That is everyone except David. He leaves
the scene of the horrific crash without even a scratch. Distraught and
guilt-ridden,
David seeks for meaning in his survival and an explanation of how he escaped
harm. One day, he finds a note on his car windshield asking
how many sick days he has taken. Having nearly dismissed this note as
a prank, he begins to reflect on this question and its implications.
As his curiosity piques, he visits Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), an
eccentric comic
book collector who feeds David strange ideas of supernatural powers and
comic book superheroes. Although David expresses his disbelief in
supernatural powers, Elijah goes on and on about his crazy idea of
supernatural powers and comic book superheroes. Elijah's
mother explains to David later about villains:
"...there's always two kinds.
There's the soldier villain who fights the hero with his hands
and then there's the real threat -
the brilliant and evil archenemy who fights the hero with his mind."
Is there a surprise ending a là "The Sixth
Sense"? Ah, but if I tell you, it'll take away half of the
surprise, right? Let's just say the movie stands on its own and you
won't be disappointed. I have to point out though that the movie has a
slight dark feel and is a little slow during some of the character
development scenes. Nonetheless, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson give chillingly
brilliant and mesmerizing performances. Don't miss it.
The Extras
"Unbreakable" is Buena Vista Home
Entertainment's first "Vista Series" DVD, which promises a deeper, more
insightful look at the director's vision and artistry with "imagination
and content". The first disc
contains just the feature film (with no full-length audio commentary), while the second disc
is dedicated to bonus features:
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"Behind the Scenes" featurette, featuring Bruce Willis
and M. Night Shyamalan: explains the development of the script, the
producers, the theme, storyboards, shot structure, visual design, sound
design, and reflections. (14 minutes)
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"Comic Books and Superheroes" featurette,
narrated by Samuel L.
Jackson: talks about the significance of comic book superheroes in the
lives of young boys (and men), with testimonies from comic book industry
insiders. It's an interesting discussion of the inspiration and
values rooted in comic book superheroes. (19 minutes)
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Deleted scenes: these are fully produced additional scenes not seen in theaters
and are introduced by M.
Night Shyamalan. You can view all of the deleted scenes at once or
select from them individually. The scenes are entitled:
"Elijah Taken Away", "Audrey in Waiting Room",
"David in Shower", "David with Priest", "Elijah
at Fair", "Audrey Calls David" (the restaurant scenes is
really good), "Weightlifting in Locker Room". Some of
these are actually multiple related scenes that were bundled
together. Many serve to build a better understanding of the
characters, but Night explains why he had to delete them from the final
cut. All are fully produced with the feature film picture
and sound quality.
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Train Station Sequence: Multi-Angle Feature - you can
watch the train station scene with your choice of audio options (5.1
final mix, 5.1 score only, or 5.1 effects only) and switch between the
final version or the animated storyboard originally conceived by the
director. I wasn't impressed with this multi-angle, multi-audio
featurette. It is mediocre compared to other DVD's storyboard
comparisons.
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"Night's First Fight Sequence" featurette:
an action-fight sequence from an early film of M. Night Shyamalan when
he was in his teens. Night describes this piece of work as
"horrific", but I think you'll get a good snicker or two from
watching this one. It's downright silly.
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Two collectible Alex Ross Illustrations (the
illustrations are back-to-back
on a single postcard)
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Six-page booklet with a snippet of N. Night
Shyamalan's bio and introductions to the bonus feature content
Considering this is Buena Vista Home
Entertainment's first DVD title of its new venerated " Vista Series",
I was not impressed. While the quality of bonus features are
generally good, it falls way short in terms of quantity. Missing are a
full-length director's audio commentary, a DVD-ROM script-to-screen feature,
and much, much more. The packaging of this 2-disc set is
similar to that of "Se7en". It uses a quad-fold paperback inside of
a paper sleeve.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is excellent. The colors are accurate and
saturated. There is very good shadow detail. Both the DTS
and Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtracks are well balanced with good use of the surround channels.
I prefer the DTS surround sound version, as it seems to add more resolution
and its sound is more filling and solid, especially at reference volume levels. The dialog
is crystal clear. In short, this THX-certified
DVD's video and audio transfer is top notch.
Conclusion
"Unbreakable" is a unique and mesmerizing film
from M. Night Shyamalan. It doesn't quite live up to the phenomenal
success of "The Sixth Sense", but it does hold its own.
Acting performances were solid, though I wish I could say the same of the
value of this "Vista Series" DVD. It lacks in terms of
substantial quantities of bonus features. I think fans will want and
demand more from premium titles such as this from Buena Vista Home
Entertainment.
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movie web site.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES
STR-V444ES A/V receiver, NHT 2.1 as left/right main speakers, NHT 1.1C center channel speaker, NHT
SuperZero as surround speakers, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable XP speaker
wires, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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United We Stand
