M. Night Shyamalan

The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and Split are all good-very good in my opinion.

I think he's a good director with interesting original ideas, I just think he needs to collaborate with another screenwriter to fine tune his stories. Sometimes you gotta have an objective voice to reel you in from f'ing up the story.

The sixth sense (Great)
Signs (v.Good)
The Village (Good) also I love this movie very much
Devil (Writer & Producer) (OK)
The Visit (Not Bad)
I will watch Split next week!

I think he's got some good ideas and works well when he's focusing on fairly grounded stories with characters as the central focus, but man can his films get stupid and unintentionally hilarious.  The difference in quality between The Sixth Sense, a film I think is just about flawless and would be masterful even without the twist, and The Last Airbender, an utter abomination of the cinematic form, is so staggering that it's impossible to rule out genuine sabotage, mental breakdown, or alien influence in some cruelly ironic fashion.

I agree with quetee that he might be better collaborating with another screenwriter on his ideas.  I think that a possible reason why his early films (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) are still his best is because he likely had more people creatively involved and collaborating on those projects.  After he had major notoriety for his career momentum and was christened "The Next Spielberg," that would probably strip away a good bit of oversight and explain why his Lady in the Water to The Last Airbender period felt like he was directing from rough drafts he wrote the weekend before shooting only to be topped off by the Smith family vanity project After Earth.  That's just speculation, though.

Hmm. I would call scenes like the flashback in Unbreakable sentimental, or Graham telling each member of his family a story in Signs, or the handholding scene or the meeting of the elders in The Village. They are all "big moments" that are usually preceded by moments of suspense that strengthen the emotional "moneyshot." And in all cases, the story is not about the genre trappings, but the people inside of them, and I cannot stress how important this is as to why the weepy sentimental stuff works.

Take The Village, which is the most straightforward of these.

***BEGIN SPOILERS FOR THE VILLAGE***

To begin with, handholding is an important image from the very first scene of the film, at the funeral for August's child: "Who'll pinch me to wake me up? Who will laugh at me when I fall? Whose breath will I listen for so that I may sleep? Whose hand will I hold so that I may walk?" This image crops up with Ivy and Lucius a lot, and it is important to note the reason for this: in the world of The Village, hands are joined "so that I may walk." This is August's child; the image should be reversed. However, the relationship is symbiotic; just as the child needs the father, the father needs the child so that he may wake, rise, sleep, walk. Without love, August implies, he is just a husk, a dead thing that continues only to breathe as it waits for its end. Without a hand to hold, one cannot walk.

Ivy holds out her hand, waiting for Lucius to come to her. The movie sets it up as a sort of suspense scene with the monster coming towards Ivy as she trembles, holding her ground for her love to reach her. The camera closes in on her hand in the foreground, with the monster in the background moving towards us, getting closer and larger and more dangerous, and then at the last moment when all seems lost -- Lucius grabs her hand. The rest of the scene plays out in slo-mo as the music swells and Ivy and Lucius go inside the house together, and the story is no longer about the monsters, but about the love of these two people. Ivy has the hand of her love, and now she is no longer powerless against the threat of the monsters, but can take shelter against them (and later, battle them in the woods, for her love has given her the strength to fight alone, if it is for the hope of holding that hand again).

Similarly, the meeting between the village elders at the end makes it clear that this story is just as much about them; how they loved their children so much that they became blinded to the harm that they had inflicted upon those they loved the most. The dialogue here is some of the most overwrought and openly emotional in any movie that I have ever seen, but it works for two reasons: first off, William Hurt and Brendan Gleeson SLAY IT here, with one going for the biggest, loudest moment of his career, and the other hunkering down, weighted with weariness: one angry and defiant, one broken and tired. Secondly, this movie isn't tacking the emotion on to a core story about monsters, it is tacking monsters onto a core story about love. This scene has enormously heartbreaking moments as it switches between Edward's roaring ("I CANNOT LOOK INTO ANOTHER'S EYES AND SEE THE SAME LOOK I SEE IN AUGUST'S WITHOUT JUSTIFICATION! IT IS TOO PAINFUL, I CANNOT BEAR IT!") and August's agreements ("We can move towards hope, that's what's beautiful about this place... Ivy is running towards hope. Let her run.") The final line of the scene would be laughable if the movie's core theme wasn't love itself ("She is guided by love. The world moves for love. It bows down before love in awe."). To say that this isn't extremely sentimental would require me to wonder what is. But dammit, this works. It is so openly heartfelt and sincere about it that -- heavens bless me -- it works.

Even the twist ending is often mocked (which I find to be both unfair and deserved, but I won't go into that unless asked), but let us not forget that the true ending is the final shot of the movie, as the elders sit around the room, and rise one by one as they find their courage for what must come next. And then... Ivy comes through the door, hands over the medicine, and takes hold of Lucius's hand. "I'm back, Lucius."

And then the movie ends.

In short, The Village is pretty much the most sentimental movie ever made.

***END SPOILERS FOR THE VILLAGE***

I was going to write up the others, but just doing this one took a long time. I'd be happy to explain how Shyamalan is the biggest softie on this planet, though, if you wish me to continue.

I agree..

After The Village, everything hit the skids, but with Split (wow), MNS is back on track.
Lady in the Water looked to be so good, but it went nowhere really.

The first three movies are the best from Shyamalan. It's been a while since I saw Unbreakable, but I still do enjoy The Sixth Sense and Signs from him. I thought The Village was alright. Lady in the Water is where I think his works begin to enter into that slump. I thought LitW wasn't good overall and to echo notacrook and therealcomicman117  about The Last Airbender here, I can't forgive him for that one either... It's just abysmal.

But I liked The Visit and thought it was a okay movie overall with a decent twist. I can't wait to see Split soon since it now sounded like a compete return to his form.

The only film of his I have seen was The Sixth Sense. I knew the twist going in, but that didn't detract from it, as I fould it to be a very moving (and at times frightening) film.

I think The Village really suffered from dishonest marketing. They were selling this as some sort of chilling horror whereas in reality it's a lovely romance story. And Howard was just amazing there, been a fan of hers ever since.

Unbreakable is I think his best. I don't know how accurate I can be here because I knew the twist in 6th Sense before watching and I knew nothing about Unbreakable (and it shocked me when it reached the ending) but I think it's a far better movie, particularly now in the era of so many comic book films this one really stands out and comes off as ahead of its time

I haven't seen his latest film yet. The Sixth Sense is a masterpiece. Signs was ok. The Village has great cinematography, but it's downright boring. All his other films are pretty awful.