Sixth Sense (Vista Series-Dts) (1999)

Rolling Stone
Ranked #10 in Rolling Stone's "Ten Best Movies of 1999" -- "...Hypnotically acted by Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Willis and Toni Colette..." 01/20/2000 p.63-4

Sight and Sound
"...Exquisite performances..." 11/??/1999 p.55

Total Film
"...This intelligent supernatural thriller confidently ventures into the murky territory of childhood and adult fears..." 06/01/2000 p.99

Box Office
"...[An] exhilaratingly unexpected ending, which effectively breathes new life into all the previous proceedings..." 10/01/1999 p.59

USA Today
"...Osment gives one of the decade's great child-actor performances in a demanding role....The filmmaker keeps upping the ante with surprises until the plot-twist beaut that concludes the picture..." 08/06/1999 p.10E

Los Angeles Times
"...SIXTH SENSE is certainly a nervy film, one that director M Night Shyamalan has made so disarmingly eerie it's virtually guaranteed to rattle the most jaded of cages..." 08/06/1999 p.C10

Chicago Sun-Times
"...THE SIXTH SENSE has a kind of calm, sneaky self-confidence that allows it to take us down a strange path, intriguingly..." 08/06/1999 p.32

The Austin Chronicle 9 of 10
...has the pleasant feel of Willis once again stretching his acting chops and taking a powder from the more traditional slam-bang shoot-'em-ups. Of course, it's not all that pleasant, seeing as how the film deals with the restless spirits of the dead, and, on a broader emotional plane, human loss... works best when it works its mournful magic alone, without fanfare, using only the flickering fear in Cole's gaze as it meets the compassion in Crowe's. - Marc Savlov
 
Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 8 of 10
Exceptional thriller about a dedicated child psychologist who faces his greatest challenge in reaching and understanding a young boy who spends his life paralyzed by fear, because he lives in a world of ghosts. Young Osment is extraordinarily good; the film is sinuous and creepy without being manipulative.
 
Boxoffice Magazine 8 of 10
...Audiences hoping for a bone-chilling horror-thriller will be disappointed by the fact that The Sixth Sense is more a drama with paranormal elements than a fright flick; the film seems to purposely avoid playing up the otherworldly aspects in an attempt to be a more sophisticated genre entry... the story manages to keep one's interest engaged all the way through to the exhilaratingly unexpected ending, which effectively breathes new life into all the previous proceedings. - Christine James
 
ReelViews 5 of 10
With his third feature effort, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has taken a huge step in the wrong direction. After showing great strides of maturity between his ineffective debut, Praying with Anger, and 1998's appealing Wide Awake, Shyamalan has backslided alarmingly with The Sixth Sense. While this picture shares many qualities with Wide Awake (a child protagonist, a central spiritual theme, and being set in Shyamalan's home city of Philadelphia), it's an inferior product. It is not well written, well acted, or well directed...The Sixth Sense is obviously an attempt by Bruce Willis to broaden his range. The actor, best known for action roles in films like Die Hard, has effectively explored a few dramatic parts in the past (most notably in In Country), but this may be the first time he has consciously attempted to essay a low-key persona. It doesn't work...There are undoubtedly those who will enjoy The Sixth Sense simply because of the spiritual angle, which tries to say something about the connection between this world and the next one. Today's society has an undeniable fascination with supernatural/pseudo-religious issues...But, unlike in movies such as What Dreams May Come, this motion picture is saddled with a murky, unimaginative vision. At its best, it's merely competent; at it's worst, it has a movie making-by-the-numbers feel. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"The Sixth Sense" isn't a thriller in the modern sense, but more of a ghost story of the sort that flourished years ago, when ordinary people glimpsed hidden dimensions...Bruce Willis often finds himself in fantasies and science fiction films. Perhaps he fits easily into them because he is so down to earth. He rarely seems ridiculous, even when everything else in the screen is absurd (see "Armageddon"), because he never over-reaches; he usually plays his characters flat and matter of fact. Here there is a poignancy in his bewilderment...Haley Joel Osment, his young co-star, is a very good actor in a film where his character possibly has more lines than anyone else. He's in most of the scenes, and he has to act in them--this isn't a role for a cute kid who can stand there and look solemn in reaction shots. There are fairly involved dialogue passages between Willis and Osment that require good timing, reactions and the ability to listen. Osment is more than equal to them. And although the tendency is to notice how good he is, not every adult actor can play heavy dramatic scenes with a kid and not seem to condescend (or, even worse, to be subtly coaching and leading him). Willis can. Those scenes give the movie its weight and make it as convincing as, under the circumstances, it can possibly be..."The Sixth Sense" has a kind of calm, sneaky self-confidence that allows it to take us down a strange path, intriguingly. - Roger Ebert