Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #9 The Sixth Sense
Box Office: $293.5 Million Dollars
Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (M. Night Shyamalan), Best Supporting Actor (Haley Joel Osment), Best Supporting Actress (Toni Collette), Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing
Oscar Wins: None
MovieRankings.Net: 91/100
Available To Stream: Max
Between the catchphrases and what happened to M. Night Shyamalan's career, it's easy to forget what a masterpiece this movie is. The concept is simple yet brilliantly executed. Kid sees dead people could go a lot of different directions and the twist ending, while perfect, does take away from how impressive this entire movie is. It's not the scariest movie I've ever seen but there hasn't been a scary movie yet where I care more about the characters involved.
If stock was offered in 1999 on Shyamalan or Haley Joel Osment, I would have bought all that my McDonald's salary at the time would have afforded. I thought we had the next Steven Spielberg and Jodie Foster on our hands. Just unreal talents about to have very long and successful careers. I still don't know quite what went wrong especially with Osment. Most child actors get by on being cute. Osment legitimately is a great actor in this.
That scene above isn't just the best scene in the movie. It's right there with the best scenes in the entire decade. Both Toni Collette and Osment are so brilliant here. 1999 was an insanely stacked movie year so for them both to get Oscar nominations in a horror film is even more proof how talented they both are. I appreciate the Hell out of this movie but it does leave me a little frustrated that we didn't get more great work out of Osment as he got older.
I'm even more frustrated at how things turned out for Shyamalan. How is it the same man who wrote and directed this classic be the same man who made The Happening? I went and saw Trap, which he also wrote and directed, last summer. It was entertaining enough but also painfully stupid. So much so that the movie seems to make fun of itself in a post-credit sequence. What happened to the guy that made Unbreakable, Signs or the 9th best movie of this decade?
This might be the best Bruce Willis performance he has of his career. Don't get me wrong. He's fantastic in Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, (#80) 12 Monkeys and Unbreakable. It's a shame he didn't get nominated for this movie. As I mentioned, this was an especially stacked movie year. But, I have a hard time looking back and not thinking Willis' Dr. Malcolm Crowe was a greater and more memorable character than what Sean Penn got nominated for in a forgettable Woody Allen movie called Sweet And Lowdown. Instead, Willis joins Kevin Bacon and Donald Sutherland as the best actors to never get an Oscar nomination.
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It's wild that this can be such an effective and scary movie yet only be rated PG-13. The Sixth Sense doesn't need to rely on cheap scares or gore to keep you interested or creeped out. I'm glad they didn't make a sequel because this movie is special and should stand alone. But would I have watched a The Sixth Sense show on HBO with Haley Joel Osment running around helping different dead people each week? Absolutely. This movie could have been 90 minutes longer with other situations like him helping the daughter being poisoned by her mother (great performance by Mischa Barton as the older sister) and I would have never been bored.
The Sixth Sense ages amazingly well. It's so brilliantly directed that it even looks unique now. It's clearly not the first kid-with-powers trope. Hell, The Shining wasn't either and that was nearly 20 years earlier. But, there is a timelessness to it and the concepts are evergreen. It's just the dead people needing things. Even the scene I showcased earlier with Toni Collette and Haley Joel Osment in the car. Who can't relate to wanting their parents proud of them?
I love this movie so much. I'm just greedy in that I want more brilliance from Shyamalan. It might be time to stop wanting more and appreciate we got something this great.
9. The Sixth Sense
10. Boogie Nights
11. Jurassic Park
12. Jackie Brown
13. A Few Good Men
14. The Fugitive
15. The Truman Show
16. Fargo
17. Swingers
18. Reservoir Dogs
19. There's Something About Mary
20. Sleepers
21. Schindler's List
22. Rushmore
23. Fight Club
24. Saving Private Ryan
25. True Romance
26. Dumb & Dumber
27. Kingpin
28. Donnie Brasco
29. Heat
30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
31. Rounders
32. Unforgiven
33. Trainspotting
34. The Game
35. Out Of Sight
36. Carlito's Way
37. Seven
38. L.A. Confidential
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks