UNBREAKABLE

DIRECTOR:                M NIGHT SHYAMALAN

CAST:   BRUCE WILLIS                 DAVID DUNN

                SAMUEL L JACKSON                    ELIJAH PRICE

                ROBIN WRIGHT PENN                AUDREY DUNN

 

THE STORY

David Dunn is a Philadelphia security guard who is experiencing marital difficulties.

Returning from a job interview in New York, the train that he is travelling on crashes. Everyone travelling on the train dies except Dunn who is not only the sole survivor but who also doesn’t have a single scratch to show for his lucky escape.

In the days following the crash, Dunn receives a cryptic note asking, “when was he last sick”?

Dunn traces the note to a comic collector’s store run by Elijah Price.

Price tells Dunn that he believes Dunn to be a kind of superhero, stating that he (Price) has a condition which causes his bones to break very easily and therefore through Karma whereby everything has a polar opposite there must be someone who’s’ bones don’t break.

Dispelling this theory as a joke, Dunn carries on with his normal life yet Price is unable to let the matter lie and continues to try and convince him of his abilities.

Eventually, Dunn starts to believe Price’s theories and decides to find out whether or not he is unbreakable!

THE MOVIE

If you’re a fan of superheroes, be they in comic books or movies you will really enjoy Unbreakable. Watching Unbreakable, it is like you are experiencing the birth of a superhero. This film is awesome.

The performances by Willis and Jackson are fantastic with Willis especially displaying a range of emotions which people probably wouldn’t believe he could pull off.

Robin Wright Penn provides good support as Audrey and both she and Willis act like a couple experiencing marital problems.

The directing by Shyamalan is very good, even better than his direction in the Sixth Sense. He keeps the film burning away slowly for a very long time and just lets the story take you along.

The music by James Newton Howard is very good indeed and the hero theme is just a very powerful number.

THE DVD

This DVD was the R1 2 Disc Vista series version containing the film on disc one and the extra features on disc 2.

The film contained both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 tracks and the sound is very good, although, the picture is only better than average.

Disc 2 contains deleted scenes, behind the scenes, storyboards, a very early Shyamalan film clip and a fascinating documentary titled Comic Books and Superheroes.

The Vista series is meant to be a defining version but with no commentary track and no promotional materials I certainly think that Buena Vista could do better as the Miramax Collectors’ Series of the Sixth Sense appeared to contain more on a single disc.

A great film, which could have contained just a little more to make it a fantastic 2 disc set.