Wow! I have never been so annoyed by a movie in my life. If it weren't for the fact that I had driven a friend to the theater and had met others there for the sneak preview also, I would have left in the middle of it. And I never leave in the middle of a movie.<br /><br />Within the first half hour, the characters were already getting on my last nerve. The basic premise somewhat interested me, but the stupid characters coupled with an obvious attempt to solicit laughs based on a few ridiculously exaggerated situations and the main character's stutter throughout the movie really clinched it for me. And no, I'm neither a critic nor a fan of Shyamalan. I judge each movie on its own merit and don't give a damn about whose name is on it. I loved Sixth Sense. Unbreakable wasn't exactly my type of movie, but I found it entertaining and wouldn't take issue with it because of the genre. I really didn't care for Signs at all, but I didn't completely detest it. But I really hated this movie. I kept hoping that some bizarre twist would at least give the movie some redeeming quality in my eyes, but almost every turn they took was completely predictable. And the few things that were a bit of a surprise didn't help because they just seemed to me like an obvious attempt at being "cutesy".<br /><br />Oh well, I know there will be people out there who like the movie. I did hear a few people laughing at the stupid attempts at humor. Although, by the end of the movie, I was fairly convinced that people just wanted to laugh in order to avoid the awkward situation of silence when laughter is almost expected. It reminded me of when a lousy comedian takes the stage and you get a few people laughing at things that are completely not funny just because it seems to be the thing to do.<br /><br />At any rate, those are my thoughts on the movie. I have never written a review at this site before because nothing has ever moved me to do so like this dud. In fact, I hadn't even registered at the site even though I have visited it regularly for years. I've been kind of curious to read some threads, but was too lazy to take the few minutes to register in order to do so. No more ... the one and only good thing I can see about this movie is that it spurred me into action and now I'm a member here and can take a peek at the discussion threads whenever I want to.