It’s no secret that M. Night Shyamalan has a rocky history of theatrical releases. He certainly has some wonderful movies, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, but he also has some tough-to-watch films, The Happening and Lady in the Water. So, I went in to his newest movie, Old, not knowing what to expect. And let me tell you, it is exactly an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Take that as you will.

The movie follows a group of vacationers as they visit a wonderful resort shrouded in mystery. The welcoming hotel host tells this group about a secret beach they can visit. In fact, he provides them a shuttle and everything. They show up to the beach and realize that they weren’t the only ones told about this “secret.” They quickly realize that they can’t escape the beach and time moves at an accelerated pace, about a year for every thirty minutes. It only gets wilder and wilder from there.

I’m trying to avoid spoilers here. Which is usually a hard thing to do with M. Night Shyamalan. But everything I have talked about so far was in the trailer. I feel that he usually thinks of the twist first and then writes a movie around it. Old sort of feels the same. He thought about an, admittedly, wonderful premise and wrote a movie around it. Because of this, all the characters are essentially just there to push the plot. None of the characters are really interesting or rounded at all. After watching the movie, I don’t even know if I remember any of their names. Not to mention that all the acting feels really flat. The characters are flat and the actors are flat. This just sort of makes it feel like you’re watching a high school play or something. It’s hard not to notice.

But with all that aside, I actually think Old handles its story better than most M. Night movies. After all is revealed, it actually really works well. With such a bizarre premise, the twist is based completely in reality. I really liked this a lot. It made it feel real. Which after watching the cardboard characters, was really nice.

Other than that, the movie really does not hold that much. It has some scenes that are trying really hard to be suspenseful, but again, I find it hard to care about the characters. Including a surgery (which works pretty well), a live birth (which is hilariously awkward), and a love story plot that dies quicker than the characters. I feel that M. Night had so many ideas that he wanted to squeeze in, that the movie just got crowded. It’s a brilliant premise, but poor execution. Which I feel can apply to a lot of Shyamalan movies

I give Old a 1 out of 4. I think I have only ever watched two Shyamalan movies more than once and Old is not one of those. Once is enough. For a movie that is all about time, Old sure does take its sweet time to get going. And by the time it takes off, I found it really hard to care. At least Mark Wahlberg wasn’t fighting a plant in this one.