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?

Giphy Images.

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.

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