The Happening

[Sycophant]

I can't wait to read Chaw's Zero Star review. I'll still be seeing this though, mostly out of morbid curiosity.It's two stars (http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/happening.htm), actually. It actually has me really excited for the film. Not necessarily "OMG I'm gonna love it!" excited, but more "I've gotta check out whatever the fuck this is" excited.

[Sven]

It's two stars (http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/happening.htm), actually. It actually has me really excited for the film. Not necessarily "OMG I'm gonna love it!" excited, but more "I've gotta check out whatever the fuck this is" excited.

Manohla Dargis wrote a very encouraging review of it.

[Sven]

It's two stars (http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/happening.htm), actually. It actually has me really excited for the film. Not necessarily "OMG I'm gonna love it!" excited, but more "I've gotta check out whatever the fuck this is" excited.

Man... I can't read Chaw. Dude has serious issues.

[Boner M]

It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season
:lol:

[Boner M]

Man, that Chaw review is terrible. Did he even see the film, or is he just tailoring it for his tiresomely nihilistic tastes? I think the main failing of the film is that Shyalaman plays things too nice for a film whose only reason for existing is shock value - with that element completely moot, there's nothing left except a half-hearted eco treatise. All the epidemic scenes are over too quickly, cutting as soon as things threaten to get too intense. In a competent filmmaker's hands, the film would be sadistic, misanthropic and at least effective; in Shyamalan's, it's a measly fart of a movie.

[Dukefrukem]

haha the Boston Globe gave it 1 star...

said; "You feel like you're not watching the end of the world but the end of a career."

wow

[KK2.0]

This is starting to sound worse than Lady by the minute.


You're from Brazil then? Ever heard of Jose Mojica Marins? I've seen some of his Ze do Caixao stuff, he's a raving madman.

Yep and yep.

unfortunately he's not as popular here as he is overseas, i guess his excentric persona scared audiences away when he was more prolific back in the 70's. Have you watched "awakening of the beast" (o despertar da besta), his drug exploitation flick? It's so weird.

[Rowland]

I can't imagine this being much worse than Lady. At the very least, "dark" Shyamalan is generally more tolerable than "light" Shyamalan.

[Henry Gale]

I love The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable is a favourite of mine and I undoubtedly consider it to be his best, I adore Signs (much-discussed plot issues and all), I really think The Village is an underrated movie, and I even somehow love Lady In The Water.

The Happening is just bad.

Definitely one of the most disappointing movies of the year for me. The whole cast (especially Wahlberg), the plot, the dialogue, everything in it was just awful and useless (except to all come together and challenge The Wicker Man as the reigning king of unintentional comedy).

Only the first five minutes or so, a few gore moments and Howard's score have any sort of flair to them, the rest is just so dull and boring. I would have preferred the ending in the leaked script where Wahlberg and Deschanel have to leave the planet to escape what's happening because at least that would have been an interesting way for it to go down in flames rather than the ridiculously bland finale it has now.

Yikes.

*½ / ****

[monolith94]

Montpelier. I mostly ski Sugarbush now but growing up a lot of Burke and Jay.
Cool! My grandparents have a log cabin in Plymouth Union Vt. that me & my friends used to go to in order to ski. I should make it up there again next winter…

[EyesWideOpen]

I liked it.

[number8]

Someone spoil the ending for me. I have to know!

[EyesWideOpen]

Someone spoil the ending for me. I have to know!

Their's not really anything to spoil, theirs no big surprise. The majority of the movies it's mentioned that the plants are causing it.

[number8]

I knew that already. But I want to know the actual ending that doesn't involve Wahlberg and Deschanel going into outer space.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I knew that already. But I want to know the actual ending that doesn't involve Wahlberg and Deschanel going into outer space.

It ends as suddenly as it begins, they're okay, but...something's happening overseas...

Bum-bum-BAH!

Oddly, I enjoyed the picture. It feels like Shyamalan regaining his bearings after digging too deeply into myth-construction with his previous two films. I wouldn't call it great, but there's a good atmosphere of dread that the film captures, and I'm surprised at all the people laughing at Wahlberg. There were one or two lines that were tough to chew on, but otherwise...

Yeah. I dug it.

[EyesWideOpen]

The acting was overall really off-kilter but I thought it was pretty obvious that it was intentional.

[EyesWideOpen]

I knew that already. But I want to know the actual ending that doesn't involve Wahlberg and Deschanel going into outer space.

The attack basically just stops, it cuts to three months later with Zooey finding out she's pregnant and her and Marky are happy and then it shows what I think was Italy and the attack starts happening there and then the credits roll.

[transmogrifier]

It's a moronic ending - it's obvious MNS had nowhere to take the story, and that's precisely where it goes.

And to claim that the acting is bad on purpose is apologism at its very, very worst.

[number8]

Umm. It just stops with no explanation whatsoever?

Lemme guess. There's a metaphor here.

[transmogrifier]

Umm. It just stops with no explanation whatsoever?

Lemme guess. There's a metaphor here.

It's even worse than that.

The couple and the kid are in an isolated farmhouse with a nutty lady who appears to survive by chewing scenery.

The next morning, Marky Mark wakes up. Zooey and the girl have gone outside to an old shed out the back, where escaped slaves were hidden back in the day. While trying to find them (there's a pipe that runs from the shed to the house better at transmitting voices than any phone company on Earth, so it sounds like Zooey and the girl are in the house somewhere). Marky runs into the old lady, who acts crazy, as she is wont to do (having no other reason to exist in this movie) and then who goes outside herself to tend to her garden.

In the garden, she starts to suffer from the toxin. This is witnessed by Marky. The old lady starts back to the house and kills herself by ramming her head against the outside of the house and then through a couple of windows. Marky panics and finally sees through a window that Zooey and the girl are in the shed. He races to the basement to tell them to close the windows and door through the pipe.

They do so.

They spend about TWO minutes exchanging heart to heart nothings. Apparently, this is too much separation to bear (even though we are trained to believe that the toxin dissapates quickly anyway, and waiting would have been rather simple) so they decide they'd rather die together than talk through a pipe. All of them exit their shelter and walk towards each other in the great outside. The wind bustles the trees ominously.

Nothing happens.

For the next three months.

[EyesWideOpen]

It's a moronic ending - it's obvious MNS had nowhere to take the story, and that's precisely where it goes.

And to claim that the acting is bad on purpose is apologism at its very, very worst.

I never claimed the acting was bad on purpose. I said it was off-kilter on purpose which I enjoyed.

[Boner M]

I never claimed the acting was bad on purpose. I said it was off-kilter on purpose which I enjoyed.
How is deliberately off-kilter acting supposed to benefit a film in which we're meant to believe its characters are in the grips of fear? The fact that John Leguizamo gives the only believable performance in the film (man it feels weird typing that), and seems grossly out of place as result, is evidence of what a lazy actor's director MNS is.

[number8]

It's even worse than that.

The couple and the kid are in an isolated farmhouse with a nutty lady who appears to survive by chewing scenery.

The next morning, Marky Mark wakes up. Zooey and the girl have gone outside to an old shed out the back, where escaped slaves were hidden back in the day. While trying to find them (there's a pipe that runs from the shed to the house better at transmitting voices than any phone company on Earth, so it sounds like Zooey and the girl are in the house somewhere). Marky runs into the old lady, who acts crazy, as she is wont to do (having no other reason to exist in this movie) and then who goes outside herself to tend to her garden.

In the garden, she starts to suffer from the toxin. This is witnessed by Marky. The old lady starts back to the house and kills herself by ramming her head against the outside of the house and then through a couple of windows. Marky panics and finally sees through a window that Zooey and the girl are in the shed. He races to the basement to tell them to close the windows and door through the pipe.

They do so.

They spend about TWO minutes exchanging heart to heart nothings. Apparently, this is too much separation to bear (even though we are trained to believe that the toxin dissapates quickly anyway, and waiting would have been rather simple) so they decide they'd rather die together than talk through a pipe. All of them exit their shelter and walk towards each other in the great outside. The wind bustles the trees ominously.

Nothing happens.

For the next three months.

I see. Man, he really likes pulling the "SURPRISE! No third act!" card.

[Boner M]

Regarding the ending, I thought for a moment that it was Zooey and Marky Mark's display of love that ended the epidemic. At that point, anything makes sense.

[Ezee E]

Metaphor for what?

[Boner M]

Metaphor for what?
http://www.girlpants.org/manpants/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happening3.gif

[Derek]

http://www.girlpants.org/manpants/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happening3.gif

:lol:

This should replace :confused: for at least the rest of 2008 at MatchCut.

[number8]

Metaphor for what?

That mankind needs to learn LOVE and not DESTRUCTION, silly. That's what all plants really want.

[Spinal]

I'm guessing that plants = nature = God = little baby Jesus.

[Dead & Messed Up]

So I put my review up on House of Horrors, but there's some weird server glitch going on. So instead of linking, here it is:


The Happening is a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan, that filmmaker infamous now for his steady decline in film quality, rather than for his twist endings. The man who was once compared to Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock is now compared more to Uwe Boll. The Happening, however, simplifies things by offering Shyamalan a premise free of plot complication, focused almost exclusively on delivery of mood. It’s a quick exercise in style, and it’s mostly a success.

What plot there is (again, this is pretty simple) concerns a strange sickness that overcomes populations quickly. People lose higher brain function (lucid thought), then lower brain function (motor control), and then the will to live altogether. Example? A keeper at a lion cage offers his arms to the beasts in lieu of T-bone steaks.

The first twenty minutes work the best, as Shyamalan leaps at the chance to showcase violence for the first real time in his career. People willingly leap to their deaths, stab themselves, and, in one darkly hilarious sequence, a gun passes hands from person to person. There’s a sadistic streak to Shyamalan’s delight in finding bizarre ways for people to commit suicide, but that comes with the territory. I was reminded of Stephen King, who, commenting on his own The Stand, said, “I got a chance to scrub out the whole human race, and it was fun!”

That the rest of the picture doesn’t match the opening for dread and interest is probably inevitable. Shyamalan has to give us some main characters whose problems will seem infinitesimally small compared to the world ending, and he will send them on a trek for survival. Mark Wahlberg fits the Shymalan archetype of confused-if-well-meaning middle-aged white guy, although it was tough for this viewer to accept the former Funky Bunch member as a suburban school teacher.

Smaller characters are allowed moments to shine (Frank Collison as a neurotic gardener is a highlight), but this film is about its mood. I haven’t seen such a strong atmosphere of apocalypse since Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse. James Newton Howard’s score and the camerawork combine to paint a eulogy for the human race, and the subject of eco-horror feeds off contemporary unease (as do The Ruins and The Last Winter), even if the film doesn’t have any real message of conservation or humility before nature.

Currently, the film stands at 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, with most critics eager to pounce on the corpse of M. Night Shyamalan (although Roger Ebert and Manolha Dargis were also receptive to its quiet spell). I haven’t really liked Shyamalan since he ended Signs with one of the great all-time copouts, but the man knows how to make movies. Here, he takes a simple premise, races through it, and leaves us with ninety minutes of creepy mood, creative violence, and the suggestion that nature’s a bitch, and she’s back in heat.


Don't neg-rape me.

[eternity]

lolwat/10

I'm in the Boner/Israfel camp on this one.

[Morris Schæffer]

The first twenty minutes work the best, as Shyamalan leaps at the chance to showcase violence for the first real time in his career. People willingly leap to their deaths, stab themselves, and, in one darkly hilarious sequence, a gun passes hands from person to person. There’s a sadistic streak to Shyamalan’s delight in finding bizarre ways for people to commit suicide, but that comes with the territory. I was reminded of Stephen King, who, commenting on his own The Stand, said, “I got a chance to scrub out the whole human race, and it was fun!”

Agreed that Leguizamo's suicide was the most shocking because so utterly devoid of anything sensationalistic?

I thought he was just sitting down to catch his breath when suddenly whoa!!!

[Ivan Drago]

So at the end, the attack abruptly stops for no good reason but begins again in Italy?

Uhhh...what?

[Dead & Messed Up]

So at the end, the attack abruptly stops for no good reason but begins again in Italy?

Uhhh...what?

The actual implication is that the first "attack" was a warning or test by the plants to see how we'd respond. This is theorized by talking heads on television. The second attack is likely a result of our refusal to adapt or - more likely - simply another plant biome successfully evolving the neurotoxin.

Of course, all this is hypothesis on my part, but there is some sense to it.

[Henry Gale]

Looks like our boy Night's career may not be over quite yet... It made
$30.5 million this weekend (http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/).

There'll definitely be a huge drop-off next weekend, but that's not too shabby for an R-rated horror flick in the summer, not to mention a little higher than what everyone expected.

[EyesWideOpen]

Anyone notice the little girl at the end had an Avatar backpack?

[Bosco B Thug]

Not that bad, but not good either. A tepid and superficial film.

I still don't doubt Shyamalan's filmmaking skills and inspired visual playfulness, and the acting isn't bad at all (they were given very mannered characters to play yet still acted with suitable emotion... Deschanel succeeds especially well, though she pushes it with her two show-stopping "cute twitchy anxiousness" moments), but the movie's big problem is that it has nothing to say. The environmental message is useless, and the script takes jabs at social anxieties with the intellectual engagement sub that of a Twilight Zone episode. Shyamalan's trademark irony is too much in service of cutesy humor and simplifying the characters instead of some complex subtext. I admit being beguiled by Shyamalan's offbeat, slapdash tapestry - Betty Buckley's world-weary and cranky recluse (... her youthful fascination in their personal love story, yet her disgust and bitter disinterest with everything else...) was perhaps my favorite thing about the film - but the film's other plot devices were just gratuitous and opportunistic without communicating anything.

Shyamalan still has a lyrical sense of emotions and pathos, and while I admired the main characters Shyamalan was trying to create - Deschanel a flustered lightweight (a blatant dramatic echo of The Birds' Melanie Daniels?) and Wahlberg a touchy and education-dependent dork - and the ending has a certain moving morbidity, watching

the rather dim Deschanel character drag the non-voiced little girl outside, likely to their death, both meeting Wahlberg halfway and maintaining her sense of "responsibility" for the girl

and I like Walter Chaw's "ode to misanthropy" reading of the film, the film itself doesn't really support or develop any of these elements...

"Couple perseveres crisis and succeed in relationship" was all I got from those final frames, which is a ridiculously evasive coda for the film.

[Raiders]

and the script takes jabs at social anxieties with the intellectual engagement sub that of a Twilight Zone episode.

You say that like "Twilight Zone" doesn't really emotionally and intellectually engage in societal fears, which is the opposite of truth.

In general though, I agree. The film has almost no concept of engaging the environmental message it is pedaling, and at worst it exists for almost no reason whatsoever. For a film called "the happening," there is a surprising lack of context or much of anything useful actually happening. I can see this being read as Shyamalan's The Birds, that is an eco-centered horror film where the threat is both absurd, frightening and darkly humorous, but "wind" and nondescript "evil toxins" are about as terrifying Oscar the Grouch. And that his film, after the opening moments of tension and gruesome imagery, seems to revert to typically coy Shyamalan plot mechanisms and is unable to develop the characters or their relationship, leaving pretty much 90 minutes of nothingness that is ultimately revealed as such by its useless ending.

[Bosco B Thug]

You say that like "Twilight Zone" doesn't really emotionally and intellectually engage in societal fears, which is the opposite of truth. Yeah, I should probably have changed that sentence... but I was too lazy to. Totally, I agree. Twilight Zone engages really well, The Happening does not, in regards to social/political messages.

And yeah, the wind was ridiculous... but I guess the only way to visualize the threat.

[DrewG]

HAHAHAH THE LION SCENE HA SYABS(UBWQNE)*N@)E(*N@)*EN).

Whew. So bad it's good? People booed at the end. People also walked out. Been a while since I've seen either.

[Silencio]

Was I just imagining things or did Zooey really describe that old woman as "Exorcist-y"?

[DrewG]

Was I just imagining things or did Zooey really describe that old woman as "Exorcist-y"?

That's her awesome description skills, duh.

[Skitch]

I was gonna watch this after Hulk this weekend, but I bought a six pack instead.

[Dukefrukem]

I was gonna watch this after Hulk this weekend, but I bought a six pack instead.

rofl.. i wanna read all these spoiler tags but i really can't... i need to see it for myself and judge...

[Sycophant]

rofl.. i wanna read all these spoiler tags but i really can't... i need to see it for myself and judge...FYI: Periods are now avaiable in individual packages.

[Dukefrukem]

http://forge.evula.net/forums/grammar_nazi.jpg

[Sycophant]

Or coherency nazi. Or literacy nazi. Whatever. I wear the badge proudly.

[Scar]

There's something to be said for capitilization, too.

[Dukefrukem]

There's something to be said for capitalization, too.

Fixed. ;)

[Scar]

Fixed. ;)

Oooh, a capital letter, and a single period. You're getting there.

[Dukefrukem]

Oooh, a capital letter, and a single period. You're getting there.

Well if people really are going to go out of their way to complain about it... <-- left sentence open for the imagination.

[Scar]

Well if people really are going to go out of their way to complain about it... <-- left sentence open for the imagination.

Let me put it this way: Decent grammar brings more weight to your posts. We're not asking for perfection.....

[Dukefrukem]

Let me put it this way: Decent grammar brings more weight to your posts. We're not asking for perfection.....

Which is why I will pay more attention from now on.

[Ezee E]

Now if duke just brings some intelligence to his posts.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Winston*]

Not cool, Bialas.

[Dukefrukem]

Now if duke just brings some intelligence to his posts.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

:sad:

[lovejuice]

There's something to be said for capitilization, too.

it's overrated.

i am not trying to present a convincing argument here, but seriously what's the use of capitalization in english language?

[Sycophant]

it's overrated.

i am not trying to present a convincing argument here, but seriously what's the use of capitalization in english language?
*Tradition
*Organization
*Clarity

I give you a pass on everything English though because you're Thai. :P

[number8]

wat

[Qrazy]

Sometimes people write in caps lock and I ask them to please keep it down.

[Watashi]

"I see you eyin' my lemon drink, boy" = 2007's "I drink your milkshake"

[monolith94]

I can only imagine that watashi now feels like I felt upon first seeing the phantom menace... :D

[Watashi]

I can only imagine that watashi now feels like I felt upon first seeing the phantom menace... :D

I'd rather watch The Happening over The Phantom Menace if I had the choice right now.

I think a lot of the lolz were pretty intentional and Shyamalan knew what he was doing when he tried to mimic the 50's propagandistic sci-fi classics (especially the huge "YOU DESERVE IT" sign in the middle of the field). Wahlberg's performance is an interesting one. I want to say it's bad, but I can't.... it's just so... fake (which I think is the point and the entire scene of the model home represents in some way). The score is incredible, but it just lacks the visual flourishes and atmosphere of his previous films. And the ending was kinda.... really? Did the studios enforce that ending on him?

[Ezee E]

Going to space just sounds so horrible though.

[eternity]

"I see you eyin' my lemon drink, boy" = 2007's "I drink your milkshake"

Cheese and crackers = 2008's "I drink your milkshake"

Runners-Up:
"I SEE IN CALCULUS! CALCULUS! CALCULUS!"
"Hot dogs get a bad rap."
"Open the door you pussy I'm Spencer Breslin omg!"

[Skitch]

Which is why I will pay more attention from now on.

Eh. With grammar and punctuation intact, I'm still wholely ignored.

[Ezee E]

Eh. With grammar and punctuation intact, I'm still wholely ignored.
Anyways...

:)

Nothing will be beating, "I drink your milkshike." Sorry guys.

[Skitch]

:lol:

Ass!

I'm going to see this trainwreck tonight. How many margaritas should I have before?

[Bosco B Thug]

Notice in my admittingly apologetic comments on this charming film, dialogue was not one of the aspects I apologized for.

The way Shyamalan uses tiramisu and cough syrup as stand-ins for adult indiscretion is more evidence that this film is actually a kid's film in disguise. A thoroughly kid's film treatment of very adult subject matter and character relationships.

[Skitch]

Well, the was the most well made awful piece of crap I've ever seen.

[origami_mustache]

sooo is this worth seeing in theaters just for the laughs? orrrr should I just forget it was ever made?

[eternity]

sooo is this worth seeing in theaters just for the laughs? orrrr should I just forget it was ever made?
Well, you'll definitely laugh.

[Skitch]

sooo is this worth seeing in theaters just for the laughs? orrrr should I just forget it was ever made?

I found myself wondering what the little red light in the ceiling was.

"I'm sorry, you're just not sucking me in at all. I just am really aware that I'm watching this."

*rep for anyone getting the referance*


[/drunk[

[Boner M]

Is there a gif somewhere of the kids getting shotgun'd? Or the lion's den scene? I don't wanna have to see the movie again for those two moments of gold.

[Wryan]

I found myself wondering what the little red light in the ceiling was.

"I'm sorry, you're just not sucking me in at all. I just am really aware that I'm watching this."

*rep for anyone getting the referance*


[/drunk[

Sounds like Peter Griffin, but I'm not 100%.

[Skitch]

Sounds like Peter Griffin, but I'm not 100%.

Winner!

:P

[NickGlass]

Is it strange that I'm quite excited about seeing this? The last Shyamalan film I enjoyed on an enriching level was Unbreakable, but there's something about his films that warrant at least a viewing.

Perhaps it's his attempt to insert social commentary and political allegory into his modern mainstream monster movies that I find admirable. It's really too bad that his execution is so dorky.

[Watashi]

Is it strange that I'm quite excited about seeing this? The last Shyamalan film I enjoyed on an enriching level was Unbreakable, but there's something about his films that warrant at least a viewing.

Perhaps it's his attempt to insert social commentary and political allegory into his modern mainstream monster movies that I find admirable. It's really too bad that his execution is so dorky.
You saw The Omen remake, right? I know don't why you woudn't see this.

[Rowland]

This was worse than I expected. It doesn't work on any level. Seriously, what the hell did I watch, and how was it made?

[NickGlass]

You saw The Omen remake, right? I know don't why you woudn't see this.

That was for entirely different reasons.

By the way, the highlight of my week was when I heard Haley Joel Osment say that Shyamalan's recent films have been crappy.

[KK2.0]

By the way, the highlight of my week was when I heard Haley Joel Osment say that Shyamalan's recent films have been crappy.

please tell me there's a Youtube of this :lol:

[Watashi]

This was worse than I expected. It doesn't work on any level. Seriously, what the hell did I watch, and how was it made?
*shrug*

I thought the score was excellent, especially as a stand-alone piece. Plus the whole fake atmosphere headlined by Wahlberg's oddball performance makes a brisk campy experience.

I can tell you one thing that I was never bored.

[NickGlass]

please tell me there's a Youtube of this :lol:

Unfortunately, no. He's a friend of a friend.

Rowland, your reaction makes me even more excited to see this. M. Night is absolutely bonkers.

[Spinal]

Shyamalan has had film success more recently than Haley Joel Osment has. Just saying.

[Qrazy]

Shyamalan has had film success more recently than Haley Joel Osment has. Just saying.

Just saying what? That we should all shut up because we've had less success than both?

[Spinal]

Just saying what? That we should all shut up because we've had less success than both?

Yes. Nailed it.

[Rowland]

I still can't get over how botched this was. And you know, after the hamfisted Lady in the Water, I was rooting for Shyamalan, I really was. This is coming from someone who actually likes The Village. Oy...

[NickGlass]

So, yeah. I get it. It's deliberately vague. Despite technology, people have trouble communicating on an intimate level in this modern age. Communication is still high, however, and people will believe whatever they hear. We're ruining the environment and it wants revenge. We deserve this. It may not be the plants, though, because it's still only a theory and we cannot fully understand nature. Scientists simply package hypotheses for a willing audience and the media pushes these ideas as truth so the public will be placated.

How misanthropic, MNS. The world is a mess. Now, why would you end a film with the "triumphant" news that someone is pregnant? I was left waiting for the final scene where Zooey has a miscarriage.

[NickGlass]

Just read Chaw's review. Why would he ever give credit to a scene that is so obviously pushing for sentimentality? Interpret it as you want, but nothing about that scene--outside of the frustrated viewer overdosing on saccharine--is nihilistic.

Nonetheless, I do enjoy his comment about the film being "sociopathic."

[Derek]

This was worse than I expected. It doesn't work on any level. Seriously, what the hell did I watch, and how was it made?

This.

Wahlberg should have a Razzie in the bag. Seriously, of all the respected directors, is there a single one worse than Shyamalan at directing actors? I'm sure he was going for some sort of Herzogian hypnotic acting style here, but in execution, it actually seemed like he wanted the most lifeless, unrealistic and empty performances imaginable. Does the man have any interest in conveying honest human emotions or realistic interactions or is he just that much of a hack?

[Watashi]

Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, and Paul Giamatti has given some of their best performances under Shyamalan. I fault Wahlberg as much as Shyamalan here. I can't even call his performance even bad really. It's just so.... out there.

[Watashi]

No ma'am! I'm not going to kill you!

[Derek]

I can't even call his performance even bad really.

I can't call it bad either. It's much, much worse than that.

[Silencio]

Toni Collette has given the best performance in any Shyamalan film. I don't think he'll ever get something like that out of an actor again.

[Watashi]

I can't call it bad either. It's much, much worse than that.

Sigh... and we were doing so good too.

Looks like it will be back to normal between us.

[Qrazy]

Yes. Nailed it.

Boo yeah!

[Philosophe_rouge]

No ma'am! I'm not going to kill you!

WHAT? Nooooooooo!!

[Derek]

Sigh... and we were doing so good too.

Looks like it will be back to normal between us.

:(

I know, but...

http://www.girlpants.org/manpants/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/happening3.gif

[Sxottlan]

This is M. Night's first film since 1999 that I'm skipping.

Mostly, I'm very much disturbed by the idea of watching people calmly just kill themselves (well that and the terrible reviews). Just the brief shots from the commercials I found incredibly disturbing.

[Watashi]

I was looking for positive reviews and I found this semi-fresh review from MC's own Rob Humanick:


Coming to us from somewhat loftier slopes, then, is The Happening. Already in need of a second viewing, it is a work of roving minimalism, the camera almost completely free from overactive movement, enamored by pure scenery as it observes from casual, happenstance perspectives a tragedy that unfolds with frighteningly quotidian simplicity. It is Shyamalan's latest bedtime story, a simple (not necessarily simplistic) film meant to impart a basic virtue or belief, here implicitly reflecting our social and political moment as much as did Lady in the Water's tale of communal empowerment. Alas, whereas the director's previous offering continues to strike me as an artistic confession and introspection as daring and intimate (if not nearly as profound) as Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, this new film is only half good cinema, seemingly the result of its maker's stunted belief/determination in both himself and his audience. The Happening's plot is a bountiful source for readings and interpretations, or rather, it might have been, had the film's talking heads not continually harped on them as if we were too braindead to get it ourselves.

In an effort to return to the more narratively (if not thematically) straightforward virtues of The Sixth Sense and Signs, The Happening disregards its own implicitly non-dramatic arc, throwing forced revelations, dramatic structure, and thematic conclusions to the audience like a frightened man would bones to a dog. Beginning in Central Park, New York, scores of northeast American cities are being plagued by an unseen, inexplicable force, the none too subtle symptom being entire crowds of people committing suicide in almost simultaneous succession. Spreading from urban to rural settings, it is a force never explained outright, much like Cloverfield in that the characters have no point of reference by which to know more than the immediate violence surrounding them; ditto the scientists' inability to draw any conclusions from the effects without any practical means of examining their causes.

Eventually, our protagonists provide an educated theory (spoilers ahoy): that plant life, in defense of the Earth itself, could be releasing poisonous toxins when sensing the amassing presence of humans. Audiences were scoffing at the premise at my showing, and though I think it unfair to dismiss the purported seriousness of such a sci-fi scenario (the likes of which were practically routine amongst the 50s output of the genre, from the leafy villains of Invasion of the Body Snatchers to the more violent herbs from The Day of the Triffids), Shyamalan does himself a disservice in his attempts to portray this creeping death as if it were some kind of malevolent bogeyman, literalizing the suggested and, in doing so, stripping it of both primal cinematic thrust and deeper thematic/political significance. The Happening's particulars are not devoid of those emotionally revealing, personal frissons that made Lady in the Water such a therapeutic exercise (for both artist and audience), but Shyamalan seems to be going against his instincts in presenting them here, forgoing the awkward but honest for self-conscious attempts at normality, thus rendering said awkwardness doubly more so for its faux attempts at concealment. The killer plants only seem silly when they're shot like Jason Voorhees, and I found myself unable to entirely condemn the hecklers in my audience for their derogatory responses during these sequences.

In many way's Shyamalan's take on An Inconvenient Truth by way of Romero, The Happening remains tantalizing in its details even as it routinely wanders into more preschool-laden territory. So deliberate and uneasy are Shyamalan's visual signifiers that, even at its most embarrassingly overreaching (a moment in which Marky Mark—attempting a last-minute, slow-motion leap to the rescue—is legitimately awful), the entirety remains genuinely arresting, almost dreamlike. Aided in no small part by Shyamalan's defiant use of characterization (death here stemming not from narrative demands, but the brutal indifference of the natural world), the uneasiness of The Happening's mise-en-scene serves to challenge our perspectives and expectations in a fascinating push-and-pull between audience participation and thwarted artistic instinct. Though the film's crowning moment is dialogue reliant—a conscious bit of self-parody that involves Mark Wahlberg's Elliot Moore taking an ultimately unnecessary precautionary measure (in perhaps the funniest moment in cinema since Mastodon instructed Aqua Teen Hunger Force audiences to take "the seed outside")—the strengths apparent here beckon to some of the great directors of silent cinema. After another viewing, I just may nominate Shyamalan as helmer of my own theoretical remake of Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr.

Pretty much sums up my thoughts perfectly. I'm glad to know that there are people out there who love Lady in the Water.

[Winston*]

Casting Walhberg as the lead in a movie like this would seem like a bad idea even if it wasn't Shyamalan. Dude's got no charisma.

Like him in Huckabees, tho.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Casting Walhberg as the lead in a movie like this would seem like a bad idea even if it wasn't Shyamalan. Dude's got no charisma.

Like him in Huckabees, tho.

He's got plenty of charisma. I just think he chafed a bit against his role. In most of his scenes, I thought he did just fine. And in the ones where he seemed off, I blame Shyamalan.

Namely, the scene where he stands in the middle of a field with other survivors and takes an eternity to decide what to do next. I could be wrong, but I think I remember him muttering to himself about "assessing the variables."

Bawuhuhuh?

[Winston*]

He's got plenty of charisma. I dunno, maybe charisma's the wrong word, but he almost always just seems like kind of a blank slate when I see him on screen. He worked in Boogie Nights 'cos he was playing kind of a blank slate and Huckabees, but other than that eh...

[Dead & Messed Up]

I dunno, he almost always just seems like kind of a blank slate when I see him on screen. He worked in Boogie Nights 'cos he was playing kind of a blank slate and Huckabees, but other than that eh...

I also thought he was a high point of The Departed. Maybe the issue is that he seems quite good at playing likeable blowhards - the kindly science teacher role isn't exactly his forte.

[Winston*]

Never understood the acclaim for his The Departed performance. The role plays to his strengths in the not changing his facial expression or vocal tone departments, I guess. Got most of the memorable lines too. Haven't seen this movie btw.

[Skitch]

Pretty much sums up my thoughts perfectly. I'm glad to know that there are people out there who love Lady in the Water.

I love Lady in the Water.

[Ezee E]

Three Kings people.

[Rowland]

The Happening is technically worse, but I'd rather sit through it again than Lady in the Water. At least this is funny in an unintentional way, whereas that movie is just painful.

[Skitch]

...at least things happened in LITW...

[Rowland]

I had to drop a few points off my score, and I'm still not convinced it's low enough. Chaw's review pisses me off. He seriously believes this is better than The Village and Lady in the Water, and on the same level as Signs, because... why, it's nihilistic? There is no artistry here, it's pure hokum. Any given ten minutes of The Village are superior to this effort in its entirety.

[D_Davis]

Cool!

I forgot about this thread since I wasn't posting here for so long.

WOW!

So...The Happening.

Gee!

Uhm....

Yeah!

WOW!

It's a movie!

WOW!

Man...

Uhm...

YEAH!

This film was beyond terrible. I actually felt insulted while watching it. It was like I paid $10 and 1.5 hours to be the butt of a shitty joke. Bravo M. Night, Bravo!

This is one of the very few films I've seen that I would give a straight up "F."

Zooey Daschanel is a bad actress. Really, really bad.

And the script! Oh man. Wow.

“Come on, buddy. Take an interest in science.“

“You should be more interested in science, Jake.“

“You know, hot dogs get a bad rep. They gotta cool shape, they got protein.“

It's almost as if M. Night thinks we're all a bunch a farking idiots. And I guess he's right - I paid to see this.

Shame on me.

[Qrazy]

Cool!

I forgot about this thread since I wasn't posting here for so long.

WOW!

So...The Happening.

Gee!

Uhm....

Yeah!

WOW!

It's a movie!

WOW!

Man...

Uhm...

YEAH!

This film was beyond terrible. I actually felt insulted while watching it. It was like I paid $10 and 1.5 hours to be the butt of a shitty joke. Bravo M. Night, Bravo!

This is one of the very few films I've seen that I would give a straight up "F."

Zooey Daschanel is a bad actress. Really, really bad.

And the script! Oh man. Wow.

“Come on, buddy. Take an interest in science.“

“You should be more interested in science, Jake.“

“You know, hot dogs get a bad rep. They gotta cool shape, they got protein.“

It's almost as if M. Night thinks we're all a bunch a farking idiots. And I guess he's right - I paid to see this.

Shame on me.

Shyamalamadingdong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEQ9Gq-et5U

[Ezee E]

Unintentional comedy galore!

I didn't think anything would beat the New York gunshot scene.

Then Zooey playing a quieter version of herself from Weeds.

Then the lions came.

I'm only at the half hour mark.

Jees.

[Ezee E]

SPOILERS A HOY!


31: Hot Dogs do get a bad rep! M. Night trying to go Quentin on us here?

34: Car crash, OMG.

36: Taking another route to avoid dead bodies... For some reason, I think there will be more around the corner.

36.3: Yep. Only some nerdburger Army boy warns them about it. Cheese and crackers. Two directions left. Those have to have dead bodies too.

37: Yep.

44: The big reveal of Zooey cheating sure didn't amount to much except a weak, "You lied to me." I think she was disappointed.

45: The toxin is coming. OMG. Mark's gone crazy and starts throwing out crazy science talk. No wonder Zooey cheated on him. In the end, Wahlberg thinks they should "outrun the wind." Hmm... Brilliant.

52: Now Mark is talking to a plant. He hopes this scene gets portrayed in Entourage.

53: Take a drink for everytime someone says, "Happening."

54: Sweet. The lawnmower scene. Another unintentional moment of hilariousness.

57: Mark makes up a story to try and get even with Zooey. So bad, he has to admit he just made it up. Seriously, there's 30+ minutes of deleted scenes?

1:00: I hope it goes in slow motion with, "NOOOOOO."

1:00: Close enough. Really?



Too many moments to finish out the movie. It's probably tiresome to read that already.

[Ezee E]

The old lady scene just needs to be seen to be believed.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Is this the extended or theatrical cut ??? I want to see the extended... out of curiosity. I still think The Happening is the funniest movie of the year. Great stuff.

[Ezee E]

Is this the extended or theatrical cut ??? I want to see the extended... out of curiosity. I still think The Happening is the funniest movie of the year. Great stuff.
I only watched the theatrical cut. I don't even want to know what was cut from this.

I just wish it ended in space.

So bad. Love it.

[Watashi]

I still like this movie and think it's obvious that Shy is going for cheese.

[Morris Schæffer]

I still like this movie and think it's obvious that Shy is going for cheese.

He should have piled on more gorgonzola then. A full on wrasslin' scene between walberg and an overgrown Bonsai tree for example. Just to drive the point home.;)

[Ezee E]

I still like this movie and think it's obvious that Shy is going for cheese.
The previews seem to think otherwise.

[D_Davis]

I don't think M. Night knows the meaning of cheese. The only reason The Happening comes off as cheesy is because it is trying so hard to be so deathly serious.

It's like when I was in high school and fancied goth girls. I used to go to the goth shows, and while the girls were hot as hell, and I acutally enjoyed a lot of the music (Black Tape for a Blue Girl and This Ascension are awesome live), I couldn't help but chuckle at the overblown theatrics and false sincerity of it all.

The Happening is kind of like that, only there are no hot goth girls.

[Amnesiac]

In a related topic, I am intrigued at the possibility of an Unbreakable sequel (http://www.cinematical.com/2008/10/08/shyamalan-hints-at-unbreakable-sequel-in-weird-interview/).

[Ezee E]

I don't think M. Night knows the meaning of cheese. The only reason The Happening comes off as cheesy is because it is trying so hard to be so deathly serious.

It's like when I was in high school and fancied goth girls. I used to go to the goth shows, and while the girls were hot as hell, and I acutally enjoyed a lot of the music (Black Tape for a Blue Girl and This Ascension are awesome live), I couldn't help but chuckle at the overblown theatrics and false sincerity of it all.

The Happening is kind of like that, only there are no hot goth girls.
Right on. And double-repped for the hot goth girls comment.

[Dukefrukem]

im watching this right now... blind bought it... lets see if i regret it

[Dukefrukem]

I'm at the Diner scene and I already can't stand Mark Wahlberg.

[Scar]

im watching this right now... blind bought it... lets see if i regret it

Dude.

[Dukefrukem]

God this movie is awful. Awful.

[Amnesiac]

I just found out Lady In The Water made Cahiers du cinéma's top-ten list for 2006. And here I was thinking the hate was unanimous.

I kind of like it myself, but I'd still say Unbreakable, The Village and Signs are his best. Probably in that order.

As for The Happening, there is this quote from Shyamalan ...

"No. 1, it's a B movie (http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/17/mnight.shyamalan/index.html). This is the best B movie you will ever see, that's it. That's what this is. If there's other things that stick to your ribs as you walk out, that's great, but it's supposed to be, you know, zombies eating flesh."

This may be what fuels the 'it is intentionally cheesy' arguments. I would say this quote does account for some of the eccentricities of the film, justifying them as having been decidedly eccentric. Or cheesy. Or awkward.

[Rowland]

This is the best B movie you will ever see, that's it. Pfft.

[Amnesiac]

Pfft.

His words, not mine. Here's a more agreeable quote which might give less fuel to the 'Shyamalan is pompous' crowd:

"I wanted it to be a fantastic, fun B-movie," Shyamalan told Reuters (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/12/shyamalan-happening-is-a_n_106663.html) in a recent interview about the eighth film he has written and directed. "The No. 1 thing is I want people to say: 'That was a really fun B-movie.'''

[D_Davis]

Wow - so this film is a worse failure than I originally thought.

As a ultra-serious supernatural thriller/drama, it's silly and vapid, but as a fun , fantastic, zombie flesh-eating B-movie, it is a dull, total and complete disaster.

[Grouchy]

I'm sure I can list at least 100 B-movies better made and more fun than The Happening.

[Raiders]

I'm sure I can list at least 100 B-movies better made and more fun than The Happening.

Roger Corman's entire canon, for one.

[Grouchy]

Roger Corman's entire canon, for one.
95% of the Hammer Films output. Hell, every movie with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

[D_Davis]

I'm sure I can list at least 100 B-movies better made and more fun than The Happening.

We could probably list 1000 such movies.

[Dukefrukem]

I couldn't believe there wasn't one death in the movie that wasn't in the previews either...

[monolith94]

This movie… this movie…

It was funny at times. I'll give it that. I seriously laughed when he showed us those lions.

[Ezee E]

This movie… this movie…

It was funny at times. I'll give it that. I seriously laughed when he showed us those lions.
I still laugh thinking about it.

[Boner M]

I seriously laughed when he showed us those lions.
I've watched that scene at least 10 times, and it never gets old.

[lovejuice]

ok, that was weird.

in praise of this trainwreck. almost as if M. Night's trying to do an experiment in cinematic reduction. can you take away a monster, an alien or a killer from a thriller, instead have people running away from mumbo jumbo and still make the thriller work? in theory, yes. and if this is what he's trying to accomplish, better luck next time.

even better, stop trying. seriously this film looks bad on paper. it shouldn't have been funded to begin with.

and is this just my sick mind but i find the image of people creatively committing suicide more amusing or hilarious than otherwise?