The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008)

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Red band trailer. This also happens to be Shyamalan's first R-rated film.

Hrm. This trailer actually has me intrigued to check this one out.

[Len]

Shyamalan pimps The Happening and manages to compare it to The Godfather, The Exorcist, and The Birds in the span of a couple of minutes.

Wow, some great acting in that clip.

"...EVERYONE!"

This looks even worse than Shamalamas Amex ad.

[margot]

I love how in all the ads the R is gigantic and red.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

The Happening: What a Bunch of Nonsense

[moviscop]

Spoiler

According to an early review, Markie Mark starts talking to a plant, trying to reason with it only to find that it is, in fact, a fake plant made of rubber/plastic.

Dunno if I can stomach this film.

[broadwayrock]

Another review:

"The Happening" is a terrible, terrible movie..........This is bad in a jaw-dropping "they can't really be serious, can they?" kind of way. The closest comparison I can draw is to Neil LaBute's "Wicker Man"

[Murdoch]

Ouch, I wonder if Night will dedicate his to one of the Ramones.

I really thought Night had some potental, too. I've never been a fan, but I thought the Village could've been a great movie had it not been for the weak story, the performances were there and I thought it had some great cinematography, but he once again fell into the Twilight Zone style storytelling. Although, since Sixth Sense made AFI's 100 Greatest (wtf) I find I'm a lot harsher critic of his nowadays. I think if he would stop with all the twist stories he could make a movie that actually expresses something worthwhile, but I'm afraid he doesn't have that in him.

[HerrSchreck]

I read somplace else today, a guy who didnt want to go on the record because the script went across his desk in Pre.. said the movie is so unbelieveably "They're not really effing serious with this shit are they?" Bad that it's dizzifying. View at your own risk.

I'm not the smartest dude on the planet, but one thing I seen a mile away was this guy's meltdown. Give a guy with virtually no talent dumbfounding Props for Genius, and nothing but poop is guaranteed to come out in the dispenser. The reviews are less enraged than they are "air for the love of god, (gasp)... need.. air..."

EDIT: just read the second linked review above-- and its the same one Frost is talking about. This guy's been going off and on record with this in a few places today.

[tavernier]

Manohla kinda, sorta likes it.

[a.khan]

I just returned from a screening. The story is really ridiculous and what's ironic is that Night basically tells the audience that not everything can be answered, and hence the mystery of why the craziness in the story happens is never reconciled. That's asking too much of the viewer, besides being disingenuous.

However, it has to be said that Night really knows where to put the fucking camera; the mise-en-scene is simple yet terse. And although his stories seem to be getting less interesting, I found myself enjoying the film wholeheartedly when he used humor: the last act is my favorite part of the film, where Night suddenly ropes in an old eccentric woman in a derelict home, who offers assistance to our protagonists, to inject surprisingly effective black comedy!

As a whole, the film fails, because the story does not merit telling. But despite my strong skepticism going into "The Happening," I actually quite liked it, and feel this is another stepping stone for M. Night Shyamalan as he tries to shake off the wild expectations attached to him after "The Sixth Sense." Cut him some slack, guys.

P.S. I'll be dreaming of Zooey Deschanel for weeks now. Those big blue eyes...

[moviscop]

I just got back from viewing this film and I kid you not, it is one of the worst pieces of trash I have ever seen.

The story goes nowhere, the acting is so horrible that it ranks with an Ed Wood piece, the character development is nonexistent.

Honestly guys, please do not even waste a penny on this film, it really is that bad.

It is the worst film by a popular director that I have seen in at least 2 years.

People were laughing in the theater at the horrible acting and really horrible sub plots that developed and served no purpose.

SAVE YOURSELVES PLEASE!

People in the theater were asking for their money back.

everything HerrSchreck said is 100% true, i was in awe of what i was watching.

[Barmy]

That type of review just makes me want to go. =P~ =P~ =P~ If I do decide to see a piece of garbage in the next week or so I will definitely choose this over Hulk.

[moviscop]

dude you can't even call this garbage, it is a waste of film in a camera.

the scary thing is that night sat down, saw the finished product and said, ok, lets do this.

the writing was worse than any uwe boll film i have ever seen.

[jojo]

P.S. I'll be dreaming of Zooey Deschanel for weeks now. Those big blue eyes...

She was really hot in Elf. Nice set of pipes, too.

[moviscop]

Her eyes made up a good 10% of the film. If I had a dollar for everytime Night did a closeup of her eyes, I would have been a millionare before it reached the credits.

[starmanof51]

I guess I'm with Barmy, the wild negativity in this thread is starting to win me over. I just might watch this, and I checked out on Manoj after Unbreakable. I'm forced to admit that although the capsule premise (unseen forces cause mass suicides, spreading like a disease) does little for me, if you took that same premise and told me it was from a 1958 sci-fier I'd never heard of before I'd be hacking down people with a machete trying to get at a VHS copy.

[sidehacker]

Why anyone would even have a remote interest in this movie in the first place is beyond me. Okay, because of Zooey, I guess.

P.S Has anyone seen the lol-worthy commercial with a voiceover that says something like "The director of SIGNS and THE SIXTH SENSE presents his first R-rated movie..."

[bunuelian]

the lol-worthy commercial with a voiceover that says something like "The director of SIGNS and THE SIXTH SENSE presents his first R-rated movie..."

I imagine they're blowing through all the money the film will ever make just running this one during the NBA finals.

[moviscop]

Honestly, even people who looked like they loved a good Hollywood flick wanted their money back. I doubt the NBA airing will help it out against the negative word-of-mouth.

[Antoine Doinel]

I'm sure the French will love it.

And actually, I am sorta looking forward to this even though MNS's last two films were terrible. If anything, the film will look great. The negative reviews don't bother me too much since MNS has never been a critical favorite.

[domino harvey]

I'm sure the French will love it.

Even money on this finishing in the top five on the Cahiers list.

[sidehacker]

Zooey Deschanel is on my top five cashiers list if you know what I mean.

[domino harvey]

ONTD weighs in with the voice of the people. My favorite comment, posted immediately following the main article:

[moviscop]

priceless. now that i think about it though, it was fun watching markie mark make a mockery out of his career. i guess he is going back to playing the hard boston cop in every film from now on.

it was clearly nights fault though, his script was rubbish.

[hot_locket]

I know I made a similar joke with regards to 88 Minutes recently, but I swear to god this is the movie I just saw:



The whole theatre was laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of the film on several occasions it's so bad. There's no way MNS was making a serious effort here. I'm convinced the film is an ultra-conservative mockery of left-wing Global Warming theories (notice all the bad shit goes down in areas of concentrated liberalism).