The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008)

[moviscop]

i just cannot get past how bad mark's acting was. nearly every line was spoken in a whiny voice that equals the line "something something beyond our understanding" in the trailer. i was just shocked beyond belief.

[HerrSchreck]

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).

Are you a MNS fan?

[broadwayrock]

I'm sure the French will love it.

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

Cahiers didn't like it, although unsurprisingly they didn't entirely point the blame at M. Night Shyamalan:

...the best part is the beginning, the rest seems like a collapse, even an evasion ...

What The Happening lacks isn’t an explanation, not even action scenes. What’s missing is the dialogue that, up until now, made the smallest detail gel with the whole ...

This disaster within a disaster could be at least partly attributed to the producers’ business practices. Shyamalan has changed them several times in the past few years ...

The Happening seems unfinished, or at least mangled ...

The worst thing is that the lighting (though it is credited to Tak Fujimoto) is often ugly and amateurish. The editing has lost its iron strength.

[rs98762001]

Outside of the Cahiers du Cinema staff, am I the only person in the world who kind of liked The Village?

[Len]

IO9 has a nice article on the intelligent design BS The Happening is apparently filled with.

Avowed Christian Shyamalan told us that The Happening is really about religious faith, and explained that he chose Mark Wahlberg to play science teacher Elliot Moore because of the actor's intense belief in Jesus.

Seems like Shamalamalyan outdid himself with this one.

[s.j. bagley]

Outside of the Cahiers du Cinema staff, am I the only person in the world who kind of liked The Village?

not at all.
i liked it, as well, and so do quite a number of other folks.
(now if you had said 'lady in the water' then, then you'd probably be on your own.)

[blindside8zao]

The Village is the only MNS movie that I liked. I haven't seen this new one or Lady in the Water, though.

[hot_locket]

Are you a MNS fan?

No, so I guess I can't truthfully say I'd give him enough credit to have purposefully made such a terrible film. But it really is bad enough that I just can't shake that distinct possibility.

[domino harvey]

I kept harboring this fear that the film might be secretly brilliant and I'd never know unless I saw it. Then I read about the final scene. Now I am far less worried.

[portnoy]

I saw this last night. It's pretty awful, but I have to admit there are moments where I can almost - almost - see a brilliant movie here, as though some combination of Tak Fujimoto's stellar camerawork and James Newton Howard's score and these strange moments of cinematic grace (Betty Buckley, as a survivalist hermit, gives a performance that wouldn't be out of place in a latter-day David Lynch movie) managed to actually evoke a genuine emotional response.

But Wahlberg and Deschanel give two of the worst performances I've ever seen, and the entire premise is just a laughable crock of horseshit. It really makes me appreciate Lady in the Water more - at least that movie had characters! But certain indelible moments are sticking with me - I just can't completely dismiss this film.

[wpqx]

I feel like I've been defending MNS films for years now, but this is one to draw the line. I'm not going to get violent in hatred, but this was a film that you wanted to just shrug your shoulders and ask wtf? There was no point to it and nothing remotely compelling. The best reaction the film had was the overhead shot of the fat girl running from the "wind" at least with the audience I watched it with. I though The Lady in the Water was horribly underrated and had some fantastic characters whereas everyone in this film was just begging to be killed. MNS could have done a lot more if he was going for an R rating, and the fact that that was used in the marketing shows how embarrassingly desperate they are for this movie to make ANY money back.

As far The Sixth Sense being on the AFI list lets just point and laugh at that crock of horse shit institution that does nothing but promote generic Hollywood garbage and lets never take it seriously. You can view some of the films on the list but any idea that those are the 100 greatest American films smacks of ignorance.

[denti alligator]

I kept harboring this fear that the film might be secretly brilliant and I'd never know unless I saw it. Then I read about the final scene. Now I am far less worried.

Can you please tell me where to read about it. I'm curious.
Or just tell us here.

[Jeff]

Can you please tell me where to read about it. I'm curious.
Or just tell us here.

I don't have much desire to see it, so I read the detailed synopsis in the film's Wikipedia entry. The last scene sounds lifted directly from

Spoiler

28 Weeks Later.

[domino harvey]

For those curious, my objection was to

Spoiler

the "I'm pregnant!!!!!" scene

[Jeff]

Discussion of the virtues of writing your own terrible screenplays has been moved here.

[Grand Illusion]

IO9 has a nice article on the intelligent design BS The Happening is apparently filled with.

Avowed Christian Shyamalan told us that The Happening is really about religious faith, and explained that he chose Mark Wahlberg to play science teacher Elliot Moore because of the actor's intense belief in Jesus.

Thankfully, that's not how science teachers are actually chosen.

[moviscop]

I didn't make any connection to "creationism" in the film. I also had a difficult time making a connection between an environment message. It doesn't seem like MNS was trying to push an agenda. However, the film did have some very strange scenes that should have made sense in accordance to the story, but fell flat.

A good example is the

Spoiler

pregnancy scene

You would think this would merit a reaction but it just opens the film up for a sequel that contains even more desperation while this "natural phenomena" follows the characters.

Thankfully, there won't be a sequel, or will there....

[wpqx]

I would doubt a sequel, but god fucking lord Christ they made like four Final Destination movies and sequel to Cabin Fever, so I would never put it past studio bosses no matter how bad a film was.

[MichaelB]

You can view some of the films on the list but any idea that those are the 100 greatest American films smacks of ignorance.

Ignorance of their origin in some cases - weren't four of those 'American' films actually British?

[Barmy]

After looking at the imdb reviews, I'm changing my grade from C to B. I've never seen such a divided reaction--the film is either utter tosh or an improved version of Stalker. And I can't get Wahlberg's furrowed brow out of my head.

RUN DON"T WALK TO SEE THIS FILM!

[cdnchris]

... or an improved version of Stalker.

Well, NOW I'm curious.

[Barmy]

Well, do keep in mind that the positive reviews are of this ilk (9/10 review):

I'm with Ebert. This movie is mezmerizing. The last 30 or 40 minutes are kind of a drag, I kind of wish the movie was shorter, but the good really outweighs the bad. Of course Hollywood has been really big on disaster movies in the past 15 years or so. It seems like there's three or four that come out every year, plus all the superhero movies and stuff that's about the whole world in the balance. This one thankfully is more intimate, reminding me only of Spielberg's War of the Worlds and Tarkovsky's NOstalghia and Stalker. i thought maybe it SHOULD have had a trick ending, but I can't think of what. There are some parts that are stupid, like when the old lady starts to smash her face into the windows. Also it's weird how healthy (genetically fit) everyone looks in M. Night's movies. In crowd scenes everyone looks really tip-top, and they're always so well dressed. but I guess that's Hollywood for ya. Anyway, it's his best movie yet, even better than Lady in the Water and The village. I hated 6th Sense and the others.

[tavernier]

Anyway, it's his best movie yet, even better than Lady in the Water and The village.

Well, there you have it....

[wpqx]

Ignorance of their origin in some cases - weren't four of those 'American' films actually British?

I think they're justification was if they hard American funding or in the case of Kubrick's were made by an American then they could count. I still think the whole distinction is just lousy. Americans are ignorant enough of foreign film so let's just have a big prime time special to celebrate our 100 most popular films. The list could have done a lot more if it did actually embrace foreign films and tried to be remotely comprehensive to world cinema (even though by default it would still be dominated by US product). That said I still love American cinema (more so than any other country by far) but it's hardly the only thing I watch.

As far as The Happening having anything to do with Stalker I really wonder if we watched the same film, good fucking god lord if you want to compare MNS to Tarkovsky them's fightin' words.

[oldsheperd]

MNS reminds me of that Family Guy episode where they show Stephen King talking to his publisher and King doesn't have any new book ideas so he grabs a lamp and says, "My next book is about a haunted lamp" Just replace King with MNS.