The Happening (Special Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]

I had really high hopes for this one in wanting MNS to make a popular and successful film that customers will want to see. Every once in awhile I do an in-store sampling (random customers watch the films on the HD display and give feedback) prior to release to see how the release might fare (big mistake with this one).

Out of 136 customers who filtered through last night whilst displaying the movie, 100 said they will not be renting or buying it now, 25 outright walked away laughing and several kids liked it. Needless to say, this movie was very disappointing. The lead performances, storyline, special effects, and writing were all sadly poor and subpar. Those stories I heard about in theaters of people laughing when the movie had meant to scare you or make you feel sad rang true here too. What I did notice was an unplanned target audience materialized - 12 to 14 year olds. Each kid liked it due to either the corny scare factor or the fake gore. Seven or eight 15-16 year olds walked through that had already seen it and all stated the movie sucked.

So anyway, technically the BD has some nice offerings. All the featurettes and extra tidbits are as they are listed here, and most are in 1080. The trivia track actually turned out to be boring on the facts, but it does allow you to incorporate all of the extra features on the disc while watching the film. The deleted scenes were mercifully removed as they were atrocious, and as MNS admitted in the intros to them - they detracted from the film he had wanted people to see - especially all the extra gore. One thing on this BD I had not seen before was the ability to mute the main menu music (if left idling). The wind effects sound great on the DTS HD, and the transfer looked flawless; so much so that the CGI effects looked really bad.

I can see why this movie fared poorly, and I know ZD and Marky Mark are way better actors than they show here. The best summary I can come up with is: that volumes of people kept laughing as they listened to the film (while shopping in the store); Mostly due to how corny all the acting/lines/character interaction sounded, let alone how bad it looked while watching it. Watch it for the sound and clarity - skip it for every other reason thinkable.

M. Knight is the man! Probably his second best movie next to Signs. In my opinion both that and The Happening are his finest pieces of work. He challenges you to think and not be a brain dead american who is handed everything is such supsense/horror movies most people like. Blood and guts gets boring. Let your imagination do the work for you, I'm sure some of you can think of stuff far worse then any movie would show you. And this is the idea, get lost your brain. I tip my cap to him, this movie makes that disaster lady in the water become an after thought.

I feel as of late a lot of people have been ripping M. Night a new one, although, I for one, actually enjoyed this movie. The plot is actually kind of interesting. It's about the destruction of mankind, caused by some kind of airborne attack. In the beginning of the movie a phenomenon is occurring in New York City, where at any moment peoples senses all the sudden are flipping, and in a trance, people are actually killing themselves. We first see our main character, (played by Mark Walberg) teaching a high school science class in NY. His class discussion is centered on the very real life phenomenon of the honeybee species disappearing from the planet. I think the way M. Night interchanged his fictional destruction of man, and the current strange occurrence of the bees to be interesting.

On the topic of the acting, I enjoyed each character and the actor choices for them. This was a different type of character for Mark Walberg. Instead of his more tough action guy roles, he actually plays a kind of insecure, but intelligent guy named Elliot Moore. His wife, Alma, also has a streak of insecurity herself, (as well as some emotional issues) is played by Zooey Deschanel. They play off each other really well, and as the situation gets worse, they not only grow closer, but also in their own individual way get through their marriage issues.

Back to plot... they end up evacuating New York City due, believeing that it may be an terrorist attack in Manhattan. Our main characters, the Moore couple and Elliot's coworker and daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez) get on a train, fleeing Philidelphia (large city = possible target). Unfortunately they never make it to their destination due to the further spreading of the airborne "virus" that is killing everyone. They then begin their journey to find a safe-zone, along the way finding out more about why this is happening.

Anyway you will have to check it out to see what happens and what really is causing people to kill themselves. It really is a decent movie, and it kept me interested the whole way through. I say take a chance with it, some critics might say otherwise, but unlike them, I am not basing my opinion off of comparing and contrasting M. Nights previous works, I am basing it off of the entertainment I got from watching the movie.

A very good movie that alot of people didn't appreciate when it was released in the theaters. Very much an old style of filmmaking that young kids today don't get. But if you like The Birds, then this movie is for you.

This was a fantastic movie. The tension was so high the entire time. As events unfold you begin to discover the horror and the mystery behind a massive epidemic on the east coast. M. Night Shyamalan definitely knows how to take fantastic events and make them seem plausible in reality. This film definitely creates a realistic story that takes everyday life and injects it with sudden and unexpected horror. I think all of his movies are genius and that the only reason he gets panned by critics is because he stands out in Hollywood and is one of the only screenwriters/directors who creates absolute original ideas for movies. You don't see him doing sequels or bringing back old movies from the dead and doing remakes. He truly creates original stories. As theater goers drop in attendance, the total movie gross on the first weekend goes down considerably and therefore any mention of how much a movie made at the theater becomes more and more negligible or in other words, meaningless. Besides most theaters only seem to show movies that are geared towards those who have pretty good access to disposable income: Teenagers. Thinking movies will not last long, if at all, at mainstream theaters (i.e. Carmike, AMC theaters). Theaters are going to show pure bubblegum. Last time I drove by a Carmike cinema here's what was showing: "The House Bunny", "Mamma Mia", "Bangkok Dangerous", "Righteous Kill" and the list continues. These are not meant for the imagination, they are simply meant to be shallow and gratuitous macho man movies or teenage fantasy flicks. M. Night Shyamalan only gets flack because his ideas are novel and his movies are original and entertaining. He can do it all and this scares Hollywood. Congratulations on a great movie!