The Happening

I go to see M. Knight Shyamalan movies with a grain of salt: I expect that I won't like his movies, and am usually slightly disappointed. The Happening was a psychological thriller utilizing an older, more 'Hitchcock' variable in horror and monsters. The true monsters here were average people, made to become their worst by pollen spawned from righteous trees, plants and grasses. On the breezes of warm summer days, the pollen flowed throughout the world, claiming victims and working to rid the world of an over-burdening populace. The plants and trees of the world decided to kill off the human race and, scientifically speaking, their attempt was nearly fool proof.

The movie, however, was a bit slow, and in perfect M. Knight Shyamalan-ese, it made little sense to most of those who watched it. I got it - that's not to say I'm some genius or above the masses who hated this movie, it's just to say I got it. I liked this movie, I was scared by it, and I left the theater thinking about it. The full intent of the director - the more you think about the possibilities, the scarier they become.

He's not the greatest director - I liked the Sixth Sense, but I absolutely despised Unbreakable. I like the Village, but I absolutely despised Lady in the Water. And Signs was terrible, though it could have been so much better.

That's what I can say mostly about the Happening - it could have been better, but it wouldn't have been M. Knight Shyamalan's movie then. He spins a very odd tale, and does not confine himself to American story telling standards. Sometimes there simply isn't a "good" ending in story telling. Sometimes the only reason for the story is to make you think.

With the Happening, the story itself was interesting; the acting however, could have been better. Marky-Mark isn't the best actor, he's almost as wooden as Keanu Reeves, and John Leguisamo never seems to get the 'right' part in any movie he's in - I'd love to see him in a true break-out role, something that would show his real acting ability.

Overall, not a terrible movie - rent it first and decide for yourself.

After reading the favorable comments of Richard T. Jameson, the Amazon editor above, I wondered if he had seen the same awful movie I had. THE HAPPENING is the worst of a long list of terrible films by M. Night Shyamalan. I honestly don't understand why he keeps getting money to do garbage. Then I went to a website called to see what the box office numbers looked like for the film. They were impressive. THE HAPPENING's budget was $60,000,000 and its worldwide box office receipts totaled $163,000,000. It must have been music to the ears of executives in Hollywood, who care about one thing and one thing only...money!!! As long as Shyamalan continues to make money for the studios, he will continue making horrifically bad films. In my opinion, he's a one note wonder who hasn't anything worthwhile since THE SIXTH SENSE (a wonderful movie). I will never see another of his films.

2008-12-25

I loved the first four movies that Shyamalan did. I didn't even mind "The Lady in the Water." This movie, however, was nothing but an environmental remake of "The Birds (Collector's Edition) ." I'm not a big fan of propaganda movies. Yes, the environment is important, but I don't need that shoved down my throat by a movie that is supposed to entertain me.

Now, it wasn't all bad. Shyamalan has a great eye when directing. He, along with the likes of Spielberg and Scorsese, has the gift of making every shot in the movie artistic. Even mundane conversations during the film have that artsy feel. However, none of the other elements I've come to love about Shyamalan (the unexpected plot twists, the surprise endings, the clues that you pick up on during repeated viewings) were there.

Shyamalan should stick to making entertaining movies, and leave the overtly political statements to the activists.

All I can say is oh my gosh that was a terrible movie. Touted as his first "R-Rated Movie" (which was the biggest pile of marketing spin I've seen in a long time) - we went into this with high hopes that he could redeem himself from lackluster movies since The Sixth Sense.

M. Night's movies are really hit/miss (and most people seem to choose miss). I hope we can all agree that The Sixth Sense [Blu-ray] is by far the best of the set and well worth getting on Blu-ray. Great movie with the always enjoyable Bruce Willis and Toni Collette, and pretty much the movie that kicked off Haley Joel Osmet's career.

After that we had Unbreakable, which I actually enjoyed but most people were left wanting something more. Signs was next and I remember it more because of the parody in Scary Movie 3 than for the real movie itself - in fact for a long time I thought Simon Rex was in the real movie instead of Joaquin Phoenix. Alas...

I liked The Village - mostly because Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of Ron Howard) was awesome. I loved the plot twist, and I loved the tension I felt watching it. Very effective, although many people say it was predictable right from the beginning. Lady in the Water came next, and I just didn't get it. I was waiting for the twist that never happened, and the storytelling was too slow.

So then we're given The Happening. What a piece of junk (did I mention this already?). It was painful to watch Zooey Deschanel try to act. I am totally in love with her sister who is the star of Bones, but come on...Zooey doesn't need to follow in the family path. She was painful to watch in The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and even more so in The Happening. You could almost tell that Marky Mark was struggling to work with her. He really wanted to be believable, but frankly someone needed to direct him.

Plot points were crap, writing was crap, dialogue and acting was crap. We got to the end of it and we could barely function.

"Did we really just watch that?" and "What the h*ll was that?" were repeated phrases in our living room. What a ridiculous mess. There was so much potential here of people suddenly killing themselves in various odd ways, but when we find out that it's because of the plants, it's like...why? Why are we watching this? Is this why they advertised it as an R-Rated movie, because if that's all it's got going for it...

It makes no sense - the plants kill us when we are in groups so we split up into smaller groups, but they still kill us when we're in smaller groups? WTF? What's the motivation of the plants? (it's a consistent concern about Night's movies that the characters seem to lack motivation for much of what they do - now we have a character of plants, and they have no motivation whatsoever).

Difficult to watch from start to finish, but I wanted to get through it and give a thought out review, but having waded through the muck, I find that there is really little positive I can say.

Shyamalan has definitely done better before with Signs and Sixth Sense, but a true fan would like this one. It is just twisted enough to keep you interested until the end. I think it is frankly ridiculous that he portrays the human characters as suicidal by any means. One method would have been a bit more intriguing. Next time you litter, think about what nature can do to hurt you back.