The Happening

[mikebrownz26]

I just saw a preview for this new M. Night. Shyamalan flick with Mark Wahlberg. While I generally love psychological thrillers, Shyamlan has delivered a stream of duds and hasn't had a good movie since Sixth Sense. TheVillage and Lady in the Water were abysmal flops despite receiving a large amount of hype.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0949731/

Any thoughts on this? I can't tell from the preview if this looks really awesome or really stupid.

[Guest]

Loved "Sixth Sense".

Really liked "Unbreakable"

Liked "Signs" (with reservations)

Thought "The Village" stunk

Completely hated "Lady in the Water"

http://www.theclevelandfan.com/article_ ... php?id=622

With Wahlberg in it...I'm HOPING for a comeback from M. Night.

But I'm not holding my breath.

[OldDawg]

I thought Sixth Sense was a classic.
I loved Signs as well, followed closely by Unbreakable.

[consigliere]

I think Unbreakable is under-rated. Love that film....maybe even more than Sixth Sense.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Shyamlan is a very predictable director. It took me like 15 mintues to figure out The 6th Sense plot twist. So I left the theater $8 poorer. Just say no to Shyamlan. Unbreakable was the best out of his films which isnt saying much. The Village and Sings I walked out of.

[swerb]

What Mitch said, verbatim

[Erie Warrior]

I like Lady in the Water, and I would have liked the Village, but I figured it out half way through. I like all of his movies, but still need ot see unbreakable.

[jb]

Shyamlan is a very predictable director. It took me like 15 mintues to figure out The 6th Sense plot twist. So I left the theater $8 poorer. Just say no to Shyamlan. Unbreakable was the best out of his films which isnt saying much. The Village and Sings I walked out of.

No sh!% , you walked out of "Signs" ?

That's one of the best films I've ever seen, but that' s just me. I thought it was rivoting and amazing. The dinner table scene is incredible. Maybe I'm just an old softie and father, but telling the kids stories about how they were when they were born when they are all scared to death and facing possible doom makes me literally well up as if I imagine John Elway opting to be Kirk Gibson.

Then again, I think MNS is strictly an aquiired taste and his body of work lends itself to love or hate. I even didn't hate The Village and I keep forgetting to get Lady in the Water altho I have seen da bittie in da tub.

Potayto
Potahto

[Mr. MacPhisto]

Shyamlan is a very predictable director. It took me like 15 mintues to figure out The 6th Sense plot twist. So I left the theater $8 poorer. Just say no to Shyamlan. Unbreakable was the best out of his films which isnt saying much. The Village and Sings I walked out of.

Same with me on Sixth Sense. I saw that one coming immediately after the shooting scene at the beginning.

Unbreakable was a great film. One of my favorites.

I really liked Signs. The Village was alright but iffy. Still have yet to see Lady in the Water and really am not expecting to any time soon.

[mikebrownz26]

Don't waste your money to see this crap. It made The Village and Lady in the Water look like freaking Oscar nominees.

[British_Pharaoh]

didn't he do 'The Eye'

that was baaaaaaaaad

[Bill the Butcher]

didn't he do 'The Eye'

that was baaaaaaaaad

No.

[swerb]

Early rating on IMDB is an unimpressive 6.3

[mswerb]

In the preview where the dude lays down in front of the riding mower looks cool.

[Cleveland Transplant]

Worst movie I've ever seen in my life.

My friend and I stayed after the credits just laughing at how absolutely terrible it was. And then proceeded to laugh all the way home at some of the lines and scenes.

If you want a good laugh and feel like pissing away $10, go ahead and see it.

[bowl]

Don't waste your money to see this crap. It made The Village and Lady in the Water look like freaking Oscar nominees.

agreed

[mmonast]

this was one of the worst movies i have ever seen,,,,the plot is stupid the acting is a joke

go see this flick if u are in the mood for a comedy not a horror movie

[swerb]

M Knight just needs to stop making movies. This is outta hand.

[TribeNut]

I can't believe so many folks liked 'Unbreakable'. I thought it was horrible- while the ending was a nice twist, I couldn't believe how bad the buildup was to it.

[buckeye319]

Don't waste your money to see this crap. It made The Village and Lady in the Water look like freaking Oscar nominees.

Worst movie I've ever seen in my life.

My friend and I stayed after the credits just laughing at how absolutely terrible it was. And then proceeded to laugh all the way home at some of the lines and scenes.

If you want a good laugh and feel like pissing away $10, go ahead and see it.

this was one of the worst movies i have ever seen,,,,the plot is stupid the acting is a joke

go see this flick if u are in the mood for a comedy not a horror movie

M Knight just needs to stop making movies. This is outta hand.

So just to be clear, this is not a very good movie?

[jb]

This flick is getting universally panned by 100% of everyone.

[Bill the Butcher]

I wouldn't say everyone. I just read Roger Ebert's review and he summarized the concept of the film in more detail. It honestly does interest me, so I'm still going to see it.

I know a place where it's only 5 bucks and it doesn't suck.

[e0y2e3]

MNS = 1.5 hit wonder who should stick to making trailers.

He does make some damn fine trailers though.

[Bill the Butcher]

I think what brought about the bad talk and harsh criticism was that the audience feels duped. The trailer made it look out to be a typical suspense-thriller with some kind of being with legs just rampaging throughout the country killing people. I can understand how a majority of the (uninformed) audience can feel, like I said, duped.

I did my homework before seeing a film, as I do with every film I'm about to see, and what work really told me about the concept of the film was Roger Ebert's review. So, watching the story unfold wasn't such a blow.

I will admit that the dialogue was "eh" and the delivery of lines were often times overdramatic and/or out of place. But that didn't stop me from keeping paying attention.

The basic moral of the story is... "Take care of your planet or else it's going to turn on you just like that." And alot of people may laugh it up, but that's ignorance showing his mean, old head. Alot of people probably think what happens in the film is totally "impossible." Well lemme tell you something folks, most anything is possible in this world, and I wouldn't be surprised if this world just suddenly decided to exterminate us like in The Happening. I wouldn't oppose it either. We've ruined this planet from head to toe and turned this beautiful blue and green ball floating in outerspace into one giant, fucking shopping mall; we'd deserve our extermination. Call me an idiot, a meanhead, a psycho, the devil, or what have you, but you know I'm right when I say the possibility is there.

The Happening is for non-one-dimensional, open-minded, intelligent human beings with attention spans.

B-

[Cleveland Transplant]

I consider myself a pretty socially aware person, being involved in things such as Amnesty and Oxfam.

And I still think M Night could have filmed himself taking a dump would be on par with The Happening. Everything about it was terrible.

[StewieG]

Just got back from it. This is the absolute last one of his films I'm seeing in the theatre. I just blew $10 freaking dollars on that crap. EVERYONE leaving the theater had the same pissed off look I had. All 20 of them, that is. Just awful.

The one good thing, near the end, there's an old lady. She's hysterically funny. She's not supposed to be hysterically funny, but she is.

[Bill the Butcher]

Roger Ebert's Review of The Happening

Dog it all you want. Taking in account all Hollywood feature films made in history, this film isn't the worst one ever made. Besides, "the worst film ever made" is a perception and only a perception.

"In alarming prospect, and all the more so because there has been a recent decline in the honeybee population. Perhaps it is comforting to know that Einstein never said any such thing -- less comforting, of course, for the bees. The quotation appears on a blackboard near the beginning of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening," a movie that I find oddly touching. It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season, but I appreciate the quietly realistic way Shyamalan finds to tell a story about the possible death of man.

One day in Central Park, people start to lose their trains of thought. They begin walking backward. They start killing themselves. This behavior spreads through Manhattan, and then all of the Northeast. Construction workers throw themselves from scaffolds. Policeman shoot themselves. The deaths are blamed on a "terrorist attack," but in fact no one has the slightest clue, and New York City is evacuated.

We meet Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a Philadelphia high school science teacher; the quote was on his blackboard. We meet his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel); his friend, Julian (John Leguizamo), and Julian's daughter, Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). They find themselves fleeing on a train to Harrisburg, Pa., although people learn from their cell phones that the plague, or whatever it is, may have jumped ahead of them.

Now consider how Shyamalan shows the exodus from Philadelphia. He avoids all the conventional scenes of riots in the train station, people killing Philadelphia, not New York, and shows the population as quiet and apprehensive. If you don't know what you're fleeing, how would you behave? Like this, I suspect.

Julian entrusts his daughter to Elliot and Alma, and goes in search of his wife. The train stops -- permanently -- at a town. The three hitch a ride in a stranger's car, and later meet others who are fleeing, from what or to what, they do not know. Elliot meets a man who talks about a way plants have of creating hormones to kill their enemies, and he develops a half-baked theory that man may have finally delivered too many insults to the grasses and the shrubs, the flowers and the trees, and their revenge is in the wind.

By now the three are trekking cross-country through Pennsylvania, joined by two young boys, who they will eventually lose. They walk on, the wind moaning ominously behind them, and come to the isolated country home of Mrs. Jones (Betty Buckley), a very odd old lady. Here they eat and spend the night and other events take place, and Elliot and Alma find an opportunity to discuss their love and reveal some secrets and speculate about what dread manifestation has overtaken the world.

Too uneventful for you? Not enough action? For me, Shyamalan's approach is more effective than smash-and-grab plot-mongering. His use of the landscape is disturbingly effective. The performances by Wahlberg and Deschanel bring a quiet dignity to their characters. The strangeness of starting a day in New York and ending it by hiking across a country field is underlined. Most of the other people we meet, not all, are muted and introspective. Had they been half-expecting some such "event" as this?

I know I have. For some time the thought has been gathering at the back of my mind that we are in the final act. We have finally insulted the planet so much that it can no longer sustain us. It is exhausted. It never occurred to me that vegetation might exterminate us. In fact, the form of the planet's revenge remains undefined in my thoughts, although I have read of rising sea levels and the ends of species.

What I admire about "The Happening" is that its pace and substance allowed me to examine such thoughts, and to ask how I might respond to a wake-up call from nature. Shyamalan allows his characters space and time as they look within themselves. Those they meet on the way are such as they might indeed plausibly meet. Even the TV and radio news is done correctly, as convenient cliches about terrorism give way to bewilderment and apprehension.

I suspect I'll be in the minority in praising this film. It will be described as empty, uneventful, meandering. But for some, it will weave a spell. It is a parable, yes, but it is also simply the story of these people and how their lives and existence have suddenly become problematic. We depend on such a superstructure to maintain us that one or two alterations could leave us stranded and wandering through a field, if we are that lucky."

[buckeye319]

Haven't seen the movie, and not sure I will, but the idea of nature turning against man is certainly intriguing.

Reminds me of The Twilight Zone.

[Bill the Butcher]

Haven't seen the movie, and not sure I will, but the idea of nature turning against man is certainly intriguing.

Reminds me of The Twilight Zone.

It surely is intriguing, especially to me.

But like I said, I think what really ruined this film for a majority of people is that the trailer made it look like a monster movie. And then when unknowing people went to see it, 10% of them were pleasantly surprised and the rest had the rug slipped right under them.

[StewieG]

I never really thought it was a monster, per se...but I did think it was some sort of mythical force, and not what it turned out to be. But regardless, I hated it.

Really, aside from the Sixth Sense, I haven't really liked his movies. Signs was ok, and I thought the Village was ok (though I figured out the twist like 3 minutes into the movie)...HATED Unbreakable for whatever reason, and Lady of the Water was just a flat out waste. I'm the dolt that keeps paying for it though, I guess. But like I said, this is the absolute last one of his films I see in the theater, even if his next piece of crap gets glowing reviews.

[jb]

I think what brought about the bad talk and harsh criticism was that the audience feels duped. The trailer made it look out to be a typical suspense-thriller with some kind of being with legs just rampaging throughout the country killing people. I can understand how a majority of the (uninformed) audience can feel, like I said, duped.

I did my homework before seeing a film, as I do with every film I'm about to see, and what work really told me about the concept of the film was Roger Ebert's review. So, watching the story unfold wasn't such a blow.

I will admit that the dialogue was "eh" and the delivery of lines were often times overdramatic and/or out of place. But that didn't stop me from keeping paying attention.

The basic moral of the story is... "Take care of your planet or else it's going to turn on you just like that." And alot of people may laugh it up, but that's ignorance showing his mean, old head. Alot of people probably think what happens in the film is totally "impossible." Well lemme tell you something folks, most anything is possible in this world, and I wouldn't be surprised if this world just suddenly decided to exterminate us like in The Happening. I wouldn't oppose it either. We've ruined this planet from head to toe and turned this beautiful blue and green ball floating in outerspace into one giant, fucking shopping mall; we'd deserve our extermination. Call me an idiot, a meanhead, a psycho, the devil, or what have you, but you know I'm right when I say the possibility is there.

The Happening is for non-one-dimensional, open-minded, intelligent human beings with attention spans.

B-

BB - I give you lots of credit for going contraian on a forum.

I am a big fan of MSN and agree that most who don't like his first 3 just don't put the mental energy into it and suspend their own disbelief to just get into it. But I also won't disrespect tham becasue it's all subjective. For example, I have thought every Steven King movie I've ever seen was the silliest most contrived POS and I usually LOL at them. They are all stupid plots filled with stupider characters. I consider them simple minded. But I don't suspend disbelief, so i don't give them a chance. Personally, I even enjoyed The Village.

Having said that, I've spoken to lots of MNS real fans and they say this is a huge egg laid.

Maybe I'll join you and rent it eventually.

[Bill the Butcher]

I mean no disrespect to anybody AT ALL with my semi-review of the film.

The way I see it, though, is that MNS is trying to teach us a lesson, a simple lesson, with The Happening... but alot of people are just shrugging it off.

[Guest]

As stated...my opinion of MNS films started at the top, and gradually moved south.

I thought I was at the bottom for "Lady In the Water".

I was wrong.

Details tomorrow.

EDIT...and BTW, I'm not exactly in the Rush Limbaugh camp politically...although I do my damndest to keep those opinions out of any column I write.

MNS is a Tree-Hugger-Hater's wet dream. Someone so friggin' over the top with the message that he makes the moderates in "his camp" go..."dood! STFU!"

[rawdawgexpress]

Sorry I'm late to the game but I saw the movie last nite and really liked it. But I'm a big fan of MNS. I also like Marky Mark, and I can name 5 awesome movies he's been in for every 1 that's crap.

I guess I'm a fan of movies that are original, and at least try to carve out new territory. I think everyone also appreciates it, that's why this thread has 35 comments, and Indiana Jones barely merits a couple. I think that people's disappointment in this movie comes with him having such high expectations that are impossible to meet. Such are the criteria that people who didn't like "The Happening" but like the new "Incredible Hulk". Really? You only like things that you've already seen before?

Anyways,

The Manchurian Candidate: The Cold War:: The Happening: Global Warming

Mark it down for future reference. And I'm talking about the original Manchurian Candidate- with Frank Sinatra.

M Night's movies are about how the Extraordinary taking place within the context of the Ordinary moves us, and can enlighten our everyday actions. Yet he is so skillful, his Ordinary is very compelling. People talk to each other in his movies how we talk to each other, and people are recognizable. We know them. This is why we hold him to such a higher standard, and expect more. We want to see more of ourselves. My take is that they will show M Night S movies in 50 years to classes to show what life was like for us in these 9/11 times.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I definitely have alot of anxiety about the prospect of Global Warming, and I relate it to my worry as a boy about the Russians nuking us.

For those of you under 25 years old you may not know how prevalent our collective psyche was affected by the ever-present fear of Global Thermonuclear War. Put it this way, I remember a day in 8th grade (?1985) and a loud plane flew over the school, it sounded military in nature. One of my classmates said, half-jokingly, Uhh-oh, its World War III. And I was totally thinking the same thing.

As to why people don't like this movie, and its getting bad reviews, I owe it to two reasons:
1) Zooey Deschanel was terrible, and her poor acting took the life out of what really should be driving the movie, the relationship between her and Marky Mark.

2)MNS is actually ahead of his time by a couple of years, and most people probably don't fear global warming yet. But they will. He missed the "zeitgeist", IMHO.

But I predict, like all good record albums, this movie will be a grower, and take its rightful place if not as part of the canon, than definitley as an awesome cult movie in the next few years.

[Bill the Butcher]

But I predict, like all good record albums, this movie will be a grower, and take its rightful place if not as part of the canon, than definitley as an awesome cult movie in the next few years.

Me too.

I also liked your statement about our society screening this film 50 years down the road to students showing how we reacted post-9/11.

We're also much more cynical now, and I truly believe that if this film had been made in the 50s, it would have had a huge impact. Like War of the Worlds was on 1930s radio.

[GreatGoo]

2)MNS is actually ahead of his time by a couple of years, and most people probably don't fear global warming yet. But they will. He missed the "zeitgeist", IMHO.

So in a couple of years the world is going to really start fearing global warning?

Let me guess. Flowers are going to begin eating peoples toes.

[Bill the Butcher]

Let me guess. Flowers are going to begin eating peoples toes.

If the Happening had depicted plants and trees biting people heads off, then your statement would be alright.

This what I'm saying; people are laughing and shrugging it off.

I personally don't believe it's Global Warming or anything specific, but the lesson in the film that is trying to be taught is simple. But nobody will listen.

[GreatGoo]

Let me guess. Flowers are going to begin eating peoples toes.

If the Happening had depicted plants and trees biting people heads off, then your statement would be alright.

This what I'm saying; people are laughing and shrugging it off.

I personally don't believe it's Global Warming or anything specific, but the lesson in the film that is trying to be taught is simple. But nobody will listen.

Sorry the trees farted gas

[Bill the Butcher]

Sorry the trees farted gas

Some type of toxic gas/chemicals in the film.

Oxygen, in current reality.

[mmonast]

the only lesson this shitty film is trying to teach is how to not make a scary movie or how to scam moviegoers out of their hard earned cash

[Bill the Butcher]

or how to scam moviegoers out of their hard earned cash

I think MNS purposely made the trailer look out to be a thriller with a human-eating creature. If the trailer was just trees, people wouldn't go and see it. He scammed you for your own good. Like what good parents do to their children.

[XUDawg]

The basic moral of the story is... "Take care of your planet or else it's going to turn on you just like that." And alot of people may laugh it up, but that's ignorance showing his mean, old head. Alot of people probably think what happens in the film is totally "impossible." Well lemme tell you something folks, most anything is possible in this world, and I wouldn't be surprised if this world just suddenly decided to exterminate us like in The Happening. I wouldn't oppose it either. We've ruined this planet from head to toe and turned this beautiful blue and green ball floating in outerspace into one giant, fucking shopping mall; we'd deserve our extermination. Call me an idiot, a meanhead, a psycho, the devil, or what have you, but you know I'm right when I say the possibility is there.

People don't go to movies to get preached at. They go to be entertained. If the guy feels like he has to "dupe" people into seeing his global warming movie, maybe his message is a little bent. If it is important enough he should tell them upfront, instead of stealing their money and then saying "Gotcha!" If you care that much, don't try to make the movie out to be something it's not to fool people into seeing it.

If you want to teach a lesson to people, pissing them off with a horrible movie is not the best way. This guy is showing more and more each movie that he is a no talent ass clown hack.

[Bill the Butcher]

Fair enough, XUDawg. Good point.

[jb]

Let me guess. Flowers are going to begin eating peoples toes.

If the Happening had depicted plants and trees biting people heads off, then your statement would be alright.

This what I'm saying; people are laughing and shrugging it off.

I personally don't believe it's Global Warming or anything specific, but the lesson in the film that is trying to be taught is simple. But nobody will listen.

That's Little Shop of Horrors, and I generally HATE musicals !

[Hi Oktane]

Call me...a meanhead...or what have you...

Meanhead? Really?

[Guest]

Shyamlan is a very predictable director. It took me like 15 mintues to figure out The 6th Sense plot twist. So I left the theater $8 poorer. Just say no to Shyamlan. Unbreakable was the best out of his films which isnt saying much. The Village and Sings I walked out of.

No sh!% , you walked out of "Signs" ?

That's one of the best films I've ever seen, but that' s just me. I thought it was rivoting and amazing. The dinner table scene is incredible. Maybe I'm just an old softie and father, but telling the kids stories about how they were when they were born when they are all scared to death and facing possible doom makes me literally well up as if I imagine John Elway opting to be Kirk Gibson.

Then again, I think MNS is strictly an aquiired taste and his body of work lends itself to love or hate. I even didn't hate The Village and I keep forgetting to get Lady in the Water altho I have seen da bittie in da tub.

Potayto
Potahto

Damn, JB, you and me is having a disagreement week.

The Sixth Sense - good, despite the fact that I figured out the "twist" early on.

Unbreakable - liked it well enough, although the end was a bit hokey.

Then came Signs, which I just WISH I had been lucky enough to walk out of. When it came out, I was quite eager to watch it. In my opinion, it started good, then less good, then less good, then climaxed with an ending so dumb that I felt physical pain.

But hey, I figured, everyone gets to have their dud. So I went to see The Village in the theater as well. I only sat through that disaster in order to BOO as loud as I could.

That was the last M Night movie I will ever watch. Someone oughtta just shoot him and put him (and us) out of his misery.

Fortunately, after 3 trainwrecks in a row, he'll probably never direct again.

[jb]

Then came Signs, which I just WISH I had been lucky enough to walk out of. When it came out, I was quite eager to watch it. In my opinion, it started good, then less good, then less good, then climaxed with an ending so dumb that I felt physical pain.

Out of curiosity, what about all the synchronicity made you ill?

[swerb]

Am I the only one that didn't figure out the twist in "The Sixth Sense" the first time I saw it?

Blindsided me.

[Guest]

Then came Signs, which I just WISH I had been lucky enough to walk out of. When it came out, I was quite eager to watch it. In my opinion, it started good, then less good, then less good, then climaxed with an ending so dumb that I felt physical pain.

Out of curiosity, what about all the synchronicity made you ill?

I think it was the synchronicity itself. I found it hokey. The alien, the bat, Mel becoming a priest again... ick.

And water kills the aliens? Maybe they should've done their due diligence before invading a planet covered in the stuff.

I'm sure I'm in the minority on this. Can't help it. It made me gag.

[Guest]

Am I the only one that didn't figure out the twist in "The Sixth Sense" the first time I saw it?

Blindsided me.

To be fair, Swerb, I saw the movie several weeks after it had come out, and had heard from many a source that there was a "twist" at the end, so I was looking for it.