The Happening

[Sixty]

He seemed pretty serious about it in the TV ad I saw the other day. I think he said it was 'intense' and 'scary'. Usual promotional talk, basically.

The fact the writer/director was hyping his own film in the advert sets alarm bells ringing, though. Especially since after his early success he insisted they didn't mention anything about his new films being "from the director of The Sixth Sense..." in their trailers. Very suspect.

I actually liked The Village, though. It was different and had nice music.

[Spatial]

Why do people think the film is meant to be taken seriously?

Probably because he thinks he's making some clever social commentary. And the cast aren't playing for laughs either.

The guy's a fantastic director but his stories are the kind of utter bobbins you get from feeding a load of kids blue Smarties and then sticking them in front of a typewriter .

The only film of his I've ever liked was Unbreakable and that was because it was a total from start to finish.

[cutmymilk]

Heh, I just went on his IMDB page as I couldnt remember whether sixth sense or unbreakable came first and found out something I didnt know... I mean, spot the odd one out of the films he's written!

# The Happening (2008) (written by)
# Lady in the Water (2006) (written by)
# The Village (2004) (written by)
... aka Grey (Philippines: English title: review title)
... aka M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (USA: promotional title)
# Signs (2002) (written by)
... aka M. Night Shyamalan's Signs (USA: promotional title)
# Unbreakable (2000) (written by)
# Stuart Little (1999) (screenplay)
# The Sixth Sense (1999) (written by)
# Wide Awake (1998) (written by)
# Praying with Anger (1992) (written by)

[SuperBeatBoy]

The last film i watched by him was Signs. I gave him some Signs after that.

[funkydan]

Why do people think the film is meant to be taken seriously?

Because it has the whole '

->Open Spoiler<-

treat the earth and plants etc with kindness or some mysterious invisible loony plant related force thing will come and kill us all unless we're in unmenacing groups of less than 5, or is it 3?

' thing going on! It takes itself too seriously, and for that reason it's laughable, and not in a good way. I appreciate that Night is writing original stories, a bold step in this day and age of constant remakes, sequels and reimaginings - but I can't like his film cos it's a load of ol' tosh!

[PrayforMojo]

I'm not a big fan of M Night Whatshisname, but I quite liked this. It's well goofy. Like a zombie film but instead of zombies there's

->Open Spoiler<-

wind

.

Like in his previous films, there's a seed of a good idea in there, but it's let down by some syrupy sentimentality and a script that doesn't do its actors any favours. I mean, making poor Marky Mark perform a scene with a

->Open Spoiler<-

rubber plant

was just outright cruel.

[Peekay]

The Happening

Anyone seen this?

I remember seeing Mark Wahlberg on Johnathan Ross a while ago (maybe six months or so). "That looks okay", I thought. Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense were both superb films and The Village was decent enough, (haven't seen Lady in the Lake or Signs) so I fully expected this to be okay.

I should have been suspicious when it just kind of disappeared, although this was around the time I left for Korea so I didn't think much of it. I bought it on DVD (23,000 won - about 11 quid, very expensive for a new release here) the other day.

It's one of the worst films I've ever seen. Seriously. Nearly as bad as Spartan with Val Kilmer. Unbelievably poor script ("mother of God what kind of terrorists are these?"). Flat, wooden performances. Zooey Deschanel has this strange way of murmuring her lines so the essential point of them is lost ("I don't like to show my emotions either"). Wahlberg is excellent when he has a good director (Boogie Nights, The Departed) and bobbins when he doesn't get good direction (many, many films). He didn't get good direction here. Perhaps the most galling aspect is the way Shymalan rants and raves on the extras about how scary, exciting, and ground-breaking the film is.

I'd be interested to hear what other people thought of it.

[buster_broon]

clicky

[spagmasterswift]

I'm looking forward to watching the extras on the DVD - its Movie of the Year crown was snatched away last night by WALL*E...though Gone Baby Gone ties with it imo. If only I didn't have to go to Wales this weekend, Id be all over that, reading this thread has made me want to watch it again, like now!!!

[Richard.John]

The lack of obvious panic was the most jarring. Nobody seemed to give a **** for some reason.

[Darwock]

I won't get those two hours back will I... was that bit with the man feeding his arms to the lion supposed to be disturbing? I suspect it was.

The director is a tosser!