Good Bad Flicks Presents The Happening

[dkcecil]

This is the last of my misunderstood mainstream movies for this month.

The last in the mainstream list is the 2008 Thriller The Happening.

In my reviews I often dissect the movie. I don't give away everything but it still falls into spoiler territory. So please don't watch the episode if you are afraid I'll ruin the movie. I will say, I've have had numerous people that seek the movies out after they've seen my videos and told me the film was still highly enjoyable. So take that as you will.

With that out of the way, please enjoy the show.

[http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/9996/happeningposterbig.jpg]​

The Happening

For my last misunderstood mainstream film, I wanted to focus on M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. M Night is a director that gets flack for no good reason. His movies are unique, well shot, and always entertaining. I take a look at his history and talk about how I feel he has become some sort of scapegoat for hollywood.

Comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated.

If you want to see some of my older reviews head over here. [http://www.goodbadflicks.com/]

<color=purple>Other Reviews on Escapist: <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.284667-Good-Bad-Flicks-Presents-Friday-the-13th-Part-VII-The-New-Blood#11211911>Friday the 13th Part VII <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.273761-Good-Bad-Flicks-Reviews-Super-Mario-Bros#10579896>Super Mario Bros <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.291225-Good-Bad-Flicks-Presents-Stay-Alive#11566557>Stay Alive

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I completely agree with you on how unfair Nights critics are. Though he's not my favourite director, his name on a film will likely yield a paid cinema ticket from me.

That said... The Happening wasn't for me. It has all the hallmarks of good direction, but a horrible foundation, some iffy acting and a daft plot (in my opinion of course). Now don't get me wrong, a daft plot can work, in fact until the last 1/2 hour, I was starting to get into it. Not sure what threw me off at the end though.

However I can't ignore the wooden acting, the gratuitous violence (though as you said there was something subtle going on behind the gore and death, it didn't change the fact it felt forced and immature... like a kid was in charge of those scenes) and wonky pacing (can't explain this one, it's something that just rubs me the wrong way).

For me, the sum of it's parts wore down any potential for this film.

Not an awful film, I still sat through it laughed and gasped appropriately... or not, but possibly his worst film, by a fair margin.

Good review though. I want to watch it again with a bit more clarity this time, though I doubt my verdict will change.

 

[dkcecil]

I completely agree with you on how unfair Nights critics are. Though he's not my favourite director, his name on a film will likely yield a paid cinema ticket from me.

That said... The Happening wasn't for me. It has all the hallmarks of good direction, but a horrible foundation, some iffy acting and a daft plot (in my opinion of course). Now don't get me wrong, a daft plot can work, in fact until the last 1/2 hour, I was starting to get into it. Not sure what threw me off at the end though.

However I can't ignore the wooden acting, the gratuitous violence (though as you said there was something subtle going on behind the gore and death, it didn't change the fact it felt forced and immature... like a kid was in charge of those scenes) and wonky pacing (can't explain this one, it's something that just rubs me the wrong way).

For me, the sum of it's parts wore down any potential for this film.

Not an awful film, I still sat through it laughed and gasped appropriately... or not, but possibly his worst film, by a fair margin.

Good review though. I want to watch it again with a bit more clarity this time, though I doubt my verdict will change.

Thank you!

I think what he was trying to accomplish here was more of a throwback to the old 50's paranoia flicks. Zooey's acting was a bit rough but aside from that I didn't really mind. I can understand some folks not liking it but to me it felt like people went in already convinced they would hate it. I mean, there were videos up of people booing at the trailers.

As far as the violence, he actually dialed it back even further. I read the original screenplay (the green effect) and there was plenty more scenes of people killing themselves in elaborate ways. (people smashing their faces into their windshields, the two kids towards the end set themselves on fire, Mrs Jones stabbing herself to death with her cross necklace) It would have been almost a completely different film if he went in that direction. I think he was so angry with the treatment of Lady in the Water that he took it out on the people in the screenplay.

Hmmm...odd you say the pacing was off. I thought it went briskly but I know sometimes that is just a personal thing. I know some folks that thought Avatar was slow but I thought it flowed very well.

Thanks again.

 

[Marter]

I actually liked The Happening, but not really for the reasons you mentioned. To me, it was a laugh-fest, mostly thanks to how preposterous the story seems and because of the ... let's call it "lackluster" acting. It's just so funny that I enjoy watching it.

I must disagree with what you said about Lady in the Water though. That was just a brutal film, and the trailer, which I hadn't seen in ~5 years before watching it, and therefore didn't remember it, did not taint my experience. It was just terrible.

 

[Pinkamena]

Oh my God I remember this movie. I couldn't take it serious, I just sat and laughed through the movie. I hadn't heard of it actually, so I thought it was supposed to be "scary-funny" like the Scary Movie movies. First afterwards I've heard that it didn't try to be a comedy.

 

[dkcecil]

I actually liked The Happening, but not really for the reasons you mentioned. To me, it was a laugh-fest, mostly thanks to how preposterous the story seems and because of the ... let's call it "lackluster" acting. It's just so funny that I enjoy watching it.

I must disagree with what you said about Lady in the Water though. That was just a brutal film, and the trailer, which I hadn't seen in ~5 years before watching it, and therefore didn't remember it, did not taint my experience. It was just terrible.

It's not a scary movie but an enjoyable one. I did find some of the tension believable and at times I was unsettled. I did find humor in some of the things, like Wahlberg talking to a plant, which I why I goofed on them in the video.

As far as Lady in the Water, I stand by my statement. I had a group of friends that went to see it and they were pissed because they wanted a horror movie. If you go on to the IMDB message boards you will still see people there debating over the movie sucking because it wasn't scary. I didn't mention it in the video but I loved Lady in the Water. Not in a enjoyable but campy way like the Happening but really genuinely loved.

Oh my God I remember this movie. I couldn't take it serious, I just sat and laughed through the movie. I hadn't heard of it actually, so I thought it was supposed to be "scary-funny" like the Scary Movie movies. First afterwards I've heard that it didn't try to be a comedy.

I grew up watching Creature Double Feature (as well as Kung fu theater) on Saturdays when I was young and to me The Happening felt like it was right in line with those old films. (which may also explain my higher threshold for this sort of thing)

It befuddles me that people can watch a trilogy of movies about vehicles that can turn into robots but for some reason The Happening is too far out of their suspension of disbelief.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I actually liked The Happening, but not really for the reasons you mentioned. To me, it was a laugh-fest, mostly thanks to how preposterous the story seems and because of the ... let's call it "lackluster" acting. It's just so funny that I enjoy watching it.

Oh my God I remember this movie. I couldn't take it serious, I just sat and laughed through the movie. I hadn't heard of it actually, so I thought it was supposed to be "scary-funny" like the Scary Movie movies. First afterwards I've heard that it didn't try to be a comedy.

Both of these. I saw it with some friends in the theater and we were the only ones laughing in the theater. The acting was just so bad, I thought both Marky Mark and Zoey were horrible. And, the dialogue was pretty easy to make fun of. We even considered sneaking in some liqueur and taking a shot after every time "happening" was said, we would've been full blown drunk if we did. The story was also so bad, really plants evolving all together, talking to each other, and killing us. I agree with the movie's message but it was done so in your face and in such a ridiculous fashion. Plus, the movie ends in France, which probably has the cleanest energy as they get over 75% of their electricity from nuclear power.

I don't think M. Night is a horrible director, there are many worse directors. I was really thinking The Last Airbender would be good as I did feel he was a good director and it wasn't an original story written by him, but the movie was horrible. I still remember the dinner scene in Unbreakable where the son is pointing a gun at Bruce Willis' character; it was done all on handheld camera with no cuts, the scene was just shot so perfectly and the tension was through-the-roof.

 

[dkcecil]

Both of these. I saw it with some friends in the theater and we were the only ones laughing in the theater. The acting was just so bad, I thought both Marky Mark and Zoey were horrible. And, the dialogue was pretty easy to make fun of. We even considered sneaking in some liqueur and taking a shot after every time "happening" was said, we would've been full blown drunk if we did. The story was also so bad, really plants evolving all together, talking to each other, and killing us. I agree with the movie's message but it was done so in your face and in such a ridiculous fashion. Plus, the movie ends in France, which probably has the cleanest energy as they get over 75% of their electricity from nuclear power.

I don't think M. Night is a horrible director, there are many worse directors. I was really thinking The Last Airbender would be good as I did feel he was a good director and it wasn't an original story written by him, but the movie was horrible. I still remember the dinner scene in Unbreakable where the son is pointing a gun at Bruce Willis' character; it was done all on handheld camera with no cuts, the scene was just shot so perfectly and the tension was through-the-roof.

I actually cut out some of the times they said "happening" because it started to drag the pace of the joke. As I said before, the dialog needed some tweaking but I still enjoyed it. Sorry you didn't like it but thanks for watching the video.

The clean energy thing is perhaps not what you think it is. As I said in the video, it could have been "plants". The northeast is filled with nuclear power plants and then the movie end in France which gets most of their electricity from nuclear power. It's never outright said what the cause of the event was. It is left to our imagination, which often times is much better than spelling it out.

That scene in Unbreakable was riveting. I think I stopped breathing there for a minute while it was transpiring. Amazing stuff.