Happening

Review 1 of 24

Bsd613 writes:

2of 4 Stars

Movies don't come as lamer than this. Wahlenberg - couldn't you have been more choosy? After The Departed you had to settle for this? Zoey - you're beautiful...save yourself for the right film. Was the director that anxious to make a buck? The plot had so much potential and let us down with pathetic character development, a crappy ending, and too many unanswered questions. I will give him this much credit thought...he didn't give the plot away too soon because there was none.

Oct 28, 2008 13:06:14

Review 2 of 24

jtq7 writes:

1of 4 Stars

Wow,
even the great John Leguizamo couldn't save this
(green-horror?)movie.

Tho the message may be a noble one,
I reccomend you see The Last Winter,
which conveys this message and isn't laugh-out-loud rediculous.

Seriously, this film may be the worst movie I've seen this year.
Trees making people kill themselves?????????
I didn't care about any of the characters, and I was openly rooting for the trees.

And, no big M. Night surprise ending, which is the only reason I watched it to the end.

Oct 11, 2008 06:52:32

Review 3 of 24

roderickdeweever writes:

2of 4 Stars

M. Night Shyamalan's new film "The Happening" starts off with a bang! Bodies start dropping in Central Park and off the top of high rises under construction in Manhattan. The same infamous clips that have been airing for all the promotions, but in their full- length, tension-gripping glory, in what is probably the most spectacular opening of any of M. Night's films to date. Unfortunately, the film also possesses the most disappointing conclusion and mpst heavy-handed direction of any of his feature films.

After the eventful opening, the film goes into a lull as it sets up the main characters, namely Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) a high school teacher who's having marital issues with his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel). John Leguizamo plays Julian, Elliot's best friend and colleague at the high school, where he teaches Math, and Ashlyn Sanchez (Crash) plays Julian's daughter, Jess. The group gets stranded when the train they're on stops because of a loss of communication. The slow build up climaxes with a tense yet hilarious exodus of a diner in the small town. Sadly, this moment is the apex of the film, as the first flaws start appearing here on out. The initial flaws are minor and do not distract from the enjoyment of the film. And Shyamalan is still able to make audiences jump and laugh for most of the next hour. The characters he introduces on the protagonists' journey add suspense and humor, but no depth, and he sets up a lot of interesting elements, which are never cashed in.
.
However, these elements would have been forgivable, had the last five minutes of the film not be the last five minutes of the film. Shyamalan ends this film with an inexcusable, heavy-handed, over-preaching diatribe of humanity's abuse of mother-nature, and the most uneventful conclusion to such a grandiose build up that I can recall in cinematic history. Being blunt is not Shyamalan's style and it shows. His obtuse use of the characters, themes and tone of the film made him forget the structure he had been building on in the first twenty minutes, and all we are left with are brilliant fragments to what could have been an amazing feat. Mr. M. Night, what happened?

Jul 19, 2008 17:05:33

Review 4 of 24

wvufan07 writes:

3of 4 Stars

M. Night Shyamalan directs,writes, and produces his First R rated feature, and does a fine job doing so.
The thing that I have noticed about Shyamalans movies is that people (critics) keep on hating them, but I keep on apreciating them more and more. From the Sixth sense, to Sighns, to The Village, comes this chilling and disturbing movie The Happening. Mark Wahlberg (The Departed (Academy Award nomination) , Four Brothers, We Own The Night, and Shooter) who gives a sensational performence as Elliot Moore, a high school science teacher in New York. The first scene of the movie shows us a women talking to a friend in Central Park, and the epidemic hits, at first we see the girl's loss of speech, than we see her killing herself. The epidemic is spreading across the northeast, and nobody knows what to do. At first the people think that the epidemic is a terrorist attack, but no one can prove it. John Lequizamo plays Julian, Wahlbergs friend who is a math teacher at the same high school. Lequizamo is trying to find answers and his wife. While trying to find a safe hiding ground, Lequizamos wife couldn't make the train trip, and is left behind. Like a regular husband would do, he went back to find his wife in New York, and answers to why this unstoppable epidemic is even happening in the first place. While lequizamo is off looking for his wife, he leaves Elliot and his girlfriend, played by Zooey Deschanel (who I thought added absolutely no energy to this film) to take care of his younger daughter Jess played by Ashlyn Sanchez. What I admired most about The Happening is Shyamalans ability to tell a story without overdoing the whole thing in the process, and by only making a 91 minute movie. The movie then shows the epidemic lasting only one full day. Then the final scene (which I thought was stupid) in the movie shows us the epidemic happening in europe. After watching The Happening it made me think twice about the epidemic itself, can or will it ever happen in real life. That is the thought that is engraved in my mind, and will stay there. There are some flaws, there are some pretty corny scenes especially the opening scene in central park, and amateur, and pretty pathetic acting from Zooey Deschanel (she made Paris Hilton look like Cate Blanchett).
There are violent and disturbing scenes, that are well crafted by Shyamalan (this movie definitely deserves the R rating). What I liked the most about The Happening was Mark Wahlbergs performence as a science teacher (I thought that was memorable). I am probably in a small group that is actually recommending and liking this movie, and that's not suprising. I really enjoyed this movie and Wahlbergs performence. 3/4 Stars

Jul 12, 2008 23:30:39

Review 5 of 24

chuckmadruganorris writes:

4of 4 Stars

Night is my favorite director,and in this new movie he doesn't show that burden of the Sixth Sense anymore, it's totally different from his previous movies.Another characteristic of Night is that he gives the audience in his movies two choices: love it,or hate it.And,it was not different with The Happening,Peter hated it and I loved it.

Jul 5, 2008 20:15:52

Review 6 of 24

frankreed writes:

1of 4 Stars

From the concept, to the dialogue, to the characters, to the execution, this film was painfully bad. It was so bad, in fact, that I felt morally obligated to produce a parody. View THE CRAPPENING: THE HAPPENING PARODY here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx16epbyj9g

It pretty much sums up my thoughts of the film.

Jun 27, 2008 15:15:37

Review 7 of 24

easternmike writes:

2of 4 Stars

CHEESY CHEESY, LOW budget, non sense! I expected to see a few that were immune to the toxins rather than a few who could avoid a little bit of wind by mere feet and inches. My wife asked why some audience were laughing, I tried not to. Ashamed to mention it, for the first time in my life 33 years, we free hopped to another movie (meet the zohar) just to get our money’s worth at the theater, which put us out late but satisfied.

Jun 22, 2008 07:34:02

Review 8 of 24

soundgarden191 writes:

1of 4 Stars

My God, what have they done?
I'll start with the obvious problems: there wasn't a thrilling second in this movie. I was never on edge. The acting was so awful it was almost comical. In fact, I was laughing aloud at times. The plotline? Lemme give you a summary: a scary wind blows through the grass, and depending on how many people are standing in said grass, a toxin may or may not be released, causing the people to kill themselves. And, as the movie progresses, the grass becomes increasingly sensitive to humans and will release the toxin more often. So whereas the toxin was originally triggered only in major cities, by the end of the movie even one person standing in a field could set it off. There was never a real explanation for why the toxin only began releasing now, but if there was one, I'm sure it would be stupid. Also, every other line had the word "happen" in it. "What's happening?" "I can't believe this has happened!" "Why is it happening now?". The dialogue is unbelievably childish and retarded. Maybe this whole movie was done in a joking tone, but if you go in expecting an actual serious film, you will leave confused and unsatisfied.

Jun 19, 2008 22:31:47