Shymalan gets flack because his movies are pretentious pieces of crap. They play like bloated Twilight Zone episodes. Instead of a zinger at the end, Night hits the audience with a shovel in an attempt to get everyone to talk about him. He had so much success with the concept of the Sixth Sense that he wants to recreate all that buzz in every movie. The more he forces the clumsier he gets. The result are 2 hour long bore fests. By the time the ending arrives the viewer doesn't really care about the reveal and just wants it to be over.

I dunno, while I like movies that have a twist, this one's premise seemed pretty far fetched. If the premise goes too far, if its so unbelievable in it's own world, it can alienate a viewer.

OK - M.Nyght.Shamalamadingdong.

I loved Unbreakable - probably one of my favorite movies.
I loved The 6th Sense - watched it again recently because the woman never saw it..

After that - not so much.

I went and saw this in the Theaters and it's on my list of movies I wish I never paid to watch (Right up there with the Incredible Hulk - not the Ed norton one but that other Piece of shit that came out previously).

1st BIG issue - I love Marky Mark but have no clue why he decided to adopt the whiney voice for his character. Every scene, every sentence it sounded like he was whining while delivering all his lines which really really really grated my ears.

2nd BIG issue - the whole TWIST that this guy loves to give us didn't even come at the end. he F'n gave it away right there in the middle and then I'm forced to watch the rest of the movie.

I'm shivering just thinking about this blasted movie and how much I hated it.

Thanks for ruining my whole day
:-)

@GOTA In the 9 movies he has made, only 3 have twists. So saying he is trying to recreate the success of The 6th Sense is incorrect. I don't find his movies boring at all. What I do find boring is the current crop of ADD fests that are calling themselves movies. They have no substance, bad writing, and bad directing and yet no one gives those directors half the grief M Night gets. As for him being pretentious, he was at our University recently and was very humble and genuinely a nice guy. He is very involved in education (in Philly) and isn't this arrogant jackass people say he is.

@bsesb2003 There was no twist. A twist would have been if the whole movie we thought it was the government but it ended up being the plants. Instead it was left up to the viewers imagination as to what was causing it. Was it the plants? Was it an experiment gone wrong? (they mention this in one of the newscasts) Also, why is this so far fetched? There are already toxins released by plants that can have a negative effect on humans. (pollen) Now, granted, it's not taking over our minds but look at psychotropic mushrooms. If we eat them we will hallucinate. This is kind of that concept taken to the extreme, which is the very foundation of Fiction. You take a kernal of truth and then expand it into the fantastical. Why is this any more difficult to believe than, let's say, Aliens that have acid for blood and use humans for hosts?

@grrouchie again, there was no twist. Marky Mark was trying to play a very low key science teacher, hence why he had the whiny voice. (which I didn't think was all that whiny, I thought Zooey was worse) Beyond the movie being about people inhaling something that makes them kill themselves the movie was about Elliot and Alma's relationship being strengthened by surviving a cataclysmic event.

To reiterate, he doesn't "love" to give us twists in his movies. Of the 9 movies he's directed, only 3 have twists.

Ok, u can reaffirm my fate in M. Night. But the wooden acting by deschanel, and even Marky Mark just hurt this flick. I mean you didn't even mention the long shots of Trees blowing in the wind, which are meant to inspire fear.
Now, I consider myself a guy who can suspend disbelief but C'mon, no matter the context you can't show me a scene where a guy talks to a plant in such a ridiculously scared manner and expect me to go along with it. I get the message, I do. but perhaps this is one movie where the idea just cannot translate into film.

I looked at my Criticker ranking list and The Happening is apparently my lowest rated movie of all time

What got me about the movie was the terrible acting. There were some pretty respectable actors just bombing throughout the entire thing. I was laughing when things were supposed to be serious simply because of how badly presented the characters were. I actually enjoyed it for the completely wrong reasons, namely, making fun of it for all but the first 10 minutes.

@ DKCECIL

Yes, there are tons of crap-fests with bad scripting etc...however, those crapfests are generally fun-to-watch flicks that may not take themselves seriously.

The happening had one of the worst screenplays to ever grace the big screen. EVER! Also, I am not an acting coach, but I was also heavily disappointed in Marky Marks acting, one of the worst jobs I have seen.

Here is a scene from the movie to sum up the happening...

Actor: Man, we need a car.
(Vehicle pulls up directly in front of man)
Actor (in cheesy exagerrated voice): Oh look, a car.

In my assumption I was guessing you were referencing all the action summer movies that flood the market every year, was I correct? I enjoy those movies to be honest, they are fun, and in the end, thats the point of cinema, to escape or entertain.

I recently did my thesis on Tom Gunning's theory on cinema of attractions...well, I refuted his theory based off of works over 100 years old, stating that he was incorrect in his description of the cinema of attractions. My main point was that attractions compose every aspect of cinema, cinema as a whole is an attraction.

@soliddragon I goofed on Marky Mark talking to the plant in the video. Some things did go a bit far but in the world of the film I thought it seemed fine. Who knows? It was a callback to earlier where the hot dog guy was talking positively to plants. People do weird things under duress. As far a the trees blowing, it was just adding to the atmosphere of the movie. I didn't think the movie went that far out of the realm of possibility...but I did just watch a movie called Rubber about a tire that has destructive telepathic abilities, so my suspension of disbelief may go further than others.

@panzerfaust Then you need to see more movies. I take it you've never seen Manos the hands of fate, The Hillz, or House of the Dead?

@Halo05 I thought Zooey was the only one that didn't give the best performance. I thought Wahlberg and Leguizamo were fine. Wahlberg was playing a mellow science teacher and not a tough cop or tough sniper or tough anything so I thought it was nice to see him step outside of his usual roles. No, they weren't going to win any awards for their performances but they weren't awful.

@au7oma7ic I still don't see Marky Mark's acting as bad. Sorry, I just don't see it. I thought his performance here was better than The Big Hit or Planet of the Apes. As far as your summation of the scene in the happening, it was much more dramatic. After most everyone in the diner left a couple pulled up and offered them a ride. By your logic you could dumb down just about any scene in a movie ever.

Here is a scene from The Untouchables:

Actor: I'm here to talk about baseball
(man hands him a baseball bat)
Actor (in cheesy exagerrated voice): I have a baseball bat!

I disagree on this being one of the worst screenplays ever. It moved at a fast pace, it explained itself well and, to me at least, was never boring.

I wasn't referencing all summer action movies, just this recent crop of awful ones. I love a good action movie (Die Hard, Predator) and I even love cheesy over the top ones. Hell, a bunch of the movies I've praised on my show fall into that catagory. (Ninja 3, Deep Blue Sea, Angelfist) I just have a problem with this current trend of expensive garbage. Gamer was so all over the place it could give you seizures and I the color corrected ADD fests I was referring to is the Transformers movies. Give me an action movie with a decent plot and where I can see what is going on and I am happy.

I love movies, which is the point of my show. There were so many review shows out there that just take an easy target like Waterworld and blast the hell out of it. What I do is point out the entertainment value of certain movies I feel deserve some positive attention for a change. You are right, movies are meant to entertain, which is what I felt this movie did.

If you would like to share, I'd enjoy reading your thesis.

I saw this when it 1st opened. People were grumbling and getting upset the longer it ran. It was first time I saw droves of people getting up to get their money back. Somewhere around when he started to talk to the plant is when that happened.

Only reason I saw it was because my date wanted to see it. I sat through it but I doubt I'd ever watch it again. I'll check out the review later... I doubt there is a away give this a favorable view.

I liked the movie very much (I already have the DVD but I just picked up the Blu Ray the other day) but I recognize that I am in the minority.

Hope you enjoy the review when you get around to checking it out.