"The Happening"? Not very happening.
I have about eight DVDs at home I need to watch, not because they're good, but because they're bad. And I know they are bad. I just want to see how bad they are, or if they have any merit in them. Watching bad movies is a guilty pleasure for me, and I don't mean in that nerdy, cult-following sort of way. It's perverse with me, almost a hunger. I don't binge on them - I'm watching my cinematic figure these days and my time is a lot more precious than it was before I started feeling those not-25-anymore pains in my back, so I’m cutting back to about one a week - but they do bring me an abstract pleasure.
There are movies that I have walked out of, or wanted to; I have my limits. But there are few things worse than thinking a film is going to be good and then realizing that it's bad. And not just poorly done, but bad from the rooter to the tooter, from concept to editing, from bland casting to full-bore idiocy.
This movie gave me hope. I WANT Shyamalan to win, to make movies that challenge Hollywood to change its concept of what people want out of films. In the end, this movie dashed those hopes. It's been coming, but really, this film was bad enough to crush those dreams for at least his next ten movies.
I get The Device. I’m a Stephen King fan going on thirty years now, so I'm very familiar with The Device. It's the "fake theme" trick, and I love it when it's used right. You know The Device: put regular folks in an irregular situation to make a larger point, not about the situation, but about the nature of man. King's "The Mist" isn't really a movie about people trapped in a grocery store by monsters; it's about how fragile the notion of society and civilization is when thoroughly tested. "The Stand" isn't about an apocalyptic war; it too is about the tenuous relationship between how much man can lose before the concept of civilization goes out the window. Similar points abound in “Pet Sematary”, “The Shining” and soon.
Shyamalan has also used The Device before to great effect. "Signs" isn't about an alien invasion. It is a film about a man's faith being tested that HAPPENS to take place during an alien invasion. So what he's trying to do with "The Happening" isn't exactly new to him or us, and that's why the whole exercise is so frustrating...because it's so poorly done. We've not only seen it done better in other films...we've seen it done better by Shyamalan.
Shyamalan is a petulant child, and his last two movies prove this. He refuses criticism and when he received it regarding "Lady in the Water", he jumped ship and took the script to another company who could care less what flaws his movies might have so long as they can put his name on the films. Of course, "Lady" backfired on him in this respect, but really: there aren't a lot of studios out there that won't pick this guy up over the next ten or so years. He's going to have to fall a little harder than to make happen if we're going to a) get a good movie out of the guy again or b) have him blackballed until he gets his act together. Someone will be willing to front the budget for him no matter how stupid the story is for a while yet. Maybe if this one does the same box-office as "Lady" we'll be closer to that end. If it does marginally better, it will be his temper tantrum giving him what he wants. Unfortunately, we may never get a good movie out of the guy again if it does. Like Prince, he's closed himself off from negative input. So we wait them out until they get it, end up broke or die.
Never would be too soon if I saw Zooey Deschanel staring back at me in another film, overplaying the deer-in-the-headlight expression like she's auditioning for a Dodge truck commercial. Apparently focusing on her one frightening expression (note the usage of the word here; that's not a typo) she was to make up for all of the expressions that Wahlberg was incapable of making with his one-shot face.
I spoil nothing by telling you that the "happening" itself is nature releasing toxins that make people want to kill themselves, presumably because man has done so many bad things to the planet. This is essentially revealed very early on, and I pride myself on my ability to turn off my cinematic detective and relish in the mystery, so if it hit me early on, it’d hit anybody. My four year old niece would have noted, very loudly and publicly in a theater, that "the trees are killing everybody". Well, big fucking whoop. For the record, we've been there and done that, albeit without the actual malevolence of trees and grass to fall back on as a plot device. Not unless you count of “Day of the Triffids”, which I don’t.
Anyhow, the movie is slow, ham-handed and despite a strong first ten minutes, filled with unnecessary characters and shoddy dialogue. Really: this is the kind of film a student makes, not the guy who wrote “The Sixth Sense”. So much for being the next Hitchcock or Spielberg.
This MIGHT be worth DVD if you’re a Shyamalan completist, but otherwise skip it.
Also: As I had 30 minutes to kill before the start of “The Happening” so I snuck into “Get Smart”. If you pay to see it, kill yourself. I loved the TV show. 30 minutes of the movie made me want to kill Steve Carrell.
There are movies that I have walked out of, or wanted to; I have my limits. But there are few things worse than thinking a film is going to be good and then realizing that it's bad. And not just poorly done, but bad from the rooter to the tooter, from concept to editing, from bland casting to full-bore idiocy.
This movie gave me hope. I WANT Shyamalan to win, to make movies that challenge Hollywood to change its concept of what people want out of films. In the end, this movie dashed those hopes. It's been coming, but really, this film was bad enough to crush those dreams for at least his next ten movies.
I get The Device. I’m a Stephen King fan going on thirty years now, so I'm very familiar with The Device. It's the "fake theme" trick, and I love it when it's used right. You know The Device: put regular folks in an irregular situation to make a larger point, not about the situation, but about the nature of man. King's "The Mist" isn't really a movie about people trapped in a grocery store by monsters; it's about how fragile the notion of society and civilization is when thoroughly tested. "The Stand" isn't about an apocalyptic war; it too is about the tenuous relationship between how much man can lose before the concept of civilization goes out the window. Similar points abound in “Pet Sematary”, “The Shining” and soon.
Shyamalan has also used The Device before to great effect. "Signs" isn't about an alien invasion. It is a film about a man's faith being tested that HAPPENS to take place during an alien invasion. So what he's trying to do with "The Happening" isn't exactly new to him or us, and that's why the whole exercise is so frustrating...because it's so poorly done. We've not only seen it done better in other films...we've seen it done better by Shyamalan.
Shyamalan is a petulant child, and his last two movies prove this. He refuses criticism and when he received it regarding "Lady in the Water", he jumped ship and took the script to another company who could care less what flaws his movies might have so long as they can put his name on the films. Of course, "Lady" backfired on him in this respect, but really: there aren't a lot of studios out there that won't pick this guy up over the next ten or so years. He's going to have to fall a little harder than to make happen if we're going to a) get a good movie out of the guy again or b) have him blackballed until he gets his act together. Someone will be willing to front the budget for him no matter how stupid the story is for a while yet. Maybe if this one does the same box-office as "Lady" we'll be closer to that end. If it does marginally better, it will be his temper tantrum giving him what he wants. Unfortunately, we may never get a good movie out of the guy again if it does. Like Prince, he's closed himself off from negative input. So we wait them out until they get it, end up broke or die.
Never would be too soon if I saw Zooey Deschanel staring back at me in another film, overplaying the deer-in-the-headlight expression like she's auditioning for a Dodge truck commercial. Apparently focusing on her one frightening expression (note the usage of the word here; that's not a typo) she was to make up for all of the expressions that Wahlberg was incapable of making with his one-shot face.
I spoil nothing by telling you that the "happening" itself is nature releasing toxins that make people want to kill themselves, presumably because man has done so many bad things to the planet. This is essentially revealed very early on, and I pride myself on my ability to turn off my cinematic detective and relish in the mystery, so if it hit me early on, it’d hit anybody. My four year old niece would have noted, very loudly and publicly in a theater, that "the trees are killing everybody". Well, big fucking whoop. For the record, we've been there and done that, albeit without the actual malevolence of trees and grass to fall back on as a plot device. Not unless you count of “Day of the Triffids”, which I don’t.
Anyhow, the movie is slow, ham-handed and despite a strong first ten minutes, filled with unnecessary characters and shoddy dialogue. Really: this is the kind of film a student makes, not the guy who wrote “The Sixth Sense”. So much for being the next Hitchcock or Spielberg.
This MIGHT be worth DVD if you’re a Shyamalan completist, but otherwise skip it.
Also: As I had 30 minutes to kill before the start of “The Happening” so I snuck into “Get Smart”. If you pay to see it, kill yourself. I loved the TV show. 30 minutes of the movie made me want to kill Steve Carrell.