The Happening - anyone seen it?

stuminator · Post by **stuminator** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:23 am

It's not very often that I leave the theater thinking that I've just witnessed a steaming pile of manure, but this film sure did it to me. The acting sucked, the story was stupid and made no sense, and once the credits started to roll it felt like they left off the last half hour of the film.

Anybody else hate this movie as much as I did?

postman · Post by **postman** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:59 am

I had some customers who told me they were going to see it while I was working, and told them not to.

They decided on Hulk instead, and make the right choice.

M. Knight has been on a downward spiral ever since the Village.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 1:55 am

Yeah, I can't believe people stick up for the guy's movies any more.

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 2:12 am

I enjoyed the concept. Shitty execution though.

I'm a sucker for mass contastrophy everybody dying movies. But all the death scenes were in the preview. I felt kinda cheated.

Also, I really hate movies where suspense is created through stupid, stupid character decisions.

The movie did give my girl nightmares that night. Woke up screaming and everything...

t0yrobo · Post by **t0yrobo** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:28 am

I thought it was alright. Kinda felt like a long Twilight Zone episode. It wasn't especially good, but I thought it was enjoyable for sure.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:09 am

Not going to waste my time/money on this one. M. Night Shamalamalama clearly was a one-hit-wonder who should never be allowed to make another movie, ever. Proof: Everything he made since Sixth Sense. I rest my case.

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:13 am

heyaplottwist

trivial · Post by **trivial** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:33 am

The uncanny feeling I get from his other work is in the disconnect between his intended audience and myself. Someone who'll pay to see this dreck seemed to justify his budgets. That's weird, wild stuff.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:44 am

I saw it, and it was average. I haven't seen other films of the director, with the exception of Unbreakable, and that was better.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 2:32 pm

I like Unbreakable more than Sixth Sense. Both movies are pretty good. Signs had one very good scene, and it's not half bad... everything else was utter shit... I haven't seen the happening yet, but everyone is saying it does what people thought it would be impossible by being WORSE than Lady in the Water.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:07 pm

Haven't seen it, but I'll probably still take the time to check it out when it hits DVD. The trailer was actually pretty good.

I think he's talented, but like someone said in another thread I read regarding this film, he's not suited for doing everything. He just needs to write and hire a great director and producer and I think his movies would benefit greatly.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:18 pm

subcons wrote:Haven't seen it, but I'll probably still take the time to check it out when it hits DVD. The trailer was actually pretty good.

I think he's talented, but like someone said in another thread I read regarding this film, he's not suited for doing everything. He just needs to write and hire a great director and producer and I think his movies would benefit greatly.

No, he needs to hire a great WRITER. He's very talented as a director, it's his lack of writing skills that kills his movies.

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:42 pm

Ceph wrote:Not going to waste my time/money on this one. M. Night Shamalamalama clearly was a one-hit-wonder who should never be allowed to make another movie, ever. Proof: Everything he made since Sixth Sense. I rest my case.

Bollocks. Unbreakable was 400000x better than the 6th sense. Perhaps the most overrated film of recent years?

Everything he's done apart from Unbreakable has been horse shit.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 5:18 pm

Glad to see I am not the only one to think that Unbreakable was easily his best movie (this isn't saying much I know.)

That being said I was fairly interested in The Happening but I have heard nothing but bad things since it was released. Another rental I guess.

Tempest · Post by **Tempest** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:03 pm

DJ Incompetent wrote:I enjoyed the concept. Shitty execution though.

Bingo. I kind of got lost with the whole "Neurotransmitter for self-preservation is shut off" (One would think that having it "shut-off" would just make you do more dangerous things, like say driving your car 90mph down side streets, not just stop in your tracks and kill yourself), but the concept of people just offing themselves for no apparent reason sounded awesome. Then came the whole (Spoilers I guess?) Plants and the wind thing and I just about had it. I pride myself on not walking out on a movie I payed money to see, but the last hour of the movie was really starting to push it for me. But. I didn't really have anything better to do other than sit around and speculate on what The Tweest would be.

The Twist: The is no twist at the end.

What a tweest!

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:06 pm

Shatterhand wrote:No, he needs to hire a great WRITER. He's very talented as a director, it's his lack of writing skills that kills his movies.

You're right. I like his ideas and his stories are interesting, but they just end up coming out so convoluted. I guess if he could convey his thoughts to someone that could put them down on paper better, his movies would work better.

doodude · Post by **doodude** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:16 pm

subcons wrote:Haven't seen it, but I'll probably still take the time to check it out when it hits DVD. The trailer was actually pretty good.

Most movies are such crap these days that they blow their wad in the trailer

to get you to the theater & the rest is just filler.

Every month or so I go to Apples web site & watch all the trailers & I can pretty much tell whats what & save myself the time & expense of movie going!

stuminator · Post by **stuminator** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:42 pm

Shatterhand wrote:I like Unbreakable more than Sixth Sense. Both movies are pretty good. Signs had one very good scene, and it's not half bad... everything else was utter shit... I haven't seen the happening yet, but everyone is saying it does what people thought it would be impossible by being WORSE than Lady in the Water.

Shyamalan's flicks started out good but he has strangely been on a continous downward spiral. I like Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, then he went to average/mediocre with Signs and Village, and now, utter crap.

Maybe his next film will be so bad it'll make anyone who watches it behave like the characters in the Happening - you just want to kill yourself.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 10:03 pm

Why anyone would see any M. Night whatever movie after "The Village" perplexes me. Shitty plot twist aside, his cameo was so forced and so friggin long he might as well have been a starring character.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:30 pm

I saw this film the other day. It was totally out of this world, is it a joke or what?! Did anyone else notice that the microphones dipped into the screen, several times!? I've never seen that in any other high-budget Hollywood film before, actually I haven't seen it in any film ever before!

The storyline and acting was also hilariously bad. I was speechless when I left the theatre. I'm not really sure if it was on purpose or not, since I remember that The Sixth Sense was decentish.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:14 pm

You had been warned.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:51 pm

I hadn't read this thread before, but anyway it was totally worth it. I had several good laughs watching it, and so did the rest of the audience. Highly recommended!

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:20 pm

JoshF wrote;

heyaplottwist

That's just the thing, all he ever does is come up with one premise for each movie and then drag out a whole film from that one idea.

Sixth Sense - dead.
Signs - aliens.
The Village - gated community.
Unbreakable - superhero.
The Happening - one idea again (no spoilers

).

The dialogue was disjointed, the acting - quite bad.

Not clever enough by a long shot. Actually very simplistic.

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 12:57 am

doodude wrote:
Most movies are such crap these days that they blow their wad in the trailer to get you to the theater & the rest is just filler.

+1

The man is absolutely correct. And there I was thinking it was just me getting old, when in fact, it WAS actually the movies getting worse!

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:12 am

Cloverfield totally pwns this movie. Which is sad, because I consider Signs, Unbreakable, and Sixth Sense to be on the same caliber as Cloverfield.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 6:38 am

I don't like this guy, he makes 95 minutes of dribble and puts a twist at the end and everyone says "oh wow, excellent movie"

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:21 am

zinger wrote:Did anyone else notice that the microphones dipped into the screen, several times!? I've never seen that in any other high-budget Hollywood film before, actually I haven't seen it in any film ever before!

I remember seeing the very same thing in the theatrical release of Mimic.

Ex-Cyber · Post by **Ex-Cyber** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:49 am

zinger wrote:Did anyone else notice that the microphones dipped into the screen, several times!? I've never seen that in any other high-budget Hollywood film before, actually I haven't seen it in any film ever before!

It's actually not that rare, but it's usually not noticed by most people (myself included).

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 5:48 pm

With such a high budget, I figured they should at least be able to edit them out with some computer software.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:53 pm

if it was me i would employ some one just to look for various cock ups like this. im sure they can budget it