Trade Reviews for Shyamalan’s The Happening
By Nix | June 11, 2008 (11:05 am)
Hey, how cool is this, that I can now type Shymalan without having to look it up? Yes, folks, I’m mighty proud of myself. Anyhoo. We’ve already heard from fanboys and anonymous movie reviewers take pop shots at M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening” (his first R-rated movie, as the film’s trailers like to trumpet, as if that should make it, you know, really great or something), now what do the big boys aka the guys who actually get paid for it have to say about “The Happening”? Here are Variety and The Hollywood Reporter’s take on the film.
First up, Variety’s Justin Chang:
One might charitably describe “The Happening” as a transitional work for M. Night Shyamalan. In an attempted rebound from the critical and commercial calamity of “Lady in the Water,” the writer-director has scaled back most of his characteristic touches — the contorted horror/fantasy mythology, the “gotcha” twist ending, even his trademark cameo — instead serving up a patchy, uninspired eco-thriller whose R rating (a first for Shyamalan) looks more like a B.O. hindrance than an artistic boon. After an initial bloom of interest, the Fox release will likely wilt quickly in the summer heat.
Not so good. And yes, pay attention to the “eco-thriller” in the review excerpt. There’s a reason the film was originally called “The Green Effect”. Stupid trees.
Here’s the Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt with their take:
In “The Happening,” he manages to recapture some of those elements, particularly the creepiness and supernatural thrills. But the central menace — an airborne neurotoxin that causes mass suicides in the northeastern U.S. — doesn’t pan out as any kind of Friday night entertainment. The movie seems more like a ’50s science fiction film of extreme paranoia or an episode of “The Twilight Zone” that even at a swiftly paced 90 minutes feels padded.
And look, they even spoil the film’s surprise for you!
Everyone winds up in the Pennsylvania countryside. The science teacher decides, on the basis of absolutely no evidence, that the toxins are generated by plants and trees and are airborne, so every breath of air, every flutter of tall grass or rush of wind causes hearts to stop.
Besides that, they also predict early doom for “The Happening”.
Better luck next time, M. Night.
OmyG!!!! ROCKY go on to IMDB and type in TEEN TITANS in the search and then click Teen Titans: The ...
The dog used in the movie shooter i think was a Tibetan Mastiff 
omg I'm so excited 4 this movie!, although the release date in here is dec. 19 :'( evryone in that ...
wait wait, wasn't this a movie in the 80's with Fred Savage? 
"Stop spamming the site and let people have their own opinions without you bashing them into the ground"
Say that to ...
It is pretty cool that you can type Shymalan without looking it up. It might be a better idea to look it up though, or even look at the heading of the review, and spell it Shyamalan.
Great movie, good stuff…
Yeah. . . and the phrase is pot shot. . . not pop shot. Besides who cares what the “Big boys” think? Has anyone seen it yet besides Kyle above?
jesus, i was really looking forward to this movie, it looked amazing, but i was very very disappointed.
mark’s performance was terrible; zooey’s bad; and no one at all looked convincing.
AND oh my god, i can’t believe the HUGE production/editing mistake!
you could totally see a black and red microphone coming to the shot when mark and the 2 boys are in the model house talking at the dinner table. i can’t believe no one spotted that before finishing up.
really bad… i love shyamalan and mark but this didn’t do it for any of them
This was horrible save your $10 dollars and rent Sixth or Unbreakable so you have remember why we care about this man at all. Unless of course you enjoy the comical horror of an Ed Wood film, then go enjoy!!
IT was CRAP!!!why was it rated R for???I think RETARDED!!!wasted my time watchin it on the internet!!!!STUPID!!!!
really really awful. seriously. i expected more.
I went to see Leguizamo and he was gone in 1/2 hour!!! Wahlberg is cute but he aint that cute!! And the girl, my son is a better actor and he’s 4! Symbolism was thrown all over the place would rather have had the content. Think the message was stop having babies and messin with the planet. Some of the violence was freaky, some cartoonish. Mr Leguizamo had better start writing his own scripts, total waste of his enormous talent.
What has happened to this filmaker….he has become lazy and maybe arrogant. The public is very unforgiving….I had to come home and watch Signs to remember that he was a great movie maker. Shymalan really let us down, again…and for the movie to go out with visible boom mikes in some frames was just insulting. The film had no real redemable message, it was muddled, and I was just so let down. The group who went with me agreed that Betty Buckley added the only color to an otherwise dull, dull film.
I Actually liked the movie. I think it is a great storyline, just wasn’t completly polished up enough. it is very creative and the death sequences sent chills through me. i still think back on them. the acting was weak and dialouge not the best, again, just needed polishing up. The basic plot was entertaining and there were a lot of good moments in it. i like the subtlty of the deaths and find that the plants doing it was clever. the ending was descent, but i think could have had an extra spice to it. The main flaw was the dialouge. it had great potential and is still worth seeing.
omg i saw this movie last night at the movies. i was expecting like just a plain old scary movie. defintley not what i expected! i thought the story line and everything was awesome, but the acting sucked! the actors i think wernt convincing at all. although all the things that happened were pretty cool. and i never scream in movies, i scareamed in this one! haha, yeh i thought it was sooo weird tho, its unlike any movie ive ever seen it was soooo weird!
yeh so its probably not worth wasteing your money going to the moviesd to see it, just wait till it comes out on dvd
xx