I did find myself caught up in Shyamalan's apocalyptic world for a time -- before some really bad dialogue or acting would shake me out of it.
2 Comments
06/16/08
The Happening (2008)
18
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:169
Fresh:31
Rotten:138
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: The Happening begins with promise, but unfortunately descends into an incoherent and unconvincing trifle.
Theatrical Release:13-06-2008
Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan directs this thriller about a science teacher (Mark Wahlberg) who tries to escape with his wife and friend's daughter after an apocalyptic event. THE HAPPENING costars Zooey... [More]
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Reviews for The Happening
A monster movie desperately seeking a monster, M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening doesn't make sense, much less The Sixth Sense.
06/16/08
It's engrossing one minute and stupefying the next, off and on, off and on, for ninety minutes.
06/16/08
For Night, The Happening is a little blip on his career flatline. The guy just may pull through.
06/16/08
The true disaster on display in The Happening is Shyamalan's career hitting rock bottom.
06/16/08
It almost dares you to roll your eyes or laugh at certain scenes that are supposed to be deadly serious. But, you know what, I appreciated this creatively offbeat, daring sci-fi mind-trip.
06/16/08
All that’s missing is the head alien of Plan 9 From Outer Space dropping by to lecture the populace for disrespecting nature: 'Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!'
06/16/08
'There are forces at work beyond our understanding,' says Wahlberg. 'Especially beyond my understanding, if you include virtually every force at work.'
06/16/08
Maybe Shyamalan didn't mean for The Happening to be exciting and dramatic: perhaps the writer-director intended the film to be an exercise in sucking all the life and emotion out of fictional characters.
06/16/08
A numbing polemical morality tale in dreary doomsday thriller clothing, this dull downer for all its mass panic attack high alert mode, may be more effective in unintentionally boring people to death.
06/16/08
...a minor, not quite successful film, but for M. Night Shyamalan - whose career has been circling the drain for some time now - it's a step back from the abyss.
06/16/08
Shyamalan's direction always seems so serious that it's easy to imagine he may be screwing up when he draws laughs, but I'd lay down money that many of these were deliberate.
06/15/08
If Shyamalan wanted to commit career suicide he couldn't have chosen a more likely vehicle than this laugh inducing 'thriller.'
06/15/08
What's more annoying than when a mediocre movie constantly males allusions to much better pictures? I know, it's when you wait an hour and a half for a solution this pathetic.
06/15/08
Ouch. 'Lady in the Water' was a dud. And for its ghastliness, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan took one to the chin. He got back up again, though, to make 'The Happening.'This one's gonna hurt.
06/15/08
Someday someone will stop bankrolling Shyamalan's dumb dreams and keep this kind of tripe from happening.
06/15/08
... M. Night desperately needs to find that special someone whose opinion he'll listen to when they say,'No! BAD writer-producer-director! NOT a good idea!'
06/15/08
The film does manage to build some tension, since the survival of the group remains in question right up to the end.
06/15/08
'The Happening' works in early spurts, but apparently Shyamalan ran out of ideas once he came up with his uniquely insidious killer.
06/15/08
Works as an effective and brutally horrifying antithesis to the usual explosive summer fare...
06/15/08
Latest News for The Happening
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June 16, 2008:
WNYC RADIO: A numbing polemical morality tale in dreary doomsday thriller clothing, this dull downer for all its mass panic attack high alert mode, may be more effective in unintentionally boring people to death. 
More...
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