The Happening

[teflon]

Dir: M.Night Shyamalan
Stars Marky Mark minus the Funky Bunch and Zooey Deschanel (Trillian from H2G2)

There's no boring pre-amble here, the film starts off with people in Central Park NY, stopping in their tracks and then killing themselves en masse. Emergency Services arrive on the scene and the 'event' begins to spread, first to a local building site then all throughout the city.
Elliot (Wahlberg) is a high school science teacher and after being pulled from his class and told the city is being evacuated due to a terrorist attack, grabs his wife from home and meets up with his colleague from the school with kid in tow. They get on a train and are out of there.

From here on in, it's very reminiscent of 28 Weeks Later or War of the Worlds. Good guy on the run from some unstoppable force, trying to save his family. First with a large group, which is gradually trimmed down to the key plot characters by everyone else dying.
Some frankly hideous exposition goes on, too much of the plot is advanced by 'TV News Channels' and one crazy old geezer with a crackpot theory, who inevitably turns out to be right; and dead.

A lot of you might know what the 'Happening' is but I'm not going to reveal why these people are all dying. You might enjoy it if you don't know what's coming. But they really lay it on so early, that all but an imbecile will see the 'message' coming.
Yup, it's a sanctimonious critique of modern culture, an attempt at a Romero style satire, not on consumer culture as such, but on how we pollute the environment too much.

We already know this... it doesn't hold the film together properly, and there is 1 particular logical problem which ruined it for me. The wind seems to blow at peculiar times, as if it is somehow being controlled. That part is never explained or even addressed. It also fails to explain why the 'event' would have boundaries so similar to American State borders. Even if you buy into the whole 'Happening', you could never explain that.

So, formulaic plotting, lacking in logic, mediocre acting, no sense of urgency, and ultimately... boring. Also the ending was so ripped from 28 Weeks Later it's not even funny.

But you might like it, I just felt I had seen it all before, too often recently.

Similar: I am Legend, 28 Weeks Later, Dawn of the Dead, War of the Worlds

[chakotay]

it's a real pity that none of his films have fulfilled the promise & excitement of the 6th sense & unbreakable . None of the later films have come close to his 1st 2 imho.

[notsosilentbob]

Originally Posted by chakotay

it's a real pity that none of his films have fulfilled the promise & excitement of the 6th sense & unbreakable . None of the later films have come close to his 1st 2 imho.

Totaly agree, you gotta love the fact in signs the aliens have mastered intergalactic travel yet cant open a WOODEN cellar door!

[Kerry]

Originally Posted by chakotay

it's a real pity that none of his films have fulfilled the promise & excitement of the 6th sense & unbreakable . None of the later films have come close to his 1st 2 imho.

I thought the Village was well made and the ending surprised me which doesn't happen much in films nowadays.

[Allanon]

Can you please review 'Teeth'.

A friend told me about it and I'd be quite happy to hear your take on it .

[teflon]

Originally Posted by Allanon

Can you please review 'Teeth'.

A friend told me about it and I'd be quite happy to hear your take on it .

I'm not paying perfectly good money to watch that, although I might watch it when it comes out on DVD... in Russia
All I know is that it's about one of those Christian Chastity women in America who go around schools or whatever telling kids not to have sex before marriage, because it is their 'special gift' to save for their one true love. Except her own 'special gift' turns out to be rather the poison chalice.
Sounds a bit crap to me but I know Det is looking forward to seeing it.

[chakotay]

Originally Posted by Allanon

Can you please review 'Teeth'.

A friend told me about it and I'd be quite happy to hear your take on it .

you know what , i was really surprised when i saw this , it wasn't the tacky blood fest i'd thought it would be , in fact anyone expecting a teen slasher , gore fest will be really disappointed. It's written & directed by the son of the Pop-artist Lichenstein ( sp ? ) & is actually clever & funny. Basically a girl grows up in the shadow of a huge industrial chimney somewhere in America. It's implied that the smoke/pollution has caused her to mutate & develop "vagina dentata" , teeth downstairs. The lead girl , in her first role i think , starts off leader of a school group determined to be chaste & save themselves for the "one" & by the end of the film becomes a vigilanty man killer.

Darkly funny & occasionaly shocking , it's well made & different from the usual genre fodder.