Arek's Movie Reviews (36)

Rate Movie:

This movie was an epic failure This movie was horrible This movie was not good This movie was average This movie was okay This movie was good This movie was great This movie was incredible

Add Movie To List:

Happening, The (2008) 
Terrible *warning "plot" spoilers within*
1/4 stars

It seems Shyamalan's decent into a second-class underperforming director is complete. There is no saving grace in his latest movie blunder - The Happening. The acting is horrible. The script is atrocious. I guess the wind machine was working well.... But perhaps worst of all, it seems Shyamalan has lost all respect for his audience.

I mean if your going to make a bad man-creates-his-own-demise-via-environmental-catastrophe (a la Day After Tomorrow), at least make it entertaining (the only interesting death's in the movie are shown in previews and commercials).

It’s easy to poke holes in a script that already looks like Swiss cheese - but its fun none-the-less. So here’s my summary.

Apparently plants have decided to rapidly evolve to combat their greatest threat - man. They do so by releasing a natural compound that not only switches off people's biological self-preservation mechanism, but somehow forces people to commit suicide against their will. These plants can communicate to each other and evolve en-mass, and apparently they do so according to grids that can be drawn with straight lines on a map. These plants can somehow command the wind to spread their vile "natural" toxin. These are some smart plants too, they fully realize to maximize dramatic effect they must instantly affect all persons in a single area – but leave at least one person partially unaffected so that he or she can watch with horror as everyone around him or her kills themselves in the most startling manner possible (as evidenced by the first and last scenes in the movie). Of course all of this is just merely warning for us humans, as all of these millions of plants rapidly de-evolve to cease release of their mysterious compound (down to a timed minute it seems).

I could describe the acting flaws in the movie, but the ridiculous premise of cheating by the main character’s wife based on having a desert after work with a coworker should speak for itself.

Recent Comments

Comment On Review

Alex- wrote on 06/26/08 at 05:28 PM CT   I think Shamalyn needs to stop writing scripts and do 2 things. Only create story ideas, but let a master script writer write the dialog and true gut of the story. 2) Direct movies in which he had no relationship with prior. I think in that capacity, he could do well. Otherwise, he will never come close to his first three films (if you liked these). Write On Profile +