REVIEW: THE HAPPENING

Maybe it was dumb luck (or bad luck), but surprisingly this next film on our To View List had a connection to the previous waste of time known as The Ruins.

The one was called The Happening starring everyone's favorite Marky Mark Wahlberg, and I just realized it was the third movie in a row we watched that not only had two words for its title, but that had the word "The" as the first of those two words. Weird.

In any event, this is the next feature film by M Night Shyamalan who brought us some classics as well as some duds.

is a 2008 American apocalyptic horror film about people who inexplicably begin committing mass suicide. First they become disoriented and motionless, before resorting to the most convenient means of killing themselves. Initially believed to be a bioterrorist attack, the epidemic quickly spreads across the northeastern United States.

Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher in Philadelphia, receives news of the epidemic at school and decides to leave the city by train with his estranged and well-nigh-unfaithful wife, Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel). They are accompanied by his friend and fellow teacher Julian (John Leguizamo) and his eight-year-old daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez).

Here's the trailer:



HUBBY'S REVIEW

One thing I like about M Night Shyamalan is that he always seems to try and mix the spiritual with the secular in his films. The Happening is no different except (just like the other movies before it) he never quite goes all the way, and fully commits himself to making a bold statement as to what I feel he believes - - that there is a God, and that He is in complete control.

Instead, he gives us more global warming junk to explain the events in this story (read my own personal views on the subject of so-called global warming).

The Happening has received mostly negative reviews from film critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that only 18%, based on 198 reviews, gave positive appraisals. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has 34, based on 38 reviews. I'm here to tell you they're spot on in their analysis. Be sure to read the "Critical Reaction" section for more here.

Many critics and audiences who have seen the film wondered if the movie was bad intentionally. Others ponder on the fact that the film was meant to be a throwback to B-movies in the past. Before the film was released, M. Night Shyamalan had this to say to CNN: "No. 1, it's a B movie. This is the best B movie you will ever see, that's it. That's what this is. If there's other things that stick to your ribs as you walk out, that's great, but it's supposed to be, you know, zombies eating flesh."

If that's true, and it was intended to be taken this way, the I say it's a smashing success. Otherwise, it's a serious disappointment. All we really have to go on is the director's own words prior to the release of the film. One wonders if his statements can be trusted or, if he began circulating this after various focus groups reacted negatively as well. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

I'm giving it 3.75 Ben & Jerry's ice creams out of 5 because it is a classic depiction of the famed "B Movie" from years past.