"M. Night's Not 'Happening.'" - DVD Review.

By Bob Zerull

1 Star:

I read an interview with M. Night Shyamalan in which he said that "The Happening" is the best B movie ever made. A comment like that takes a lot of balls, especially after Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez knocked a couple of B movies out of the park with "Death Proof" and "Planet Terror" a year earlier. When I think B movie I think Bruce Campbell, "Evil Dead," "Army of Darkness" and "Bubba Ho-Tep," I don't necessarily think M. Night Shyamalan and Mark Wahlberg.



"The Happening" is about the environment fighting back, which on the surface is a decent/fresh idea. Mix in the cast of Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, and John Leguizamo and you've got yourself a movie with lots of potential, but then again every M. Night movie starts off with a lot of potential. It seems like each movie since "The Sixth Sense" has gotten a little bit worse. "The Sixth Sense" blew everyone away. "The Sixth Sense" was followed by "Unbreakable" which many feel it is his best movie. I think it was good, but slightly worse than "The Sixth Sense." "Signs" was alright, but a little worse than the previous two. I liked "The Village," but that was easily the worst so far. "Lady in the Water" was just flat out terrible, so hopefully "The Happening" won't be worse than "Lady in the Water."



"The Happening" is worse than "Lady in the Water." What's the problem? I think people would argue that M. Night movies have been incorrectly labeled horror movies and that is why we don't like them, especially the last three. That may very well be, but I believe that M. Night is too blame for that. "The Happening" for instance is supposed to be a B movie about the environment fighting back. When I watch it, I feel like the cast lived up to the B movie intent, but the filmmaking didn't. It looked as if he was trying to make a serious, scary, social commentary on the environment, but with bad acting. Except this was supposed to be a B movie so the acting was actually great? Who knows.

I just don't get it. It's like M. Night couldn't make up his mind on what he was making. The beginning of the movie starts out with some promise. The North East corner of America is killing themselves off and we can't figure out why. Everyone tries to flee the area for safety.

Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel play a newly married couple going through rough times. Mark and Zooey are fleeing with everyone else. Mark plays a science teacher, so obviously he's going to be the one to figure out what's going on. No offense to science teacher's specifically my sister in law, but I know damn well that not one science teacher that I've ever had would be able figure out the problem while running for safety.

John Leguizamo initially flees with them, but then leaves his daughter with Mark and Zooey and goes off in an attempt to find his wife. In a way this movie is kind of like a zombie movie with the environment being the zombie, which again is kind of a cool idea only poorly executed.

For all of you M. Night fans, I wouldn't worry, even though he has missed with his last three attempts, M. Night is a very talented filmmaker and I'm sure he has a comeback in him. From what I hear he may be working on a sequel to "Unbreakable." But you still might want to stay away from this one.



BYLINE:

Bob Zerull is a frequent movie and concert goer who talks about his ventures to arenas and theaters more than any person should be allowed to do. Now, he puts them down on paper. Email him your thoughts at: bzerull19@gmail.com.