The Happening
starring: Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley
directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
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Product Description:
A paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.Studio: TcfheRelease Date: 10/07/2008Starring: Mark Wahlberg John LeguizamoRun time: 91 minutesRating: R
Amazon.com:
You'd expect the end of the world to be no day in the park, but in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, a day in the park is where the end begins. One otherwise peaceful summer morning, New Yorkers strolling in Central Park come to a halt in unison, then begin killing themselves by any means at hand. At a high-rise construction site a few blocks over, it's raining bodies as workers step off girders into space. And all the while, the city is so quiet you can hear the gentle breeze in the trees. That breeze carries a neurotoxin, and what or who put it there (terrorists?) is a question raised periodically as the film unfolds. But the question that really matters is how and whether anybody in the Middle Atlantic states is going to stay alive.The Happening is Shyamalan's best film since The Sixth Sense, partly because he avoids the kind of egregious misjudgment that derailed The Village and Lady in the Water, but mostly because the whole thing has been structured and imagined to keep faith with the point of view of regular, unheroic folks confronted with a mammoth crisis. Focal characters are a Philadelphia high-school science teacher (Mark Wahlberg, excellent), his wife (Zooey Deschanel) and math-teacher colleague (John Leguizamo), and the latter's little girl (Ashlyn Sanchez). Instinct says get out of the cities and move west; most of the film takes place in the delicately picturesque Pennsylvania countryside, with menace hovering somewhere in the haze. There are no special effects (apart from a wind machine and some breakaway glass), but the movie manages to be deeply unsettling in the matter-of-factness of its storytelling. Especially effective is its feel for what we might call the surrealism of banality. One warning sign that someone has been infected by the neurotoxin is irrational or erratic speech and behavior, yet Shyamalan has a genius for dialogue that sounds normal and everyday as it's spoken, yet flies apart grenade-like a second later as its logic (or illogic) sinks in. Then there's Deschanel's eye-rolling dodginess about the messages some guy has been leaving on her cellphone. Or the fellow (Frank Collis) who addresses his greenhouse plants as though they were his children--has a stray toxic zephyr wafted his way, or is this just his idea of normal? --Richard T. Jameson
Beyond The Happening on DVD
Stills from The Happening (Click for larger image)
A paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.Studio: TcfheRelease Date: 10/07/2008Starring: Mark Wahlberg John LeguizamoRun time: 91 minutesRating: R
Amazon.com:
You'd expect the end of the world to be no day in the park, but in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, a day in the park is where the end begins. One otherwise peaceful summer morning, New Yorkers strolling in Central Park come to a halt in unison, then begin killing themselves by any means at hand. At a high-rise construction site a few blocks over, it's raining bodies as workers step off girders into space. And all the while, the city is so quiet you can hear the gentle breeze in the trees. That breeze carries a neurotoxin, and what or who put it there (terrorists?) is a question raised periodically as the film unfolds. But the question that really matters is how and whether anybody in the Middle Atlantic states is going to stay alive.The Happening is Shyamalan's best film since The Sixth Sense, partly because he avoids the kind of egregious misjudgment that derailed The Village and Lady in the Water, but mostly because the whole thing has been structured and imagined to keep faith with the point of view of regular, unheroic folks confronted with a mammoth crisis. Focal characters are a Philadelphia high-school science teacher (Mark Wahlberg, excellent), his wife (Zooey Deschanel) and math-teacher colleague (John Leguizamo), and the latter's little girl (Ashlyn Sanchez). Instinct says get out of the cities and move west; most of the film takes place in the delicately picturesque Pennsylvania countryside, with menace hovering somewhere in the haze. There are no special effects (apart from a wind machine and some breakaway glass), but the movie manages to be deeply unsettling in the matter-of-factness of its storytelling. Especially effective is its feel for what we might call the surrealism of banality. One warning sign that someone has been infected by the neurotoxin is irrational or erratic speech and behavior, yet Shyamalan has a genius for dialogue that sounds normal and everyday as it's spoken, yet flies apart grenade-like a second later as its logic (or illogic) sinks in. Then there's Deschanel's eye-rolling dodginess about the messages some guy has been leaving on her cellphone. Or the fellow (Frank Collis) who addresses his greenhouse plants as though they were his children--has a stray toxic zephyr wafted his way, or is this just his idea of normal? --Richard T. Jameson
Beyond The Happening on DVD
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Stills from The Happening (Click for larger image)
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Garbage
The feel I get from this film is that it was made without any effort on any level.M. Night is mailing it in here.It's a stupid premise, the acting is atrocious, and as a whole it comes across as a bad, low budget, Sci Fi Channel original.Mr. Shylamalan is surely losing fans in droves.I know I'm out on the guy.
Rating: - Save your money
What a piece of crap. The acting was horrible. Wahlberg looked like he threw his acting like a boxer throwing a fight. Did Wahlberg and Leguizamo do this movie because they owed Shyamalan money, or did they all get high and decide this is a really good story. The movie leads you to believe the plants and trees are making the characters commit suicide. I think they are committing suicide just to get out of the movie.
Rating: 
- Empty and disappointing
The Bottom Line:
The Happening isn't quite as bad as some people would lead you to beleive, but it's close: Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel are almost criminally bad in the leads, plants are just not a cinematic enough villain (see also: The Ruins) and the ending leaves a lot to be desired.
2/4
Rating: - if you like feces, you'll love "the happening"
and on the flipside, if you liked "the happening" you most probably love feces.this movie was a fecal mess belched out of the anus of everyones favorite armchair messiah, m night shyamalan.the people praising this movie as "brilliant" drank way too much of the kool aid.
Rating: - MORE THOUGHT PROVOKING THAN SCARY!
I had pretty low expectations of this film before I sat down to watch it, but after seeing it, I think it's better than some have stated in their reviews. I have to give this film some credit because even though there isn't much happening on the surface in 'The Happening', it's an intriguing idea and I found myself interested throughout it's 90 minute running length.
I think most viewer's were expecting a different film. The story is fairly interesting, but that doesn't mean it's without ... Read More
- GarbageThe feel I get from this film is that it was made without any effort on any level.M. Night is mailing it in here.It's a stupid premise, the acting is atrocious, and as a whole it comes across as a bad, low budget, Sci Fi Channel original.Mr. Shylamalan is surely losing fans in droves.I know I'm out on the guy.
- Save your moneyWhat a piece of crap. The acting was horrible. Wahlberg looked like he threw his acting like a boxer throwing a fight. Did Wahlberg and Leguizamo do this movie because they owed Shyamalan money, or did they all get high and decide this is a really good story. The movie leads you to believe the plants and trees are making the characters commit suicide. I think they are committing suicide just to get out of the movie.
- Empty and disappointingThe Bottom Line:
The Happening isn't quite as bad as some people would lead you to beleive, but it's close: Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel are almost criminally bad in the leads, plants are just not a cinematic enough villain (see also: The Ruins) and the ending leaves a lot to be desired.
2/4
- if you like feces, you'll love "the happening"and on the flipside, if you liked "the happening" you most probably love feces.this movie was a fecal mess belched out of the anus of everyones favorite armchair messiah, m night shyamalan.the people praising this movie as "brilliant" drank way too much of the kool aid.
- MORE THOUGHT PROVOKING THAN SCARY!I had pretty low expectations of this film before I sat down to watch it, but after seeing it, I think it's better than some have stated in their reviews. I have to give this film some credit because even though there isn't much happening on the surface in 'The Happening', it's an intriguing idea and I found myself interested throughout it's 90 minute running length.
I think most viewer's were expecting a different film. The story is fairly interesting, but that doesn't mean it's without ... Read More
