Movie looks dope, and its rated R.
Mark Wahlberg gives decent performances in almost eveyrhting hes in.
M. Nite Shamalamayin can be hit or miss, but I've enjoyed most of his movies.
Im looking forward to this one, hoping the R rating means the gore factor has been upped.
Opens This Friday.
The Happening
Moderator: drizzle
The Happening
thekeentwo wrote:hustler we can totally have sex
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still illiterate
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i loved sixth sense. i liked unbreakable and i liked signs. i dont think this guy has made a movie that i hated. im not saying every movie he makes is top notch, but so far every movie ive seen by him has entertained me somewhat.jamrage wrote:Not sure if I heard this on here or not, but apparently this movie is getting pretty well beaten up by the critics.
Not looking good over at rottentomatoes either.
Not sure why anyone still checks for this guy.
thekeentwo wrote:hustler we can totally have sex
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PopeyeJones
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The screenplay for this leaked a long time ago. He took it to every major studio and was turned away, took it back, half rewrote it and finally got it made. Folks have been reviewing the rough cut of around the web, and absolutely horrendously shitting on it. That said, it's a rough cut, so who knows.
From what I know of the plot though, it sounds wildly fucking retarded, but it might be saved by some cool shots (the people falling off the roof in the preview is at least visually interesting - I'm not into "film," I can't tell you why).
From what I know of the plot though, it sounds wildly fucking retarded, but it might be saved by some cool shots (the people falling off the roof in the preview is at least visually interesting - I'm not into "film," I can't tell you why).
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b0mbs_of_death
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Guy is one of the worst hacks ever. King of the one trick pony that was the Sixth Sense. Everything after that was horrible. After being forced to watch the Village, I actually got the theater to give us our money back. And Lady in the Water looked like one giant homo fest. Aint no way this is good.
Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs are all good flicks. Everything since then has been horrible. I remember seeing an interview with him and how he sat down at a meeting with the people who produced his first flicks and they all had read Lady in the Water and basically said, this shit is absolute garbage......he couldn't believe it...hahahaha.
"It all starts in Central Park. People begin speaking gibberish, repeating themselves. Then they stop in their tracks and slowly walk backward. After that, it gets ugly - the less said about that the better. This sequence of events, which concludes with an uncomfortably familiar scene at a construction site, provides the chilling opening to "The Happening", the latest puzzling and puzzle-y thriller from famously secretive writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. As the posters proclaim, this film marks the twist-meister's first foray into R-rated territory, and it's clear from these disturbing opening images that he means to take advantage of that freedom. So then, why does what's happening in "The Happening" feel so goofy?
"The Happening" is littered with Mr. Shyamalan's now-trademark techniques: spooky atmospherics, portentous pacing and stiff dialogue that exists in the service of the plot, rather than coming from the characters. While all this worked to great effect in his 1999's break-out "The Sixth Sense", it's proven to have diminishing returns over the years ("Signs", "The Village", sigh). In the Shyamalan canon, "The Happening" most resembles his 2000 superhero rumination, "Unbreakable". Again, the writer-director comes up with a good concept but executes it with such stilted self-importance that it's next to impossible to get caught up in the film. Like the Bruce Willis and Robin Wright-Penn characters in that earlier film, you just want to grab the people in "The Happening" and shake them, screaming "say something!" There's a particularly frustrating scene late in the film involving an old woman in a farmhouse and way much unresponsiveness.
In "The Happening", Mark Wahlberg stars as Elliot Moore, a Philadelphia high school science teacher who - after word of the opening events hits the City of Brotherly Love - hits the road with his annoyingly distracted wife (Zooey Deschanel, wide-eyed as ever). Also along for the ride are a fellow teacher (John Leguizamo, doing some nicely grounded work) and his daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez). The film follows their quest to find safety from a plague that appears to be able to strike anywhere without warning. Is it terrorists? Some kind of airborne toxin? Could it be on the wind itself? There are plenty of explanations proffered, and lots of less-than-subtle messaging along the way.
Mr. Shyamalan is clearly aiming to evoke the nature-strikes-back theme of films like "The Birds" and the atomic age classics of the 50s and 60s. For a time, he achieves a kind of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" vibe. Without a doubt, this man is a talented filmmaker with a good mind for concepts, but his execution needs work. The one truly great moment in the film finds Elliot talking to an ominous-looking houseplant. It's a moment of levity and truth in a film that otherwise feels crafted to within an inch of its life, and Mr. Wahlberg (who flounders in the role of an Everyman) hits it just right.
Happily, I can say that Mr. Shyamalan dispenses with his typical "twist ending", in favor of one more fitting to the story. As a result, "The Happening" doesn't feel like a cheat (like so many of the filmmaker's previous efforts). It does however, much like those same films, feel like a disappointment. "The Happening's" one gimmick - people start offing themselves in evermore grisly ways - gets old after a while. And the downright resourcefulness of some of the victims (when all else fails, use a nearby lawnmower) is clearly for shock-value alone. In the end, ironically, maybe a twist would have helped "The Happening". Now there's a twist even Mr. Shyamalan would love. "
"The Happening" is littered with Mr. Shyamalan's now-trademark techniques: spooky atmospherics, portentous pacing and stiff dialogue that exists in the service of the plot, rather than coming from the characters. While all this worked to great effect in his 1999's break-out "The Sixth Sense", it's proven to have diminishing returns over the years ("Signs", "The Village", sigh). In the Shyamalan canon, "The Happening" most resembles his 2000 superhero rumination, "Unbreakable". Again, the writer-director comes up with a good concept but executes it with such stilted self-importance that it's next to impossible to get caught up in the film. Like the Bruce Willis and Robin Wright-Penn characters in that earlier film, you just want to grab the people in "The Happening" and shake them, screaming "say something!" There's a particularly frustrating scene late in the film involving an old woman in a farmhouse and way much unresponsiveness.
In "The Happening", Mark Wahlberg stars as Elliot Moore, a Philadelphia high school science teacher who - after word of the opening events hits the City of Brotherly Love - hits the road with his annoyingly distracted wife (Zooey Deschanel, wide-eyed as ever). Also along for the ride are a fellow teacher (John Leguizamo, doing some nicely grounded work) and his daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez). The film follows their quest to find safety from a plague that appears to be able to strike anywhere without warning. Is it terrorists? Some kind of airborne toxin? Could it be on the wind itself? There are plenty of explanations proffered, and lots of less-than-subtle messaging along the way.
Mr. Shyamalan is clearly aiming to evoke the nature-strikes-back theme of films like "The Birds" and the atomic age classics of the 50s and 60s. For a time, he achieves a kind of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" vibe. Without a doubt, this man is a talented filmmaker with a good mind for concepts, but his execution needs work. The one truly great moment in the film finds Elliot talking to an ominous-looking houseplant. It's a moment of levity and truth in a film that otherwise feels crafted to within an inch of its life, and Mr. Wahlberg (who flounders in the role of an Everyman) hits it just right.
Happily, I can say that Mr. Shyamalan dispenses with his typical "twist ending", in favor of one more fitting to the story. As a result, "The Happening" doesn't feel like a cheat (like so many of the filmmaker's previous efforts). It does however, much like those same films, feel like a disappointment. "The Happening's" one gimmick - people start offing themselves in evermore grisly ways - gets old after a while. And the downright resourcefulness of some of the victims (when all else fails, use a nearby lawnmower) is clearly for shock-value alone. In the end, ironically, maybe a twist would have helped "The Happening". Now there's a twist even Mr. Shyamalan would love. "
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djjeffresh
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Tweak Da Leak
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Unbreakable was the only movie by M Night I still can watch
6th Sense sucked besides the little kids acting
Signs sucked, Lady in the Water blew, The Village had an interesting concept but Night couldn't carry an entire movie off of it.
I was looking forward to this movie cus its the one where a twist ending would actually be a fulfulling payoff
6th Sense sucked besides the little kids acting
Signs sucked, Lady in the Water blew, The Village had an interesting concept but Night couldn't carry an entire movie off of it.
I was looking forward to this movie cus its the one where a twist ending would actually be a fulfulling payoff
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drizzle
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I agree, Unbreakable is the only one that still holds up, and is probably the point where this dude peaked
http://www.steadybloggin.com - some of these are my thoughts yo
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still illiterate
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william hurt was great in it. the whole set up is dope in the movie, so is the first 2/3rds of it. but the ending was just so disappointing. it totally ruined it, can't watch it again.citizen wrote:i really enjoy everything besides lady in the water, i am one of the few people who like the village, just love william hurts character and perfomance in it and really enjoy the message that it sends in it
he should do other stuff besides using some sort of horror set up to tell a different story
Sixth sense wasn't dope except for the twist. can't watch it again
signs I liked. But I'm a sucker for alien invasion/end of the world movies.
unbreakable was better the second time. the only one that felt like a real traditional movie. Samuel L was dope.
Lady in the water was....meh. I don't hate it as much as some, but I can't really defend it either.
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Patches O'Houlihan
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ROGER EBERT LIKES IT.......
"If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live."
-- Albert Einstein
By Roger Ebert
An alarming prospect, and all the more so because there has been a recent decline in the honeybee population. Perhaps it is comforting to know that Einstein never said any such thing -- less comforting, of course, for the bees. The quotation appears on a blackboard near the beginning of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening," a movie that I find oddly touching. It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season, but I appreciate the quietly realistic way Shyamalan finds to tell a story about the possible death of man.
One day in Central Park, people start to lose their trains of thought. They begin walking backward. They start killing themselves. This behavior spreads through Manhattan, and then all of the Northeast. Construction workers throw themselves from scaffolds. Policeman shoot themselves. The deaths are blamed on a "terrorist attack," but in fact no one has the slightest clue, and New York City is evacuated.
We meet Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher; the quote was on his blackboard. We meet his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel); his friend, Julian (John Leguizamo), and Julian's daughter, Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). They find themselves fleeing on a train to Harrisburg, Pa., although people learn from their cell phones that the plague, or whatever it is, may have jumped ahead of them.
Now consider how Shyamalan shows the exodus fromManhattan. He avoids all the conventional scenes of riots in Grand Central Station, people killing one another for seats on the train, etc., and shows the population as quiet and apprehensive. If you don't know what you're fleeing, how would you behave? Like this, I suspect.
Julian entrusts his daughter to Elliot and Alma, and goes in search of his wife. The train stops -- permanently -- at a town. The three hitch a ride in a stranger's car, and later meet others who are fleeing, from what or to what, they do not know. Elliot meets a man who talks about a way plants have of creating hormones to kill their enemies, and he develops a half-baked theory that man may have finally delivered too many insults to the grasses and the shrubs, the flowers and the trees, and their revenge is in the wind.
By now the three are trekking cross-country through Pennsylvania, joined by two young boys, who they will eventually lose. They walk on, the wind moaning ominously behind them, and come to the isolated country home of Mrs. Jones (Betty Buckley), a very odd old lady. Here they eat and spend the night and other events take place, and Elliot and Alma find an opportunity to discuss their love and reveal some secrets and speculate about what dread manifestation has overtaken the world.
Too uneventful for you? Not enough action? For me, Shyamalan's approach is more effective than smash-and-grab plot-mongering. His use of the landscape is disturbingly effective. The performances by Wahlberg and Deschanel bring a quiet dignity to their characters. The strangeness of starting a day in New York and ending it by hiking across a country field is underlined. Most of the other people we meet, not all, are muted and introspective. Had they been half-expecting some such "event" as this?
I know I have. For some time the thought has been gathering at the back of my mind that we are in the final act. We have finally insulted the planet so much that it can no longer sustain us. It is exhausted. It never occurred to me that vegetation might exterminate us. In fact, the form of the planet's revenge remains undefined in my thoughts, although I have read of rising sea levels and the ends of species.
What I admire about "The Happening" is that its pace and substance allowed me to examine such thoughts, and to ask how I might respond to a wake-up call from nature. Shyamalan allows his characters space and time as they look within themselves. Those they meet on the way are such as they might indeed plausibly meet. Even the TV and radio news is done correctly, as convenient cliches about terrorism give way to bewilderment and apprehension.
I suspect I'll be in the minority in praising this film. It will be described as empty, uneventful, meandering. But for some, it will weave a spell. It is a parable, yes, but it is also simply the story of these people and how their lives and existence have suddenly become problematic. We depend on such a superstructure to maintain us that one or two alterations could leave us stranded and wandering through a field, if we are that lucky.
"If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live."
-- Albert Einstein
By Roger Ebert
An alarming prospect, and all the more so because there has been a recent decline in the honeybee population. Perhaps it is comforting to know that Einstein never said any such thing -- less comforting, of course, for the bees. The quotation appears on a blackboard near the beginning of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening," a movie that I find oddly touching. It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season, but I appreciate the quietly realistic way Shyamalan finds to tell a story about the possible death of man.
One day in Central Park, people start to lose their trains of thought. They begin walking backward. They start killing themselves. This behavior spreads through Manhattan, and then all of the Northeast. Construction workers throw themselves from scaffolds. Policeman shoot themselves. The deaths are blamed on a "terrorist attack," but in fact no one has the slightest clue, and New York City is evacuated.
We meet Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher; the quote was on his blackboard. We meet his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel); his friend, Julian (John Leguizamo), and Julian's daughter, Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). They find themselves fleeing on a train to Harrisburg, Pa., although people learn from their cell phones that the plague, or whatever it is, may have jumped ahead of them.
Now consider how Shyamalan shows the exodus fromManhattan. He avoids all the conventional scenes of riots in Grand Central Station, people killing one another for seats on the train, etc., and shows the population as quiet and apprehensive. If you don't know what you're fleeing, how would you behave? Like this, I suspect.
Julian entrusts his daughter to Elliot and Alma, and goes in search of his wife. The train stops -- permanently -- at a town. The three hitch a ride in a stranger's car, and later meet others who are fleeing, from what or to what, they do not know. Elliot meets a man who talks about a way plants have of creating hormones to kill their enemies, and he develops a half-baked theory that man may have finally delivered too many insults to the grasses and the shrubs, the flowers and the trees, and their revenge is in the wind.
By now the three are trekking cross-country through Pennsylvania, joined by two young boys, who they will eventually lose. They walk on, the wind moaning ominously behind them, and come to the isolated country home of Mrs. Jones (Betty Buckley), a very odd old lady. Here they eat and spend the night and other events take place, and Elliot and Alma find an opportunity to discuss their love and reveal some secrets and speculate about what dread manifestation has overtaken the world.
Too uneventful for you? Not enough action? For me, Shyamalan's approach is more effective than smash-and-grab plot-mongering. His use of the landscape is disturbingly effective. The performances by Wahlberg and Deschanel bring a quiet dignity to their characters. The strangeness of starting a day in New York and ending it by hiking across a country field is underlined. Most of the other people we meet, not all, are muted and introspective. Had they been half-expecting some such "event" as this?
I know I have. For some time the thought has been gathering at the back of my mind that we are in the final act. We have finally insulted the planet so much that it can no longer sustain us. It is exhausted. It never occurred to me that vegetation might exterminate us. In fact, the form of the planet's revenge remains undefined in my thoughts, although I have read of rising sea levels and the ends of species.
What I admire about "The Happening" is that its pace and substance allowed me to examine such thoughts, and to ask how I might respond to a wake-up call from nature. Shyamalan allows his characters space and time as they look within themselves. Those they meet on the way are such as they might indeed plausibly meet. Even the TV and radio news is done correctly, as convenient cliches about terrorism give way to bewilderment and apprehension.
I suspect I'll be in the minority in praising this film. It will be described as empty, uneventful, meandering. But for some, it will weave a spell. It is a parable, yes, but it is also simply the story of these people and how their lives and existence have suddenly become problematic. We depend on such a superstructure to maintain us that one or two alterations could leave us stranded and wandering through a field, if we are that lucky.
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Mindbender Futurama
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I'm feelin like this.jamrage wrote:Not sure if I heard this on here or not, but apparently this movie is getting pretty well beaten up by the critics.
Not looking good over at rottentomatoes either.
Not sure why anyone still checks for this guy.
dude needs to break the fuck out of his corny horror style, shit was played out like 3 flicks ago
You're in Heaven right now, God.
Create the universe you dream of.
http://www.mindbenderlovesyou.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Create the universe you dream of.
http://www.mindbenderlovesyou.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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still illiterate
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still illiterate wrote:isn't Ebert a retard now though?
BLASPHEMY!
yes, you can tell the man has gotten a little soft, he has been appreciating movies for weird small reasons, but he is still the goat. He has a new lease on life after the stroke so he appreciates the ability to even watch movies now...
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drizzle
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Ebert has gotten really polar, he either REALLY likes something or trashes the shit out of it. I think Trademark is right, surviving the Big Casino made him loosen up a bit and just enjoy shit for what it's worth. On the flipside I think it makes his negative comments even more scathing, because this is a guy that really wants to like your movie and if you fucked up so badly that he can't dig it even with his super positive attitude he's gonna air your shit out. Read some of the stuff he wrote about the Bucket List for example
http://www.steadybloggin.com - some of these are my thoughts yo
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still illiterate
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so I just got back from this.
The acting in this is awful. Marky Mark shouldn't be in movies like this. The female lead(zooey deschanel??) could play a great heroin addict or coma patient, but not a human being. awful casting. John Leguizamo was great in this, but his role is pretty minor.
the story is interesting. something is making people kill themselves. In pretty cool ways actually, driving cars into trees, feeding themselves to lions, etc. But the more information we get, the sillier the whole idea becomes. I mean I understand what he was trying to do, add mystery to the whole confusing situation. But it just doesn't work. I feel like he was trying to make an old timey scare movie where a mundane object/situation mixed with confusion scares the shit out of you.
In this case the villain is plants. trees and grass are emitting some hormone/chemical that fucks with peoples brains and makes them kill themselves. So there are shots of trees and tall grass that is supposed to scare the shit out of you, but it just seems so stupid.
the best scene it towards the end when the 3 main characters find their way to an old house with an old lady who has no contact with the outside world. no electricity no radio, no idea what going on. she's obviously crazy and brings the only real visible danger to the flick.
the conclusion shows the main characters walking into a field, accepting their deaths. the audience is supposed to think, how brave of them to walk on the grass. again still silly.
the score is decent. the imagery is decent. the shots are good, except for a couple of close up shots of the characters that just seem corny. In general though, the film is just disappointing. But i'm sure most you knew that already
wow. movie soundsstill illiterate wrote:so I just got back from this.
The acting in this is awful. Marky Mark shouldn't be in movies like this. The female lead(zooey deschanel??) could play a great heroin addict or coma patient, but not a human being. awful casting. John Leguizamo was great in this, but his role is pretty minor.
the story is interesting. something is making people kill themselves. In pretty cool ways actually, driving cars into trees, feeding themselves to lions, etc. But the more information we get, the sillier the whole idea becomes. I mean I understand what he was trying to do, add mystery to the whole confusing situation. But it just doesn't work. I feel like he was trying to make an old timey scare movie where a mundane object/situation mixed with confusion scares the shit out of you.
In this case the villain is plants. trees and grass are emitting some hormone/chemical that fucks with peoples brains and makes them kill themselves. So there are shots of trees and tall grass that is supposed to scare the shit out of you, but it just seems so stupid.
the best scene it towards the end when the 3 main characters find their way to an old house with an old lady who has no contact with the outside world. no electricity no radio, no idea what going on. she's obviously crazy and brings the only real visible danger to the flick.
the conclusion shows the main characters walking into a field, accepting their deaths. the audience is supposed to think, how brave of them to walk on the grass. again still silly.
the score is decent. the imagery is decent. the shots are good, except for a couple of close up shots of the characters that just seem corny. In general though, the film is just disappointing. But i'm sure most you knew that already
x 1000