The Happening

There is not a person on the planet who has said a good thing about the latest thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, but I just had to see for myself. And you know what? All the people on the planet were right: it was a horrible movie. Chad has this to say during the DVD previews, “We are probably going to love it, just because we have heard such bad things about it.” No, not the case at all.

What is so terrible about this movie? The script, oh god the script, the acting, the camera shots, the story. You name it. The script is the foundation of every movie and this one was horrible, “We're packing hot dogs for the road. You know hot dogs get a bad rap? They got a cool shape, they got protein. You like hot dogs right? By the way, I think I know what's causing this.” Yes, someone actually says that?!?!?!

By now everyone knows the basic premise of the movie: the plants get mad that people have been polluting the earth for decades so they start releasing these toxins that cause people to kill themselves. Okay, it’s a “green movie” I get that, but so was The Day After Tomorrow and that movie managed to not be hokey and had some sort of believability. It’s not even cool to watch—it gets windy, people jump off buildings…ohhh scary, it’s windy. Come on.

I just couldn’t believe what poor performances came out of Mark Wahlberg and the rest of the cast which included: Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizama. They were all awful, probably because of the awful script. It made me sad because I’ve seen The Departed and The Perfect Storm and Boogie Nights and The Basketball Diaries, so I know Mark Wahlberg has talent, I know it, but this movie did nothing to show it, absolutely nothing. Plus, I’ve seen The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village and I know M. Night Shyamalan also has immense talent, he just didn’t showcase any of it in this film.

Rent it—just so you can see for yourself how truly bad it is, you won’t understand the horribleness until you watch for yourself.

(Abby—this is for you…I still don’t think it was as bad a Sin City…remember that disaster…LOL).

Missy Cinema Score: D-