THE HAPPENING

SCRIBE'S THAT TREE'S LOOKIN' AT ME FUNNY REVIEW:

I have this theory based on historical observation that M. Knight Shaymalan will one day be hailed either as an unrecognized storytelling genius or the greatest one-trick pony of our age. Believe it or not, I tend to side with the former.

“The Happening” is another in a string of box office disappointments for this once A-list auteur. Despite it being quite overrated, “The Sixth Sense” was the equivalent of hitting a homerun on one’s first night of playing major league baseball. It’s difficult to follow up with that kind of rapid success, but he did it with “Unbreakable.” Now with six films under his belt, M. Knight has delivered something different from his previous efforts, an R-rated, much more esoteric film.

Audiences hated it in droves. In fact, the only film of his they seemed to hate more was “The Village,” which I consider to be an underrated masterpiece of deception. This time the story focuses on the entire nation as strange deaths and suicides are reported all over the East Coast. Many of these deaths are grisly and disturbing, a new approach for this filmmaker, and a welcome change to his normal implied horror.

Mark Wahlberg heads up a cast including John Leguizamo and a host of little-knowns as they run from place to place, desperately trying to figure out what’s causing people to basically go insane. The acting is fine although it’s drawn much harsh criticism. M. Knight, like George Lucas, is a popular whipping boy for people who like to sound superior to the masses. What no one seems to want to credit him for, however, is his steadfast devotion to his own peculiar storytelling approach.

Unconcerned with creating some cookie-cutter horror film, M. Knight places his characters in a type of danger that seems real. With just the sight of the wind rustling through the trees, he establishes a feeling of dread most directors can only create through buckets of blood and jump cuts.

Without revealing too much of the plot behind the plot, “The Happening” does have an environmental theme, something that also seems to have pissed people off, if the Yahoo! User reviews are any indication. What most don’t seem to get is there’s always been an element of social commentary to his work. This just happens to be the first time it’s made obvious.

I read some user reviews from people complaining that the actual “Happening” is relegated to the old “Well, it’s a mystery we’ll never solve” category. Untrue. Much like the best work of Stephen King, the answer isn’t some simple ghost or monster story, but something intrinsic to the human condition. People are shallow but M. Knight doesn’t seem to care. Good for him.

This film kept me riveted form start to finish.

***½ out of *****


GREEN’S HOW’D THEY KNOW IT WAS SAFE TO GO BACK? REVIEW:

Pennsylvania High school science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) knows a lot about many things. What he can’t explain is why everyone around him is mysteriously dying and/or killing themselves in the northeastern United States and nowhere else. So what’s the best course of action when a disaster strikes that nobody can understand or explain?

The tried and true horror movie solution is to get out, get away, just get. Doesn’t matter where or how, even if its by car or on foot.

Elliot gets his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) and they, along with a colleague (John Leguziamo) and his young daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez) do just that. Predictably, when the friend leaves to go back and find his wife, leaving the child behind with the Moores, shortly thereafter he dies. So they keep running, and running and running, figuring that as people are dying around them that their chances of survival are better in the smallest groups possible.

Is it me, or have M. Night Shamalyan’s films steadily gotten worse over time? I mean they must have to some degree when you make your splashy debut with such a cool, hit film like "The Sixth Sense," right? Or is this the worst of the lot? Every movie writer/producer/director comes up with a dud once in their careers, yes? Hopefully this is his.

As one review I read noted, it’s not the performances of the actors at fault here, but the material itself. ‘Uninspired’ is the word that the reviewer used to describe the script and I‘ve got to agree. I think Mark Wahlberg is a fantastic actor, as he’s impressed me with almost everything I’ve seen him in, up until this. Zooey Deschanel is a promising young talent with phenomenal eyes. (Where’d that come from?) But if the source material is bad, more often than not, even great actors can’t save the movie.

This reviewer also pointed out that when you’re the writer, producer and director, there’s no collaboration and there’s no accountability. Thus, what was a promising horror concept quickly flies by the wayside in a mass of... nothingness. Heck, this movie was so boring that I, even I, had no desire to watch whatever 'how they made it' special features that were included on the disc itself. Normally I love watching that extra stuff, too.

In my eyes, clearly, “The Happening” is not happening and there’s not a darn thing I care to do about it. I say skip this one all together, unless you or someone you’re related to worked on this movie, and wait for Shamalayan's next offering, which almost has to be better.

[Shakes head.] Or maybe I just don’t get it.

*½ out of *****