I've never quite understood the irrational hatred some have for M. Night Shyamalan's films. Granted, his latest offerings haven't been all that great. I admit, Lady in the Water was a complete mess. But it seems like his films are judged on a completely different scale. Almost as if everyone expects him to outdo The Sixth Sense, clubbing them with another out-of-left-field twist. Well that's probably not going to happen, and I've come to terms with it. The Happening is one of the worst reviewed films of 2008. With that in mind, I sat down to watch it last night as the lead in my Saturday night double feature. Throughout the film I was awaiting something extremely lame to happen. But that never occurred. Rather, it was a fairly engaging and tense thriller. Sure, Mark Wahlberg as a high school science teacher wasn't completely believable and I could certainly take issue with the Al Gore-inspired premise. But overall, I thought it was a well made movie. Some reviewers complained that this movie felt like a long episode of The Twilight Zone. I agree, but don't see the problem with that. It certainly held my attention and at a only 91 minutes, it never dragged. Shyamalan is a very restrained and subtle filmmaker. As a result, he seemed to struggle to deliver the hard-R rating that Fox wanted, making some sequences uncharacteristically (and perhaps unnecessarily) jarring. Despite these issues, I liked the film. Not the best Shyamalan movie, but far from the worst.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Happening
I've never quite understood the irrational hatred some have for M. Night Shyamalan's films. Granted, his latest offerings haven't been all that great. I admit, Lady in the Water was a complete mess. But it seems like his films are judged on a completely different scale. Almost as if everyone expects him to outdo The Sixth Sense, clubbing them with another out-of-left-field twist. Well that's probably not going to happen, and I've come to terms with it. The Happening is one of the worst reviewed films of 2008. With that in mind, I sat down to watch it last night as the lead in my Saturday night double feature. Throughout the film I was awaiting something extremely lame to happen. But that never occurred. Rather, it was a fairly engaging and tense thriller. Sure, Mark Wahlberg as a high school science teacher wasn't completely believable and I could certainly take issue with the Al Gore-inspired premise. But overall, I thought it was a well made movie. Some reviewers complained that this movie felt like a long episode of The Twilight Zone. I agree, but don't see the problem with that. It certainly held my attention and at a only 91 minutes, it never dragged. Shyamalan is a very restrained and subtle filmmaker. As a result, he seemed to struggle to deliver the hard-R rating that Fox wanted, making some sequences uncharacteristically (and perhaps unnecessarily) jarring. Despite these issues, I liked the film. Not the best Shyamalan movie, but far from the worst.
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