Oh Dear

Rating: 2/10 (14 June 2008)

Phil's Quick Capsule Review: One of the most unintentionally hysterical films since Catwoman. Genius! Or terrible if you actually paid to see it.
The Hollywood Exec Pitch: A comedy from the director of Sixth Sense. Oh wait it's NOT a comedy?
The Review: The Happening is the worst studio film since Catwoman. And even that scores higher simply because it had a white guy with a beard doubling for lead Berry. An environmental catastrophe causes people to kill themselves (personally I think they had seen the movie they were in and took the easy way out). And that's your story folks as Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel trek across country to try and escape their fates whilst re-kinderling their love for each other.
What starts well descends quickly into a farcical environmental horror which takes its key note moments from a mix between GCSE text books and Wikepedia.
Beyond the story co-lead Deschanel is so bad in this film it's scary. But she's not alone - Wahlberg ranges from mildly worried to constipated (often in the same scene), the terribly cast Leguizamo is shocking and, well, pretty much EVERYONE who gets a line manages to fluff it.
Shyamalan's script is amateur to say the least but worse still his directorial grasp of set pieces is laughable (watch Wahlberg running away from the wind!). It's hard to think that this guy directed 'The Sixth Sense' whilst being proclaimed as the next Spielberg. How the mighty have fallen!
Odder still there are moments of brilliance  some of the suicide sequences are amazingly well handled - but the rest of the film is beyond bad. So bad I frequently found myself laughing very loudly.
In short : The funniest film I have seen in ages, if this was a comedy it would be genius. It's not however.
The Good: It's only 90 mins long. The joke would have run VERY thin if it had been much longer.
The Bad: It's easier to list what isn't bad 1) Erm.
The Ugly: Oh where to start? Pretty much EVERYTHING.
Best Bit: Mark Wahlberg talks to a fake tree. Seriously.
IMDb Rating: 2/10
If You Liked This Watch: Sixth Sense (8/10); Unbreakable (7/10); Signs (6/10)