This is Not Good.

Rating: Null/10 (30 August 2009)

The budgets are starting to get a little small for M. Night Shyalaman, once briefly Hollywood's blue-eyed boy, and the casts are now plucked from the B-list instead of the top shelf. Judging by this incredibly daft mess, it's my guess that those budgets are going to keep getting thinner and that even the B-listers will stop returning his calls before long.
The plot concerns a mysterious virus that strikes New York's Central Park one morning. The virus strikes suddenly, making its victim's disorientated and incapable of speech before eventually developing suicidal tendencies. The opening scene , in which construction workers rain from the sky, is probably the best of the film because, as the reasons for the virus are slowly explained the film grows increasingly silly.
Mark Wahlberg plays one of the frightened city dwellers evacuating the city for the countryside - which proves to be a big mistake; they should have headed for a city centre Starbucks - with his wife and best friend plus daughter. John Lequizamo plays the friend, and he's almost completely wasted as well as miscast. The refugees find themselves stranded in a small town after the train they are travelling on is halted when it loses communications. All the passengers wind up in the town's diner and, when the TV informs them that they have actually ventured into the virus's epicentre, climb into convenient cars to make their second escape. Only Wahlberg and his gang failed to have the foresight to ensure they had a car waiting at the diner for when the unforeseen train stop occurred
It's this kind of sloppy writing that really winds me up. It smacks of a 'that'll do' attitude on the part of the writer that is an insult to the film's audience. Either Shyamalan figures we're not bright enough to spot glaring flaws like this or he just doesn't care whether we notice or not. It's only a small moment, but flaws like that rankle for the duration of the film.
The film grows increasingly silly - with some ill-advised and ham-fisted efforts at humour along the way - so that, despite the brief running time, the audience stops caring what happens - or why it happens - long before the end credits finally roll.