Scary Movie 5: The Happening - Funniest Yet!

Rating: 1/10 (16 June 2008)

M. Night Shymalan has made the funniest entry in the Scary Movie series by keeping the visual gags to a minimum and ramping up the situational and verbal comedy aspects that the past four have left out. Scary Movie 5: The Happening has everything a great parody movie needs a wonderful opening scene that sets us up for what will surely be the funniest 90 minutes of Summer '08. The reaction shots from the cast rival Jason Bateman and Micahel Cera's best work on "Arrested Development." The whole production looks stunning and Night's eye for composition are still some of his strongest points, but it's the way he handles his actors that really caught me. In a bit of inspired comedic casting Mark Wahlberg is our hero through this canon of classic Hitchcock motifs and like Charlie Sheen before him, Wahlberg turns in some of his best work since Boogie Nights. You can see and hear the joy in the actor's voice as he spits out comedy gold at every turn. The "You should care more about science" exchange may go down as one of the great moments in comedy history right next to 'Who's on first?' and the drop off scene in "The Big Lebowski." The death scenes are some of the best in the series even topping the stabbing of Carmen Electra's implants. The 'follow the gun scene' has some great moments from the extra blood spurting that is obviously a nod to "Ichii the Killer" and "Kill Bill" even the sound effect is different for each successive shot from the same gun, possibly an 'in' joke referencing the grindhouse horror of old. Making the villain 'wind' is Mr. Night Shymalan's finest bit of writing since Sam Jackson's reveal as the mastermind in 'Unbreakable.' I had thought Night had run out of ideas after his last two efforts but in the comedy/ satire genre Shymalan has found his true calling and one can only hope he chooses to continue on this path. I loved Scary Movie 5: The Happening and would recommend it to anyone looking to laugh and cry tears of joy as you watch a cinematic masterpiece that I will be proud to place on my DVD shelf. Thank you Mr. Night Shymalan you have returned with great success, let's hope you return for 6.
Scary Movie 5: The Happening receives: 94% out of 100