'Wish 'The Happening' Never Happened

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2010)

I've never been much of a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's films. 'His debut film 'The Sixth Sense' was a competent effort. 'Signs' started off interestingly as the focus was more on the psychological aspect until Shyamalan presents the aliens at which point it becomes just another silly man versus alien flick. Then there was the horrendous 'Lady in the Water' and now 'The Happening' is just as bad if not worse. The only thing that makes 'Lady in Water' better is Bryce Dallas Howard and Paul Giamatti's acting. The same cannot be said about the performances in 'The Happening'. Mark Wahlberg's animated expressions look forced. I can see that he's trying to do something different but he's picked the wrong movie. Zooey Deschanel, is far from impressive. She looks confused and uninterested most of the time. Then again, with such dreadful writing, who wouldn't be. John Leguizamo does the best he can with a tiny part. The execution is average. It's not anything one hasn't seen before. Shyamalan grossly fails both as writer and director. The script might as well have been written by a six year old. I guess one good thing about this film is the eye-candy countryside setting. As pretentious as the 'The Happening' is, I found it to be unintentionally funny for the most part. It can be categorized as a so-bad-it's-good-type movie.