A brilliant comedy

Rating: 10/10 (1 May 2011)

Mr. M Night does it again by delivering a staggeringly hilarious movie. The Happening is a clever and ironic title because nothing actually happens. Every scene is witty and comedic; a perfect example would be when our protagonists meet up with two young boys in one scene, and then in the scene directly after they are shot for no reason. The humour lies with the fact that this scene has no purpose other than to shoot children with a shotgun - brilliant! Of course M. Night includes one of his infamous twists partway through the film: What could be causing massive populations to commit suicide in horrendous ways? Trees! Yes, trees feel an environmental threat from humans so they release a deadly neurotoxin to kill people. I honestly never saw that one coming. No, the trees don't just release a chemical that kills people, it makes people kill themselves by jumping off buildings, running themselves over with lawnmowers and smashing their heads through glass. Hilarious stuff! I can tell you I was bent over laughing as soon as Zooey Deschanel said, "It makes you kill yourself. Just when you thought there couldn't be any more evil that can be invented." Indeed Zooey, I seldom consider the evils yet to be invented by trees.
There is one part that confused me though. Our heroes were on a train evacuating the area when it suddenly comes to a halt and everyone is forced to get off because the train conductors have, "Lost contact with everyone." It really is unfortunate that they lost contact with everyone whilst on a train track, thus are forced to get out of the train instead of continuing onward on a fast-moving, straight set of tracks that can only lead in one direction and does not pertain to contact with everyone. This is especially unfortunate because all of the passengers continue to text message each other and send each other videos of lions eating people. Those damn trees, mucking about with the communication technology of the train conductors! This was definitely one of the most memorable scenes in cinematic history, only because I was puking out of laughter.
Seriously though...what the f**k M. Night Shyamalan.