Do you like hot-dogs?....

Rating: 7/10 (9 October 2011)

Elliot Moore is a high school science teacher who quizzes his class one day about an article in the New York Times.
It's about the sudden, mysterious disappearance of bees. Yet again Nature is doing something inexplicable, and whatever science has to say about it will be, in the end, only a theory.
Scientists will bring out more theories, but no explanations, when a more urgent dilemma hits the planet.
It begins in Central Park. Suddenly and inexplicably, the behaviour of everyone in a park changes in a most bizarre and horrible way.
Soon, the strange behaviour spreads throughout the city and beyond.
Elliot, his wife, Alma, and Jess, the young daughter of a friend, will only have theories to guide them where to run and where to hide....
So it's not what people were expecting, it's not on the same level as his first four movies, and some of the performances are pretty bad, and the subject of killer plants is laughable, but there is something about this movie that works.
The first ten or so minutes, are pure terror and is classic Shyalaman. The sense of dread and suicide is chilling and sets the tone for the movie.
But having an opening so strong is the movies biggest mistake. It can only fail from here, and it does, but only slightly.
The films major flaw though is Whalberg. e really is wooden and shows hardly any emotion throughout the movie. Him and Deschanel are more like robots than a coupe struggling to keep their relationship alive.
Luckily then we have such oddities in the support. From the man who is obsessed with hot-dogs, to the mental old woman who smashes her head through the window.
But where Signs was able to balance humour and horror with such a grandiose effect, it fails miserably here. One moment, you are laughing at Whalberg trying to befriend a plastic plant, the next scene, two of his companions are murdered in cold blood, and it feels wrong.
But the bottom line of the story, is about love, and keeping your cool when others around you are losing theirs. the plants in this can sense anger and aggravation, and this is why the two lead characters survive, no matter what is happening between them, their love is so strong, they will survive.
It's a daft movie for sure, with some confusing aspects, but it's no where as near as bad as the critics say.
Maybe because there wasn't a twist? Was that the twist?