Three stars for an interesting pitch - forget the movie

Rating: 3/10 (5 July 2008)

The basic idea behind The Happening could have been written down on a single sheet of paper and sold to a producer to turn into a good movie. Unfortunately, it ended up being worked out as a script and filmed by a writer/director who has completely lost his way. Intervention for M. Night Shyamalan, anyone?
The acting is wooden, no exceptions, and reminded me of some of the worst porn movies I have... heard about. Had I not seen Wahlberg and even Leguizamo in much better roles before, I would have written them off as serious actors on the basis of their performances in this film. I can only imagine how bad they must feel about their decision to get involved with this project.
There is no internal logic to any of the actions of the characters. Many scenes are just loose ends without any contribution to the plot development. That includes the few scares, which mainly consist of cheap tricks. Some of the horror effects made me laugh; half way into the movie I began to wonder if the surprise Shyamalan had in store for us this time, was that it was in fact a black comedy. No such luck.
Please, M. Night Shyamalan, stop writing and directing. In stead, sell your pitches to people who know how to write a script, direct actors and basically, make movies.